The gift that keeps on giving
I received a gift last week. It was a kind gesture, and I am grateful. But it has nagged me considerably, because I am positive it was a re-gift. Positive. No question about it.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I re-gift. Here are my criteria:
1) It has to be something "generic" that I don't need, but would otherwise be nice enough to keep. By generic, I mean gifts like candles, bath stuff, etc. Not a handstitched handkerchief with my name on it. Cause who wants to pull out all that embroidery?
2) It has to be something I would have picked out as a gift also. Not something that would embarrass me to give, like this pillow we got for our wedding.
3) It has to go to someone who does not know me well enough to know that I re-gift. By this, I mean I would give the gift as a token - like to Dillon's nursery worker at church, or my elderly neighbor at Christmas. Not my grandmother. Or Daniel.
Does this make me a cheap person? (Yes, I am extremely cheap.)
Does this mean that I do not care? (No, I care deeply. But not deeply enough to shop for you when I have something perfectly good in my storage closet.)
Does this mean that all of my gifts are re-gifted? (No, I love gifts for me! But I do have way to much Bath & Body Works stuff. And way too many candles. Unless it is the new swirly Yankee one, like Michelle's. I'll take that.)
Does this mean that everything I give is re-gifted? (No. Unfortunately, re-gifting rarely works out for me. But I love the thought of it!)
So, tell me your thoughts! Is re-gifting acceptable? And do you do it? I have my own thoughts about which of you does this, so let me know so we can see if I was right!
Now, I will be the first to admit that I re-gift. Here are my criteria:
1) It has to be something "generic" that I don't need, but would otherwise be nice enough to keep. By generic, I mean gifts like candles, bath stuff, etc. Not a handstitched handkerchief with my name on it. Cause who wants to pull out all that embroidery?
2) It has to be something I would have picked out as a gift also. Not something that would embarrass me to give, like this pillow we got for our wedding.
3) It has to go to someone who does not know me well enough to know that I re-gift. By this, I mean I would give the gift as a token - like to Dillon's nursery worker at church, or my elderly neighbor at Christmas. Not my grandmother. Or Daniel.
Does this make me a cheap person? (Yes, I am extremely cheap.)
Does this mean that I do not care? (No, I care deeply. But not deeply enough to shop for you when I have something perfectly good in my storage closet.)
Does this mean that all of my gifts are re-gifted? (No, I love gifts for me! But I do have way to much Bath & Body Works stuff. And way too many candles. Unless it is the new swirly Yankee one, like Michelle's. I'll take that.)
Does this mean that everything I give is re-gifted? (No. Unfortunately, re-gifting rarely works out for me. But I love the thought of it!)
So, tell me your thoughts! Is re-gifting acceptable? And do you do it? I have my own thoughts about which of you does this, so let me know so we can see if I was right!
posted by Amanda
at
7:43 PM
9 Comments:
Oh, I totally re-gift! It is truly the gift that keeps on giving *snort*
My criteria is to remember which family the gift came from and to NOT re-gift to that same family.
That's about all the criteria I have for it.
Oooooh, have you been a recipient of a re-gift? *singing* I'll never tell...
Well, I don't think I've actually given away a gift that I received (which isn't to say that I wouldn't!). However, I have had situations where I ended up giving a gift to someone other than the intended recipient.
For example, last year I bought a Christmas serving dish for some friends of ours. But when our neighbor called and said, "What are you doing right now? We'd like to bring your gift over," I panicked. We'd never exchanged gifts with them before! I hadn't gotten anything for them, so I quickly threw the dish into a gift bag and . . . voila!
At our wedding we got a dish that came in OLD packaging and the dish had a CHIP in it. It was from a strange old couple from church. You know the kind that are always saying random things and smiling all the time - love 'em. Anyways, at work, I found a card in my bosses office that had the pair to the gift card he had given me (i.e. he totally re-gifted and didn't even think to cover it up!!). I was ok with it though. I am, over all, in full favour of re-gifting if it thoughtful enough....
I have regifted, but only to my mother-in-law and a few baby gifts for people that I really don't know that well, but got a shower invitation anyway.
Dear Abby says its ok to regift.
Absolutely, so long as there's no way the recipient of the gift will find out, nor will the giver. I was frustrated when something I gave was obviously regifted at a baby shower. But that's because I feel like I put a lot of effort into choosing gifts. I say, regift to your hearts content within the limits of blissful ignorance.
I love re-gifting things I don't need. What's the point of holding on to something I'll never need when someone else out there can use it!
You already know my thoughts on re-gifting, and it's not a bad thing. In fact, I can't even throw away a gift bag or tissue paper. I save and re-use everything I can... Cheap? Nay- nay...Thrifty!
Yes, I've re-gifted a time or two, but it's been very generic stuff like tree ornaments or candles and definitely not to anyone very close to me. Whew, I feel better getting that off my chest.
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