Many Happy Returns!
About the only shocking thing about this article is that people admitted it...
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Half Americans Admit to Re-gifting
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Wrapping up that unwanted picture frame from last Christmas and giving it to someone else as a gift might not be as taboo as it once was, according to a study released on Wednesday.
The survey of 1,505 American adults, conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive, found that over half of the respondents admitted to "re-gifting" with passing on gifts becoming a far more common and acceptable phenomenon.
In fact 78 percent of consumers who were polled felt that it was acceptable to re-gift some or most of the time.
According to the survey, the mostly commonly re-gifted items were decorative household items, such as vases, paintings, picture frames and other trinkets.
Wong said that while 77 percent of respondents said they re-gifted because the item was perfectly suited to the new recipient, in some cases, the re-gift was far less generous. The study showed that nine percent of people admitted that they re-gifted out of laziness to purchase a new gift and four percent confessed that they re-gifted out of dislike for the recipient.
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I’ve re-gifted things before, and I know for sure I’ve received re-gifted items. It’s just part of the Circle of Life, I suppose. It’s not something I do on a regular basis, but if you just happen to have an ugly-ass gaudy silver-esque picture frame hidden in the back of your basement, and a not-so-favorite relative just happens to be having a housewarming party, it’s easy to put one and one together. Voila and bite me, Martha Stewart!
My sister-in-law is world famous for giving books for birthday/Christmas presents – books that she’d obviously had read before giving it to you. (She’d forget to remove her bookmarks – oops.)
My younger sister is also infamous for giving crap gifts that reek of cheapness. One year for Christmas she sent me a dollar-bin book on collecting antique furniture. Uh – yeah, that’s me – Mr. Antique. Puh-leeze – about the most “antique” thing in my world is my old 3.5” floppy disks that I can’t bear to part with, because you never know when the day will come when you’ll need a copy of DOS 3.2, and then where will you be?
But my favorite gift story took place about 15 years ago. My friend Andrea had been invited to spend Christmas with her fiancée’s family. They were loaded, and since money was no object they were all accustomed to big, expensive gifts – cars, trips, and enough diamonds to put Liberace to shame.
The family drew names to see who would buy gifts for whom, and Andrea ended up with her fiancée John’s nephew’s name. Nephew Boy was an 18 year old spoiled brat who never had to work for anything in his life, and would certainly never appreciate anything that poor Andrea could afford. (A year earlier the kid had thrown away a brand new Bennetton sweater because “it wasn’t the right color.”)
So what was Andrea going to do? There was no possible gift on Earth that this punk would appreciate from her budget. We talked about it for a few days, until she came up with the best gift she could think of.
For Christmas, Andrea gave Bratty Boy a card with the following note:
“A $50 donation has been made to the March of Dimes in your name.”
Sure enough, the perfect gift for the kid who had everything was a donation to a charity. The March of Dimes got some money to help them out, and with a little luck Bratty Boy got a big dose of humility in his stocking. It was perfect -- what could he say about it? Complain about helping sick kids and you’ll come across as the biggest jerk on the face of the planet.
Andrea said that Bratty Boy was absolutely speechless on Christmas morning, and that the rest of her fiancée’s family spent the rest of the day complimenting her on her generosity. Wow – be a hero AND put a punk in his place. It’s a two-for-one special!
I’m a firm believer that making a donation to someone who could use the help is a wonderful gift – I’ve got enough junk laying around the house – instead of bringing in more, why not help out someone who has nothing?
So be sure to help out those who are less fortunate this Thanksgiving/Christmas. You’ll be glad you did.
But please – don’t give them any crappy silvere-esque picture frames.
* * * * *
Half Americans Admit to Re-gifting
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Wrapping up that unwanted picture frame from last Christmas and giving it to someone else as a gift might not be as taboo as it once was, according to a study released on Wednesday.
The survey of 1,505 American adults, conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive, found that over half of the respondents admitted to "re-gifting" with passing on gifts becoming a far more common and acceptable phenomenon.
In fact 78 percent of consumers who were polled felt that it was acceptable to re-gift some or most of the time.
According to the survey, the mostly commonly re-gifted items were decorative household items, such as vases, paintings, picture frames and other trinkets.
Wong said that while 77 percent of respondents said they re-gifted because the item was perfectly suited to the new recipient, in some cases, the re-gift was far less generous. The study showed that nine percent of people admitted that they re-gifted out of laziness to purchase a new gift and four percent confessed that they re-gifted out of dislike for the recipient.
* * * * *
I’ve re-gifted things before, and I know for sure I’ve received re-gifted items. It’s just part of the Circle of Life, I suppose. It’s not something I do on a regular basis, but if you just happen to have an ugly-ass gaudy silver-esque picture frame hidden in the back of your basement, and a not-so-favorite relative just happens to be having a housewarming party, it’s easy to put one and one together. Voila and bite me, Martha Stewart!
My sister-in-law is world famous for giving books for birthday/Christmas presents – books that she’d obviously had read before giving it to you. (She’d forget to remove her bookmarks – oops.)
My younger sister is also infamous for giving crap gifts that reek of cheapness. One year for Christmas she sent me a dollar-bin book on collecting antique furniture. Uh – yeah, that’s me – Mr. Antique. Puh-leeze – about the most “antique” thing in my world is my old 3.5” floppy disks that I can’t bear to part with, because you never know when the day will come when you’ll need a copy of DOS 3.2, and then where will you be?
But my favorite gift story took place about 15 years ago. My friend Andrea had been invited to spend Christmas with her fiancée’s family. They were loaded, and since money was no object they were all accustomed to big, expensive gifts – cars, trips, and enough diamonds to put Liberace to shame.
The family drew names to see who would buy gifts for whom, and Andrea ended up with her fiancée John’s nephew’s name. Nephew Boy was an 18 year old spoiled brat who never had to work for anything in his life, and would certainly never appreciate anything that poor Andrea could afford. (A year earlier the kid had thrown away a brand new Bennetton sweater because “it wasn’t the right color.”)
So what was Andrea going to do? There was no possible gift on Earth that this punk would appreciate from her budget. We talked about it for a few days, until she came up with the best gift she could think of.
For Christmas, Andrea gave Bratty Boy a card with the following note:
“A $50 donation has been made to the March of Dimes in your name.”
Sure enough, the perfect gift for the kid who had everything was a donation to a charity. The March of Dimes got some money to help them out, and with a little luck Bratty Boy got a big dose of humility in his stocking. It was perfect -- what could he say about it? Complain about helping sick kids and you’ll come across as the biggest jerk on the face of the planet.
Andrea said that Bratty Boy was absolutely speechless on Christmas morning, and that the rest of her fiancée’s family spent the rest of the day complimenting her on her generosity. Wow – be a hero AND put a punk in his place. It’s a two-for-one special!
I’m a firm believer that making a donation to someone who could use the help is a wonderful gift – I’ve got enough junk laying around the house – instead of bringing in more, why not help out someone who has nothing?
So be sure to help out those who are less fortunate this Thanksgiving/Christmas. You’ll be glad you did.
But please – don’t give them any crappy silvere-esque picture frames.
posted by Tommy G at
11:32 AM
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