<p>Whatapainthisis:</p>
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<p>An Australian friend once gave me a boomerang which was hand painted by an Aboriginal craftsman. Does your daughter’s friend have any ties to Australia?</p>
<p>We have done this frequently, and call it a Yankee Swap. I like Sunnyflorida’s rules, though there are 2 variations: one way, each person opens a gift on their turn and then decides whether to swap; the other way each person must decide whether to take a gift that was already opened OR an unopened gift - sort of like the old Lets Make A Deal - do you want what you can see, or what’s behind door #3? Either way, you can only swap on YOUR turn. The people with the number higher than you can take your gift, but they give you the gift they had (or if they hadn’t opened yet, they take your gift and you choose another unopened gift to open). You only get to choose/steal ONCE.</p>
<p>I agree that this is only fun IF the gifts are inexpensive. It can be a little off-putting if the gift you bought is swapped for one considered more desirable, but I’ve known people to intentionally buy a “goofy” gift just to inject some humor into the proceedings. Also, don’t tell anyone which gift you brought if you think you’ll be embarrassed if it gets traded.</p>
<p>For 2 years I’ve gone to an ornament exchange that was done by Yankee swap. This year the most popular ornament was the silliest one - it was really unusual and creative.</p>
<p>Yeah, we did this at my old job. Somewhat uncomfortable but an interesting experiment in sociology. I think it would be more fun with friends.</p>
<p>At our huge Christmas party- about 25 families, we have lasagna, carols and Christmas trivia. Whatever family I arbitrarily decide has answered the most questions correctly goes home with a truly hideous gold ornament that I found YEARS ago. They must bring it back next year so another “lucky” family can bring it home.
Last year I asked 3 dads to each sing a solo verse of “We Three Kings.” They were terrific! I felt like Mrs. Fezziwick (sp?) from Dickens!</p>
<p>We used to have a white elephant gift exchange at our holiday party at the publishing company I worked for. Everyone brought something old or an unwanted Christmas present from years past. It was such fun and we just laughed during the whole thing. There weren’t any hard feelings at all. There was always one item that lots of people liked, but it was all in good fun.</p>
<p>We had so much fun with a variation of this at a friend’s Xmas party
a few years ago. Dirty Santa (maybe that’s the southern term?) was what my friend called it. We made it a “tacky” gift exchange. The rule was that you couldn’t BUY anything–the “gift” had to be something from home that you wanted to get rid of–the tackier, the better. There was only one opportunity to steal–you could keep your gift after you opened it, or trade it for another opened gift you liked better. The stuff people brought was hilarious–a bag of moldy turnips from the bottom of their refrigerator, a box of unmatched socks, a plastic angel figurine on which a broken wing had been replaced by a bird feather/rubber band, a partially melted snowman candle that someone had very cleverly bought on clearance the day after last Christmas, and very stupidly stored in a hot attic all summer. . .OMG we all laughed so hard. Someone actually stole those moldy turnips–for their horses! I stole the melted snowman. . .</p>
<p>Omgosh…we’ve played this game a gazillion times. Mostly good fun, but sometimes, it has gotten uncomfortable…especially when a gift is clearly unwanted by everyone and the purchaser of that gift is embarrassed. Solution a friend and I came up with years ago…if we noticed one or two gifts being repeatedly overlooked in all the ‘stealing’, we secretly pledged to ‘steal’ those gifts ourselves. </p>
<p>btw…chuckling at the ‘church-sanctioned stealing’ comment.</p>
<p>whatapainthisis:
These are actually pretty cool looking! [18-inch</a> Hand-Painted Animal Boomerang](<a href=“http://www.walkabout.com/shop/boomerang-animal18.asp]18-inch”>http://www.walkabout.com/shop/boomerang-animal18.asp)</p>
<p>When we do it, there are always a couple of obvious “gag” gifts. One year I picked up a mounted rubber fish that sang “Take me to the river, drop me in the water…” and Don’t worry, be happy" at a yard sale. It was in the original box, so I brought it to the party. It made the rounds and everyone laughed. I love yankee swaps!</p>
<p>A singing rubber fish? Oh my god, I want it so badly,you have no idea.</p>
<p>Oh I found one on EBay but it’s not the same songs:
[Travis</a> Trout singing fish - (eBay item 110205371454 end time Dec-15-07 16:21:48 PST)](<a href=“http://cgi.ebay.com/Travis-Trout-singing-fish_W0QQitemZ110205371454QQcmdZViewItem]Travis”>http://cgi.ebay.com/Travis-Trout-singing-fish_W0QQitemZ110205371454QQcmdZViewItem)</p>
<p>this one sings yet another set of songs:
[COOL</a> CATFISH Motion Activated Talking Singing Wall Fish - (eBay item 290189576527 end time Dec-15-07 12:38:15 PST)](<a href=“http://cgi.ebay.com/COOL-CATFISH-Motion-Activated-Talking-Singing-Wall-Fish_W0QQitemZ290189576527QQihZ019QQcategoryZ38238QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]COOL”>http://cgi.ebay.com/COOL-CATFISH-Motion-Activated-Talking-Singing-Wall-Fish_W0QQitemZ290189576527QQihZ019QQcategoryZ38238QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)</p>
<p>Here you go, dmd.</p>
<p>[Travis</a> Trout singing fish - (eBay item 110205371454 end time Dec-15-07 16:21:48 PST)](<a href=“http://cgi.ebay.com/Travis-Trout-singing-fish_W0QQitemZ110205371454QQcmdZViewItem]Travis”>http://cgi.ebay.com/Travis-Trout-singing-fish_W0QQitemZ110205371454QQcmdZViewItem)</p>
<p>oops, ya beat me to it! :)</p>
<p>Here’s another:</p>
<p>[Big</a> Mouth Billy Bass](<a href=“http://www.angelfire.com/music2/shawnjamz/billybass/billybass.html]Big”>Big Mouth Billy Bass)</p>
<p>Oh, God, not the singing trout! H wants one so badly, but my luck he is not a shopper and can’t tell ebay from expedia!</p>
<p>The “loser gift” at our Yankee Swap last year seemed to be a little red stuffed Muppet doll in a Santa hat, which “sang” some Muppet-language version of Jingle Bells or the “Meh-no-men-ah” song and wiggled around on its seat when you squeezed its foot. It looked like a big loser, but when someone took the gift I’d opened, I dived for that Muppet and gave it to my younger son whom I knew would love it. He did! He took it in to the frozen yogurt shop where he worked and put it on one of the registers, and it became the shop pet! Everyone loved it, and it was a sad day when they decided a Muppet in a Santa costume was getting old in January.</p>
<p>Often there’s someone in the crowd who really would like to have that supposed gag gift!</p>
<p>BUT when you click on the Billy Bass link… it’s not there anymore!</p>
<p>(The Billy Bass one sings “Take me to the River.”)</p>
<p>dmd77 - The Billy Bass link worked for me - try again.</p>
<p>You’re right -I tried again. Sorry about that. It sounded like a great gag gift for my brother. Darn!</p>
<p>Gag gift? My daughter and her friends from dance gave their director the Big Mouth Bill Bass many moons ago. He loved it! They had it in the studio for a few weeks until the girls got tired of listening to it, then he took it home.</p>
<p>jym a few years back a friend had 5 couples over for a Valentine’s Day dinner party and a Yankee Swap. My dh ended up with a pair of red satin pajama pants, which we later re-gifted. Gifts ranged from romantic candles to chocolates to massage oils and a little red negligee which kept getting passed around like a hot potato. It was a fun night.</p>
<p>My book club does this. We also have the two times rule. We used to bring a 15 dollar gift this year we switched to white elephant. This year was a blast with all the stories about the gifts. The nice thing about the white elephant gift is no one’s feelings are hurt. Some of the gifts this year were funny and other’s were actually nice gifts that for whatever reason didn’t work for the owner. My gift was perfume that my spouse had given me last year that just wasn’t the right scent for me. I did swear everyone to keep mum to my husband.
I have also been to a party for kids where the host has wrapped up small gifts in a huge bundle and you keep unwrapping as the music plays. When the music stops you keep what is in your hand and exit the circle.</p>
<p>We had a singing fish at swap at a party recently too! Have to say the liquor gifts were the bigger hits…everyone kept swapping to get those!</p>
<p>mom60–that kid ‘unwrapping the bundle’ idea is great! Will have to try that at one of my daughter’s parties!</p>
<p>I have to agree. I think it’s a mean spirited gift “giving” game. Never played it before but at my new job we were told that we were doing a bottle exchange gift for the holiday party. There was a limit of $ 10. We were told anything in a bottle, be creative. It’s 2 days away and I’m just now hearing that it’s a “swap” thing. I’m not pleased. I think it is a mean spirited tradition and not at all in keeping with the spirit of the season. I don’t feel like I can decline as it is a small group and despite my objections it’s going to take place as planed. I think I’ll contribute a gift but decline to participate further.</p>