Every year, as the second part of December approaches, we start hearing about people’s joy and sadness coming from their participation in various gift exchanges. Let’s be honest, disappointments seem more common, don’t they? Whether caused by malicious intent or simple human error, it doesn’t change the fact of how frequent they are.

Today’s story is somewhat similar to those, but at the same time a tad different. In it, a DnD enthusiast joined his wife’s workplace white elephant gift exchange, where he set his sights on a hand-crafted dragon. A colleague’s child had the same idea, but since both of them couldn’t have it, one of them had to become a Grinch.

More info: Reddit

Sometimes you have to live with the fact that your Christmas gift isn’t what you wish for

Image credits: Cansu Hangül / Pexels (not the actual photo)

A couple participated in the wife’s office white elephant, where her husband set his sights on a hand-crafted dragon

Image credits: anonymous / Reddit (not the actual photo)

A colleague’s kid also liked the dragon and stole it from someone else, but soon after, the man stole it from her

Image credits: Imagine Entertainment / Universal Pictures (not the actual photo)

Then, when after the game, the man refused to trade the dragon back to the girl, his wife found her crying in the bathroom

Image credits: lauradecker1

So, he caved and told her dad he’d trade, but the dad said that he shouldn’t, as it was a good lesson for the girl that sometimes in life, you don’t get what you want

During Christmas time, many workplaces host Christmas parties of some kind. The OP’s office isn’t an exception. This workplace decided to do a White Elephant gift exchange. Basically, in this game, each person brings a present to a common pool, and then everyone draws gifts from it or steals them from each other. In this office, they were exchanging light-hearted and silly gifts.

One of the coworkers decided to bring her 10-year-old daughter to this party, even though the common consensus was that the coworkers wouldn’t be doing that. So, the girl was the only one of her age at the party. Nonetheless, she was still included in the gift exchange.

During the game, the original poster’s husband got his eyes on a small hand-carved and painted wooden dragon. Apparently, he plays Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy tabletop role-playing game with, as the name suggests, dragons. Plus, this man loves dragons in general, so the gift was right up his alley. 

That’s why both he and the OP, his wife, decided that they would steal it once they got a chance.

Turns out they weren’t the only ones who had their eyes on the dragon. The girl did too. This sent the couple into a spiral of questioning whether it was alright to steal the gift from the girl if the opportunity came up.

Image credits: maryanaserdynska / Freepik (not the actual photo)

And it did. The man’s gift was stolen and he had a chance to either pick a new one or steal it. He decided to steal the desired dragon. At the end of the game, the girl, who was disappointed to lose the dragon, ended up with a remote-controlled Harry Potter wand. With the most popular remote HP wand, you can operate electronic devices, so if the gift was anything like that, it was pretty cool. 

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Still, after the exchange, the kid asked the OP’s husband to exchange gifts, but since he loved the dragon, he kindly refused to do so. Sadly, a tad later, the woman found the girl crying in the bathroom.

Naturally, this made the couple feel like Grinches and they went to the 10-year-old’s father and offered to trade gifts if not getting the dragon upset the girl so much. Yet, her dad refused to accept and said that it would be a great lesson for his daughter that sometimes you don’t get what you wish for. 

Well, this kind of lesson is one of the hardest a kid has to learn throughout their lives. At the same time, it’s one of the most important, as it builds character and prepares them for life, which, as you know, sometimes can be unfair. A few people online applauded this father for turning the kid’s loss of a gift into a valuable lesson.

So, the man ended up with the dragon he wanted so much, but now it’s a little tainted by guilt, so his wife came to Reddit to ask what other netizens think about this whole situation – were they the jerks to handle the situation the way they did or not? 

The general consensus was that they weren’t. After all, stealing the dragon was simply by the rules, which the 10-year-old did herself to get it. While she might be a bit heartbroken about getting a different item, she’ll live. It’s not like she left empty-handed – she got the aforementioned remote wand and an important life lesson. 

Do you think the OP and her husband acted like a couple of Grinches? Would you have approached the situation differently?

Quite a few folks online agreed with the dad and reassured the man that he wasn’t a jerk for playing by the rules

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