AIBU - Do you re-gift unwanted Birthday / Christmas presents?

[OCM19]

As the title suggests - I would be interested to know who re-gift unwanted presents and who thinks it's unreasonable .

Regifting says you don’t give a shit, you’re cheap or can’t be arsed. It’s an insult.

Of course it doesn't!
If I'm given a gift that I'm not bothered about or won't use but I know my friend Delia would love it, if makes sense to regift it to her.

It depends on what you regift and if you think about it rather than generically regift.

We all have different tastes, I don't like bubbleBath Bath bombs sunglasses etc but do like face cream. My BFF loves a Bath so I set it aside to add to her pressie as she'll appreciate it and she regifts moisturisers to me

Anything I don't want, that isn't suitable to regift as not sure who's like it , I give away or to charity. If you are given something nice but know someone else would appreciate it more and it's Meh to you, then it's
sensible, eco friendly rather than wasteful And shows you know your friends and family well.

I often notice people give what they would like, so mentally it goes in my list as to get them something similar next year

If it's my mum, I regift it for her birthday with a huge saying "I knew you really wanted it!" But then that's an injoke as she does it to me!

@RepentBirthingPersonFucker

TheSpiral I'm interested in your phrase catholic taste and what it means. Do you have a cupboard full of plastic hail Mary's like my family

I mean it in the sense of including a wide variety of things, all embracing although I wouldn’t say no to some of the things you can get in Lourdes.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=catholic+meaning&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

Yes, I do re-gift only if I think it's suitable. beauty sets go into school raffles etc, but I find I get less of those nowadays. My re-gifting has usually been jewellery. My late friend insisted on buying me necklaces and watches with diamantes - she had never seen me in either. Every year I would say 'please don't buy me anything - make me one of your cakes (she was a wonderful baker) instead but come Christmas it would be another necklace that she had spent hours choosing. Thankfully, I have a SIL in abroad who loves silver cat curly necklaces and wears them often. And her teenage daughters wear the watches.

Last Christmas, she bought me another necklace - I kept it and wore it more than I thought I would - by March she was gone with a late diagnosed terminal cancer. That last necklace means so much now.

“Certainly, the point of gift giving for special occasions is not to get rid of stuff you don't want, it's to make a special effort to choose, buy, or make a gift for the recipient.”

This it actually makes me cringe to think people will just pass on any old thing that they don’t want. Gifts should be given with thought and care. Regifting says you don’t give a shit, you’re cheap or can’t be arsed. It’s an insult.

The problem with that is that a good chunk of the gifts given with apparent thought and care by the donor are, despite these kind intentions, not actually of any use or benefit to the recipient. There's a great deal of wasted effort and resources involved with present giving. Which makes me wonder, what do you think people ought to do with unwanted gifts? If they're not passed on in some capacity, either as a formal present or to a charity shop, they're either going to get chucked or uselessly take up space and gather dust.

@Banani

I tend to just send it to the charity shop. If it was something I knew someone would particularly like I might give it to them, but as a random extra present, not in place of a birthday/Christmas gift I’d be buying anyway

This is exactly what I do. Although with any of the gifts that are double ups for my children, we do regift those (lego sets for instance)

Charity shop for clothes, bags, home stuff, books. Toiletries and food/drink to the food bank. I have some in laws who love to buy lots and lots of tat for me that has no relation to my tastes or interests but hopefully someone gets a bargain and the charity makes some money!

When DS1 was little and had all class parties - he would get duplicate presents - I kept them and gave them to other children ( but to family children - not from the class ) if they were nice ( the presents - not the children .

Nowadays kindly meant but unwanted presents which are of no joy to us go to the charity shop if they are in mint condition.

Class teachers often receive - interesting - gifts, sometimes with the donor proudly exclaiming "I chose it myself!". A teacher friend of mine had a wonderful system set up with her DM; their schools were not close, so dubious items could safely go to the other school's tombola/fayre etc. The only worry was wondering if it would end up being given to another teacher, having been pounced upon as "just the thing!"

I often see 'Best Teacher in the World' type coffee mugs in charity shops.

This ^^ it actually makes me cringe to think people will just pass on any old thing that they don’t want. Gifts should be given with thought and care.

And many people don’t put much thought in about the receiver and tend to buy what they like and think the receiver should like it because they do. I hear it every time working retail “Oh if they don’t like it they could just give it to me.” after I’ve asked if they’ll need a gift receipt. What’s the point of purchasing it? Why not just buy something you know the person likes? If you have a good relationship, you should at least know what they like and don’t like right? Isn’t part of any relationship paying attention to the people you care about?

Because people buy generic female and male gifts.
I don't know anyone who is delighted by a baying and hardless or lynks gift set.

No because I always know when someone has done this to me and I’d just rather they didn’t bother at all. It feels like a really cheap thing to do and I never want the regifted items anyway. My Mum did it last Christmas with some crappy Fearne Cotton set, it had wanky things like an eye mask and ‘self care timer’ in it, I never used it and I knew it was a regifted item.

These made me giggle.
It's just as bad when you love something (for me it's cats). Roll on Christmas and I've unwrapped a cat teapot, cat stacking tea cups, 3 cat ornaments, a cat pot planter and a few pairs of cat print pyjamas... from one person.

I have not done so in the past but am considering it. In the summer a friend of DH's invited himself to stay for 8 days as he was working in our area. As a hostess gift he gave me a ncie quite lucry item that I would ordinarily love.

But in the course of the week he revealed that he was pocketing the accommodation expenses his work was giving him as staying at ours was 'free' ; he never once took us out even for a drink and we bought 2 restaurant meals out and I cooked and he let slip that the gift he had been given to me had been given to his highflying hedge fund manager wife at the 2019 office christmas party.

I am tempted to sell it on ebay (the item goes for circa £50) but will probably just regift it.

(He is also never going to be permitted to stay at ours ever again... not just for this set of crass behaviours but for alot of other things he did while he was with us as well and how he spoke to me).

But as a habit, no I do not regift. I might leave things around for years then charity shop them though.

*luxury