20 White elephant & team party gift ideas that don't flop

Safe steals under the cap

A $25 cap is the most common one we've seen. These get stolen at $25.

1. A good insulated bottle. One brand-name bottle, not a 4-pack of the plastic kind. It's the item someone who already owns 3 will steal. Steals: yes.

2. A box of good chocolate. Single-origin, a dozen pieces. Whoever ends up with it opens it before the game is over, which makes the next steal easier. Steals: yes, and gets opened on the spot.

3. A real pair of cozy socks. Wool or a heavy knit, one size, no logo. The gift people are embarrassed to want ... yet take anyway. Steals: yes.

4. A candle from a real studio. One good one, in a scent that doesn't smell "holiday." Steals: yes, usually 2 or 3 times.

5. A coffee sampler from a named roaster. Three small bags, 3 regions, a card that says which is which. Works for the office and for the home address. Steals: yes.

Funny, and still useful

The laugh gets the first steal. Useful gets the second.

6. A desk plant in a ridiculous pot. A succulent in a ceramic dinosaur. A pothos in a pot shaped like a face. The plant is the gift; the pot is the reason it gets picked up. Steals: twice.

7. Hot sauce with a label that's a dare. Small-batch, a name that's a warning, heat level printed on the front. It gets passed around before it gets stolen. Steals: yes, loudly.

8. A puzzle or game the office keeps. A 500-piece puzzle, a deck-building game, a good set of dice. Whoever wins it brings it back to the break room, where it outlasts the exchange. Steals: yes, then it belongs to everyone, aka the gift that keeps on giving.

9. Novelty socks. The one novelty item that survives, because people wear socks. A pattern with a joke in it, not a joke with socks attached. Steals: yes.

10. A good mug with an inside joke on it. Good mug first — heavy, holds 14 ounces, no chip. The joke has to be one the whole room gets. Steals: only if the joke is good.

For the exchange on Zoom

Every gift is a package ... or a link. The steal still has to work.

11. A Choice eGift for each person. Everyone gets the same link with 5 or 6 options — coffee, lunch, a bookstore, a charity. The "steal" is the swap: when someone picks, the next person can take their pick instead, and the first person chooses again. Sendoso Choice handles the link; you handle the rules. Steals: on Zoom.

12. The same gift to everyone, opened on camera at once. No stealing, no ranking, no one left with the toilet mug. Use it when the team doesn't know each other well enough to steal from each other yet. Steals: nobody, and nobody's stuck with the worst one.

13. Numbered mystery boxes, shipped ahead. Each person gets a numbered box and instructions not to open it. On the call, boxes get opened in order, and stealing means trading numbers before the reveal. It's the closest thing to the real game that works across 4 cities. Steals: on Zoom, by number.

14. A charity eGift as the wildcard. One gift in the pile is a donation, and the recipient picks the cause. Stealing it means taking the cause away from someone, which is either very funny ... or not, depending on the room. Steals: once, by the person who cares most.

15. A virtual tasting as the party, not a gift in it. Kits ship ahead, a guide runs it on the call, and the exchange happens after. The tasting is the thing everyone shares; the exchange is the dessert. Steals: nobody. It's the room.

The other gifts at the party

Not in the exchange. Still at the party. None of these get stolen, and that's the design.

16. The door prize. One good thing, under $15, drawn at random. It gives the person who got the worst exchange gift a second chance. Steals: nobody. It's won.

17. The everyone-gets-one. A small send to the whole team, same day, same note. Nobody leaves with nothing, no matter how the exchange went. Steals: nobody. Everyone already has one.

18. The host thank-you. For whoever organized it, booked the room, ran the Zoom, and bought the pizza. They did the work; they get something nobody else gets. Steals: nobody. It's theirs.

19. The winner's prize. Trivia, ugly sweater, best wrapping job — whatever the game was, the winner gets something real, not a certificate. Steals: nobody. It was earned.

20. The next-morning send. An eGift the day after, with the group photo attached and one line about the best steal. It's the follow-up to the party, and it reaches the people who had to leave early. Steals: nobody. It's the follow-up.

The mug on the table

Somebody brought the toilet mug because it was funny. It was. Bathroom humor is — and will always be — funny. It was also a gift for exactly one person ... the one who thought of it, and that person wasn't in the room.

A (good) white elephant gift isn't a gift to a person. It's a gift to the room. Pick the thing 2 people will fight over, and the game takes care of the rest.

The hard part isn't the picking. It's the 25 boxes to 25 addresses, or the 25 links that all have to work on the same call. That's the part Sendoso does — one order, every address, or the whole exchange on eGifts.

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