Stories of Regiftmas
From ReGiftmas - The Holiday That Keeps on Giving
Tales of ReGiftmas Past
"I once regifted just to see how it felt. Of course the huggy bear sweater was my size but I felt deeply that a retired neighbor (that commonly ran his leaf blower at 4:30 in the morning) needed it more than I. After the shame and guilt swept over me like an Indonesian tsunami, I noticed this unique regift at the mall worn by someone else. Regifting is almost like a parable for a gift that inspires the giftee to give as well. May be regifting is more of a gift than we think. I have a Claxton in the freezer from 1964 that I plan to regift this year. The '64 cakes were particularly solid and should be easy to spot as a re-regift. I will be checking doorstops and freezers all over town. My thinking is that this whole regifting phenomenon will end up tying into the theory of 6 degrees of separation." -- Mark Emery
"Each year I receive a number of gifts from sales reps that I deal with for my business. A couple of years ago, each sales rep brought the same gift (A gold box of Esther Price chocolates). I was given box after box (a total of 8 boxes). I decided to re-gift some of them to friends and family. I didn't know is that one of the companies had switched ... See Moreout the normal chocolates for a large custom bar with their logo on it. I found out when the friends I gifted it to opened the box at the special party they had at their home--in front of all their guests." -- Liane Wagner
"Christmas is a time of happiness, family, and opening great presents. I was attending a little Christmas party with some friends and neighbors. We each brought a small dish of food, and a inexpensive present. I brought a very nice coffee mug from up north, it was a very pretty blue. After an hour of mingling and appetizers we decided to open presents. A few people had opened their presents and it was Cathy's turn, she was a woman, I had only met that day. She tore her paper to reveal a very nice, embroidered blanket with some hand stitched flowers on it. It was beautiful. It was a re-gift. It used to be mine. I had sewn and given that present to a friend last Christmas, and apparently, it just hadn't gone with the decor of her house well enough. It was terrible that a present made with so much love had been cast off so easily, and so carelessly given to someone else. I found out that Rita had brought the gift, and that she was good friends with the woman I had originally given the gift to. To top off the party I opened my gift and found a green woolen sweater. I am very allergic to wool." -- Donna Leeward
"One time I re-gifted a Coffee mug ( I don't drink coffee), what I didn't know was that the people had engraved my name on it. The poor person i had re-gifted it to politely returned the gift and said that I must have accidentally sent the wrong gift. It was quite embarrassing." -- Ali L.
As someone who has filmed scientists tagging wildlife in sometimes odd and unusual ways it has been brought to my attention that perhaps tagging gifts to follow the regifting process more closely would be appropriate. Spraying large tracking numbers like IAM666 on the hide of a stuffed bear for instance would be off putting, clipping fins on a fish pillow or a little mermaid doll would probably be a signal to the new recipient of the gift that something was amuck. I still feel there is room here for science such as it is, I am thinking more of visual tracking. At Geographic we use small cameras called Critter cams. These could give us a visual record of where the gift ends up and how it is used. In the case of a more personal gift, say underarm deodorant or boxer briefs, a simple GPS tracking device would likely be more palatable.-- Mark Emery
