I heard this story recently on where the term 'White Elephant' comes from in reference to gift giving.
I guess that back in the old days, somewhere in the middle east or India or someplace like that, white elephants used to be very rare and very prized. The only problem was, they were the most expensive animal ever to take care of. I guess they were just finniky eaters or something.
Anyway, when a person would fall out of favor with a king or emperor or whoever was in charge, they would often recieve a white elephant as a gift. This was done on the part of the king in the hopes that the elephant would send the reciever into financial ruin.
So, nowadays, when we give gifts to people that are truly inane or useless, we use the term white elephant to describe them.
As an extra note, I recieved the two items that make up the title as part of a gift exchange I was involved in with the Art Museum last night.