What are you re-gifting?

[Sunspace]

@matt_mcl

Regifting (I still hate the word) isn’t thoughtless. What’s thoughtless is allowing the original giver to know that you did.

Possibly yes.

But on the other hand, I can see someone giving you the same hideous thing each year for ten years, and then when you finally snap and throw it through the living-room window with a curse, say, “Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t like it before?”

It’s a gift. Whether you give it again or not is no business of the giver, though it might not be the best idea to give it back to the original giver on another occasion. If you want to get classical, you could just call it a mathom.

(I, too, hate “gift” as a verb.)

[Lynne_kilii]

@Septima

I’d love it.

Oh dear. Where are you? (feel free to PM btw). If you’d like, I’ll find something nice and send in return, so the shipping will even out. We’ll have our own private Regifters Anonymous exchange. Anything Scandinavian you’d like to have? I’d offer a bottle of home-made mead, but I’m not sure it travels well.

System said I couldn’t PM you, for some reason. I live in Denver, Colorado, USA. Where would I even start to find international shipping information?

[Nawth_Chucka]

@Lynne_kilii

System said I couldn’t PM you, for some reason. I live in Denver, Colorado, USA. Where would I even start to find international shipping information?

My Google-fu, it gifts to you.

Here’s some more info.

This year, I’m giving an unopened box of Godiva to friends at a dinner party. I don’t need that in my house as we try to lose weight!!

[matt_mcl]

@Sunspace

But on the other hand, I can see someone giving you the same hideous thing each year for ten years, and then when you finally snap and throw it through the living-room window with a curse, say, “Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t like it before?”

a) it’s questionable to give someone the same gift repeatedly (exceptions include cookies and wine).

b) The solution to this situation is to find tactful ways to make your tastes known. If the person is enough of an intimate to give you gifts repeatedly, they should be able to pick up on such things. If not, you sigh, say “It’s the thought” &c. to yourself, deal with the horrible misfortune of being given stuff by people who like you, and give that sucker away.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@matt_mcl

a) it’s questionable to give someone the same gift repeatedly (exceptions include cookies and wine).

b) The solution to this situation is to find tactful ways to make your tastes known. If the person is enough of an intimate to give you gifts repeatedly, they should be able to pick up on such things. If not, you sigh, say “It’s the thought” &c. to yourself, deal with the horrible misfortune of being given stuff by people who like you, and give that sucker away.

Each year, I ask my parents if they’d like something different from the usual. Each year, they say that they LOVE the ham, dried fruits, and nuts I send, and that there’s nothing else they really want. The ham and/or turkey that I send are part of the Christmas dinner for the family, so I am there in spirit. The nuts and dried fruits don’t get shared!

[Sublight]

A soundtrack CD from the movie City of God.

I bought it a few years back as a birthday gift for my wife (since she loved the movie), but she already had it. So we kept it sealed and decided it would be a decent Christmas gift for my aunt and uncle who have eclectic world music tastes. That was last year.

This year, we opened the package from them and found sweaters and three CDs: Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, and a soundtrack from the movie City of God.

Whoops.

Oh well, I have a friend who likes Brazilian music, so he’s getting it with full knowledge of its re-re-re-gifted history.

[Enright3]

My wife was given a little gizmo called The Poo- Lar Bear. It’s pretty funny actually. It’s a little polar bear you fill with jelly beans. When you push on the bear’s butt out pops a jelly bean. I gave it as a White Elephant gift. Do White Elephant gifts count (aka yankee gift exchange, aka Chinese Gift Exchange)?