Literary White Elephant Gift Ideas

Friday, December 13th

These are the texts read this semester:

● Please Stop Laughing at Me

● “The Birds” and other short stories by Daphne Du Maurier
● ​Night
● The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Symbols, themes, and skills from the texts:

Survival, resilience, the importance of family,weather, nature, birds, survival, faith, journey,
resilience, hope, empathy, invisibility, suspense, memoirs, memory, remembrance, WIII, The
Holocaust

Potential ideas for a literary white elephant gift.

● A book by the author of one of the texts we read.

● An ornament relating to one of the texts.
● Make a piece of art related to something from one of the books.
● Choose a favorite quote from one of the books and nicely frame it in a picture frame.
● Bring food that relates to a theme or topic from the semester.
● CD or DVD of a film or album that connects to the semester.
● Bring an object from one of the texts as tangible symbol.
● Bring something that relates to a theme from one of the books.
● Bring something that a character from one of the texts might like to give or receive
● Bring something that relates to the unit questions-what does it take to survive? What do
you stand for? .
● Something related to scenery in one of the texts.
● A book about the time period of one of the texts.
 English II: Friday December 13
Literary White Elephant

What is a white elephant gift exchange?

A White Elephant Gift Exchange is a popular Christmas event where people try to walk
away with the best present.

As a culminating activity for the semester, the class will partake in a Literary
White Elephant. Students are to choose any character, theme, symbol, or idea
from the semester and bring a gift/item that represents idea, characters, content
from the semester.

1. Students are to take on the persona of their chosen character/idea and write a
holiday card explaining their gift.( ​something symbolic from the semester).

2. On the day of the literary white elephant, students are to bring in the wrapped gift
from their chosen character with an attached greeting card.

3. Students will randomly choose numbers for the order to choose gifts.

4. Players sit in a circle or line where they can see the gift pile.

5. The first player selects a gift from the pile and opens it. ​Students are to read
aloud the letter from said character before opening the gift.

6. The following players can choose to either pick an unwrapped gift from the pool
or steal a previous player’s gift. Anyone who gets their gift stolen in this way can
do the same – choose a new gift or steal from someone else.

7. Students are to discuss the gift as it relates to the semester curriculum.

8. Students may “steal” an opened gift once INSTEAD of choosing an unwrapped

gift. ​Three Swaps and ​the Gift​ is Out. If a present gets stolen three times, it’s out
of the game and the person who holds it gets to walk away with it.