Friday, December 19, 2003
don't screw your neighbor
i'm sure you all know the game kris kringle or white elephant, even if you just call it gift exchange. last year was the first time i ever heard it called screw your neighbor. basic premise is that everyone brings a gift fit for anyone, regardless of gender. there's an order decided, like drawing numbers and the first person picks a gift and opens it. the 2nd person can either choose an unopened gift or can take the gift from the first person. and so on and so forth. the gifts can be taken only 3 times though. and the person who takes it for the 3rd time cannot have it taken away from them. the last person ultimately has the best pickin's cuz he/she gets to choose among all of the opened presents. there's also a variation of the game where you don't open your gift until the very end and then people can trade gifts with each other then.
so we played this game at a CHRISTmas party last year and it got sort of brutal. not mean-spirited or anything, but at the end of it, someone felt really jipped. it was funny cuz ironically, she was the one who was insisting on playing it where you open the gifts, specifically so that you can "screw your neighbor". and she felt like SHE was the one who ended up getting screwed. i didn't feel as bad for her, but for the person who brought the gift in. it was a well-intentioned gift, not meant to be a bad one. and it wasn't welcomed at all and sort of made-fun of. i thought the reaction to the gift was the mean part. i mean, even if you thought the gift wasn't all that, you'd still sorta try to be grateful, right? i would anyway. but it was a game and that's how it was played out.
why is it called white elephant anyway? *sigh* i had to research it and this is what i found:
The History of the White Elephant Gift Exchange
It was some time ago that a young man was invited to a gift exchange being thrown by some of his friends. He was somewhat hesitant about accepting the invitation, not really wanting to go to the trouble of finding a gift generic enough to be given to any one, none the less he sent in his RSVP and promptly forgot about the whole thing.
The day of the party he received a phone call from the host, she had forgotten to attach directions to the original invitation and was calling to make sure every one knew how to get there. The young man, some what distressed now realizing he had forgotten about the party, quickly wrote down the directions and headed out to find that perfect generic gift. The young man went every where, looked in every store, scanned every department store window, but found nothing he thought was suitable. Depressed he went home, what was he going to do.
Standing in his living room, with only an hour till the party, the young man thought maybe he had something just lying around, maybe he could find a gift here. He began to scan the room, trying to find something that would pass for a gift. His eyes paused for a moment on a bookshelf, there on the top was a small white ceramic elephant. The young mans mind raced, trying to think back as to where he had gotten it. Not coming up with any thing and with only 20 minutes to get to the party, he grabbed the elephant off of the shelf and quickly wrapped up in some scrap wrapping paper.
It was the ugliest wrapping job ever, he thought as he placed it on the table with all the others. It looked so out of place next to all the shiny wrapped packages with the pretty bows, maybe no one would notice he brought it, and he walked away, off to find the refreshments and friends.
Late into the evening the host called the group into a circle of chairs seated around the pile of gifts, she explained the instructions and passed around a hat out of which came a number written on a folded piece of paper. As numbers where called people chose gifts from the center of the circle, the biggest and prettiest one going first. When it was the hosts turn to go, she saw the present brought by the young man was still in the pile, and being a polite and gracious host she picked up the gift and began to unwrap the small package. As the elephant began to emerge whispers heard around the circle. The host began to laugh, "What a great idea! A gag gift. Who brought this?" The young man grateful for the excuse to his poorly chosen gift promptly raised his hand and began to weave an intricate lie about the tradition in his family known as the white elephant gift exchange. As the young man finished the story, he waits to see if his lie has been accepted. Slowly the people around him begin to snicker and laugh, and the young man breaths a sigh of relief, as the groups talks loudly about the new game.
As the night wore on, one by one each guest approached the young man, asking him to write down the rules of the game, excited to try it with there own family and friends. The young man thought about telling the very gracious host the truth, but decided that some things are better left for the imagination.
dang, so lack of preparation and thoughtlessness led to this tradition. greatttt. look, people, just be happy to spend time with friends and family and it's a time to show love and friendship in every deed we do. put effort in your presents. it's not obligatory, so try to give something nice. and if your receive a gift that isn't to your taste, be gracious about it cuz someone may have put some thought into it and you may hurt them by how you receive the gift. and if you're playing a game, have fun and keep it light! try not to screw your neighbor, and laugh a lot!
enjoy your holidays!
so we played this game at a CHRISTmas party last year and it got sort of brutal. not mean-spirited or anything, but at the end of it, someone felt really jipped. it was funny cuz ironically, she was the one who was insisting on playing it where you open the gifts, specifically so that you can "screw your neighbor". and she felt like SHE was the one who ended up getting screwed. i didn't feel as bad for her, but for the person who brought the gift in. it was a well-intentioned gift, not meant to be a bad one. and it wasn't welcomed at all and sort of made-fun of. i thought the reaction to the gift was the mean part. i mean, even if you thought the gift wasn't all that, you'd still sorta try to be grateful, right? i would anyway. but it was a game and that's how it was played out.
why is it called white elephant anyway? *sigh* i had to research it and this is what i found:
It was some time ago that a young man was invited to a gift exchange being thrown by some of his friends. He was somewhat hesitant about accepting the invitation, not really wanting to go to the trouble of finding a gift generic enough to be given to any one, none the less he sent in his RSVP and promptly forgot about the whole thing.
The day of the party he received a phone call from the host, she had forgotten to attach directions to the original invitation and was calling to make sure every one knew how to get there. The young man, some what distressed now realizing he had forgotten about the party, quickly wrote down the directions and headed out to find that perfect generic gift. The young man went every where, looked in every store, scanned every department store window, but found nothing he thought was suitable. Depressed he went home, what was he going to do.
Standing in his living room, with only an hour till the party, the young man thought maybe he had something just lying around, maybe he could find a gift here. He began to scan the room, trying to find something that would pass for a gift. His eyes paused for a moment on a bookshelf, there on the top was a small white ceramic elephant. The young mans mind raced, trying to think back as to where he had gotten it. Not coming up with any thing and with only 20 minutes to get to the party, he grabbed the elephant off of the shelf and quickly wrapped up in some scrap wrapping paper.
It was the ugliest wrapping job ever, he thought as he placed it on the table with all the others. It looked so out of place next to all the shiny wrapped packages with the pretty bows, maybe no one would notice he brought it, and he walked away, off to find the refreshments and friends.
Late into the evening the host called the group into a circle of chairs seated around the pile of gifts, she explained the instructions and passed around a hat out of which came a number written on a folded piece of paper. As numbers where called people chose gifts from the center of the circle, the biggest and prettiest one going first. When it was the hosts turn to go, she saw the present brought by the young man was still in the pile, and being a polite and gracious host she picked up the gift and began to unwrap the small package. As the elephant began to emerge whispers heard around the circle. The host began to laugh, "What a great idea! A gag gift. Who brought this?" The young man grateful for the excuse to his poorly chosen gift promptly raised his hand and began to weave an intricate lie about the tradition in his family known as the white elephant gift exchange. As the young man finished the story, he waits to see if his lie has been accepted. Slowly the people around him begin to snicker and laugh, and the young man breaths a sigh of relief, as the groups talks loudly about the new game.
As the night wore on, one by one each guest approached the young man, asking him to write down the rules of the game, excited to try it with there own family and friends. The young man thought about telling the very gracious host the truth, but decided that some things are better left for the imagination.
dang, so lack of preparation and thoughtlessness led to this tradition. greatttt. look, people, just be happy to spend time with friends and family and it's a time to show love and friendship in every deed we do. put effort in your presents. it's not obligatory, so try to give something nice. and if your receive a gift that isn't to your taste, be gracious about it cuz someone may have put some thought into it and you may hurt them by how you receive the gift. and if you're playing a game, have fun and keep it light! try not to screw your neighbor, and laugh a lot!
enjoy your holidays!
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quotable quotes
-
"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the
greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks
nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid
suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, live, and love."
~unknown
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"live a life that others will remember years from now, NOT because it pointed to you but because of how it pointed to the One who made you."
~ Mark Hart, the Bible Geek
"we grow up learning to become self-reliant, but really we need to be God-reliant"
"we could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box"
"never wound hearts that love u, never give them the endless pain, because wounded hearts are like roses that never bloom"
"there comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving us but because we have found out that they'd be happier if we'd let go"
