A Special Christmas Oasis

This Wednesday, for our last Oasis of the year, we will be having a special Christmas Oasis.

We will enjoy some delicious Christmas cookies, hot chocolate, and various "Christmas snacks" by the fireplace while the sounds of some of your favorite Christmas music fill the air. I'll have a Christmas devotional to share, and we'll continue one of CCVT's most beloved traditions -- the always entertaining, often hilarious, "White Elephant" gift exchange.

What's a White Elephant Gift Exchange? Well, I have no idea where the name comes from, but it's a really fun, yet inexpensive, way to celebrate Christmas by exchanging gifts.

Here are your instructions: Bring a gift worth only about 2 or 3 dollars. This keeps things affordable. It doesn't even have to be brand new, as long as it is in good condition and is something that someone might enjoy and is worth about $2-3. You might be surprised how cool some gifts can be even while they are that inexpensive. It just takes a little creativity and imagination.

Students in past years have found some great gifts combing the isles of dollar stores, and thrift shops like Good Will, or the YMCA thrift shop on North Main Street. Sometimes the shopping part of this game turns out to be almost as much fun as the game itself. (Picture yourself in the toy department of the dollar store reliving your childhood. This time there's no parent telling you you can't buy it.)

Besides toys, some other popular ideas from years past are: cool Christmas ornaments, some nifty gadget, or yummy food, like maybe some homemade cookies, or just some candy, or Little Debbies or something like that. Use your imagination. What would you enjoy getting?

Now that you have your gift, there is one more very important thing you need to do with it. You need to wrap it, and you need to wrap it well enough that nobody can tell what it is. This is part of what makes the game fun. We're all going to put our gifts in a big pile and take turns picking a present out of the pile. There is more to it than that, but this mystery is part of what makes the game fun, like when you were a kid and couldn't wait to open your presents under the Christmas tree and kept shaking them and tapping them trying to figure out what they might be. So wrap it well enough that it's not obvious what it is.

If you don't have wrapping paper, use newspaper or paper grocery bags or something. It doesn't have to be pretty, just a mystery. Besides, I've seen gifts wrapped in these that ended up looking surprisingly good.

We'll explain the rest of the rules on Wednesday. Suffice it to say, we always have a lot of laughs with this game.

After the gift exchange, we'll probably play some other games, enjoy some Christmas snacks, and maybe watch some Christmas movies for all who want to watch!

Hope you can join us. 7:30pm, Wednesday, at the campus house, as usual.

The next day is Reading Day so you've got no homework! Yippee! So come blow off some steam before you start cramming for exams. And bring a friend with you!

Steve and the student leaders of CCVT