The white elephant in the room
Dec. 7th, 2025 05:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
christopher575For many years now, I speak out against compulsory gift giving a lot when Christmas rolls around. It just sickens me to see what's supposed to be a happy time of year turn miserable for so many people because they feel obligated to buy a bunch of things nobody needs and they often go into debt doing it. Personally, I've called "gift truce" with everyone except Garrett and his mom.
I wasn't originally planning to participate in my YMCA work party white elephant gift exchange last night, but when I was shopping for food to bring in the morning, something jumped out at me. Near the registers I found a great big Hickory Farms display! When I was a kid, Hickory Farms was a shopping mall staple.
A lot of malls in the US have closed down and, while some are still busy, many that remain are dying or being redeveloped. I was about to say there probably aren't any Hickory Farms stores like you see in the commercial above left, but I just searched and discovered there are a few in the area! I was unlikely to ever stumble upon one, so it was cool that I found their stuff at WinCo. Good food is an easy exception to my disdain for gifts, especially in a situation like a white elephant where there's a good chance it'll end up with someone who really wants it.
And boy did it ever last night. The woman who opened it practically shrieked while laughing about it. Turns out she got summer sausage the last two years in a row AND she's from Ohio and didn't know until I told her that Hickory Farms was a nationwide business. Super funny.
I messed up my own white elephant experience in a big way. The hope when you draw numbers is that you'll get the highest one you can so you have the best chance of stealing the gift you want most. I went up to the tree and grabbed one as number 5, but someone else said she had number 5. I misread my slip and was actually 15 out of 16, so I could have had the second to last draw. Nobody wanted to steal my peppermint tea, silly mug, and weird socks. Garrett took the tea and I left the other stuff in the bag for now.
I wasn't originally planning to participate in my YMCA work party white elephant gift exchange last night, but when I was shopping for food to bring in the morning, something jumped out at me. Near the registers I found a great big Hickory Farms display! When I was a kid, Hickory Farms was a shopping mall staple.
A lot of malls in the US have closed down and, while some are still busy, many that remain are dying or being redeveloped. I was about to say there probably aren't any Hickory Farms stores like you see in the commercial above left, but I just searched and discovered there are a few in the area! I was unlikely to ever stumble upon one, so it was cool that I found their stuff at WinCo. Good food is an easy exception to my disdain for gifts, especially in a situation like a white elephant where there's a good chance it'll end up with someone who really wants it.
And boy did it ever last night. The woman who opened it practically shrieked while laughing about it. Turns out she got summer sausage the last two years in a row AND she's from Ohio and didn't know until I told her that Hickory Farms was a nationwide business. Super funny.
I messed up my own white elephant experience in a big way. The hope when you draw numbers is that you'll get the highest one you can so you have the best chance of stealing the gift you want most. I went up to the tree and grabbed one as number 5, but someone else said she had number 5. I misread my slip and was actually 15 out of 16, so I could have had the second to last draw. Nobody wanted to steal my peppermint tea, silly mug, and weird socks. Garrett took the tea and I left the other stuff in the bag for now.
