25 White elephant gift exchange ideas no one will be embarrassed by

The holiday season is prime time for funny gag gift exchanges. But finding the perfect gag gift for coworkers or others that aren’t inappropriate or embarrassing can be difficult. 

Whether you’re shopping for a funny coworker gift or your teen’s secret Santa gift exchange or a family member, I’ve got  the best gag gifts for you!

Many times, funny Christmas gifts tend to be more on the adult side of things. But, some of the best prank gifts are also incredibly funny holiday gifts! 

There’s a fine line between appropriate and inappropriate. We’ve found a slew of options for the ultimate gag gift that won’t embarrass anyone.

All of these best gifts are on Amazon, so that makes them even easier. Just place your order and a hilarious gift will show up on your doorstep!

Affiliate links are used in this post, if you make a qualifying purchase via my link, I receive a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you. It helps support my blog, so thank you for your support! Read my full disclosure here.

Animal themed hilarious gifts

Animals are always popular. Whether you’re a dog lover or cat lover, this wide array of silly gifts is animal themed and will give you a good reason to giggle!

This snail soap dispenser makes me smile. It is a bit on the gross side to think of using snail snot as a soap dispenser, but a good gag gift is allowed to make you gag, right?!

Animal lovers are sure to love this four-pack of animal socks to make your feet look like a dog’s, cat’s or tigers. Funny socks are a terrific and cheap coworker gift.

I’m pretty sure almost all of us have seen the screaming goat videos. Bring the screaming goat to a tabletop near you with this funny screaming goat figure as a humorous way to make hard work at the office a bit easier. 

It comes with a small paperback book to give you ideas of when you just might need to hear the goat scream. It’s a unique gift that will keep on giving to your team members long after the tinsel is put away!

This gift sounds gross, but it’s an ideal gift for juvenile humor and tasty, too. This reindeer barf is actually colorful, chewy strings of licorice. I’d give it a try!

As one of the most inexpensive gifts on the list, this squirrel hand puppet is a perfect way to make everyone laugh. It’s a small gift that packs a big smile!

More for decoration than use, this hanging cat washcloth is certainly the perfect gift for cat lovers. It comes in a variety of different cats.

These cat paw oven mitts are so adorable whoever you give them to will want to start baking right away! They’re a great gift for your best friend or co-worker who either loves to bake or loves cats or both!

Food themed coworker gifts

Along with animals, everyone loves food. This Christmas season, a variety of funny gifts make the best stocking stuffers or secret Santa gifts you can find. Let the good times roll!

Even if your recipient doesn’t like pickles, they’re sure to love this fun yodeling pickle! You really can’t play it without having a good laugh.

Everyone knows someone who loves pickles. But would they love pickle cotton candy as a Christmas present? It’s worth a try — and at least you’ll get credit for having the best sense of humor!

I mean, bacon is delicious. Embrace your inner bacon lover self — and big sense of humor — with this bacon flavored toothpaste.

If you love bacon, but toothpaste isn’t quite your thing, check out these bacon bandages! Bandages are usually a practical gift, but these are great choice for a gag gift exchange.

Who can resist cheesy jokes? I am a huge fan of cheesy, dad-type jokes. This stack of cheesy joke cards look like cheese slices and are a great addition to your favorite comedians repertoire.

Of all the gag gift ideas I came across in working on Christmas gift guides, this one intrigues me the most. I can’t help but to be curious how these Lester’s Fixins outrageous flavor sodas taste.

They come in a pack of six bottles that include soda flavors like ranch dressing, pumpkin pie and bacon.

I love chocolate. These “If you can read this, bring me chocolate” socks are one of those cheap gifts I relate to so much!

Toy and other novelty funny office gifts

The good news is that you’re never too old for toys! These toys and other novelty gifts can be great stress relievers and are sure to be a hit at your Christmas party.

Gag gift ideas that are annoying and funny work well. And this voice changer offers a great way to fit into both categories.

If you’re looking for a gag gift that might take a second before you get it (unless you are faster than I am), check out this can of dehydrated water. I love playful pranks that aren’t incredibly obvious about it. All you need to do to have water is add water! 

There’s not a more classic gag gift idea than the good ol’ snake in a can. What looks like a can of chips is really a snake ready to spring out when you pop the top. Classics are classics for a reason!

This desktop boxing set, complete with a rule book, is a perfect present for an office party. Help your co-worker take out frustration at their desk in a creative way!

The best thing about this talking Bob Ross bobblehead, which comes with a small book of some of his paintings, is it’s a gag gift that gives back. Next time you need a pep talk or soothing voice to calm you down, just press the button!

I’m not sure what to say about these, except that as a child of the 1980s, these mullet socks crack me up! What better way to show some retro spirit?

Bonus points for gifting this to someone over age 40 who’d really get a kick out of them!

I LOVE Mad Libs, oftentimes even more than playing a board game. And I actually have these very Mad Libs. You can’t go wrong combining The Golden Girls with Mad Libs! 

While these record coasters are effective and nostalgic, they’re also hilarious with song titles offering a variety of options like “Don’t spill the tea,” “Protect the surface” and “Rest on me.”

Who said that funny Christmas gift ideas for coworkers can’t be educational? Check out “The Book of Unusual Knowledge.” It’s full of random, interesting and fun facts that can make for great conversation starters!

This Christmas hat will keep your head warm and light up. Easily get into the holiday spirit with this festive headpiece!

Wrap it up

To wrap it all up, these funny gift bags are a great idea to wrap your gag gift. They have funny sayings like, “Remember it’s the thought that counts,” “Just act like you love it” and “Definitely not regifted as far as you know.” 

Looking for more ideas? Don’t miss these lists full of gift ideas!

30 White Elephant Gifts Under $20

Quirky, fun and unique Christmas gift ideas under $25

15 Christmas gift ideas under $25 for everyone on your list

Christmas gifts for men under $35

Christmas gift ideas for people who are hard to shop for

Thanksgiving tips to make your life easier

With Thanksgiving just a couple of weeks away, I figured this was a great time to share some Thanksgiving tips I’ve learned through the years to make life easier.

I have gone other places for Thanksgiving Day, and I’ve hosted. The past two years I was hostess, and I will be again this year.

To be honest, I really enjoy hosting Thanksgiving dinner. I get a chance to make recipes I don’t usually cook, my kids help out in the kitchen and I love food.

(Is food considered a love language? If so, it is 100% my love language!)

Of course the biggest Thanksgiving tip is one I have for pretty much everything: give yourself grace. Remember that you don’t have to have a picture perfect Thanksgiving dinner in order to have a good holiday.

It’s about spending time with those you love. In fact, I have had great Thanksgiving dinners of tacos, lunchmeat sandwiches and at restaurants. I’ve also had great Thanksgiving dinner filled with delicious homemade food.

Even though I do love food, I love my family more. Being together with them is the best part of the holiday. I don’t have to focus on it being picture perfect — and neither do you!

With that in mind, let’s get down to five great Thanksgiving tips to make your holiday even better!

1. Organize your menu and cooking plan.

Because it is a food-centric holiday, Thanksgiving meal planning is important. I am a HUGE list maker and love being organized.

In the past, I have used spreadsheets to organize myself for Thanksgiving meal planning, but this year I opted to make that spreadsheet a bit prettier and made a Thanksgiving menu and cooking planner for myself that I shared in the Families with Grace Etsy store.

It’s literally everything I do for menu and cooking planner. I start with the dinner planner and figure out what food we’re having, who is making it, when it should be made and what recipe we’re using to make it.

Some foods (like desserts, rolls and cheeseballs) can be made the day before, so I plan for those. Other things have to be made the day of. My dinner planner helps me sort that out.

Then I move on to ingredients. I like printed recipes, so I’ll print recipes out and look through the ingredients. I’ll make a list of what I have and what I need to buy using the shopping planner.

Finally, as Thanksgiving Day gets closer, I organize my cooking planner. I list each food, when to start prepping it, when to start cooking it and when it should be finished. I consider my oven space as I do so to make sure I’m not planning to overfill it.

These three pages are what my Thanksgiving dinner plan relies on!

2. Find the right recipes.

If you’re having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, deciding what recipes to use is important. It can be a good time to experiment somewhat, but for the most part you want to stick with reliable recipes.

And you want to go for easy things. I’m big on making things from scratch for my Thanksgiving, but sometimes it doesn’t make sense. Be flexible!

This year, for example, I thought about making pecan pie from scratch. I’ve made it before and it’s good, but I checked pecan prices and found that I could get a frozen pecan pie to thaw and eat for less. And that frozen pecan pie tastes just as good. So I’m saving myself time and money.

I’m also opting to make dressing as a doctored up version of boxed dressing mix this year. My brownies, which my family loves, also start with a box mix.

But other items I am making from scratch like yeast rolls, party potatoes, corn casserole and mac & cheese.

And, I have to add, make food that your family likes even if it isn’t traditional. My husband and son don’t like most traditional Thanksgiving food, so my menu also includes skillet queso with tortilla chips and a Parmesan ranch cheeseball.

3. Shop well.

While we think of Christmas as being the holiday with the most shopping, Thanksgiving can be right up there for food shopping. There are two tips for shopping well for Thanksgiving that I use: shop ahead and use grocery pick-up.

Part of the reason I menu plan early is so that I can start stocking up on what I need. Three weeks before Thanksgiving, for example, I purchased extra butter, flour and sugar knowing that I’d need those things. And they have a long shelf live.

Adding in a few ingredients here and there is good for my grocery budget and makes finding difficult ingredients easier. It reduces my stress to know I have what I need and am not scrambling around trying to find a store with canned pumpkin or frozen hashbrowns in stock.

The other thing I highly recommend is using grocery pick-up. I started using grocery pick-up pre-COVID and haven’t stopped. I love being able to shop from anywhere I am (usually at home) with my phone.

It gives me more time to think about what I need and consult my list. I can better compare prices and make the best choices.

And I end up not buying extra items that we don’t really need! That’s not to mention the time it saves me in actually going through the grocery store.

4. Have some easy family activities planned.

Having some easy family activities is a great Thanksgiving tip for keeping your family happy and hanging out together even longer. But, especially if you’re hosting, you certainly don’t need any more work to do, so go for easy activities everyone will enjoy.

These easy activities can be as simple as everyone saying what they’re thankful for or going around the dinner table and having everyone say something they are thankful for about each person.

Some of our favorites are watching the parade together on Thanksgiving evening, watching a movie together or playing games together. Thanksgiving specific games can be especially fun.

For those, I love and highly recommend printable games that you can print out a few days before Thanksgiving and pull out for some family entertainment. You can get them in bundles or separately.

You can find all sorts of Thanksgiving printables in the Families with Grace Esty store!

5. Keep it simple — and ask for help!

Find what you enjoy and do it, but keep things simple. I love cooking and baking more than decorating.

My Thanksgiving décor this year for dinner will include a tablecloth that I found on sale at Walmart for $1 and some paper plates and napkins for dessert that say something about being thankful.

I’m thinking I might pull out my nice dishes this year, but they’re dishwasher safe. Simple and effective.

If decorating is more your thing, do that and cut back on homemade dishes. Find shortcuts, make something nontraditional or buy your dinner and decorate away.

Finally, don’t hesitate to ask for help. This is one of the most important Thanksgiving tips! Your family wants to spend time with you.

And if we’re honest the version of you who isn’t overwhelmed and stressed is much more fun to be around. (I say this as a reminder to myself, by the way!)

Asking for help really isn’t a sign of weakness, I promise. Ask your children to help with food prep or cleaning. You can even ask those coming to dinner to bring along dishes as well.

If you are organizing a large Thanksgiving meal for lots of people, consider making it a potluck and using a sign-up sheet so that you don’t end up with everyone bringing mashed potatoes and nothing else!

19 Fun family activities for autumn with a free fall bucket list printable

As the saying goes, it’s fall, ya’ll! Autumn is my favorite season. I love the colors, weather and flavors.

I’m on board with figuring out fun family activities to do throughout the fall season. After a hot Midwestern summer, we’re usually ready to head outside and start enjoying the cooler weather that accompanies fall.

This year, I decided to be more intentional about fall family activities. While my family has made a list of summer activities for a few years, we haven’t done so for fall.

So I decided I’d put together a fall bucket list of family family activities this year. Some we have done regularly and some are new to us, which I think makes a perfect fall bucket list list!

Go for a leaf sight-seeing drive.

One of the best aspects of fall is the colors and the leaves. Taking time to drive around and enjoy them is a great fall activity for families, no matter the age of your kiddos. Play some favorite music and just take in the beauty of God’s creation.

Head to a pumpkin patch and get your own pumpkin.

Fall and pumpkins go hand-in-hand. Head to a nearby pumpkin patch and get your own pumpkin(s). Even though I’m far from being a plant person, I still like the pumpkin patch visits. It just feels autumnal.

Plus you get a bonus of supporting a local farmer, which is always a good thing!

Bake pumpkin bread together.

Pumpkin spice is one of the most popular flavors of fall. I enjoy my pumpkin spice most baked into a loaf of pumpkin bread. For me, pair a slice of pumpkin bread with a mug of hot chocolate, and I’m in heaven!

While my favorite pumpkin bread recipe is easy enough I’ve made it with 40 kindergarteners at once, if you just don’t want to bake, pick up some pumpkin bread at the grocery store or bakery.

Go on a hike or nature walk.

Fall weather may not cool down everywhere, but for many of us, fall means temperatures start going down. And that’s why hikes or nature walks make for great fall family activities.

You get to be outside, enjoying the crisp air and colorful leaves. Find somewhere nearby and make some memories!

Drink apple cider (warm or chilled).

Apple harvest happens in the fall, so it’s a great time to enjoy some apple cider either warm or chilled. My daughter and husband especially love apple cider. They both prefer it cold.

Find it at the grocery store or a nearby orchard.

Play board games for at least an hour.

There’s never a bad time for board games when it comes to family activities. My family loves games, but making the time to play them can get tricky.

Adding this to your fall bucket list will help remind you to have a game night or afternoon. If your kiddos are young, be sure to check out this list of games for non- and early readers!

Snuggle for a movie night with popcorn and snacks.

Honestly, fall weather can be downright unpleasant. On a chilly, wet evening, snuggle in as a family and enjoy movie night with popcorn and snacks.

Our family tends to love this most on Friday nights when everyone is tired from a week of school and work. Do whatever works for you!

Go to the farmers’ market.

Autumn is a great time to visit the farmers’ market. The weather is cooler, which encourages you to stroll through for longer. Lots of produce is still fresh and vendors often have other items like home-baked goodies that would pair well with things like game or movie nights!

You may be able to find some apple cider at your local farmers’ market as well.

Do a fall family photo shoot.

The colors in fall are perfect backdrops for family photos. I have paid for family photos in the fall, but these days I usually just take my kids outside and take a bunch of photos with my phone. They’re easy to edit and pick my favorites.

My kiddos enjoy getting to come up with poses and usually I end up with more natural photos.

Attend a fall festival.

Fall is a great time for festivals. Find one (or two or three!) near you, and attend.

Here in the Midwest we have things like covered bridge festivals and historic area festivals. Then there are harvest festivals.

Find something and go just for the fun of it. We recently went to a Native American festival and had a great time.

Pick apples at an orchard.

Apples are fresh and delicious in the fall. If you have an orchard near you that lets you pick your own apples, then go for it!

You can try different varieties and see what you and your family like best or stick with one trusty variety. Either way, it can be lots of fun as a family.

Navigate a corn maze.

This is sort of an essential part of the fall season for those of us who live where the corn pops up in rows (Tim McGraw songs, anyone?).

If you’ve got a corn maze near you, hit it up and navigate your way to through it. Usually one of our kids leads us. Especially when they were younger, we would then end up suggesting turns they might want to take.

Paint or carve pumpkins.

Pumpkins are everywhere in the fall, and it’s a great time to get creative with them. We carve and paint pumpkins in our family based on each persons’ preferences.

My daughter likes to paint pumpkins; my son likes to carve them. I’m the only member in our family who loves cleaning out pumpkins.

All in all, it works out and is one of the great fall family activities during autumn.

Play charades.

Charades is one of my kids’ favorite games and has been for years. You can use themed charades games, like Halloween charades, general charades games or just let everyone come up with their own ideas.

In my family, we play charades by having one person act out the clue and the rest of us guess. We don’t keep score and just have fun.

Donate to a local food bank.

Autumn is a great time to donate to local food banks who are preparing for the upcoming holiday season. We often contact the food bank and ask what sort of items they’re most in need of before buying things.

Our kids usually use their “giving” money from their allowance to contribute to food banks. They take on the challenge of finding groceries or toiletries for cheaper prices to get the most for their money.

Eat a caramel apple.

Whether you make them yourself or buy them at the store, caramel apples are the quintessential fall treat. I like mine covered with chopped peanuts, while my husband prefers them plain.

And if you just can’t get on board with caramel apples, buy some or make some caramel dip for apple slices or other favorite fruit.

Go on a hayride.

Hay rides can be a great family activity. We usually work in a hayride on a visit to the pumpkin patch.

Beware that some hayrides have a scare factor with people “surprising” you. Definitely know what you’re getting into with younger children along.

Roast smores

Bonfires and firepits are great for chilly autumn evenings. And they’re a great excuse to roast some marshmallows as well.

Add some chocolate (or Reese’s peanut butter cups!) and graham crackers. Smores aren’t just a summertime campfire treat!

Make a leaf collection

This is a great activity especially for younger kids who delight in all the various types of leaves they can find. But when it comes to autumn family activities, collecting leaves can also be fun.

See who can find the biggest leaf, the most colorful leaf and so on.

Download a FREE Fall Bucket List Printable or visit the Families with Grace Etsy store for an editable PDF version that includes a blank list for you to add your own Fall Bucket List ideas! Use the code FWGFAN to receive an extra 10% off everything in the store!