Reviewing the rules

on Christmas regifting
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

After-holidays lines at customer service desks may be a little less hectic in 2008.

No, everyone didn’t get exactly what they wanted for Christmas, and in the right color and size; instead, it’s becoming more acceptable to stash away the unwanted item and give it to someone else next year. While practically everyone has at one time or another received gifts that were later shuffled off to thrift shops, where fondue sets proliferate, “regifting” is now out of the closet and actually becoming a cottage industry, spawning a Web site, marketing surveys, and even its own “day.”

Regifting involves passing along gifts to someone else, usually unopened and sometimes even still in the original wrapping paper. The latest survey on the trend was conducted by Money Management International, which designated Dec. 20 as National Regifting Day and found that people are more likely to view their regifting as a favor to the recipient than as a way to save money. According to this year’s survey, 62 percent of regifters say they engage in the practice because they think the recipient will enjoy it. This high-minded reason is now given by 9 percent more people than last year. However, more people also admit they do it to save money, with about four in 10 people saying that’s why they recycle their presents.

Who are the lucky beneficiaries? While some people keep presents wrapped, warm and ready to go in the event of surprise visitors on holiday eve, the gifts are just as likely to be passed on to coworkers or friends, who are the targeted recipients 41 percent of the time. And don’t think that only casual acquaintances get a retread gift. If the old saying “Charity begins at home” has any merit, then family members can take heart that they are just as likely as anyone to receive such a twice-given gift as coworkers are.

Love, of course, is priceless, but also offers money saving-opportunities, since 12 percent reported regifting presents for a significant other. More than half of Americans think regifting is becoming more accepted, and 14 percent even embrace it as a form of preemptive recycling.

Regifting tests another old saying, “It is better to give than receive.” Less than 10 percent of those surveyed said they would feel angry or cheated if they found out they’d been given a regift, and 18 percent would be grateful.

Money Management International even promotes taking the practice one step beyond a sly attempt to shorten shopping trips. It encourages people to throw regifting parties where participants each bring an unwanted gift and swap around. Sometimes the stakes are raised in the manner of a television game show, with the recipient accepting the gift or else opting to pass it on and take the next one.

The Web site www.regiftable.com even offers gift tags that can be printed out for regifted items, bearing the slogan “Reduce, reuse, recycle...regift.” However, there are unwritten ethical considerations for the practice: a regifted item should be new and in its original packaging. You should never regift a one-of-a-kind gift, such as a handmade or personalized item. But Rule Number One is to be sure you know who gave you the gift, so you don’t return something to the original giver.

Money Managament International is a credit counseling company that helps people avoid or reduce debt. In addition to regifting, it encourages such notions as ungifting, multigifting, postgifting and nongifting. If all else fails and you just can’t escape the season of giving, there are always local charities. And, as MMI notes, cash gifts are seldom returned and are always in the right style and season.