No, I don't think celebrities need to acknowledge unsolicited gifts from strangers. I think it may be actually dangerous in some cases to do so.

People should have enough manners and class not to send a celebrity an unsolicited gift to begin with. If you want to give soemthing away, give it to a charity. The olden days are gone. Today, celebrities probably get a lot more stuff...much of it from stalker types and I wouldn't doubt they often even worry about opening unknown packages.

Nope. i don't think that celebrities often even see the things fans send them They have staff to go through all that. In these times of so many nutcases ( look what happened to John Lennon) I'm sure a lot of things just get tossed and others just go to charity.

Those pictures in the old days were handled by staff also. But in these days of online communication there is no way a staff could possibly handle all the fan letters and comments on a web page.

To be honest I had to Google Candice Olson. never heard of her. So she turns out to be businesswoman with an interior design company that pitches her stuff on television?

I don't consider that celebrity. I call it smart marketing. Kudos to her but if everyone who appeared on television in their field of expertise was a celebrity then my own family has a celebrity in it. I have a lot of personal friends who are celebrities too. LOL

I never sent a gift to a celebrity, tho I did write Ringo Starr a letter once. Professing my love. Of course he never answered!

No. They didn't ask for the gift and if someone presumes to send them something then that's up to them. This has nothing to do with courtesy.

>> Clearly, they must not be personal friends or they wouldn't be asking on a public page.

Oh, I don't think that's true at all. With the way Facebook is used, all sorts of "personal friend" things are posted publicly.

I don't think celebrities have an obligation to acknowledge everything either. An automated email response would be awkward.

In some cases, I think it's just plain weird what fans will send. I think it was Donny Osmond or Michael jackson who said he had mentioned liking fried chicken back in his younger days. A fan mailed him some and it rotted before anyone opened the package. I'd be afraid to eat anything a fan sent. Graceland has several different examples of Elvis fan art on display. I can't imagine storing all of that stuff for years. Particularly, bad art.

I do think is is nice to acknowledge some fan letters. Even if it is just a picture with a photocopied signature sent out by an assistant. It will make someone's day. I think that would make me even more of a fan if I did receive something back.

I agree, celebrities get way too much junk in the mail. Maybe they should come out and say that instead of sending me anything other that a short (very short) note etc I would prefer you to contribute to xyz charity, or support this cause, but do give a choice, or to your choice with a note coming to me.

Well, let's put this into perspective. Do ANY of US acknowledge the piles of unsolicited mail that WE get? Do you write a thank you to those so-called charities that routinely send out address labels or greeting cards, or the coupon thingys that come in the mail? I certainly don't--if it's unsolicited and I can use it, I do--but without payment or acknowledgement. If it's something I don't need/can't use/can't donate--it goes into the trash.

I can't see that a fan sending an unsolicited gift to a 'celebrity' (although I'm not sure this particular person is one) is any different from the junk mail we all get every day of the week.

I do consider Candice Olson a celebrity. She has her own television show, has written several books and has her own product line. I watch her show periodically.. but didn't even realize she sold stuff till this thread.

I don't think she owes any fan a thank you for unsolicited gifts. A super-celebrity like Robert Pattinson or Taylor Swift might get hundreds of 'gifts' every week ranging from something as simple as a pressed flower to something much more elaborate and expensive. How long would it take to send thank-yous to all those people? Sure, it'd be nice.. but I don't think it's realistic.

I'm a big HGTV fan so of course I know who Candice Olson is. (From your screen name, you must be a fan, too.) Plus she has a column in our local newpaper's home section. I love her design ideas. I'd be willing to bet the gift donor was hoping to grab her attention and get a free room makeover. Hmm, if I thought it'd work, I'd do it myself!! Chances are she never saw the "gift".

It is sort of creepy to send a stranger a gift, isn't it? And no, celebritites do enough for us by entertaining us. They don't owe us anything.

There seems to be a consensus that a public figure needn't acknowledge unsolicited gifts. I really had no idea how posters would feel about this. I don't know anything about the psychology of an adult fan who sends a gift to a celebrity, but I suspect that they would do it to evoke some sort of response, but maybe not. I did see today that Sarah Richardson (another televised designer, Wildchild) publicly thanked one of her fans on Facebook for a gift that they sent.

Patti43, I used to be an HGTV fan several years ago, but the channel doesn't air much that appeals to me these days.

Azzalea, You have an interesting prospective. I'm not sure that a fan's gift can be equated with junk mail, but I'm not famous. Maybe a celebrity would feel as you do.

Suzieque, I'm not a member of Facebook, but it seems to me that if I were a public figure, I would have a private identity for my friends and family in addition to my public figure page. Is that not possible?

Jannie, Loved your response...sorry Ringo didn't at least send you a picture.

Thank you all for your perspectives. If there's anybody out there with an opposing opinion, I'd love to see a post from you.

Absolutely not!

I have no idea who Candice Olson is. But to the ones who say absolutely not to "unsolicited gifts", then you don't feel if your friends or relatives give you a gift, unsolicited you don't feel a need to thank them? Occasionally I see someone send something to another person on the forum who is a total stranger but generally I see expectations of response there.

To me, it depends on what the gift is. I do think that if someone is star stature, they may well not see most of what might be sent. This is much like the hoopla about if you get a bad french fry at McDonalds you should send a nasty letter to the CEO of the company and expect a personal response!

I do feel there's limits on courtesies. Many people claim an expectation to be an expected courtesy. Sometimes to not say what could be said is a very big courtesy!

That said, it's also pretty lame to try to claim, I could be a victim of a stalker and bringing up John Lennon over a little gift it stretching it quite a bit AFAIC.

I'd feel an automated reply to an email or letter would be appropriate in a lot of situations, again depending on the status or "level" of the person's "celebrity". But for something mailed, I'm not too sure, again it would depend on what the item is. The address label analogy in this case is a good one.

Just because someone has an email address, facebook, myspace or for that matter a postal address doesn't mean they need to answer everything. I feel a real frustration when I see someone post blasting a company (or person) because "I emailed them and they NEVER ANSWERED ME!!!!!"

So back to the question of obligation. I don't see a definitive answer to it, there's just too many variables.

If you get a Thank-you that is cloaked for privacy do you feel thanked? "Gifts" to celebrities are often a ruse just to get their address. It opens doors for stalking. Why would you send a gift to a celebrity? They NEED it? You KNOW them? The entire concept is odd. It tells the world you are odd or ill.

I'm sorry, Arcy, but I have to disagree with your assessment that someone who sends a gift to a celebrity is odd or ill. Celebrities provide entertainment or education and a person may wish to show their appreciation for the celebrity's efforts. Most fans' admiration and appreciation do not escalate to stalking.

Cynic, you made some interesting points. I guess that I feel a bit like you do, that a celebrity (or their staff) should take the time to acknowledge a gift even if it is with a standardized E-mail or form letter. I think the goodwill generated by such a gesture far outweighs the cost.

I love Marie-ndcal's idea of a celebrity identifying a charity for fans to support in the celebrity's name. That could be a winning solution for everyone involved.

Do you have any idea how much stuff some celebrities get? They would have to quit entertaining and hire people to help them do thank you's (even via email). Do you know the costs involved in that? When was the last time you wrote a hundred thank yous in one day? Would you like to quit your day job to do that every day? If you were a celebrity and had a little free time, would you write thank you's or go visit sick kids in the hospital?

Seriously; I would expect the president to send me a thank card for me voting for him before I would expect a celebrity to have to send a thank you. And, if it's that big of a gift that it should be acknowledged..a car or something grand..then the giver probably is a little scary. No body should be giving big gifts to people they don't personally know. Why are people giving celebrities things..they generally have enough money to buy whatever they want and need.

I'm really not seeing a situation where a thank you would be called for. I would think 90% of gifts are crush related -generally given with no respect to the fact that the celebrity is probably already attached or married -- And, the other 10% of gifts, I really do think are just from odd or ill or self-absorbed people.

I mean there are always exceptions but...Maybe you could give your specifics, forhgtv... what did this person give to who and why?

Carla35, I'm sorry, but I don't have any specifics. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the question was raised in my mind by a Facebook post I happened across on a public figure's page. I believe most celebrities used to have publicists who had staffs to respond to fan mail and gifts. Maybe they don't these days.

the media and the entertainment business in the olden days was extremely different. today, celebrities are out in so many more venues.. they don't need to respond to fans to gain momentum or stardom like they did back then.

Do you think the president (if he could get a hold of the names) should send the people who voted for him a thank you? Even on his own dime, should he hired the staff to do so? I would vote for that before I would vote for celebrity thank yous.

It doesn't really matter what was done back then. I think it would just be plain dumb for a celebrity or his publicist/staff to spend so much time, money and effort thanking people for unsolicited gifts especially when a large percentage of those people "today" may have issues.