Have you ever re-gifted?

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Yes…I regift to people I have to give a gift to because of work. I give them the extra candles, bath salts, lotions, etc that I am given that I will never use if I live to be 110. I also give those to homeless shelters and Family Promise guests. I will never be able to use that much moisturizer or bath salts unless I took a bath three times a day and lived in 210 degree heat. I do not want any of that to go to waste and I figure it saves me money AND it either fullfills my obligation to give a gift to a co-worker OR it is a lovely, soothing gift to someone who is having a rough time and may enjoy a little pampering.
 
I regift.

I also keep a spreadsheet of who gave what so I don’t make blunderheaded regifts. And if I’m regifting, I rewrap, except for products that come prewrapped (gift booze).
 
yes frequently because I don’t need and cannot even use most of what I receive, but I always choose the recipient carefully. for instance I cannot use any toiletries outside a narrow range of scent free hypoallergenic brands, so I always give these away, often making up gift bags that I can take to events where there is a gift exchange, as door prizes for meetings, or to the homeless outreach.

Same with food gifts, the forbidden treats I usually open right away and hand around to share (yes, I do take one, just being polite, you understand). If it is something big like a turkey or fruit basket it goes to St. Vincent or simply handed to a big family who I know needs it and will eat it.

any of the religious art and knick-knack stuff I keep in the parish, if I receive it from someone in the parish, so it stays in the office, CCD rooms etc., because I don’t feel I should use those for my personal use, they should be shared. Many of them are good props and visual aids in classroom or retreat settings.

Sometimes people who know me well give a decor item they know I will like, and those I always keep and display.

My daughters just take me shopping when we are together, they don’t send gifts otherwise, unless they see something I have asked for (most recent being a sun hat, waterproof tote bag, and stadium mustard). they know I am good with a Border’s gift card.

I keep gift cards for local restaurants and stores in the office to give to those who come asking for assistance when St. Vincent is not open, since these places are in a reasonable distance. Otherwise, I will invite colleagues to lunch, including the person who gave the card, so we can all enjoy it. My MIL gets any Target cards because it is her favorite store.

If it is a household item or clothing I can’t use or don’t need, I ask someone who might, and simply tell them, I got this great–sweater, food chopper, whatever–but already have one, wrong size etc., can you use it? I ask somebody I know is honest enough to say know if they mean no.
 
Man I didn’t know all this was goin on. I wonder how many times I’ve been regifted? :hmmm:
 
I have re-gifted a few times. I usually put thought into it though.

For example, I can only use scent-free, dye-free soap. I am forever getting the scented soaps, etc for birthdays and Christmas (from people who know I can’t use these things like my dad or my mom…at least mom has caught on and stopped giving them to me). So I stash them under the sink waiting for an opportunity to re-gift. My step-sister loves cucumber melon, so she gets the cucumber melon stuff.

My step-mom loves angel statues. When I get an angel statue they go to her (what am I going to do with them? My hutch is full. I have four cats. How long do you think a statue will survive sitting out anywhere in my house?!?).

I try not to pass it off as if I bought it for them specifically. I’ll usually say, “Hey, I got this and can’t use it.” However, back when I first started working out of college and I made a whole $10 an hour, those re-gifts made others happy.

There’s a problem with our society. Somehow, not giving a gift makes us look like we don’t care. I barely had enough money to eat, much less give a present. I’d never hear the end of it from my step-mother; she has received 99% of my re-gifts for that reason.
 
Well if some of y’all get stuff ya can’t use, I suggest we start a swap gift thread. “What can I get for for this Niagra Falls Canter?”

My aunt went to NF (God Rest her now) in the 1980s and she musta bought out the gift shops there. She was giving out NF trinkets for years. Temp gauges, glasses, mugs, mirrors, those shake up paper weights, pictures, and t shirts, she gave us a lamp with this NF shade. She wanted EVERYBODY to know she went to NF.

We had a guy at work, that got a big wall picture from someone on his wife’s side. He said it was hideous. When she came over to visit they would run get the pic outta the closet and hang it, and take it down when she left.

He could tell the story really good, and it always made me laugh. He said it went on for about 3 years and ended when they moved to a new house.
 
I don’t’ re-gift myself too often, but I am ALWAYS on the receiving end of re-gifting from my step-mother and her family. It’s often REALLY obvious too - beat up boxes that have obviously been around for a while, and one year when I was a teen, even a bar of soap from a fragrance gift set, but without the rest of the set to go with it! Just the soap! :rolleyes:

Oh well - it’s the thought that counts I suppose. :cool:

I can’t remember the last time I re-gifted to anyone, but I know I have.

My mom just got a beautiful brand new Dooney & Bourke wallet from a lady she does some ironing for. Brand new in the box, but not a recent style. Still - a lovely gift, even if it WAS re-gifted!! 😉

~Liza
 
My brother’s girlfriend told me this story about the ‘travelling gift’ in her family. Someone had made her sister or friend (can’t remember which) a homemade pottery-style walnut dish with a squirrel on the lid and you open it up and there’s walnuts inside. So the following Christmas (last year) as a gag, my brother’s girlfriend got it. So this year, she’s gifting it back to the original gifter 😛 I love this one!

Yeah, we have secret santa here at work and I got some things that are not in my taste, so I will probably ask my MIL if she would like them - kitchy things like a santa hand towel and clay style snowman/santa stocking weighter. I really detest kitchy things, but for my children’s sakes I may give in a little.

One year dh got a t-shirt w/ the baby Stewart from the aweful animated series ‘Family Guy.’ It had him saying lsomething like ‘don’t you want my body?’ I also got a shirt from one of my ornery brothers one year (who loves slogan t-shirts - and I hate them) and it said something like ‘annoying’ on it. I was actually a little hurt by that one. Neither of these was worth regifting, so they went right in the trash. My sil got me a maternity shirt w/ my last baby that says ‘the baby wants chocolate.’ And one of my other brothers got me a brown shirt that says ‘chocolate’ on it. Both of these are going to the good will.
 
I have a tendency to hand the noisy electronic kids’ toys to my local Parents as Teachers to give to someone who would appreciate them more. Don’t get me wrong–my kids always get too much from grandparents and never miss what isn’t there. Fortunately, it’s become much easier for gp’s to give money. I regift kitschy things, because I am very much a minimalist and don’t use decorative items unless they are also useful.

For a wedding gift, dh and I got a box of six very dusty wine glasses, with a yellowed card written from the givers to their daughter, who married a few years previous. I didn’t regift them, because it was so nice to be able to let young guests use those when we used fancy glasses, and not have to be the least concerend about breaking them.

As to those small gifts you need for “just in case” and co-workers and stuff, this year i was at one of those stores where they sell perfectly good things that fell off a truck or something, and I was able to get a whole bunch of canisters of Cadbury Drinking Chocolate for a dollar each. Score!
 
I’ve only had a few gifts I didn’t want that were worth re-gifting. The rest end up at goodwill. The most recent item regifted was a picture of The wedding feast at Cana. We got two for our wedding and kept the nicest one. We gave the other to a friend who got married a few months later.

On the receiving end, we got this microwave popcorn popper as a wedding gift, the box was so old that at first I thought they just used the box to hold a different gift, but upon further inspection, the box had never been opened before. Inside, along with the popcorn popper, was a book of coupons for the popcorn kernels, but all the coupons had expired 12 years ago! I’ve always wondered how many times that popper had been re-gifted.
 
My in-laws were given a porcelain figurine of “The Last Supper” as a 50th anniversary gift.

They own a religious gift shop… they CARRY the figurine that was given to them…

and the giver used to WORK for them!

I think the figurine went into stock, they took the value of it out of the sales receipts and they went out for a lovely dinner at a very nice restaurant… and they very honestly told the giver that they got a lot of pleasure from her gift. She lives in a different town now, so not much chance she’ll ever visit them and not see her statue there.

It’s easy to say it’s the thought that counts, but sometimes you have to wonder “what WERE they thinking???”

EDIT: I got to thinking after I posted… I think Mom told us later that she was pretty sure the woman’s husband had originally bought the figurine from the shop as a birthday gift for his wife over a year earlier… and he had passed away shortly after the woman’s birthday. Maybe the poor lady was trying to get rid of painful reminders?? 🤷
 
Did it this year. With a gift I received last Christmas and was still in the box until a week ago. :rolleyes:

It was a really nice gift, just not my taste. 🤷
 
Don’t know what to do with stuff you don’t want. Try freecycle.org/

I once regifted a picture of our city’s famous landmark. We already had that one and had gotten another. Gave it to someone who moved away from our city.
 
We have a “white elephant” party here at work and every year for about 4-5 years the same rather odd looking lamp showed up. Then it just stopped. We still joke about it.
 
I’ve occasionally given away gifts when I can’t afford to buy anything for a family member’s Christmas or birthday gift. It’s not that I didn’t welcome them it’s just that they were needed for someone else.
 
I’ve never re-gifted, but I will sometimes donate things I don’t like, want, or need to the thrift shop.
 
Ok it says as of now 10 of y’all DON’T regift. So I can give to y’all in confidence, and not see it come back at me down the road.

Y’all need to raise your hands and be counted, and I dunno what to do with the rest of y’all that do all that regifting. I only did it, like 2 times, but some of y’all make a living a it LOL.
 
I’ve re-gifted twice, both times from my mother in law & grandmother in law to my sister in law (my brother’s wife, not my husband’s sister). Their tastes are similar I guess.

One of the two times was a birthday present given a week late because I just don’t remember her birthday very accurately. She said her actual birthday was a real let down, so when I showed up with her belated gift, she said it was better than if I’d been on time with it. 😊
 
I re-gifted one time.

A friend of mine gave me a 2’ tall gargoyle statue! It was the most hideous thing. This happened after another friend had told her I don’t like gargoyles unless they are perched on a Gothic style church.

Another friend had a neighbor who mentioned to her that he liked gargoyles. The next time I went over to her apartment, I told her I had something for her neighbor. She called him on the phone, he came over, and unwrapped his gargoyle. He loved it, and it found a good home.

I never received another gargoyle. 😃
 
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