Regifting as an artform
Author: Karen
Date: 08/20/2008
Occasion: No specific occasion
My stepmother has a whole system for regifting. She has a cabinet filled with goofy presents she gets over the years, and whenever she has a new gift giving occasion, it`s the first place she looks for a gift. She also keeps a detailed list of who gave her what and who she gave it to, to make sure no one will ever know they`ve been regifted. Unfortunately for her, or me, I recently moved in with her and my father and happened across her cabinet. She explained to me her whole scheme seeming quite proud of herself that is until she pulled out her list. She tried to gloss over it, perhaps realizing her mistake, but I got a good look at it. Right smack at the bottom of the list was my name; here she had regifted to me the previous Christmas some candles from a friend of hers. I never would have known if she didn`t keep such a detailed recording of all her regiftings. I never said anything to her about it, but now I always pay attention to what goes in and out of that cabinet.

Fitting punishment
Author: Anonymous
Date: 08/20/2008
Occasion: Birthday
My younger sister was going to a friend - Rachel`s - birthday party and did not have time to buy a gift. I had just celebrated my own birthday a couple of months prior and had been given a pretty bad purse - totally not my style - which was nonreturnable. Rachel had kind of funky taste, so I gave my sister the purse to regift. Rachel loved it, and everyone was happy. About a month later, I went out to dinner with a bunch of friends - including my friend, Kelly, who had given me the purse -and ran into Rachel at the restaurant. Rachel was carrying the purse, which Kelly immediately noticed and asked her how she liked it. When Rachel commented that my sister had given her the perfect gift, Kelly looked over at me and I was totally busted. Kelly`s feelings were hurt, but she forgave me when I apologized profusely. Now she gives me the ugliest purse she can find every year for my birthday. A fitting punishment! :)

Experienced regifter
Author: Bob
Date: 08/20/2008
Occasion: Wedding / Christmas
I’ve experienced many re-gifting situations throughout various holidays throughout my life, but one just sticks out. I gave my sister, Kristen, a blender for her wedding gift because I thought no one else would buy her that for her new home. She thanked me for it and seemed like she was really happy and all for being given it. The wedding was in May and it was really fun. Then Christmas came along and I was really excited to spend time with my family and give them gifts. So Christmas day came a long and I opened up a gift from my sister and what was it?! It was the blender! She didn’t admit that it was the same blender but I knew that it was! Bob - Medford, MA

Teddy Bears and ex boyfriends
Author: Ashley
Date: 05/15/2008
Occasion: Boyfriends
I guess the discovery of this regifting happened in an odd way. My friend Lee had just started seeing this guy. For some reason, she wanted to befriend his ex-girlfriend to find out the scoop on him. Obviously, she didn\`t tell the ex that she was the new girlfriend. She eventually told her, and the ex took it surprisingly well. Later on, Lee showed the ex a picture of the Teddy Bear he got her for Valentine\`s Day. Little to her surprise, the bear originally was a present to him from the ex! That must have been pretty humiliating!! Ashley – Salisbury, NC

Cheapo Gets Caught
Author: Daniel
Date: 05/15/2008
Occasion: Many
I am certainly not proud to say that I am a little cheap when it comes to gift giving, so when I got married I received so much stuff that I do not need that I saved some of it for future gifts. Most of the gifts I received were not labeled so when my mother in law celebrated her birthday I decided to pick one of them and we picked a pressure cooker since we already had one, she received it and was happy but later we found out she is all about the good brands in cookware and this particular one was not of her approval, didn´t bother me since I thought my secret was safe. Next up my mom also had her birthday and my mother in law said to me that she was going a little broke those days and asked me if she could give the pressure cooker to my mom as a gift, I said O.K. since I certainly didn´t know it was one of my mother´s gifts in the first place. The day came and when it was time to open the gifts, my mom opens up my mother in law´s present and astonished she looks at me and just plainly says: Wow! it looks like this gifts has traveled by many cheapo hands lately and with a smile gives it back to me, needless to say I was so embarassed, I almost gave up being cheap altogether! Daniel Sands Lawndale, CA

Gift Exchange
Author: Nancy
Date: 05/02/2008
Occasion: Christmas
Our family enjoys getting together for Christmas time especially when family members from out -of-town come to celebrate the season. Because there are so many of us, we decided to let the kids exchange presents and the adults would play a gifting game. It is a popular game that a lot of families play at Christmas time, everyone buys a gift and then they are all put in a pile. Each person who brings a gift gets to choose a number. Then each person selects gifts in the order of the number they picked from the hat. One of my sisters always buys unique gifts so last year I selected her gift. When I opened it, it was a casserole dish, the type that goes with a Christmas dish set. I wasn`t to thrilled but I told her I really liked it. Well it sat around my kitchen for a year and I never used it, so this year we had a gift exchange again and I wrapped up the casserole dish and put it in the pile. My sister, the same one who gave it to me, selected my gift this year!!!! I was so surprised because she usually selects someone else`s present. You can imagine my face when she picked that particular gift, I never thought she would pick that one out of the whole pile. When she opened it up she knew immediately that it was the gift she had given the year before. She was actually happy tp have it back because she said she really liked the dish and was sorry she gave it away the year before. We had a good laugh over that one. Nancy - Phoenix, Arizona

Buy gifts you like - just in case
Author: Rosetta
Date: 04/30/2008
Occasion: Christmas/Wedding
My husband and I got married in 1982 and received many gifts from family and friends. We received so many gifts that it took us a year before we got around to opening all of them. We received a gift from one of my husband’s closest friends, Colen, who was a well known musician in the area. When we opened Colen’s gift, there was a note tucked in the box, which read, “George and Dorothy, I hope you enjoy this tea set. Love always John Adams.” Guess who gave them the tea set? Would you believe it was my husband, John Adams? They forgot John had given them the same tea set for Christmas two years before. Rosetta – Chattanooga, Tennessee

Open gifts BEFORE regifting
Author: Jay
Date: 04/30/2008
Occasion: Birthday
I held a party for my two best friends, John and Jake, who had their birthdays within three days of each other. I gave them each a thirty dollar gift card to amazon, but after I put the cards on the table and walked into the party, I realized that those gift cards had both been given to me by John and Jake! I didn`t know if they had both written their names on the cards, because I hadn`t opened them. I actually had only found them in my desk drawer the night before, while searching for a gift. Nervous, I watched their faces as they opened my gifts.... and then they both cracked up in laughter. I had been caught. Thankfully, no one else had arrived yet, and I believe they both kept my secret. What great friends! Jay- Los Altos, CA

Green Sweater
Author: Larry
Date: 04/27/2008
Occasion: Christmas
Christmas is a tough for me, not for any emotional or finacial reason, this is why. I am not good at buying presents for people, but Christmas of 2000 I found the perfect gift for my mom. I went shoping and found a cashmear sweater in green.(Which I thought was her favorite color.) Well I was on top of the world and my wife was impressed. Everything went great wonderful day. Well during the following year my mother had a sever stroke. she lost alot of her skills. That Christmas was made a bit humorous when my wife opened her gift, yup,that same Green sweater. Larry-Dover,De

Caught red handed
Author: Joe
Date: 04/27/2008
Occasion: Family Reunion
Rushing to be at a family reunion by lunchtime, I stormed my closet and looked for whatever shirt seemed appropriate at that time. So I grabbed this shirt I borrowed from my brother and went my way. I was really close to my aunt Nora that’s why I spent almost the entire time sitting beside her and catching up. What I failed to remember is that the shirt I was wearing was the shirt my aunt Nora gave my brother last Christmas. Worst of all, I realized all this by the time I was home. All I could do was hope that my aunt didn’t notice or at least didn’t think it was regifted to me by my brother. JM - Philippines