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Do you regift? Get ready for National Regifting Day!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are only 16 non-shopping days left before National Regifting Day, which is Dec. 18.
The “official” holiday was created three years ago by a debt-counseling group called Money Management International as a way of espousing recycling and avoiding debt.
But of course, regifting has been going on forever, whether it’s the passing down of a family heirloom or putting an unwanted wedding present in a fresh gift bag.
Some families have a fun “white elephant” tradition, where the same gag gift gets passed around from year to year.
Then there are families, like the eccentric clan I married into, that see no problem passing off slightly used merchandise as new. This practice runs into problems when the regifted items have other people’s monograms on them, or inscriptions from the original givers to the intended recipients. Or when you enter the realm of Extreme Regifting - actually returning the very item to someone that they originally gave to you.
On the other hand, I’ve received items from friends that I’m pretty sure were regifts, but have enjoyed them nonetheless. I restrict my regifting to bringing a bottle of wine as a hostess gift that I’ve received as a hostess gift. And I do reuse gift bags.
The creators of National Regifting Day have come up with some handy guidelines: avoid regifting used, signed or mongrammed gifts. Pick something the recipient will enjoy. Rewrap in nice, new paper.
Or better yet, donated those unwanted items to charity.
Do you regift? What’s your policy on what makes an acceptable regifted item. Have you ever received an obviously regifted present?
Comments
By Jim DeFini
December 2, 2008 5:24 PM | Link to this
A few years back a friend hosted a regifting party after the Christmas Holiday. There were some interesting regifts and they all ended up being thrown into our bonfire!