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Would you pick this over something else?
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Last edited on 20 December 2007.
While not necessarily limited to the Christmas holiday, White Elephant Gift Exchanges are popular at this time of year for clubs, associations, small groups, churches and offices around the United States. It is often a more affordable (and, possibly, fun) alternative to buying presents for everyone in the group. But what is a White Elephant Gift Exchange?
The history
The story - almost certainly apocryphal - goes like this: in pre-colonial India, the rajahs would give gifts to their vassals as tokens of their esteem. Chief among these was the elephant. The elephant was both vehicle and beast of burden, a creature you could both ride to war and use to haul large weights, take goods to market, perform demolition, and the like. Essentially, the elephant was an extremely valuable creature. But a white elephant was considered sacred, and could not be put to work. So a rajah would be bestowing a great honor to a vassal by giving him a white elephant, while at the same time giving the vassal a rather huge burden. White elephants had to be kept, tended, groomed, fed, and exercised, all without getting the benefit of...
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