the white elephant parties. My friend who hosts an annual white elephant is debating sending out an invite before October even begins, and my mother’s ornament-themed white elephant has split into two parties this year. On top of all your regular Christmas and holiday shopping, trying to pick a gift that won’t embarrass you at multiple gift exchanges feels like mental torture.
That’s because white elephant parties in particular present a unique challenge: Can you find a cool or funny white elephant gift within a set budget that a group of people—who are potentially strangers—will battle each other to take home? None of us want to be the person who brought the gift nobody wanted. Some folks bring joke gifts, some bring booze to be safe, and some
will feel like garbage to you but gems to others. Some of my favorite white elephant gifts include
. Here’s every white elephant gift I recommend bringing, ranging from quirky to cool to actually useful.
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Updated October 2026: I’ve added new Lego sets, a cozy beverage set, and new e-reader case options, and checked to make sure everything else is still in stock.
Being a nerd isn’t as lame as it used to be, nor does it seem so weird to play Dungeons & Dragons like it used to, either. If you’ve got a few dungeon divers in your white elephant group (or maybe it’s a white elephant with your D&D party!) like I do, these Lego sets are a hit. My husband was the lucky last grabber for a white elephant gift that included three of these. They’re mystery bags, making it a fun discovery for the winner, and with 12 different designs you should be safe to buy a couple without doubling up on the model type. But even if you do, that’s something for the gift winner to discover and laugh about.
Maybe you’re headed to your book club white elephant, or maybe you’ve talked everyone into getting an e-reader this year. Maybe that’s just me, though. Either way, if you know there’s people with e-readers coming to your gift exchange, a cool new case makes for an easy win. PopSockets has an entire Kindle case line that has a lot of really cool and gift-worthy designs. This dragon sterling case is one of my favorites, and the black opaque base allows Kindle colors to show through or it can dress up the plain black Kindle models. It also has a built-in MagSafe ring so the winner can attach their favorite PopSocket Grip to it for easier reading—or you can include one for them.
If your group is more of a Kobo club, I also really love
that can prop the e-reader up thanks to the foldable portion of the cover. You might want to include a gift receipt so they can exchange it if you get the wrong size—Kobo has SleepCovers for both Libra and Clara models, but PopSockets’ cases only fit the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Colorsoft.
Everyone hydrates, so a drinking vessel is a safe gift all around. And most people drink some kind of caffeinated drink, whether it’s
. This fun mug looks like a miniature coffee pot and can handle hot drinks. It even comes with a plastic lid so you can take it on the go. I like how comfortable the handle is to hold, and it’s just so funny to look at while still doing a great job holding my morning tea. The lid is pretty flimsy, so I usually just drink out of the glass top instead, but I still like that there is an included lid rather than none at all.
Jazz up someone’s fridge with adorable sushi magnets. They almost look a little too real—the salmon nigiri looks ready to eat—but are still fun to look at on a fridge. Every single visitor I have comments on how cute these magnets are. After two years of rocking these on my fridge, they’re all holding up strong.
While the magnets on the plastic rolls are small, they’re still plenty strong enough to hold up papers and children’s artwork on someone’s fridge without slipping or falling. I’d only put two corners of paper underneath one of these max since they’re not massively strong, and I usually put two magnets for each piece of art. I’m craving ikura just looking at them, and the foodies at your white elephant can battle it out for who gets to take these home and deal with the same cravings.
I’ll tell you right now: The Big Enter Supersized Key enter key is a little too much fun to have on my desk, and a great thing to bring for a white elephant with your coworkers, fellow work-from-home folks, or friends who are allowed to really decorate their cubicle. The punchable enter key’s function is simple: You punch it to hit enter. It connects to a computer via a USB cord, and is nice and responsive so you don’t have to punch it super hard. It’s a fun addition to lively Slack chats, or a secret way to be passive-aggressive without anyone knowing. Unless the winner of this supersized key has a cubicle partner. But that’s their problem—if they can manage to win in the first place during the game.
I have a lot of tea lovers in my various circle of friends, so this delic