17 Best White Elephant Gifts (2024): Legos, Desk Accessories

White Elephant Parties It presents a unique challenge: Can you find something cool or funny enough within a set budget that a group of people – potentially strangers – will fight to bring it home?

If you’re headed to your first white elephant gift exchange, here’s a quick breakdown of what’s going to happen. Everyone will bring a wrapped gift (often under $25, for example) and place it in a pile or central place, and then each person will draw a number to see the order. When your number is called, you can either pick a gift from the pile and unwrap it, or steal a gift that someone has already unwrapped. Most exchanges will have a limit on the number of times you can steal a single gift – usually around three times – so if you have the best gift on your hands, there’s no guarantee you’ll keep it. If your gift is stolen, you can either unwrap a new gift or steal a different gift (non-refundable, sorry).

The real excitement comes from finding something great in a pile of people who know what. Some people bring joke gifts, others bring booze to be safe, and some gifts will feel like garbage to you but are gems to others. Here are some gifts I recommend bringing with you, ranging from the quirky to the wonderful. There’s something in this guide too for every possible price cap.

Looking for more gift ideas? Don’t miss our other awesome ones Gift guidesincluded Best gifts under $30, Best gifts for cold people, Best gifts for mothersand Best gifts for outdoor people.

Updated December 2024: We added sauce dishes, a camera, THC spirits, and some cozy koozies, removed an out-of-stock gift, and updated links and prices.