Re-gifting is a wonderful way to recycle! It's smart and thrifty. I do it myself. However when it's obvious, that's just plain tacky! Discretion is required, this is where many people fall short.
I'll never forget the book I received for Christmas as a teenager. Inside, in the upper left corner it read: To my cousin Jill, from Susan. This writing could have been easily concealed by pretty floral stickers. And underneath could have been written: To my friend, Dianne.
My birthday always falls 2 weeks to the day after Christmas. When I turned 40, I held a big party. -- About a third of my presents were recycled Christmas gifts!!! It was quite obvious.
One was an expensive alligator purse set. The fact that half the items were still in the original plastic wrapping was a dead give-away! Plus they were all thrown together loose in a gift bag. In this case, I would suggest removing all the plastic, then buying a gift box (They can be found in most Dollar Stores!) and wrapping it! This would have made a far better impression!
Gift bags are just plain lazy! Plus they take away half the fun of receiving presents! Unless you are donating a door prize where the crowd needs to see the gift, wrap it up for crying out loud!
There's a certain thrill to unwrapping a gift that you just can't get with a bag! And I am not the type who carefully unwraps. I rip thru paper like a wild beast tears into a gazelle carcass!
While handing me a gift, a friend told me she couldn't stand to see any tearing, because of all the effort she put into wrapping. Out of respect for her, I refrained. But good grief, the paper is just going to get thrown out anyway! -- Bows however, are almost always recycled.
Also a recycled gift should be appropriate to the recipient. At age 9, I received a giant floodlight with a handle. Even my parents thought it was goofy gift for a 9 year old girl. It was better suited for my father! He ended up with the thing, anyway. Had this person bought me a $1. box of candy, it would have been better received. -- At least that would have been something I could have enjoyed.
Another disappointing gift was a box that read: Chocolate Butter Cremes. My mouth watered with anticipation. -- I was crestfallen when I opened it. Inside was a nightgown! I wanted to scream, "Keep the damn nightie! Give me those chocolates!" It was a cruel tease. -- Always cover boxes like that with brown tape, or stickers. Or at least put a giant X across it with a magic marker!
A former Vero Beach neighbor took tacky to new lows. Before handing me her gift bag, she told me it was a decorative candle. "The wick is burned," she said. "I lit it to see if it had a fragrance." From the look of the wick and the candle, I'd say it burned for an hour or more. -- Talk about a used gift! Geez!
This same neighbor returned my Christmas present to her. -- A month later! It was a box of multi-flavored teas. She claimed she didn't remember who had given it to her. And no one in her family liked flavored tea. " So do you want it?" she asked. -- I took back my tea and I enjoyed it too.
These days I don't give many gifts. But when I do, I make the effort to put serious thought into them.
To my dear friend Rose, your Christmas present will NOT be a recycled one. -- At least not this year, anyway!
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