Regifting – The Gifts That Keep on Giving

When you are penny pinched Christmas can be a time of high anxiety.  Being broke doesn’t mean you are cheap.  It also doesn’t mean you have to continue to make ash trays out of plasticine for your parents and hope they find them cute. Note to you: your parents don’t smoke and you are in your 40s so no it is not going to be cute.  The temptation is to succumb to the dark side of gift giving, the regift.

Regifting has received a bad reputation because there is an underlying tone of deceit.  You are hoping the gifter doesn’t realize that the home taxidermy kit with starter hamster was not a success.  Did a gift tag from the giver get stuck in the pages of the book, or worse, the folds of the lingerie?

What if you took the secrecy out of the deal?  What about a regifting theme for Christmas?

I am not talking about a white elephant swap.  The very name means you are giving someone uncle Fred’s toupee glue, and by the way, Fred wants that back.

A real regifting Christmas means you still put the thought into the gift but you just go shopping at home.  You know that sweater your sister is always stealing out of your closet?  Why not wrap it up and give it to her?  Does your best friend admire your earrings? Suprise her with something you know she will like.  What about one of your favourite books or a book that you own that you know your mom would love?

In my kitchen I have two loaf tins, 4 cookie sheets and 3 muffin tins.  Who needs three muffin tins?  Why not bake a batch and tuck them into a basket with the muffin tin, the recipe and if you are running with the theme, the dry ingredients for the next batch.  If everyone is regifting with the intent of sharing something they think the other person will love it is all good.  Even if you give someone something you received from them, chances are that they bought it because they liked it too.

Just because you are penny pinched doesn’t mean you can’t give generously.  Remember, if you really miss the item you gifted it could always come back to you next year.

Merry Christmas