Re-Gifting?

[Dreamer128]

Americans embrace the art of the re-gift

By Justin Grant and Aarthi Sivaraman

NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters Life!) - For Christmas this year, New York comedienne Margaret Champagne is giving her boyfriend's parents 2-year-old candles that had been gathering dust under her bed.

"Unless they run it through some re-gifting machine, or try to lift my fingerprints off it, how are they going to know it's a re-gift?" Champagne said in an interview while doing her Christmas shopping at the Manhattan Mall in New York City.

"They even live in another state. Besides, the candles had been under my bed for so long, it's like they are looking for a perfect home."

Champagne said she sees nothing wrong with giving unwanted presents to others as gifts and a survey conducted earlier this year by Harris Interactive and Tassimo Hot Beverage System showed she is far from alone.

Its results, which were released in October, showed that 78 percent of the more than 1,500 consumers polled think it's acceptable to re-gift some, or most, of the time.

More than 60 percent of the women surveyed admitted to re-gifting, or said they would do so in the future, compared with 37 percent of the men.

The term was popularized on an episode of the television series "Seinfeld," when character Elaine Benes angrily branded a friend a "re-gifter" for giving Jerry the same label-maker she had originally bought for the friend.

Regiftable.com, a Web site operated by Money Management International, offers advice to potential re-gifters so they can avoid similarly embarrassing situations.

The site doles out common sense suggestions, like do not give a partially used gift card or do not give someone a present they originally gave you.

The site also allows re-gifters and recipients to tell their horror stories.

Mike, from New York, writes of a wealthy great-aunt giving him a used pair of black socks and a partial bottle of men's cologne.

"I can only assume that these belonged to my great uncle who had passed away several years earlier," Mike wrote. "To this day, whenever I see thin, black, old man socks, I think of my aunt."

Kim, from Chicago, said her 8-year-old daughter gave her bundt cake mix for Christmas one year, which the child originally got from Kim's ex-husband.

"I was married to this man for 12 years," Kim wrote. "I have never owned a bundt cake pan, nor do I own one now."

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[robertthebard]

I have done so, from time to time. After all, what's the sense in letting something that is perfectly good, so long as it's still new, go to waste. If I get a gift that I won't use, I would give it to someone who would.

[Ladyzekke]

I re-gift on occasion. Am actually thinking of re-gifting this year, regarding my neighbors. I.E, neighbors on the left sent over a bottle of wine. Neighbor on the right usually gives a tree ornament which I haven't gotten yet. So I'm thinking of giving that bottle of wine to the neighbor on the right (they don't talk btw LOL). And if as usual the neighbor on the right gives the usual tree ornament, that is what the neighbor on the left will get.

[Aelia Jusa]

I think regifting is fine for certain types of things. For gifts that the giver has clearly put a lot of thought into and has chosen something specifically for the receiver, I think it is not appropriate and rude. But for things that are just generic type gifts, like chocolates, wine, shortbread, etc. I think it is definitely appropriate. Of course it has to be unopened lol. I do think if a gift was particularly expensive then it's a bit tacky to just pass it off as something you bought. And obviously a bit of care needs to be taken so that the giver doesn't find out that you are giving away things they gave you.

I guess there's a difference between regifting in the guise of 'someone gave this to me but I don't need/want/like it so I'm giving it to you' and regifting in the 'I got this gift just for you how generous I am!' sense. The former I think is appropriate for a lot more things than the latter, which is really only acceptable for generic-type gifts.

I kind of think the whole concept of regifting demonstrates how silly and over the top we have become in terms of giving gifts at Christmas. Like having to give gifts to all your co-workers, neighbours you don't know that well, every teacher your child comes in contact with... it gets so you do end up giving nonpersonal gifts like tins of biscuits that no one really wants. For people that you actually want to give gifts for, you do put thought into what they would really like and pick a personal gift that doesn't need to be regifted. I don't think passing out meaningless gifts to everyone you said hey to during the year is really the point.

[toot033]

I would rather have someone I care for have a gift that I would never use and enjoy, than have it sit buried in a closet.