OK. Be honest. Have you ever received a gift that you re-wrapped and gave to someone else?

The reason is unimportant. Maybe you just didn't like it, already had one, or thought it ideal for someone else.

???

Normally I keep all gifts to me and to be honest I have received a few in the past which have made me cringe.

Last week I had lunch with an elderly lady (well she is 80 but I guess young for her age) and thought that she might give me a gift (sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't). Panic stations, I hadn't bought her anything and the shops were shut. I looked around my home and spotted a bone china bud vase, in its original box, which an aunt and uncle of mine had given to another aunt of mine (now deceased) and which had been given to me. A fresh sheet of tissue paper and voila, a gift for her - I think it might end up in a charity boot sale, but what the heck.

Oh yes, one of my wedding gifts which was given to me by some cousins - a hideous embossed metal cigarette/tricket box. I wrapped it and gave to a girl on her 21st birthday, she had horrific taste and thought it lovely, or so she said.

Can't remember ever having regifted something. I have passed things along, but the person receiving them has known what I've done, and it was never as a Christmas or birthday gift, but more a here, you have it.
WAIT, that's right I did do it once, as a joke. I received this hideous reindeer decoration (any guesses who from! LOL) one year that I'm sure was bought at a flea market. A friend was examining it and broke off an antler, which I found quite amusing. Unfortunately the rat fixed it so that it was better than before - so he got it back for Christmas the next year. I fully expected to get it back the next year, but it didn't happen!

My father-in-law has the habit of regifting items. We have now got into the habit of giving him a really good bottle of red wine for Christmas, because we know we'll get it back the following year, just when it's ready for drinking! (And yes, he does like red wine!) One other year he was mildly unamused to receive a screwdriver that could work round corners. My husband was equally unamused to receive it himself the followying year...

Yes, I've regifted, and I don't really see why not.
I've mostly done it like Skunkee says - "here, you might like this", but I've also given something I have no desire or interest in to someone else in, say, a work-related present exchange.
I can't see anything wrong with this - would it become acceptable if I were to take the present back to the store for a refund, and then use that money to buy something? What's the difference?

Maybe I feel this way because I'm not too hung up on whether things are 'new' - I tend to buy most things second hand - partly because I'm cheap, and partly because I often like them better.

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would it become acceptable if I were to take the present back to the store for a refund, and then use that money to buy something? What's the difference?

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That pretty well sums up my objections to re-gifting. In my opinion, no, it would not become acceptable. To me it is just like asking someone to buy your gifts for you because you're too, um, "frugal". "Hey, George, would you get Fred that thingamabob for me? I don't want to spend the money."

On the other hand, I don't have a problem with giving something to someone you know would like it better, as long as they don't think you went out and picked it out for them yourself; I just wouldn't do it in a gift-giving situation like a birthday or Christmas. Well, unless I didn't have any money to spend.

I don't know, to me it seems that *where* the gift comes from is not really the point. Personally, I would rather have something I like or have a use for, than something I don't. Whether the giver went to an expensive store and bought it, regifted it, bought it from the dollar store, made it, picked it up at a yard sale - none of that is really any of my business, I figure.

I don't make a big deal out of the fact that I am allergic to perfumes and scented products, and most of the people who know me don't know this about me. Therefore, I tend to get aromatheraphy products, scented candles, scented hand lotions, and so on in many gift situations. This is just the type of thing most people tend to give to middle aged women that they don't know too well, as most enjoy them. I usually don't know where they came from, can't take them back, can't have them in the house. To me, it just makes no sense to throw them in the garbage, and then go out and buy something similar for someone else I need to get a gift for. Maybe I'm cheap, maybe it's the recycler in me - it just seems senseless.

Yes..I have regifted. There..my dirty little secret is out !!!

I don't have any problems with regifting, I just don't know that I've done it. I mostly only get gifts that I like because I mostly only get gifts from people who know me.

But I, too, don't care that much about where things come from. My boss collects santas. Last year, I found a very old santa music box, probably from the 30's, at a garage sale for $1. I bought it, and I gave it to her for Christmas. She loved it. I now that's cheap, but who the heck cares? I buy things on clearance MONTHS in advance if I think someone would like it for Christmas. I buy things at thrift stores and garage sales. And if someone gave me something that I didn't really like, but I knew someone who would, you'd better believe I'd pass it along. And not because I don't like it, but because I know someone who would. To me, it's all about giving something to someone that will make them happy. If I can do that, I will, even if it is with something someone else gave me.

Amen.

"My boss collects santas. Last year, I found a very old santa music box, probably from the 30's, at a garage sale for $1. I bought it, and I gave it to her for Christmas. She loved it. I now that's cheap".

No, it's not cheap - it's the thought that counts and your gift is more thoughtful than spending, say, $50 on something just because you "have" to buy someone a gift.

You'd better have a good memory if you are going to re-gift!

One of my aunts gave my mother a set of glasses for a gift. They were decorated with an "Ancient Roman" design in black, white and gold and were very nice glasses.

One day my aunt came over to visit so my mother brought out the glasses to use. My aunt said to her "Oh, somebody bought me a set of these once but I didn't like them so I gave them to someone else as a gift". Duh!

When I was a teenager I was invited to my boyfriend's house to go out with them to relatives for Boxing Day. His mother handed me a small gift (I can only assume that I must have given her something but as it was 42 years ago I cannot remember) and when I looked at it later I saw the indentation of where someone else had written 'To Muriel love from...', she just re-wrapped it and passed it to me. Bath cubes.

Sounds Seinfeldian. He's a re-gifter!