PSA/vent - white elephant gift exchange

Do people return the favor and buy her something really chintzy when they draw her name? I admit I would do that. 

No, it's a white elephant; we don't pick the recipients.  We draw numbers, go in numerical order.  You can steal a gift from someone who's opened one.  If  you get the awful gift, you'll probably be stuck with it.  But there's always next year.

I am going to an event tonight that specified a $25.-$30.00 gift.

I have a $25 Gas card and 2 jars of a famous local Jam (Blackberry & Peach, 250 ml.).  The jam is expensive but one of my friends has a family member working there and was able to get 2 jars (free) for me.

Anyone who drives, needs gas.  The jams aren't everyday flavors.  This seems like a great group of people so I will report back tomorrow.

I have always had terrible luck with work exchanges. I can’t remember one time where I’ve received a gift that I actually liked or appreciated. Two years in a row, the person who drew my name never gave me a gift, Last year, I had only been working in the unit for about 4 months so I didn’t know many people well ( our unit was staffed with over 100 nurses) and of course I drew the name of someone I never had spoken to. After asking her friends I learned she loved to travel so I bought her a couple of really simple but lovely necklaces related to traveling. I spent way to much time researching and she loved them. I received a Pom Pom hat and a wine glass (I don’t drink. At all.). Just thoughtless generic stuff Andy I’m not going to bother again.

I did this ONCE at work. It was a white elephant exchange so
I bought a captain America Snuggie blanket ( cost me 20$) because I thought it was funny and that was the point. The co worker that got it threw a fit at the exchange ( he’d brought a bottle of booze and WANTED ONE IN RETURN) I was horribly embarrassed and ended up trading him for it. My kids loved it and I still have it. Never participated again.

He was a huge jerk. What you brought was appropriate for a white elephant exchange, not the booze.

Personally-I love that idea and would rather receive something like this that I could actually use

I'm going to give a slightly different perspective about hubby gifts here.

I have 2 ex-husbands . Both were really good gift givers ( the second gave me the same beautiful diamond earrings 2 yrs in a row,but still- diamond earrings!)

They were horrible to live with. The first would help with nothing that he considered 'woman's work', and was generally nasty and became abusuve just before we split- came back on Christmas eve the next year, broke the front door in and beat me up in front of our children .

The second started off well, but was terrible with money, ran up huge debt and ended up spending huge amounts of money on a favourite
' call girl ' whilst I dealt with the bailiffs and tried to stop my home ( owned before I met him) being sold to cover his debts .

Neither of them sees our children regularly ( the first never in fact, hasn't even met our grandchild.)

I get the disappointment on Christmas Day, but if the guy is great in every other way, I'd take getting my own gift !

As for secret Santa - don't even start me on that nonsense !

Now that's my idea of a fun Christmas present! 

I hate these office gift exchanges since I usually get burned. The worst was the big gaudy obviously cheap glass tree ornament that was broken. I’d love to opt out but the new boss is trying to make holiday time fun with parties, etc. but at least we get to make a list. The only thing on mine is an Amazon gift card so we’ll see.

Fun note: One year I picked my own name in a secret Santa exchange. I got myself something nice and was so ‘surprised’ and appreciative when I opened it. Best gift exchange ever!

oops