The Year My Friend Taught Me How Not to Re-gift
The holiday season is prime time for re-gifting.
Unwrapping a gift that doesn’t spark joy?
Re-gifting it can seem like the perfect solution. But this practice should not be undertaken lightly, dear friends.
Allow me to regale you with a cautionary tale from my college days about the perils of reckless re-gifting.
In my dorm building there lived a guy named Joe who treated re-gifting like an Olympic sport. He would indiscriminately dole out his unused gifts to anyone nearby. Joe’s complete lack of discretion proved to be his undoing time after time.
He would throw an unwanted gift in a Target bag and hand them right back to the original friend group.
I’ll never forget the time Joe re-gifted a signed Red Hot Chili Peppers album, originally a gift from his ex-girlfriend, to our mutual friend Andre. Suffice to say, when Andre realized its romantic origins, the awkward tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.
So what vital re-gifting lessons can we glean from Joe’s copious faux pas?
- First and foremost, be discreet. Avoid regifting within the same friend circle at all costs.
- Second, elevate the presentation with creative repackaging to avoid detection.
- And third, carefully consider the tastes and interests of the re-giftee to ensure a meaningful gift.
Ultimately, successful regifting requires creativity, mindfulness, discretion and a dash of subtlety. Before regifting this season, ponder whether it’s worth the potential interpersonal risk.
And whatever you do, don’t pull a “Joe”! Some blunders cannot be neatly rewrapped and re-gifted.