It's That Time of Year...For Re-Gifting

[K.C.]

So it's that time of year...Gift Giving.  I was talking with a friend the other day.  Her birthday was a few days ago and she was telling me about a 'Gift' she got from her new Mother-In-Law.  It was a really nice tote bag from an upscale store and had some small items inside: body sprays, lotions, lip gloss, ect.  Well, she told me that it wasn't really her style and since it still had the price tag on it, which wasn't cheep at all (BTW totally tacky to leave tags on gifts to show off the cost) she would try to exchange it.

 

She took it to the store and asked to exchange for something else her style and was told that it wasn't 'purchased' it was a freebie!   It was one of those deals where you spend $ x.xx and get a free gift.  Her Mother-In-Law hadn't even bought the bag or any of the goodies inside.  She had bought herself something and re-gifted the freebie, all the while leaving the tags so It looked like she had spent a lot of money.

 

What do you do in that case? Would you confront the person who re-gifted? Do you just let it go and keep quiet? 

 

Have you ever re-gifted?

 

 

[Daddydavek]

My advice is for her to donate the bag to a charity drive and say nothing about it to her mother-in-law.  If asked she should say it really wasn't her style so she donated it to charity.  

 

As for as re-gifting, I come from a large family.  My sibs and I decided years ago to no longer exchange gifts and just provide gifts for the young ones under age 18.   A few years ago someone suggested a re-gifting exchange where we picked a gift we did not use and pass it on.   It has gone on for some time and is sort of looked forward to now.  A couple of the items have been passed around to almost all of us.  

[K.C.]

 

As for as re-gifting, I come from a large family.  My sibs and I decided years ago to no longer exchange gifts and just provide gifts for the young ones under age 18.   A few years ago someone suggested a re-gifting exchange where we picked a gift we did not use and pass it on.   It has gone on for some time and is sort of looked forward to now.  A couple of the items have been passed around to almost all of us.  

 

We have done something very similar at work. Everyone brought something from home, wrapped it and we did a gift exchange game and was a lot of fun, but I think there is a difference when you know about the re-gifting and not when someone is try to pass something off as if they 'purchased' it. 

Edited November 26, 2013 by KC Grim

[Breeze]

I have re-gifted and been re-gifted. My twin has re-gifted to me every year for 5 years now(since I got moved back from the States). Now one of those gifts has been something I would ever use. I will never understand how someone so genetically close to me can get it wrong everytime, LOL.

[rustle]

Have I? Hell yes.

 

If it's something nice, but I'll never use it, and somebody else might, it doesn't go to waste. It doesn't even have to be something nice. I've gotten a lot of bizarre things over the years. We had a white elephant gift exchange once at work, and I got the most godawful candleholders. Partly in jest, I gave them to an artist friend. She loved them, and were funky enough to look great in her house.

 

Weird stuff makes the rounds, too. Maybe we're all a bunch of hobbits passing around mathoms.

[Y_B]

The secret to re-gifting is to give the gift back to the person who gave it to you. Say you loved your gift so much, you got them the same thing. If they know they got you something shitty and useless, well now they got it back, if they got you something really nice, you returned the favor

[Sasha Distan]

i have never re gifted. stuff which is really not me ends up in the charity shop. A few years ago, my best friend and i stopped buying each other presents and every Christmas we take each on "dates" instead, because she moved away and we both work a lot so hardly see each other. an afternoon of ice skating and cake is way better than something you can wrap.

also, her nom-de-plume is Fox. a wolf and a fox go on a date....

[Kitt]

I don't think family heirloom jewelry counts as re-gifting does it?   If it does then I have been re-gifted many times over the years and have passed on pieces to my daughter as well.

 

Other than that the only one who has ever re-gifted in giving to me was my mother in law. Someone had given her this upright food mill thingy that she couldn't even figure out how to assemble, let alone have the inclination to use. I however have used the hell out of it! LOL So much for her "white elephant", it turned out to be one of the better things she has given me over the years.

[Aditus]

I think I tend to look somewhat disgusted when I get something I don't want/hate/abhor? Anyway, they always say 'Or if you don't want it I take it back and you can tell me what you want instead.' I always politely admit I'd rather  want something else. If someone gives me a gift I like I don't care if they got it for free or payed for it.

[Thorn Wilde]

I love getting gifts for my friends too much to ever re-gift anything. I'm the sort of person who'll always try to find the perfect thing to give to the people I care about, and if I'm broke (like I am this year) I'm more likely to make something (poem, short story, mixed media art work, song) than I am to find something to re-gift. This of course means that I have quite a few things lying around that I never use... But usually I can manage to find some kind of use for almost anything I'm given. I'm pragmatic like that.

[joann414]

I've never re-gifted, I don't think.  The closest thing I've done is buy a gift for someone, put it up until Christmas and forget about it.  When I find it, I give it to them the next Christmas    That happens to me a lot.  I love to give people gifts, but I suck at remembering where I hide some that I buy ahead of time.  I found a Fossil watch I bought my grandson a month after Christmas last year, so I threw it in with his birthday presents in April.

[Henry_Henry2012]

Well, at least re-gifting means not being a hand-me-down. I was gifted by a crude friend (we're not friends anymore) with some used clothing, and he tried to pass it off as a brand new expensive burberry jacket. I could smell the detergent from a mile away.

 

I'm not really a brand conscious kind of bloke, but I do know those luxury brands that are expensive. And I do know that it doesn't come with a skid mark, a torn sleeve, and smells like it was readily picked from the clothes rack in time for the festive spirit of gift giving.

 

If cost-cutting means that regifting an item that may bring some other person in your life some joy, then hell yeah! Otherwise, shame on you people for regifting. THE SHAME! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[Slytherin]

So it's that time of year...Gift Giving.  I was talking with a friend the other day.  Her birthday was a few days ago and she was telling me about a 'Gift' she got from her new Mother-In-Law.  It was a really nice tote bag from an upscale store and had some small items inside: body sprays, lotions, lip gloss, ect.  Well, she told me that it wasn't really her style and since it still had the price tag on it, which wasn't cheep at all (BTW totally tacky to leave tags on gifts to show off the cost) she would try to exchange it.

 

She took it to the store and asked to exchange for something else her style and was told that it wasn't 'purchased' it was a freebie!   It was one of those deals where you spend $ x.xx and get a free gift.  Her Mother-In-Law hadn't even bought the bag or any of the goodies inside.  She had bought herself something and re-gifted the freebie, all the while leaving the tags so It looked like she had spent a lot of money.

 

What do you do in that case? Would you confront the person who re-gifted? Do you just let it go and keep quiet? 

 

Have you ever re-gifted?

I would've asked " Mommie Dearest"  if I please could get the reciept so I can change it to a lip gloss in my colour and I would look her straight into the Eyes when I said this    with a sly smile on my face just to let her know that I know !  Happy Christmas to me !!  

 

Have I ever re-gifted anything. No. I love to buy gifts for my friends and family

[wildone]

I've only regifted once, and it was on purpose to the person that gave it to me.

 

He gave me a bottle last year of Captain Morgan's Spice Rum, I don't like Spiced Rum. So on his Bday a month later I gave it back to him since he does like it 

[iSimba]

The secret to re-gifting is to give the gift back to the person who gave it to you. Say you loved your gift so much, you got them the same thing. If they know they got you something shitty and useless, well now they got it back, if they got you something really nice, you returned the favor

 

This is excellent advice. I am amused.

[Ron]

I've only regifted once, and it was on purpose to the person that gave it to me.

 

He gave me a bottle last year of Captain Morgan's Spice Rum, I don't like Spiced Rum. So on his Bday a month later I gave it back to him since he does like it 

 

Was that the whole idea behind giving you the rum in the first place? Some folks are sneaky like that. 

[mickey1952]

I've never re-gifted, but these days I find more satisfaction in giving gifts of a card stating that a donation was made in my friend or loved one's name to their favorite charity. As for receiving a gift or re-gift for which I have no use, I've been known to give it away (not gift it away) to someone who would appreciate or use it.

[Kitt]

  I love to give people gifts, but I suck at remembering where I hide some that I buy ahead of time. 

 

I know that feeling Joann!  I am still looking for a set of router bits i bought for my brother almost 30 years ago that disappeared into the holiday preparations!

[Rndmrunner]

I hate that we give gifts as a matter of rote. My partner and i do not usually exchange gifts other than small tokens. We do however plan special activities together to celebrate (drive to NYC for the weekend, hiking together etc). Sometimes though one of us will see something that is perfect for the other and get it spontaneously, no occasion required.  These are best when they are not expensive but something that the other has been searching for or would really appreciate. As for the larger family, only the younger generations get gifts but we all celebrate together