If you pride yourself on being a thoughtful gift giver, the white elephant gift exchange is a unique challenge. But if you’ve got a bit of a competitive streak? The best gift of all is the satisfaction of ‘winning’ by putting the most coveted, stealable gift under the tree. Because you can’t tailor the gift to the recipient, you need to find something with some degree of universal appeal while staying within a reasonable budget.
It can be tempting to go the gag gift route, but humour is subjective, and there’s only so much novelty junk a person can hold onto. The gifts that get stolen round after round are the ones that people can imagine fitting into their day-to-day, whether it’s a piece of chic decor, a surprisingly useful gadget or a life upgrade they wouldn’t have gotten around to picking up for themselves. Whether your group’s limit is $15 or $40, here are some picks to get you thinking about what will get your group excited to get their hands on.