Who doesn’t love receiving a gift? We all throw parties and get-togethers not with the intention of receiving gifts but secretly or not so secretly we are excited at the prospect of unwrapping a gift, looking forward to finding something we really like inside. These gifts arrive abundantly over the many celebratory occasions like the religious holidays, birthdays and other unexpected gift receiving occasions.
Only too often, we open our gifts to be disappointed in what we find inside the beautiful wrapping. Oh dear! We already have one of those; it’s totally the wrong colour, it’s not something we would use; there’s no room in our already cluttered cupboards; it’s just not to our taste!
What to do with such generous yet unwelcome gifts? Of course we thank our presenters adequately and even enthusiastically but after they leave, what now?
I know this is not the best solution, but think of it as positive recycling. Better than storing the item in a dark corner of our home never to be looked at again…the politically incorrect solution is to RE-GIFT!
Three problems one should consider before re-gifting:
1. You need to remember who gave you the gift in the first place. Wouldn’t it be awkward if we gave the same gift back to the original person who gave it to us? Place a note on each unwanted gift with the name of the person who gave it to you, so avoiding embarrassment.
2. You won’t know how many times that gift was already re-gifted. It might be a box of chocolates or cookies, and you won’t know how fresh they are until you open them. Also you have to make sure that the box was not personalized on the inside. An instance worth repeating was when a co-worker of mine received a box of chocolate and decided that being on a diet she would just pass them on to someone else. However this was not to be as she soon reached a period of low resistance and lacking will-power, opened the box. To her surprise, she found that the chocolates had been personalized in the shape of her initials by a fancy chocolatier. How embarrassed would she have been if she had passed them on to her friends, Jamie or Marissa?
3. Be careful that you haven’t already used the gift. I once got a gift of a blank pocket phone book, this was before cell phones existed. I was thrilled with this potentially useful gift until I started filling it in and noticed it was already filled in under particular letters with names and addresses unknown to me. In addition, the back of the book had a personalized note from the original gifter to the giftee.
Don’t have any expectations when receiving gifts… just be grateful for the thought and beware of the pitfalls of re-gifting!
Happy gifting!!
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