The Gift of Giving.

S0oO0o
there's been some controversy over what the different ways of gifting over the holidays are 'called'. I'm here to clarify.
For all you people not from the Philadelphia area aka fuckin weirdos.

1.)

So, first off you have your basic gift giving on Christmas. 'Presents under the tree' we'll call this, as there really is no official name. This usually includes immediate family and each gift has the name of the giver as well as the receiver.

2.) 'Secret Santa'

"The basic concept of the Secret Santa game is simple. All of the participants’ names are placed into a hat, box, etc. and mixed up. Each person then chooses one name from the box, but doesn't tell anyone which name was picked. He/she is now responsible for buying a gift for the person selected."
This is from SecretSanta.com
So that's clarified.






3.) 'Yankee Swap'

"In Yankee Swap each participant brings a wrapped, unmarked gift and places it in a designated area. Guests are given numbers as they arrive, or their names are randomly drawn, and they select and unwrap gifts from the pile in that order — with a twist. The person who receives the number 1 will pick a gift (that is not their own) from the pile and open it for all to see (or models it, reads it, or demos it). During the selection of a wrapped gift, the participant may visually inspect the gifts, pick them up and/or gently shake them. The person who receives number 2 then chooses a gift and opens it, and then must decide whether to keep it or swap it for the first player’s gift. Each person in order then gets to select a present, open it and decide whether to keep it or swap it for any other gift someone has already opened. Opening of gifts and swapping takes place until all the presents have been chosen. Finally, the person who picked first gets to choose from all the gifts or keep what he/she has already received. In the end, the gift you are holding is the gift you take home."
Again this is from SecretSanta.com
SOO
Basically the Yankee Swap is MY version of a pollyanna.

3.) 'White Elephant'

Ok so the White Elephant game is very similar to the Yankee Swap. Except there is more emphasis on the steal. Everyone brings a wrapped gift. All the gifts get put into a pile. Names are drawn. The first person inspects all of the gifts and then chooses one. After the first person the second person can either steal or choose a new gift to unwrap. This continues until everyone has a gift. If throughout the game your gift is stolen you get to choose a new gift.

Another difference in this swap, is the gifts themselves. The presents brought in this game are suppose to be gag gifts, or items you have lying around that you, yourself, have no use for.

The White Elephant, is also sometimes referred to as a Chinese gift exchange.

4.) 'Pollyanna...'
Soo here is where the controversy lies. In the dictionary the word pollyanna means:
An excessively cheerful or optimistic person.
...
Not in Philadelphia. Here we do a gift exchange (similar to the Yankee Swap) that we call a Pollyanna. 
See I'm not crazy. 

In Philly and the surrounding areas we make up our own words for gift exchanges. Like Pollyanna and Chinese Pollyanna.
WHATEVER. Sucks to sucks.
We're still cooler and use a better vocabulary then the rest of you.
There is a big difference between the Yankee Swap and the Pollyanna, basically a Pollyanna's more fun. SO HA!

Any I forgot? Let's hope not.