News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism. Special Projects Highline. HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy. Part of HuffPost Entertainment. All rights reserved. Depending on where you grew up, you may call the popular gift exchange game Yankee Swap, White Elephant or Dirty Santa. An advertisement featuring P. Barnum's white elephant, which he brought from Siam in Bettmann via Getty Images.
Many theories exist as to the origins of popular holiday gift swap games. Suggest a correction. What's Hot. Popular theory says the term came from a story about an evil genius King of Siam , who had an almost comical way of exacting revenge on any courtier who dared displease him—he would present them with the gift of a rare albino elephant. Wow, great gift right? Not so much. Caring for one of those elephants was a huge and costly pain in the backside, and would likely lead them to financial ruin.
Nonetheless, the term persists in popular culture. How It Works: It's very similar to the White Elephant swap, and the terms are often used interchangeably. Based on is purported origin, the gifts one brings to a Yankee Swap should be more "useful" than those one would bring to a White Elephant swap. The Origin: The name of this gift swap is most often associated with the prisoner swaps that took place during the Civil War.
The term is more popular in, though not exclusive to, New England. Once everyone has opened their gifts, they usually must guess who their Secret Santa was. The Origin: This gift swap is considered one of the most popular gift exchanges in the western world. Which could be why Yankee Swap is generally played in the Northeast — including our favorite Northeasterners: The good folks from Dunder Mifflin Scranton.
The other use was during the Civil War when Northern and Southern generals would exchange prisoners based on rank. They developed a type of currency for what each soldier was worth based on rank privates could be swapped for privates, but majors could be swapped for multiple privates and a captain, for example.
This version is usually played in southern areas of the country. White Elephant is more about bringing gifts that are disappointing or burdensome and having friends get stuck with them.
Get rid of bric-a-brac in your house and laugh when your cousin gets stuck with it. Yankee Swap tends to focus on useful gifts. The more you steal and scheme, the more fun it is. I mean, Papa sure did enjoy that emergency roadside kit he got last year.
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