Archive for November, 2009

McMinnville — The social networks can now be used for friendly larceny, with the launch of an online white elephant gift exchange party called AlbinoPhant.

This Facebook application allows family and friends the opportunity to party together in a virtual gift exchange, just like they would if gathered together in one location. They exchange real gifts, share friendly banter and enjoy the holiday spirit, through the online party.

Gift exchange parties are social events that focus on sharing gifts with family and friends and then “stealing” gifts from one another in an organized party game

AlbinoPhant brings people together to participate in the party on a common game-play page, where wrapped gifts are displayed, opened, stolen and where comments are shared. This application facilitates gift giving among those who would be sharing gifts with each other anyway. AlbinoPhant just provides a fun, conversational and social way to pass out the gifts.

Traditional white elephant parties build lively conversation and great stories around the gifts as they are opened. With the enhanced sharing tools on the web, the online version allows more expressive conversation than ever before. The AlbinoPhant comment stream allows party participants the opportunity to post YouTube videos and images to assist in making the exchange party a real fun game. There are even opportunities to share some of the conversation outside of the party in other social networks, allowing the party atmosphere to spill over in other corners of the web.

The online white elephant party uses a combination of eCommerce and social networking tools to build the party system. AlbinoPhant is a gift purchasing and sharing facilitator, displaying hundreds of Amazon items in level pricing markets for convenient shopping. The host and each party participant use these single pricing markets ($15 to $50) to select gifts for the party. This leveling feature is used to keep the gift spending closer to equal among all of the players, reducing the “big-spender/cheap-skate” issues.

When all of the gifts are virtually wrapped, opened, discussed, stolen and re-stolen, the game ends. The application’s management system then sorts out who gets which real gift and sees that each present is delivered to the correct address.

The online gift exchange is a labor of love by the Christensen family, who are new to Facebook application development. The Christensen’s have tested the online gift swap party with their scattered family members for several years. They hired a team of Facebook developers and other web professionals to take their simple family party exchange and turn it into a fully operational Facebook application. Now they are eager to share this fun exchange, AlbinoPhant, with others.

This holiday season the networks will play host to thousands of gift thieves and promote friendly banter to liven up holiday parties. What is more social than a lively party?

———————————————————-

PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Some good ideas and great causes come from a loss or tragedy. I learned of a wonderful way to use the gift exchange concept to share with children this season.

Julia Chambers, crochet artisan and the author of several blogs, including “The difference between a duck”, shared a stocking stuffer gift exchange that has its genesis in a personal loss. Some family friends were tragically killed in an accident near Christmas.

She and her daughter decided to gather small gifts for children and wrap them for a gift swap, as a way of healing the wounds of the community. They started a stocking stuffer swap for kids in their area.

“The gifts were meant to carry on the spirit of gratitude to our community, both givers and receivers.  To bless friends and neighbors…” Julia Chambers

All ages appreciate a great party, and a White Elephant / Yankee Swap party is a great way to be social in a group. I would caution that small children may have trouble grasping the “stealing” component of the white elephant style of gift exchange, so an alternative might be better.

I would recommend for the child-version, that you stick to just a simple exchange of wrapped gifts.  Make sure that you mark boy or girl gifts and share them appropriately. This is the style that Julia and her daughter have chosen and it seems to be working well for them.

Every challenge in life can be turned into an opportunity, with a little creativity and some care. The stocking stuffer exchange sprung from a challenge, but with thought and charity it shows others what it means to truly care.

Have a great holiday season of sharing.

Thanks to Turn Back to God for image

———————————————————-

Princess Phant
Daughter of the King of Burma
Caretaker of the AlbinoPhant Parties

An elephant who lost his map!

Let’s not let Elephant Jokes be lost… SAVE

———————————————————-

PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Ok, I am the first to admit that some of the gifts that are shared in a white elephant/Yankee Swap can be pretty useless…

A middle aged guy will never need a My Little Pony saddle collection. But, that is what he takes home after his 18 piece tool pouch was stolen by cousin John. (He’s not bitter!)

Gift sharing and stealing are what make the gift exchange party such a great social event. You never know how it all will turn out, so you could leave with a keepsake or you could just keep wishing until next year…

Some gifts are just begging to be re-gifted…

Jennifer, the ThriftyMommy blogger suggested a great idea for that stable collection sitting in a box in the garage… Have a re-gifting party after the holidays. She writes: “Plan your party for mid-January so everyone can relax a little after the holidays before attending yet another seasonal party” She then suggests that this gift exchange could be handled like a white elephant gift exchange or Yankee Swap, or even a open gift barter party.

We join in white elephant parties mainly for  socializing during the holidays, so the gifts are just a small part of the great experience.  So, why not bring out those unneeded gifts and do it all over again in a re-gift Yankee Swap?  This  and other re-gifting suggestions are included in a book on saving money called, Penny Saving Household Helper.

As a sponsor of online white elephant parties, AlbinoPhant  suggests that you should do the right thing and pass along an unneeded gift to someone who will find it useful.  We further suggest that you make the re-gifting event into a party as well… What is more social than a party?

———————————————————-

Princess Phant
Daughter of the King of Burma
Caretaker of the AlbinoPhant Parties

Let the Gift Thievery Begin…

———————————————————-

PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

There is a really cool website called Worth1000… They run contests for artist who use special programs to enhance photography.

Recently they completed a project titled:

“How do you hide an elephant?”

The management of worth1000.com has  allowed AlbinoPhant the opportunity to display some of their fun work here in our Save an Elephant Joke section…

This image was created by Karrak.

———————————————————-

PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

People are very creative in the ways that they share gifts during the holidays.

I discovered what the book bloggers and the tea enthusiasts are doing, and it is very cool…
They use an online Secret Santa format to spread the joy of the season with their respective networks.

Bonnie at Red Lady Reading Room and Gwendolyn at Sea of Books both participate in a blog-based book swap.  This event was started a few years back by some passionate book readers who describe the party as: “a way for book bloggers to connect and celebrate the holiday spirit by sharing gifts. It’s done secret Santa style; all of the participants are randomly assigned a blogger to send a gift to, and these assignments are kept secret until the gift has been delivered. So no one knows who their gift is coming from”!

I did a little exploring around, and it seems that there is a large group of bloggers who share the gift of reading through this online party.

But, the book readers are not the only online community that swaps gifts using  internet tools…  The tea crowd is in on the action as well…

Theirs is also an online Secret Santa format and is titled The Tea Round Table’s Holiday Gift Swap.  It is organized by the World of Tea.  Those who are a part of the world of tea online forum can use an online registration to join and share tea with randomly selected “gift buddies”.

These connected groups of users  find many ways to share with each other. So during the holidays they use the web to facilitate their effort to share gifts.  We  see groups like book bloggers and tea drinkers also using the online white elephant party system to share as well.

In fact, it would add the extra dimension of a common game play page and extra banter into their events.  The online yankee swap/white elephant party would connect club members, societies, sororities and gift-sharers of many persuasions.  What is more social than a party?

We salute the Blogger Book Swap and the Tea Holiday Gift Swap for moving the party online!

What other groups do you know who could benefit from these ideas?

Thanks to HolidaySwap for the image…

———————————————————-

Princess Phant
Daughter of the King of Burma
Caretaker of the AlbinoPhant Parties

An elephant’s shadow!

∞

Don’t let these jokes go Dark… SAVE

———————————————————-

PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Our oldest daughter, Jade, tried an experiment in memory jogging with our family this week.  I believe that it illustrates how the flood-gate of great memories is opened with social web tools.

She had heard that one niece (Maren) had been exposed to some older Muppet Show episodes at her parents home in Utah.  Jade used a powerful search engine to find this:

(I will bet that many of you will now have this song in your head for several hours… I am singing it in my head as I type…)

Back to the story:

Jade then captured the link and copied into a Facebook message to her brother Barett (the father of Maren). From there, the rest of the family was exposed to a flood of memories. All of this because of a video and a friend network.

This posting, with its fun images and song, opened the gates and out gushed comments from several others in the family.

This flood of memories flowed out of the minds of any of those who watched a silly song about cats…  And the conversation grew!

This is a perfect illustration of why we made sure that the AlbinoPhant, online white elephant gift party had the capability of sharing videos and images among the players.  These tools of the web are so powerful in engaging a group, and breaking the dam that holds back great memories.

The fact that we were all exposed to a couple of minutes of Muppets at our individual homes is impressive. But the resulting conversation on Facebook , from all corners of the country, is a testament to the value of social applications on the internet.

Sooooo, The Cat came back, she didn’t want to roam…  DaDaDa..
…and with this feline film came a flood of memories and conversation.

These are the reasons that our family is sharing AlbinoPhant with you – So that your memories come back and have a fun place to roam!

———————————————————-

PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

We just discovered a great way to share the holidays with your customers, if you are a retailer….  Host a gift swap party at your store…

Caroline Rose-Kerr is the owner of Knit ‘n Knibble, a specialty yarn and knitting store in Tampa, Florida, and she does just that…

Every year she hosts a gift swap party before the holidays. At 6:30pm, after the store is closed, she opens up for a party. She uses her blog, store signs and customer lists to invite people to the event.

Her rules for the party are pretty simple:
Bring a wrapped fiber related gift valued at no more than $25 to the party (arrive before 6pm please).  Drop your wrapped package at the counter and pick up a number.  At 6:30, we’ll begin unwrapping…  The person with #1 opens a gift and sits waiting.  #2 then gets to choose between what has already been opened and the surprises in the wrapped packages.  And it goes on…

Because the Knit ‘n Knibble is a fiber retailer, Caroline requires that the white elephant party carries a fiber theme.

If you are an auto parts retailer, use a car theme. A pet supplier should suggest that all the gifts relate to pets. This could work for almost any store…  You could even add simple party favors that also relate to your theme, or give out door prizes.

You don’t need to enforce or suggest any “only bring gifts from my store” rule, but most of your satisfied customers will probably find something in your shop to share at the party..

You should provide decorations around the theme and some refreshments to add to the party atmosphere. You could probably be clever and use some of your display items in the decorations as suggestions for future purchases.

Treat this like a customer appreciation event and leave the hard-selling to another time.

Thanks to Caroline for a great idea to nibble upon.  Plan a Yankee Swap party at your store to knit closer customer relations and greater holiday fun!

———————————————————-

Princess Phant
Daughter of the King of Burma
Caretaker of the AlbinoPhant Parties