Regifting

[magid]

Yesterday I saw a Macy's ad on a bus with the slogan "Regifting is for wimps". My initial reaction: no, it's not, and what an obvious sort of commercial, playing off people's insecurities. And then in today's Globe there's an article on regifting, the etiquette thereof, etc. Perhaps it's my thriftiness/cheapness/frugality coming to the fore, but it just doesn't seem like that big a deal.

I've always thought that if someone gave me a gift that I didn't need/ already had one/ was the wrong size and not returnable/ was inconvenient in some way or another (Where to put that life-sized stuffed baby elephant?), it was perfectly acceptable to give it to someone else, if I thought the next recipient would enjoy it. I don't know that I'd go tell the original giver, but if they asked about it, I would tell them why I'd regifted, and that would be that.

Of course, it matters more to me what other people think about this one, since you/they would be the pool of recipients and/or original givers. So.... what do you think about regifting? Is it perfectly ok? Is it ok only as long as no one twigs on to what you're doing? Is it ok only if there's a significant amount of time before regifting? Or is it completely anathema?

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

Which means chopped liver falls into the nature category, right?

(For the record, there's a brand of eggplant-based non-chopped-liver that's wonderful; I have that a lot more than the pate itself.)

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

It must. My parents certainly never ate the stuff, and I love it. :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yum. People just don't understand what they're missing!
:-)