Regifting? What are your thoughts?
By ethanmama
@ethanmama (1745)
Philippines
6 responses
@ajithlal (14716)
• India
14 Dec 07
Christmas is the time for happiness and love. I think Christmas gifts some of the most beautiful things in the world. It is a nice thing to get gifts and to give gifts. I do not keep things that I do not use. I always try to give away things that I think is useful for others. I think we should give away things and gifts not useful to us to others who use them rather than make clutter in the house.
3 people like this
@ethanmama (1745)
• Philippines
14 Dec 07
You are right about Christmas being about happiness and love. And the gesture of gift giving is an expression of love, whatever the gift. However, there is only so much space we have and we can't really clutter up the place :)
2 people like this
@johndur (3052)
• Pasig, Philippines
21 Dec 07
i do if they are really of no use for me,i give them to those who needs it and can make use of it.and since i got for free i gave them away for free too.some people try to make money from it buy selling it but i dont like that idea...not good enough to sell something you got for free...too much capitalism for some....
2 people like this
@ethanmama (1745)
• Philippines
21 Dec 07
I agree with you there. Better give it to somebody who will make better use of it.
I still have wedding gifts, some duplicates, in my mother-in-law's house that I haven't been using yet for the past 3 years. I have contemplated on just giving them away as gifts as they've occupied a lot of storage space.
@breezie (1246)
• Canada
15 Dec 07
I don't really have a problem with regifting, you just have to be careful you don't give the gift back to the person you recieved it from. I often get things that I don't use, but so far I have not regifted anything , but this year anything that I won't use I will probably save to regift to someone who might use it.
2 people like this
@ethanmama (1745)
• Philippines
18 Dec 07
Yes, it's actually an art. You have to make sure that the giver does not know about it. :)
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@patgalca (18370)
• Orangeville, Ontario
14 Dec 07
I re-gifted once. One year I got the two of the same item as Christmas presents. I used one and held onto the other until the following year when I gave it to someone else. The gifts came to me from relatives whereas I gave it to a friend so there was no way of them knowing.
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@ethanmama (1745)
• Philippines
14 Dec 07
That is very practical of you. What are you going to do with two of the same item anyway? And yeah, don't make the mistake of "giving" it to the same person or group of persons.
1 person likes this
@im_anna (717)
• Philippines
15 Dec 07
I try to avoid re-gifting the gift that was given to me assuming that that person has spend time & effort for preparing or thinking of the gift given to me since I also spend a little time thinking of a good gift that I'll give for the other person. Naturally, I don't want that person to just throw away the gift that I have given. but there were certain circumstances wherein I think the other person just didn't bother or just made a mistake like when there was a time that the gift for my daughter were for "boys" only, I just gave it to my nephew but not as a "gift" with gift wrappers & all.
@ethanmama (1745)
• Philippines
18 Dec 07
You have a very good point! In such circumstances, I would really keep the gift. Most of the gifts that are well thought out are usually something I really like or really need. Shows how much thinking went into conceptualizing the actual gift :).
1 person likes this
@blueunicorn (2401)
• United States
15 Dec 07
I absolutely give gifts away to someone who can use them more than I can. The problem with giving gifts sometimes is that it is not easy to get someone something they can really use. I don't see why that couldn't be passed on if I know someone who will actually use the item instead of it just sitting around somewhere. The way I see it, if it isn't used by me the person who gave me the gift has wasted their money. By passing it along the gift is not wasted. I wrote an article about that a couple of weeks ago. You can read it here if you are intersted: http://www.helium.com/tm/600503/gifting-certain-acceptable-practical
1 person likes this
@ethanmama (1745)
• Philippines
18 Dec 07
Yes, it's hard to think of individualized gifts for everybody.
I wanted to read your article, unfortunately, I couldn't access it.
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@ethanmama (1745)
• Philippines
21 Dec 07
I still can't see the article. I keep getting this page.
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@blueunicorn (2401)
• United States
21 Dec 07
I'm really sorry about that. Here is the whole article. I hope it's not too long to post on here!
Re-gifting is certain an acceptable (and practical) practice. The key is to not let the person you are re-gifting to know that the item was given as a gift to you in the first place. I constantly re-gift. I think that it would hurt the original givers feelings if I threw an item that I didn't care for in the garbage, so I find another way to use it. Last year my daughter received some books that are of a religious view point that I don't agree with. My daughter sent out an appropriate thank you note for the books but they immediately went into our closet to be re-gifted. My in-laws spent a good amount of money on the books, so I don't want to just get rid of them without thought. When we find another child who would enjoy the books we will re-gift them. No one has to know, and it will be a nice gift for that person. I think that we (Americans) have forgotten the old saying, "It is the thought that counts". Are you re-gifting just to have something to give to someone, or is the gift something they will truly enjoy? If the person getting the gift is going to like the item I don't think it should matter where the gift originally came from.
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