The last day before winter break is often filled with parties and movies as the school gets ready to shut down for two weeks. One of the more popular festivities on Friday is a white elephant gift exchange. For English teacher Kacie Smith, the day’s exchange will be all about having a good time.

“When I taught in McKinney, we would have final exams and so we would have dead week right before,” English teacher Kacie Smith said. “Instead of just sitting there looking at each other, I decided that it would be more fun to do something fun so I came up with white elephant gift exchange.”

The students are allowed to bring whatever gift they want but there are a few rules such as the gift has to be $5 or less and has to be silly.

“They’ve really been funny as long as people participate the right way as far as bringing something that’s ridiculous because if they bring real presents then people get their feelings hurt because someone would wind up getting like chocolate or a gift card and then someone else would wind up getting like soap on a rope,” Smith said. “As long as it’s done the way that it’s supposed to, it’s really really fun and it’s probably my favorite things all year.”

The white elephant gift exchange is a nice change for students from regular school work.

“I think it’s going to be really fun,” sophomore Jennifer Hernandez said. “I think it’s a creative way to get the Christmas spirit and for the holidays and I feel like it’s a fun thing to do.”

Some students have done the white elephant gift exchange before, but others are new to it.

“In previous years I haven’t really done anything in my classes,” Hernandez said. “They didn’t tell us we’re going to do anything special so this is the first time I’m doing something like this. It’s a new way to interact with classmates, it’s a fun way too.”

Classes aren’t the ones doing a white elephant gift exchange, as teaches in the social studies department are having a white elephant gift exchange in C lunch.

“It’s fun, these aren’t serious, really nice, thoughtful gifts. These are kind of funny,” social studies department lead Jeff Crowe said. “It’s kind of a game how we can steal from each other, but they’re mostly gag gifts and fun gifts meant to make people smile and have a good time. So, it definitely does raise the morale in the department this time of year. We try to keep the limit at $10 so that people aren’t going out and spending a lot of money. It’s fun.”