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As the holidays are approaching, you'll likely run into a few games of white elephant. White elephant, also known as Yankee Swap or Dirty Santa, depending on where you live, is one of the most common Christmas games. It involves bringing a gift, usually within a specific price range, to a group and swapping gifts at random with friends or family.

While the white elephant is typical, it has a variety of ways people play it. Some use white elephant to swap joke gifts, pranks, or impractical gifts. Others use it to exchange practical, good gifts over the holidays. Setting a theme for your gift swap can help everyone stay on the same page for what gifts to buy.

Whether you're planning a joke-themed swap, a serious swap, or a practical swap, this comprehensive guide looks at the best white elephant gift ideas to consider this holiday season! Read on to learn what you need to know.

Joke Themed White Elephant Gifts

Joke-themed white elephant gifts are fun! This type of white elephant is most commonly played with friends, but family and loved ones can join in, too. The first thing to note is to set boundaries for the gifts allowed. You can select a price range, describe what the gifts should be like, and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Next, pick out your gift! For joke-themed white elephant games, you can use creativity! Consider wrapping up toilet paper rolls, baby diapers, or sock puppets. You can use your imagination to create a gift everyone will laugh at and love for this type of gift swap.

Look for a funny white elephant coffee mug, a board game or card game, a pack of stickers, or a bobblehead. Choose an inside joke that you share with the group of people you're playing with and find a gift that fits accordingly.

Practical White Elephant Gifts

If your game of white elephant is more practical and serious as opposed to joke themed gift swap, here are a few gifts to consider.

Gift of Good Fortune

Crystals have long been associated with guidance, healing, good fortune, manifestation, and positive energy. There are many other ways to support these benefits, like essential oils, aromatherapy, acupuncture, etc. However, crystals are unique in that they're specific to each zodiac sign.

Consider a gift of Crystals for Capricorn and every other zodiac sign. From amethyst, green jade, fluorite, sodalite, opalite, tiger's eye, citrine, obsidian, and rose quartz, many crystals are associated with clarity, prosperity, abundance, balance, intuition, and many more benefits.

For a white elephant gift, you can always go with a clear quartz crystal. This is for amplifying energy, positivity, harmony and is great for all zodiac signs. If you get to address the crystals to a specific person, figure out their sign and find a crystal accordingly.

Flower Basket

For some white elephant exchanges, you may need a fancier gift than a box of candy or a joke. For example, if you're with family and loved ones, you may want to consider giving a flower basket or bouquet as a gift. You can arrange and order a bouquet online or at your local flower shop.

Gift of Self Care

You can also consider it a gift of self-care! Anyone at your party can enjoy some time in relaxation and self-care. Gifts like essential oils, bubble baths, body scrubs, lotions, makeup products, socks, face masks, and bath salts are great ideas to help anyone relax and rejuvenate.

These also make for great holiday gifts! Self-care items help you take time for yourself. They help you relax and let all the stress, worry, and pain seep out of you. This helps you recharge for the next day to feel energized, focused, and motivated.

There are many ways you can incorporate self-care into your white elephant gift. From throwing in a small self-care item to creating a whole self-care gift basket for your loved ones, there are many ways you can make the holiday season better from a classic game of white elephant.

Yummy White Elephant Gifts

If you're not sure what type of gift to give to white elephant, you can't go wrong with a delicious treat. From drinks, your favorite wine, chocolatey treats, and more, there are tons of yummy white elephant gifts you can consider. Let's take a look below.

Rose Water

You can also consider flower-related gifts-for instance, dried flowers or rose water. Rosewater is flavored water you can drink, use on your skin, and is a flavorful addition to cocktails, teas, and lemonades. Learn How to make rose water at home with this helpful guide so you can bring it to all your white elephant parties, as a gift, or as a delicious drink!

The Gift of Tepache

Bringing drinks to a party is almost always a good idea. But have you ever considered getting drinks as your white elephant gift? There are many ways you can do this. You can bring wine, soda, beer, or Tepache.

Tepache is the world's first fermented, probiotic beverage. Made from pineapples, organic ingredients, low in sugar, vitamins, nutrients, and delicious flavor, this is the perfect white elephant gift for any party!

Give the gift of tepache this year.

Make a Homemade Holiday Treat

Add a homemade holiday treat to any white elephant gift to make it special and add a level of charm to it. For example, you can make holiday-themed sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies. You can also make muffins, brownies, cinnamon rolls, homemade bread, or another homemade treat. This isn't only fun, delicious, and a versatile gift idea, but it's also thoughtful.

Treat Gift Baskets

If you want to bring yummy treats without the effort to make them at home, look no further than Harry & David! These online gift baskets offer fast delivery right to your door and come in various food categories and options.

Look for arrangements of gourmet food, charcuterie and cheese, Christmas fruit, sweets, baked goods, wine, chocolate, nuts, and much more. These delicious snacks will be a must-have for any white elephant party. So choose the category, occasion, and intended recipients and get shopping.

Unforgettable White Elephant Gifts

White elephant gifts range from funny, delicious, and practical. However, sometimes you want to have the best white elephant gift at the party. If this sounds like you and you're looking for an unforgettable white elephant gift, look for the best tone poet albums.

With artists like Ornette Coleman, Joe Pass, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Clark, Charles Lloyd, Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, and more, you can find the perfect vinyl records for the music lovers white elephant party. These single-movement pieces are beautiful, descriptive, and paint stories more than words can say.

Have the Best Gift Swap Yet

White elephant gift swaps are exciting and fun for all who participate. No matter what age, background, or preferences your guests have, you can use one of these white elephant gifts to make your party the best one yet.