White elephants might sound unusual, but they’re the apple of Arthur Doederlein’s eye.

Doederlein, director of undergraduate studies in communication, keeps a large collection of the gifts in his Watson Hall office. They’re his hobby.

“A white elephant gift is pretty much anything that would be useless to the person who gives it away but could be attractive or useful to another person,” Doederlein said. “The great part about it is that you never know what you’re going to get beforehand.”

Some of the treasures decorating his office are common & odd clocks, cassette tapes, a plastic carnation in a beer bottle, hot chocolate, a rubber plant, a plastic Christmas tree, bells, balls, bracelets, spiders, buttons, Easter egg toys, candles, flashlights and a mini football. But Doederlein values them just the same.

“A lot of people know about my collection and try to help me with it,” he said. “I started my collection at the very first white elephant party, where I received a knitted cloth with a baby’s head on it. So, after that, I decided to just start my collection.”

Plenty of the goods are out of the ordinary. Doederlein’s got plastic swords, California Raisins, a ’50s Coppertone water raft, a stuffed animal Y2K bug, a knitted wreath, a rooster business card holder, a musical Hawaiian dancer named Lulu, an orange elephant, a cow cheese holder, a “Best Teacher” apple, NIU apparel, Mardi Gras beads, a reindeer flask, origami, a magnifying ruler, a coffee cup with the handle on the inside, laughing/screaming/belching heads and a skeleton that dances to “Putting on the Ritz.”

“My most recent addition to my office was a talking and singing catfish from my secretary,” Doederlein said. “I think that that is my favorite white elephant gift right now, but everything is important to me for a variety of reasons.”

Another favorite is one of the first things he got — although he’s not sure if it’s a bird or a fish. It’s called a “curiosity.”

Then there’s Santa.

“I had to be in a wheelchair for a period of time because of my feet,” Doederlein said. “So, my children bought me a mechanical Santa Claus that lifts his feet and says ‘Oh, my feet.'”

Although his office is a little out of the ordinary, Doederlein said it’s nothing like that at home, and he keeps the years of gifts strictly in his small school room.

“I’m interested in the most ugliest and useless things people have,” he said.