Kendyle Laesch ‘22, Photo Editor
There is always one family tradition everyone looks forward to when Christmastime rolls around. Whether it be caroling, ornament painting, or cookie baking, this tradition serves an underlying purpose of binding one’s family even closer together.
A certain game, referred to as the white elephant gift exchange, is averagely popular amongst households. This gift exchange is not meant to earn valuable or desirable gifts, but more so to spread Christmas joy in that everyone gives and receives outrageously bonker gifts.
Some may ask how much entertainment one can really gain from a gift exchange. In short terms, when choosing gifts for white elephant, there is only one criteria the gift needs to meet: if it will strike laughter out of its pure stupidity and impracticality.
A gift you receive from a white elephant game is a gift you will always remember, given how interestingly weird it was. Sophomore Morgan Howard said that the most wild gift she has received from one of her family’s gift exchanges was a “tiny nutcracker in the middle of a huge box surrounded by various nuts.” Naturally, this caught her off guard which struck more interest in the gift.
White elephant gifts, for the most part, are very unpredictable due to the presence of wrapping paper or tissue paper. This mysteriousness of gifts just makes the white elephant game even more exciting.
No one said that gifts for white elephant needed to be brand new either, and the absence of this rule truly showed when sophomore Layne Malek was given a “strange game called What’s In Ned’s Head which was already opened and used,” There is nothing like a good ol’ used board game, right?
This next gift was with no surprise obtained from a game of white elephant. Sophomore Parker Frye said, “I once received a taxidermy [stuffed] iguana that was wearing black sunglasses.” No one would ever assume that the box they are about to unwrap would contain a stuffed iguana wearing sunglasses of all things. The iguana seemed to be blocking out all haters with those shades.
With all of these crazy and funny presents, it really makes you wonder if there is a store specifically designed for white elephant gifts, because how else would people find these wild items?
Even though none of these gifts would ever be deemed as useful, they still provide a great deal of laughter and memories between family and friends, and that is a gift in and of itself. Ranging from nutcrackers to iguanas wearing sunglasses, you never know what you will get when playing white elephant.
Photo by Lily Koller
Lyon Life 