What kind of idiot buys a Chia pet?

I've been thinking of buying a Chai Tea, but I've heard they are quite expensive and come with a considerable amount of baggage.

White elephant is usually some sort of re-gifting. You got some horrible present like, oh, say, a Chia Pet, and then you wrap it up and give it away just in case someone else wants one.

What happens at the most fun versions (dunno if your office one will be like this) is that the unwrapping is only the beginning. Say Abe got the Chia Pet, but Barney really wants the damn thing. Barney has a candle shaped like a washing machine that Abe doesn't want, but Charley, on the other hand... and then mad trading commences to get what you really want.

(I can see the appeal of Chia Pets though.)

But yes you gotta wrap it. If you don't want to get a box and wrapping paper and ribbon and yadda yadda just get a gift bag. Pretty much anyplace has 'em, grocery stores, Target, whatever, not hard to find.

We did white elephant gift exchanges at my last job. Gawd, what a riot! It was hysterically funny (of course, we all got along really well and it was a cool work environment; I'm sure it wouldn't be that fun everywhere). I hope you have a good bunch of people.

Anyway, I think (if everyone is in the spirit of the thing) a Chia pet will be great-- that's exactly the kind of goofy kitschy thing you want. One of the biggest crowd-pleasers at our last one was this awful pink sweatshirt with a fluffy, big-eyed kitty picture on it, that one of the guys got. We were all cracking up, and of course we forced him to wear this tiny, tight, cute sweatshirt...<sigh> good times, good times...

Definitely wrap it. A big part of it is that you don't know what the wrapped things are, so you can't decide if you should steal one of the other people's gifts that they've already picked and unwrapped, or take the chance on one of the still-wrapped presents.

I think the girls at the office are getting me a chia toupe, meaning I'm going to be sporting green hair for a few days to show my appreciation. If it works out that way, expect a picture.




















With a hat.

Oh, come on, Roger, you gotta give us a picture with your Chia hair!

Okay, so I have to wrap it. Crap. I am so bad at wrapping gifts. Every gift from me always looks like it was wrapped by a three-year-old. Oh well. Maybe I'll go with your bag idea, Soz. Anyway, this sounds like it will be fun. This is a pretty fun group. I think they'll dig the chia.

What in HELL is a chia pet?

Silly Wabbit!!

But I guess you're just a foreigner. Don't we Americans send you any Chia pets when we're sending you money??

Chia Pet commercial.

Feck, why didn't my piccie work? Grr.

Here you go, cypher.

Man, do I hear you there, brother. My gift wrapping looks like someone already opened the present, realized it was for someone else, then hastily tried to push everything back together in a haphazard fashion.

My department does this too - but there's a five dollar limit. This year I brought in a stupid magnetic desk sculpture. I ended up with a Sudoku book, which was better than many of the alternatives. At least I'll use it!

The most popular gifts were a lottery scratch off and a $25 dollar gift certificate to a steakhouse (which was a freebie to begin with.) The stealing part is hilarious.

You silly males need to take advantage of gift bags, they're easy to make purty. Even a capybara farmer could do it.

Isn't it food you send us?

kicky, Our annual white elephant party is a riot. The person that picks #1 is the luckiest according to the rules developed over many years. The person that picks the first number gets to pick the first "bag," and the last choice after all the bags have been opened. However, no gift can be exchanged more than three times. The third one who takes it ends up with that person. So, you can see that the last number also has its advantages. They can pick a gift already opened or pick the last bag. It's fun.

Well, I finished wrapping it. All I had at hand was some plain white wrapping paper. And I totally made a mess of it, as expected. It looks a lot like something a terrorist would leave under a bus seat. I hope the police aren't searching bags at the subway stop tomorrow morning. Heh.

Are you saying you're a fellow Chia Pet buyer, JL? Don't worry, you can tell us. We're your friends, and we're here for you, brother.

Now I'm even more confused. It does sound like a fun time though. Is it considered bad form to try to get your own gift?