One of the highlights of a normal Christmas season can be the gift exchange, usually with staff and colleagues at work or at an extended family gathering. The essence of a gift exchange is to come with one wrapped gift and leave with a different gift, unwrapped. And hopefully the one you take home is a whole lot nicer than the cheap one you brought.
And I do mean "cheap" as opposed to merely "inexpensive."
Now, after all these years, I just learned that there are at least two types of gift exchanges: white elephant and Chinese. Apparently they are similar but not identical. It may be something that you and yours will want to explore some night when the microwave is broken down and your cable has been cut off. There is a really neat innovation called "google" that might help you research it.
One of my passing fears is that I have been assuming all along that I was playing "Chinese" gift exchange, when in fact it was the "white elephant" version. The other thing I have been assuming is that not only was just one type, but that there actually may be many others. Again, when there you have nothing else to do, you may want to check that out.
This is probably old hat to many of you, but is there a place for trickery in a gift exchange? I would think so. While there isn't a lot of wiggle-room for deception, I do have two (tongue-in-cheek) ideas:
1. Put your gift in a big container, making it look bigger than it really is. While your name should not be on the package (as in a real Christmas gift), people will likely see the big gift that you brought and think more highly (though less accurately) of you.
Mind you, we do that a lot already in life, don't we? We always try to stand taller in order to impress people. Or we may inflate our muscles—well, not really, of course (unless you have balloons under your muscle shirt). We just need people to know we're tough and feisty.
But that can very quickly backfire, when they discover that we're actually Superwuss, not Superman/woman.
Another deception is to make us look bigger when it comes to our intelligence, houses, and wardrobes. So a gift exchange done that way, then, really isn't much different from everyday life.
2. Another way to "cheat" is to use really expensive wrapping paper. After all, we wouldn't think of using expensive wrapping paper to wrap a cheap gift, would we? So, then, pricey paper gives the impression of a pricey gift.
You see, if we think of the life picture here, expensive wrapping paper is akin to fancy clothes, or dazzling hairdo (whatever "hair" is), or tantalizing aftershave/perfume. It portrays something that is out of the ordinary and may give off the wrong impression—wrong, as inaccurate.
These two acts of deception are really a metaphor for life, and that's why having a gift exchange is so uncomfortable, yet realistic at the same time. A gift exchange, Japanese or Pink Panther, captures the essence of what it means to be human in a secular world.
I bet you never thought such a fun event could be so complicated. Well, it actually isn't.
I'm just having some fun with your head. And no, I am not serious about intentionally misleading people in your gift-giving prowess.
I am stretching things a tad, I suppose, but in writing this I developed a more accurate comparison to life such a simple harmless tradition we engage in during the Christmas season. And I just can't think of any other pastime that can do it so well.
In the meantime, if you must, buy a small gift, place it in a big box, with fancy-schmancy wrapping paper. That should keep people in suspenders, er, suspense for a few minutes.
Happy gift exchanging!
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