Ok, a quick review:
You can send whatever you want, but the idea is stuff you have around the house - you’re not really supposed to go out and buy new stuff for people (although I suppose if you must it’s ok).
Think about your ‘junk drawer’. Think about emptying your junk drawer into a box and mailing it to someone - that’s the spirit of the White Elephant Exhange.
So, that’s not good enough? You want actual items to send? Well, you could send old CDs, decks of cards, fridge magnets, dolphin soaps, toy planes, used video games, hand knit socks, a really cool t-shirt, 5 parts of your award winning shot glass collection, a stuffed mouse, a postcard of a really big tuna, makeup, pictures of your pets, pictures of your pets in clothing, pictures of you getting mauled by your pets while putting them in clothing, a hand fan, jewelry, a set of those fridge magnet words, candles, a marble elephant sculpture, a base ball cap, one of those mini hockey sticks, toys from a kinder surprise, snow globes (hint, hint), a book you really enjoyed, a book you really didn’t enjoy, an old lava lamp, a beach towel with a star fish on it, a nifty mug, an alarm clock, hand lotion, a hand crafted clay frog, etc, etc.
I guess you get the idea. Some things that probably are NOT a good idea, although not technically agains the rules include perfume in glass bottles (it’s a bitch when they break en route), knives (could be held up at customs, depending on where you’re sending to), anything overly obscene - a collection of dildoes of varying sizes might be a fantastic WE for someone, but let’s not take the chance that it’s not, ok?
When you’re assembling your package, you can put it together with a particular person in mind (your Elephantee), or you can put together a generic package. I tend to try to choose someone that will like the stuff I’m sending when I make up the list, but everyone else doesn’t have that luxury - use your own best judgement.
Some people include an itemized list for their Elephantee, along with a personal letter, but you don’t have to - if you want to send the stuff out anon., you can. It’s kind of good manners to come and post when you receive your package so I and your Elephanter are not worrying. I’ll create a new thread for that purpose when packages start arriving (or someone else will if they beat me to it.
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This is supposed to be fun - try not to get too bent out of shape about it. People will have the entire month of September to mail stuff out - if people start threads to send out new packages on the 5th of September, because Jo Boggs doesn’t have his yet, I’m going to be annoyed - you have to give people an opportunity to actually participate - one whole month before I’ll entertain thoughts of bitching people out for lack of WEs sent.
To sum up:
- Send me your screen name, your IRL name, your MAILING ADDRESS, and where you will or won’t ship to. Also, if you have a particularly large quantity of junk drawers you’re emptying, and would be willing to adopt an Elephantless particpant after October, you could include that too - hopefully that won’t be necessary.
- Newbys are welcome, but guests will have to sign up to play. However, if you’re an oldtimer whos handle I’m going to recognize and you’ve let your subscription lapse while waiting for free posting, you’re in. If I’ve never heard of you - well, sorry, sign up and you can play next year.
Hopefully that answers some questions - here’s a link to some old threads:
There are more if you’re keen to look for them.