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12/22/09 Re-Gifting story?


Minis On The Edge

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We all receive gifts through out the year that we may not like. what do you do with the ones you really have no use for or just really don't like? Have you ever re-gifted? If so, What is Your Re-Gifting story? Please, let's keep this topic light and fun.

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Our paddling club does a Christmas party for our December meeting, with a gift exchange that is to be lighthearted/ silly/ fun/ cheap. The basic rules are that the gift cannot be alive, or have been recently alive, or cost more than US$5, and should be wrapped in a plain brown paper bag. Regifting is STRONGLY encouraged. On our trip to St Vincent's last month we found a barnacle-encrusted hardhat that apparently washed ashore from an offshore drilling rig. One of mutual paddling friends is a geologist who now works for the state department of environmental regulation, but at one time she worked for Gulf Oil's offshore drilling operation, so our "Santa" gave her the hardhat for her gift. The gifts are normally chosen at random, with one member playing Santa Claus so that certain gifts can be strategically given to those for whom they're intended.

I, on the other hand, chose to re-gift the item I received last year, the 5+ pounds of road salt someone had leftover from living up North. Of course, I couldn't just give the bag of nasty salt, I added a placque I found in a thrift shop that read: My name is No, No, Bad Dog! What's yours? (In joke; at meetings where we have to wear name tags every month, for parties I write "No, No, Bad Dog" on mine).

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I recently received a package containing a purse, eyeglass case, wallet and belt. Excuse me, I don't want anyone to buy a purse for me, my glasses are worn from waking until bedtime, my wallet is less than six months old and I don't wear belts. The set was by someone named Vera Bradley and in her Botanica pattern. I thought they were the ugliest things I had ever seen and had never heard of the designer. I mentioned them to the lady at the post office and she lit up like a Christmas tree. Her daughter is now the proud owner. If my gifter has just asked me what I wanted, I could have given her several mini sites for egift cards.

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Remember, I'm Grynche. I don't re-gift directly to someone else. I try to donate unwanted gifts the same season I receive them ... the thrift store is next to the post office. :wave:

My only story is seeing a really cute holiday decoration at the thrift store, thinking it would look perfect in my house and then realized it was something my sister had given me years earlier and which I'd donated the previous Christmas. :)

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The only gifts I commonly re-gift are those bath basket things/ perfume sets. It's pretty common that I will receive them as Secret Santa gifts, or B-Day presents from work. They are very nice, and I wouls personally like them, but my son has multiple chemical sensitivities/allergies to most heavily scented stuff, and my DH has asthma. I Thank the recipient, make a huge fuss about the gift, and give the items never used, plastic never opened, to my Sisters up North, and grown up children, who actually enjoy them, and can use them. (My family lives 400 miles away from here, and there's never a chance that the giver will ever see that gift or know it was passed on.) Gotta add, at the risk of sounding like a cheapskate, that it saves me hard earned money during the holidays, or for other special occasions when a gift is needed, and everyone is happy.

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I usually donate gifts I don't want or can't use, unless I know someone that can. Then I just give them away.

For my MIL's last Christmas before she died this year, she gave us back some gifts that we had given her over the years. Makes me wonder if she truly liked them or not. :wave:

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I try to use whatever I am given--try to let it 'grow on me' if it isn't my cup of tea right off,... 'try to be a little more open minded' I tell myself...

But of course I have re-gifted. And one time it was a bad idea...The most embarassing thing was regifting a Body Works bath set. (I can't handle a lot of strong fragrances--I get headaches.) Ok, so I am not savvy on this stuff and unfortunately, the recipient was, because she exclaimed when she opened it that is was a discontinued scent...like they don't sell it anymore... I hadn't had it that long, so maybe I was a re-gift recipient when I got it!! I initially felt bad, but the recipient is really obnoxious, so whatever! I will be more careful in the future, but I am sure I will still re-gift!

Tappy

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I was going through some old letters and cards which belonged to my mother. Amongst the items was a birthday card for a daughter signed "love, Mom". Close examination showed that it was my grandmother's writing, to my mother. Only no personalization is present. I was thinking of giving this card to my aunt, a December baby.

My mother has been dead 13 years now, and grandma for 15 years. I thought that it would cause a smile for my aunt to get a belated birthday card from her mother. I don't think Mom would object.

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my son got a lego set he already had from a friend at his birthday party. We had no receipt to return it so I made a deal with him--I would replace the value of the set and keep the other one to give to the next little boy who had a birthday party. All was well until the end of the next party when DS told the boy's mom that he had a secret--"We didn't even have to buy the present, cause we already had it, " to which the Mom answered "That's called re-gifitng honey" I was mortified and turned all shades of purple!! It sounded so bad when it was really so innocent.

My son now knows to ask me first before telling another adult something that might be a secret! :wave:

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I am the youngest of 3 daughters. One christmas a 3 or 4 years ago, my daughter number 2 (middle sister) gave daughter number 1 (oldest sister)some cream for your feet. Something with dead sea salt in it or something like that. A year past and when celebrating my birthday, daughter number 1 gave me (daughter number 3) the same exact foot cream. Another year went by and I was on the phone with my middle sister and the conversion got around to all the stuff that piles up under your bathroom sink. Mainly lotions and stuff that you have but don't really use. Well I mention that I have this foot cream that Teresa gave me (daughter number 1) and it looked like it was expensive stuff, but I just didn't like it. And I felt bad about throwing it out, after explaning this to Joanna, she realized that it was the same stuff that she gave to Teresa a few years ago. I guess it's a cream that's only avaible next to where Joanna lives. We got a laugh out of that, and I still have the cream.

Another quick story. Last year I went to buy some photo paper for Teresa, and after buying it, a sales person I was talking to about ink for my sister's printer, she told me that I shouldn't give my sister the paper I bought because it's a different brand than what is suggested for her photo printer. Well I decided to keep the paper. I got this deal where you buy one package and you get one free. I really don't print out that many pictures (even though I keep saying I'm going to). It's going to take me a lifetime to use all this photo paper. So this year my father bought himself a new printer a few months ago, and told me that I could get him some photo paper for christmas. Well guess what I'm doing, I've already wrapped up the one box of photo paper and put his name on it.

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I've never regifted, but I found out my mother regifted many of the things we'd all given her for some time. I found out when my sister told me not to bother giving mom a such and such, because she'd only wind up giving it to her (my sister) and she (my sister) didn't have room for one.

The last few years I sent mom a present I started making a joke out of it. I'd send her several nice gifts and told her to keep what she wanted, and give the other things to anyone else she felt like giving them to. It's nice to know that she did like some of the things well enough to keep them for herself.

Her last Christmas gift from me was a Monastery fruitcake. She told the rest of the family it was all for her and she wasn't even sharing it with anyone. :p

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I must be simple..easy to buy for and regifting never even crossed my mind. Even

the year when my sisters were little and they pooled their allowances and bought me the most horrid,smelly bath soap called "Orchids in the Moonlight" It was liquid and came in a bottle with a giant orchid smushed inside the bottle.I used it all in one stinky bath!

My sisters were impressed and vowed to buy another bottle for me but I pursuaded them to save their money for another time.Ha!!We howl about that now!! :p

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  • 5 weeks later...

I have something right now that I would like to re-gift! Someone gave me a Christmas cookie jar, very pretty, and I have absolutely no use for it :( I just don't want to hang onto it for another whole year!

I have re-gifted things several times, but I have learned to put a post-it on the item saying who gave it to me and when -- so I don't re-gift it back to the same person or their family member. I had a small item wrapped up once, ready to give to my aunt for her birthday when I suddenly remembered where I got it -- it came from her for my birthday!! Fortunately that memory hit me head-on before I gave her the gift. :lol:

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  • 9 months later...

I usually don't re-gift but donate the unwanted item to a charity. However this fall I recieved a neck scarf crocheted by someone I work with. It is a beautirul scarf with beads worked into the scarf. But, it is made from one of the new "eyelash" yarns and has threads that spike out. I hate anything like that around my face. Anything that tickles. So I am going to regift the scarf to my sister, with the instructions that if she doesn't care for it to regift it to her daughter or one of her 3 grand daughters. I suppose in a year or two it will be regifted back to me :bear: !

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