White Elephant vs. Yankee Swap

Vs.

In December my lab group decided to have a little holiday party. The main even of said holiday party was to be a 'Yankee Swap'. I wasn't familiar with the term and was informed it was like a White Elephant exchange where you all trade gifts. We were instructed that the gifts could not cost more than $5 but other than that no real instructions were given. I didn't think much of it even though a coworker read where the two different terms originated from.

Yankee Swap- Originated during the civil war and referred to prisoner exchanges.
White Elephant- Refers to an item whose maintenance cost exceeds its usefulness.

I didn't think much of the differences and kind of procrastinated finding anything until the night before. When I finally decided to find something, my wife and I started looking around the apartment for 'White Elephant' gifts, and found two random household items: a wall mount hanger and a set of wire screen traps that go over sink drains. We both felt that these were humorous and suitable 'White Elephant' gifts, so I went comfortably to sleep that night.

The next day I biked to work and put my 'White Elephant' items in a black paper bag that I stapled shut so nobody could see inside, and placed the bag with the rest of the gifts. At the party there were about 19 people, all of whom participated in the swap, and all 19 gifts were wrapped and in the window sill of the room we gathered in. Most of the gifts were actually wrapped so mine definitely was not very aesthetically appealing, which probably should have been my first clue.

As people began to open their 'Yankee Swap' gifts, I came to a startling realization that, although my coworker had used the two terms almost interchangeably, Yankee Swaps and White Elephant exchanges are two VERY different things! To my horror, most people got things like chocolates or kids toys which, although humorous, were fun and functional. To make matters worse, my poor little stapled bag was left to be the very LAST gift selected. By that time, I was so mortified that I didn't dare admit that I had supplied it. Nobody knew what they were and after seeing all the other things, nobody found them to be funny.

The moral of this story is that if you are ever east of the Mississippi and are invited to a party like this, make sure you know which it is!