You dropped hints, posted on your Facebook wall and even flat out told your relatives exactly what you wanted for your holiday gift, but sadly, you still ended up getting a Snuggie. But wait! Before you throw in the (in this case, fleecy) white towel, did you know that you can still swap, sew, sell or even steal your way to the holiday gift you really wanted? Read on to see our 5 tips on what you can do to take your happiness into your own hands – and get that Snuggie to someone who actually wants it!
SEW IT
Sometimes all it takes is a few stitches to turn something you hate into something you would actually buy yourself. For example, you may find a Snuggie silly but with this easy DIY, you could have a totally wearable new poncho. Bored with the blasé gloves Aunt Mabel gave you? Turn them into useful touchscreen compatible gloves to keep for yourself or turn them around on Etsy to make enough money to buy what you really wanted!
Architecture and Design Editor Diane Pham for a brief happy moment before she has her gift stolen for right under her nose.
STEAL IT
While we at Inhabitat don’t endorse thievery, we think that in certain controlled cases, stealing can actually be quite fun. Case in point: White Elephant (a.k.a. Yankee Swap, Black Santa, Chinese Gift Exchange, Dirty Santa, Thieving Secret Santa, Parcel Pass, Christmas Swamp Thing and Pollyanna), a game where the object is to bring an unwanted holiday present and steal your way to one you actually like. The rules are quite simple (see the most basic form below), and the thrill of playing is actually even more of a present than the actual gifts themselves.
How to Play White Elephant:
Each person brings one wrapped gift. Then everyone draws numbers or straws to determine the order in which they will choose gifts. The very first person opens a wrapped gift and their turn ends. Then the second person can choose either to open a wrapped gift or “steal” a previously opened gift. If a person has his/her gift stolen, he/she can also decide whether to open a wrapped gift or steal an unwrapped one, but once a wrapped gift is opened, the turn ends. The game ends when all of the gifts have been unwrapped.
