This past Wednesday, December 9th at 4:30, the Writers House hosted their annual White Elephant Gift Exchange. This exchange always occurs during the last Commune meeting of the semester, usually the first or second week of December. The Writers House staff always makes sure to have some kind of treats for the participants to enjoy. This year, there were plenty of cookies and browies, along with a lot of delicious hot chocolate. The way a White Elephant Gift Exchange works is that those who want to participate find something they have that they no longer want or just need to get rid of. This rule makes for quite intriguing gift options. Each gift must be wrapped so people can’t see what it is. Some items that people have taken home from the Writers House White Elephant Gift Exchange are: bison finger puppets, a narwal backpack, sunglasses, a knitted octopus, or a two foot tall plastic light-up angel with an eye patch.
This year, about twenty people attended the gift exchange. A pile of presents sat in the center of the room, ranging from a large plastic trash bag, to small, beutifully wrapped, items. Each person drew a piece of paper with on number on it out of a bag and that was the order in which we would pick presents. The way it works is that people choose in numerical order. When your number is up, you walk to the table, pick a random present, and unwrap it. Then the next perosn goes. If whoever is choosing a present wants to “steal” a present that’s already been unwrapped, they can do that. Each present can be “stolen” up to three times – after that, it’s whoever last took it from someone else.
After we all choose presents, everyone seemed very happy with what they ended up getting. The plastic angel made a reappearance and found a great new home! There were also a bunch of Poetry Paths pencils, some bags filled with random items, handcuffs, silly string, episdoes of Nashville, and clothing. It was a fun time for everyone invovled!