The story of how a B.C. man found his birth mother
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
Instead of scrambling to check off every family member, neighbour and co-worker off your Christmas shopping list, some people are opting for a more unusual approach to gift giving that ensures no one goes home empty handed.
"White elephant," also known as "Dirty Santa" or "Yankee Swap," is the gift-exchange game that brings added suspense to a holiday party where guests don't know what the gift is until the last minute, who they got a gift from and how long they have with the gift.
In order to play, all participants will be asked to bring a gift to their holiday gathering. Then everyone will need to draw numbers to determine the order of people choosing their gift. Once the first person chooses from the gift pile and opens the present in front of everyone, the following players will have the option to choose a new wrapped gift from the pile or steal a present from a previous person. If a gift is stolen, the person who it was stolen from can choose a new gift or steal from someone else. A present can only be stolen once per turn, and each turn ends after three steals or a person chooses a wrapped gift.
"It's really not about what the gift is. I think it's all about fun, it's about coming together, it's about poking fun at each other and surprising one another, which is the best part," TV host and lifestyle expert Brigitte Truong told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Truong says this game can be played in any type of holiday gathering, whether it's with family, friends, co-workers; as long as it's a group larger than four people to extend the game for as long as possible.
"This is a great way to bond again and to break the ice or to meet new family members," Truong said. "The bigger the crowd the better but this is perfect for any type of reunion."
Real white elephants are pale coloured Asian elephants that are considered sacred in countries like India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, according to the Baanchang Elephant Park's website. But while the animal is highly revered, the term “white elephant” has come to mean something that is considered more trouble than it’s worth.
To avoid any similar let downs throughout the gift exchange, Truong recommends setting up rules beforehand.
"If we create a theme or a budget that everyone agrees upon, it eliminates any disappointment or jealousy," she said.
Truong says by creating a budget that every participant deems fair will avoid any awkward tension of someone getting a present of higher value or have everyone fighting over that one luxury gift.
As for the types of gifts to buy, Truong recommends generalized gifts that the majority of people would want or can use. Additionally, thrifting gifts can also help with having to worry about the costs of the gift as many Canadians look for more affordable ways to celebrate the holidays this year.
"Everyone's kind of watching their spending and understandably so. So, gifts like this, when you kind of set parameters in place and everyone agrees upon them, there's no confusion or competitions, it's more of a way to show up for each other and to have a good time," she said.
The rules of the game have been corrected to say players can choose to steal or pick a wrapped gift, not an unwrapped gift.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
The Israel-Hamas war has led to a spike in 'violent rhetoric' from 'extremist actors' that could prompt some in Canada to turn to violence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warns.
Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine and Moscow warned that tensions with the West are deepening.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' and went down with the ship as the captain in 'Titanic,' has died.
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
The Israeli army on Monday ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza's southern city of Rafah to start evacuating from the area, signalling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.