Years ago when my mother was still alive and we still exchanged Christmas gifts with my brother and sister in law, my brother gave my DH a bottle of Jim Beam. DH does not and has never drunk bourbon. Brother got it back the following year.

When my SIL worked as a traffic guard, she received various little token gifts from the moms. She would pass them on to me. They were things that I weren’t to my taste. I caught on after a while.

I used to receive a platter of dried fruit and nuts each year from my sister. I always passed it along to someone who I knew liked these things.

For the most part, if I regift, I will pass it on to someone who would I know will appreciate it. I will tell them and it is not used as a gift for an occasion. It is just passed along for them to enjoy.

One of my sisters worked in a hospital. The various teams of nurses, OT’s OT’s extra would give each other baskets for the holidays. One basket wound up coming back to them. One they gave a few years back.

I don't know that I have been regifted anything but may have. We do Christmas gift swaps at work, Secret Santa. I received a bath set from a co-worker and it had an expiry date on it. It expired a year earlier. So it was either regifted, or she had it for so long she finally decided to give it to someone or she bought it that way not knowing it expired.

When I turned 30, my husbands cousin threw me a surprise birthday party. When she phoned my mother in law (her aunty), my mother in law asked, "do we have to buy her a present?" Really????? Anyway, she went to a second hand store and bought me a used wooden shoe that once held a bottle of liquor and a piece of delft blue. Don't get me wrong, I liked them, but who buys someone something used for their birthday. A few months later when it was my brother in laws girlfriends birthday (they had just started dating), my mother in law gave her a beautiful brand new gold ring with the girls birthstone in it.

Debby - hmmmmm. What's up with that?

As poor graduate students, we had a do-it-yourself wedding reception at our townhouse apartment. One of our wedding gifts still had old wrapping paper taped to the box which had been covered over with new. We're still using that harvest gold Hamilton Beach crockpot 42 years later!

Like eld6161, if I receive a gift I know I won't use, I do try to pass it along to someone who will. But not as a gift, per se.

No regifting. I used to return everything. ☺ You've seen the return lines after Christmas. I had store credit at Target. We'd buy batteries for the smoke detectors.......that sort of thing.

I have received wines as gifts at work before, but I don’t drink. So I regifted them. It saved me time to buy gifts for the people who love to drink. :-) Everyone was happy! Shared the Holiday cheers!

My brother used to bring his teacher gifts to Christmas morning to share. Not to give as gifts, just to share. Except the gift cards, he kept the gift cards.

I got a gift for Christmas one year. An item of clothing I liked. No tags. I later accidently overheard a conversation where the giver told someone that I never guessed it was a re-gift from the Christmas before. I was kind of stunned. I have never re-gifted. I have given away unwanted gifts as such later in the year.

Sometimes. It depends. I don't re-gift anything that looks like a regift.

No & no.

Only thing I remember was something that another person loved but I did not.

Nope, never have regifted. I have an aunt who is super cheap and regifts prolifically. IDK if she has given me previously given items, would not surprise me. All her gifts go to Goodwill anyway. She does not make the slightest effort. She detests parting with money.

In my younger days, a group of us got together to celebrate the holiday every year and have a rob-your-neighbor gift exchange. As relatively poor, post grad college students or just starting our careers, these gifts tended to be on the joke side rather than costly or useful items. One that made the rounds for a number of years was a toilet seat (new, not used!!) and a lot of effort went into the wrapping to disguise what might have been inside :-) So yes, I have regifted and been regifted myself.....but all in fun!

Years ago for my first marriage we received some gifts that were either duplicates or I just didn't need or want them... I used to "shop" in my basement all the time! lol Of course everything was brand new.

Now I have nothing to re-gift. I rarely get anything I don't want or use but if I do, I will give it to one of my daughters, but not as a gift.

This thread reminds me of DH’s aunt who would always give old used gifts. Most not appropriate.

She gave a wallet in an old worn box as an 80 th birthday gift.

She gave me an unfinished planter that she made in a craft class.

She once gave my DD a rusty pin.

Her husband was an orthodontist and was also the director at a teaching hospital. They had money.

I get buying cute things and saving them for when an occasion comes up.

But, please nothing so old or used.

It makes me wonder. Do they actually think this is appropriate or do they think we are too stupid to realize that these have been laying around or already been used for a long while.

One time though, we were visiting this aunt after her husband passed away.

She offered us various Knick knacks to choose.

Eld, I don't think people like that give the issue a second thought. They have an obligation to present a gift and they find the cheapest way of doing it. My aunt has plenty of money, and honestly in this day and age, cheap, decent gifts are easy to find.

I re-gifted one time. One early January day I was walking DS in his buggy and met a new neighbor who was doing the same with her boy. She was feeling lonely, and...no one in her family had remembered her birthday! I invited her to come to my home for a cup of coffee in an hour and quickly wrapped a small vase I'd been given as a housewarming gift -- still in its box. It may have been the best gift I ever gave anyone. We've been friends for nearly 50 years now.

Yes, I have re-gifted. Generally it's for a hostess gift, it has to be something I like, is useful, just not needed by me. If it's something that doesn't meet my criteria, I donate it to a charity resale shop. I have received what I am sure are re-gifted items as hostess gifts.

No. I pass stuff on with the knowledge that I received it and don't want it.

not guilty

Teaching, I regifted some of the students gifts, using them as extra gifts, not main gifts. These were Christmas gifts. My family always gave lots of gifts, so I used them as extras.

"It makes me wonder. Do they actually think this is appropriate or do
they think we are too stupid to realize that these have been laying
around or already been used for a long while."

Yes & yes.

I had a lovely FIL who gave us masses of gifts. Some were just what I always wanted and some were 'what on earth'. I put all the 'what would I do with that' gifts in a big box and that is where I started when I needed a gift. He wasnt cheap and his gifts were nice but not always something I would use. I liked to link a nice gift with the right person. I also like old stuff and enjoy getting some ancient kitchen gadget or decorative doohicky. That it has history is to me a plus. I honestly dont get the allure of being fresh out of a store when it comes to a gift. How does that make a nice thing more special?

Debby

....< >....

When I turned 30, my husbands cousin threw me a surprise birthday party. When she phoned my mother in law (her aunty), my mother in law asked, "do we have to buy her a present?" Really????? Anyway, she went to a second hand store and bought me a used wooden shoe that once held a bottle of liquor and a piece of delft blue. Don't get me wrong, I liked them, but who buys someone something used for their birthday. A few months later when it was my brother in laws girlfriends birthday (they had just started dating), my mother in law gave her a beautiful brand new gold ring with the girls birthstone in it.

~``

Hi Debby -- I get that your mother in law is kind of cheap --(do we have to buy a present?)

But iI picture a wooden shoe AND she bought a piece of Delft? Or was it just the package the liquor bottle came in Delft and shoe minus bottle? It isn't really used, it's just sold as-is.

But because of that "do we have to" -- I'm not giving her any points even if it was a creative gift!

As I think about it, blanket negativity associated with regifting seems overblown. A thoughtless gift is a thoughtless gift. I can go to the store and pick up an "anybody" gift and it will be new and unappreciated by the recipient. Or I can have a never used gift that will be perfect for the birthday girl. Who cares where I got it?

I agree that recycling a new, unused gift is a positive, not a negative action. Should I instead return the one I was given to the store and buy the same thing to give away? That makes no sense to me.

One time I gave my sister in law and book that I had already read. I bought it new and it looked pristine. Bad me. Other than that, I can’t think of anything that I gave away without saying that it was something I had received and would never use.

My friend went to a wedding shower and gave the bride a gift that she had received for her own wedding. Unfortunately she forgot to take the card out and the bride reads it “Dear Richard and Kathy” which was my friend and her husband, not the bride.

Not so much, I'm having trouble thinking of things I may have regifted. Maybe a hostess gift - I know I've been given scented candles I wasn't especially interested in, and with the heat pump in my former house if I did try to burn a candle I would always have a flickering issue not present in this house with its radiant heat. I know I wrapped and took one to the woman at the tree farm where we cut our Christmas tree most years that had been given to me, I didn't buy it.

Our state college has a creamery with cheeses DH likes. He was given a tin of cheddar on his birthday one year (my niece) that still had a gift card made out to her on the underside. Woops.

LOL!! If regifting, very bad form not to check thoroughly for hidden gift cards or old wrapping paper :-)

One of our cabinet makers gave me a brown tie at Christmas, and since I do not wear brown, I gave it to someone else who liked it. A lot of gifts that are given at work are not all that personal, and so I don't feel bad about regifting those.

I don't think gifts have to be new. My sister and I have given each other used books, and as long as they are in pristine condition, we both agree that they are good gifts.

One year I gave my sister a cashmere coat that I had found in a free-box in San Francisco (I had it cleaned first, of course), and she loved it. I never told her where I got it. It would have been an expensive coat to buy. I would never give anything used to my mother, however. I don't require any gifts that I receive to be new.

I used to make a lot of the gifts that I gave, as it was cheaper, but people still liked them. I made a really nice nightshirt for my BIL one year (I drew his name in our Christmas lottery), but my sister stole it from him. She's bad that way.

A friend of mine once gave me a scarf for Christmas. While it was pretty, I'm not one to wear scarfs and 2 the color matched nothing with the clothes I wear. Week later a coworker friend was moving out of state and she wore scarfs every day. I gave it to her as going away gift knowing she would love it.

Yes, from the crap in my MIL's basement.

I don’t know if I have or I haven’t. I’ve gotten things that made no sense to me from people who know me really well so probably. Personally, I never regift anything to anyone. If I’m going to give someone a gift, it’s because I care about that person and I want to give them something that isn’t just an after thought.

What I do sometimes though, is to pass something on with full disclosure that I got it as a gift but it wasn’t my taste or whatever.

Lars, I didn't mean that all gifts have to be new, just that items I intend to regift should be unused by me, excluding antiques or precious items, of course.

I'm somewhat amused that posters who would certainly say that they subscribe to the tenets of "reduce, reuse and recycle" are the same ones who wouldn't be willing to give a perfectly good item as a gift simply because it wasn't originally purchased for the gift recipient.

No never regifted. I have no idea if I have received any.

Oh, I've been the recipient of a re-gifting at Christmas. I received the same item I'd given the previous year. At least I was not remembered as the giver of a bad gift.

I have not re-gifted.

Years ago we were in a time crunch to get a baby gift and my wife grabbed a Tiffany silver teething ring that we had never opened. Thank God one of us took a closer look at it as it was engraved with my son’s name. That would’ve been bad! That day we swore we’d never regift.

That said, I don’t see a problem with it if it’s given with thought. If someone gives me $50 and I give that same $50 to someone else, anything wrong? Now is that different than doing it with a gift card? Or with a sweatshirt that I like but doesn’t fit me, that I think someone else will enjoy? Pawning crap off on people because it was pawned off on you is quite another story. Oh and one thing I don’t hesitate to regift is alcohol. Not everyone knows I don’t drink anymore, so if they give me a bottle that isn’t a useful addition to my rather stagnant liquor cabinet, why not pass it on to someone who would like it? If it’s a carp bottle I’d not do that.

Nothing re-gifted springs to mind, either on the giving or receiving end. However, me and my family are notorious for re-using gift bags & wrappings, so we have had instances of "That's really for (you), not for (name written on little card hanging on bag)".

Here's another twist on re-gifting. I am giving my granddaughters pendants for Christmas that my mother gave me. Today I purchased new chains for each pendant. The irony is that the chains probably cost more than my mother paid for the pendant necklace.

One year my sister and BIL sent DH & I the ugliest Anniversary card she could find. I saved that sucker and sent it back to them on their anniversary. The card went back and forth a few years until she lost it.

Yes I re gifted a few unwanted, unreturnable wedding gifts. In my mind a regift is a new item in the original box. I did send a 80 year old book on housekeeping as part of a wedding gift once. The groom was known to enjoy vintage books.

A elderly Cousin gave me obviously old silver servieng pieces as wedding shower and wedding gifts. One I donated after some years of disliking it. The other item I use often and think of Cousin being on a fixed income so she shopped from her china cabinet.

P.S. Can anyone here explain to me how to put a photo next to my name on these posts? I thought I figured it out but nothing sticks.

My friend re gifted a PH Changs gift certificate to her son and his girlfriend. When they were done with their meal and handed in the card, they found out that there was only $4 and change on the card and they didn't have money for the meal. They had to call my friend, tell her what happened and she had to resolve the issue over the phone. I would have died right there!

I will say that I pretty much always regift gift cards, if I ever receive any. I hate receiving them, as so little thought goes into them, and yet I do know people who like to receive them, and so I pass them on.

I do not, however, regift money, if I happen to receive that.

I have passed on things that I could or would not use but not as a gift so much as, I thought you would enjoy this, would you like it?

My first marriage was during a crystal vase and picture frame phase. I did use extras to deliver flowers to a new mom or someone who was ill. I had beautiful gardens then and could bring a gorgeous arrangement that I couldn’t afford otherwise.

I also would take photos at a wedding and frame and send. It was in addition to the actual gift after the wedding.

Sadly, yes, I've been the recipient.

I had given 2 girlfriends each a set of aromatherapy candles for Christmas, since I knew they both loved candles. Well, next Christmas one friend re-gifted her set to me and for my birthday, the other friend re-gifted to me.

I am still befuddled - was it such a bad gift or had they forgotten I'd given it in the first place? Or both.

Anyway, I suggested that this Christmas we not hold our annual gift exchange in light of the pandemic, yada yada.

I'm picky, enjoy a minimalist lifestyle and have spent much of my life in a very small apartment. My way of "re-gifting" has always been to put unwanted gifts (probably about 80% of the gifts I receive) in a bag to keep them clean, and deposit it in a trash bin on my corner which I know gets picked through by homeless people. Some of those gifts I'm sure had been expensive; like a new coat, jewelry, household goods etc. I'm happy to get the stuff out of my apartment and whoever finds it is probably pretty happy, too.

I re-gifted a few at a grab bag party. People brought things in exchange for other things. I was open about downsizing because I was moving, and had to Marie Condo a couple gifts out of my life. But this was also a party where the idea was to trade off things they already owned, so perhaps this doesn't count. (I only went home with one object, a scarf - and I found homes there for the objects I was in some sense, re-gifting.)

Yes I think I've been on both the giving and receiving end.

When I was working, I'd give a lot of speeches, so people would give me thank you gifts. One was a crystal salad bowl which was very nice, but for which I had no use. A woman at work was getting married and they threw her a work wedding shower, so I gave it to her.

Another friend has an xmas party each year with a yankee swap so you end up with stuff you may or may not like. I got something or other...don't remember now...but it was holiday thing that I then used as a hostess gift for someone else during the holidays.

My GF gets together with her other friends for xmas and they purposely exchange ugly regifts...the worse the better. I gave her an ugly scarf I'd received as a gift for her to use in her regift exchange. She said it was a real "winner".