White elephant gifts have become more popular for this year’s Christmas, but where did the idea of a white elephant gift come from? And what are the rules for a white elephant gift party? The phrase is said to come from a perspective about the historic practice of the King of Siam (now Thailand) giving rare albino elephants to courtiers who had displeased him, so that they might be ruined by the animals’ upkeep costs.

This story is almost certainly apocryphal. But White Elephant gift exchanges and the accompanying hideous holiday socks they have bestowed over the years are very real. Today, White Elephant parties, also known as Dirty Santa or Yankee Swap parties, are a staple of the holiday season.

The exact rules vary from party to party but, typically, people bring wrapped gifts that are placed under a tree. Attendees then draw numbers to determine the order in which they’ll select gifts. After the first player selects and opens a gift, the next can either steal the first player’s gift or choose to open a new one. This continues around the group until everyone has a gift — some of which, of course, are more desirable than others.

Sadly, it’s hard to find people as excited about holiday gift exchanges nowadays. The Independent Record of Helena, Montana, remarked in 2006 that “The White Elephant gift exchange has become a holiday tradition, if only in the sense that it’s one of the things you don’t necessarily like to do, but you keep on doing it anyway.” By 2009, the parties had, accordingly, been dismissed in The Corvallis Gazette-Times in Oregon as “crude and flashy.”

But now? In 2023, we are perhaps aware that “crude and flashy” are often synonyms for a really good time. So keep those tins of cow udder moisturizer ready for the next swap party! And hey “keep the change ya filthy animal!”