Mr. Moonrocket was super excited to come home with a 5 gallon igloo cooler from the work Christmas party (the type they throw Gatorade on people from in the NFL)
So- what weird things have you gotten?
I do not participate in my works gift exchange. I did last year because they had someone want to join at the last minute, and they needed another person to offset that, but the guys in charge bought the present from me and told the guy buying my present to buy me coffee, so it all worked out. At least in my group, they all are friends so they know what everybody likes and usually people get something related to their interest.
I got a dead cat. Literally.
I was not amused.
Um that’s not a weird gift
Pant press
Towel warmer
She’s talking more along the lines of white elephant (I’m assuming)
We need more of an explanation, please.
You have to start with knowing that I very much like cats and dogs.
Early 90’s I was taking a week during the summer to paint my brother’s farm buildings and roofs while he and my dad went to the Boy Scout Jamboree. When I was coming home I saw a cat that had been hit in the road. It looked like my dad’s cat, I took it back to my parents’ house where my mom and sister said it was his cat. Dad never really cares about pets but he liked this cat so it was pretty sad.
I buried the cat. And for a couple weeks there was no sighting of dad’s cat. But then he turned up. So obviously it was a different cat and we should all be happy.
Come Christmas my two brothers decide it would be funny to wrap up a cadaver cat my loser brother pilfered from the science lab at Dennison University and give it to me. Acting like I buried the cat alive, but that cat was very dead. As soon as I picked it up I knew it was not right. I wouldn’t even open it. But they are laughing and cackling until I opened it.
30+ years later it still irritates me quite a lot. I probably should have punched both of them in the nose on that day.
Was that “that” brother?
That brother was the one who procured the cat. But they were both in on it.
If you want to explore the weird world of gifts I recommend, “The gift of thanks” by Margaret Visser. For instance in certain African tribes if you give a gift you are expected at some time in the future to return it. Then you have Japan were employees are expected to give lavish gifts to employers but employers to employees not so much.
Maybe not necessarily weird, but humorous anyway.
Batteries, with a note: “Gift not included”
From my sister.
5 Likes
Been awhile since I’ve been part of a White Elephant type of exchange. But there was one year where a circulating gift was a t-shirt emblazoned w/a competitor company’s logo. I’m not really a rah-rah company loyalist and was fine keeping it.
Magnum bottle of Casamigos, last Christmas.
I have exactly one drink’s worth left in the bottle. Perfect.
Well, White Elephant Gift Exchanges can be interesting. I received an orange and a wooden cutting board in a gift exchange on one occasion.
1 Like
I don’t have any memorable gifts I received I have a couple I gave at the company Christmas party that were fought for.
- A thigh master
- I crocheted a beer can hat
- My SIL received a VCR with a Richard Simmons video.
Our group at work had a White Elephant exchange every year. Each year there was always a zonk prize that was a can of haggis. Tradition was that whoever got the can would bring it in the following year.
I used to be part of a gift exchange that had numerous gag gifts that would show up year after year to the same party. Ugly figurines and the like.
I enjoyed wrapping something terrible up really nicely and seeing the massive disappointment when they opened what they were hoping was a nice gift.
The gag gifts kind of died when everyone had kids and the kids wanted to be part of it and would get horribly upset if they got the gag gifts.
Schrödinger Claus?
