white elephant [n., dated 15th century.]
  1 : an Indian elephant of a pale color that is sometimes venerated in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar
2 a : a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit b : an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others c : something of little or no value
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White Elephant Gift Exchange our style [n., dated c. 2000]


 Step 1 - Obtain, acquire, pick up, dig out, or scrounge up two gifts. The first gift needs to fit definition 2b, or c above. The second gift can be anything valued between $50 and $100 - but it may still fit the description of 2a, or b above.

Step 2 - Gift-wrap the gifts separately. On a small piece of paper or gift card (one for each gift), write down a tantalizing description of the gift without "giving it away".

Example:

"A versatile and highly flexible organizational device essential to modern civilization, also deployed by men of war in many famous battles at home and abroad."

The object? A rubber band.

Step 3 - During the game we will be taking turns picking out a gift to open and/or "stealing" our favorite one from other people's hands! (If you have played this game with us before, you know not to get too attached to any one gift! Isn't that a good lesson on life?!)