Talk:White elephant gift exchange

message: If a gift is stolen three times, it will have had four owners:
#Original Owner
#Thief #1
#Thief #2
#Thief #3
I have changed the wording about    dead gifts back to "four owners" for this reason.
I should also add that if the way you play the game differs from what's on the page, add your rules as a variation, rather than deleting the existing rules.  This game is played in several different ways, and we need to acknowledge that.
Groucho 13:13, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Dead Gifts

message: "The name "white elephant" loosely refers to an old tradition of giving gift items consisting of old trinkets, knicknacks, or unwanted gifts from previous years (also known as "regifting"). It's said to have originated when the King of France, in observance of an onerous tradition of lavish gift-giving, unloaded a rather inconvenient, ailing pet (a white elephant) on the King of England. The dilemma this gift imposed is that the recipient had to fulfill tradition and honor the gift (keeping it alive) despite the tremendous inconvenience and expense it caused. Therefore, a traditional white elephant gift exchange involves ridiculous, often inconvenient gifts that nobody really wants."
Is this correct? I read a different story in the idioms section of the answers.com white elephant article. It seems a bit more likely.
Cableray 17:34, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm much more inclined to believe that the conventional definition of "white elephant" is the origin of this gift exchange game's name, rather than the supposed New Jersey custom of using wrapping paper inside out!  The former probably predates the latter (and predates this gift exchange game as well, probably), and probably even predates New Jersey itself!!  :)Andy Nguyen (talk) 16:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

text: Who are we to decide what goes and what stays... Lets just make another page with the New Jersey meaning of "white elephant" :)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.50.113.28 (talk) 19:30, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origins 

message: Should this page be focused on White Elephant and Yankee Swap get it's own page? Or are they so similar (and often confused) that they should exist in the same wiki article? --Terevos 22:37, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It's the same game. -- -- MisterHand (Talk to the Hand|Contribs) 15:03, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  White Elephant vs. Yankee Swap 

message: I just added a Refimprove template to the section "Other Regional Names". However, I see that Thumperward actually removed that information earlier today with the reason "far too many regional or family names for this to be at all comprehensive. just nuke the lot." I can definitely see the logic in that, but if there are other, reliable sources out there for different names used by large groups of people, I can also see the logic in listing those names. What this boils down to is this: Someone cite those names or I'll dump any without citations within a month. Matt T. (talk) 23:43, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reliable sources for "Other Regional Names" 

message: There seems to be some contention about the inclusion of alternate/regional names, since most are without documentation.  However, it doesn't seem right to outright delete them.  I propose we list them here until such a time as they can be properly verified or a place found for them on the page. -Jaardon (talk) 22:24, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alternate Names 

message: Numbered the Variants, despite a few overlaps, because they were really confusing to read and differentiate between.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.237.172.148 (talk) 04:55, 17 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Variants 

message: Let's keep this section clean, people. This is not the place to talk about frozen gifts or extra turns or whatever. Put that stuff in the Variations section. At its most basic level, this is a game of taking turns either unwrapping or stealing gifts, and that's what this section should reflect. --173.36.196.10 (talk) 16:57, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gameplay 

message: There is no evidence/proof/footnotes/ etc. to back up this story. The alleged incidence happened in November 2011, but the prosecuting US Attorney mentioned resigned as  United States Attorney for the District of Arizona in August 2011. There is also no newspaper article, etc. to be found on the web that reports on this story. To me it seems to be a hoax or somebody in dire straits for self-fabricated wanking material.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.71.53.181 (talk) 16:03, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  University of Arizona Sorority Scandal 

message: The variation with the host providing extra presents -- is this variation really popular enough to warrant mention? Wikipedia is NOT the place to give people ideas of how to throw a party. That's what eHow is for. This page is to reflect how the game is generally played. So can someone give an idea of how popular that variant is? Otherwise I would say it should be removed. — 72.34.180.51 (talk) 08:38, 1 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Questionable Variations 

message: this is called a yankee swap, ive never heard anyone on earth call it a white elephant. adding it to the title
75.67.58.31 (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 11:36, 12 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sorry but 

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thread_title:  External links modified