Time Tidbits: Regifting

By mid-December, the average person has only completed half of their list, according to the National Retail Federation. So why stress and spend countless hours battling the shopping crowds when you likely have great gifts lying around the house?

 

This holiday season, nearly two-thirds of Americans are planning to avoid the last-minute shopping craze and simply regift, according to the 2012 Holiday Regifting Survey from Bookoo.com, the world’s funnest darn tootin’ yard sale community. Whether it’s an office white elephant party, a friendly gift gathering or even gifts for under the tree, regifting is a common holiday practice that not only saves you time, it saves you money too!

 

Fun Facts – 2012 Holiday Regifting Survey from Bookoo.com

·         A whopping 92 percent believe it’s completely acceptable to regift items

·       The most commonly acceptable regifted items are home décor products (63%), antiques (63%) and books (59%)

·         Frequent regifters have mastered the art and take precautions to ensure it stays a secret, including re-wrapping the item to look new (53%), inspecting the item and removing any gift cards or receipts from the previous giver (50%) and planning ahead and making sure they do not give the gift to anyone associated with the original gifter (66%)

·         Some of the oddest regifted presents respondents reported receiving include:

o    Monogrammed items with someone else’s initials

o    Outdated desk calendar

o    Promotional items that were obviously free to begin with

o    Clothing that was blatantly not the recipient’s size

o    Box of extremely expired chocolates

o    Partly used gift cards

o    Kitchen small appliances with broken pieces

o    A taxidermy dog that was the pet of the gifter

Make sure you learn from this survey. Regifting is most likely not going to offend anyone (unless you give your mother-in-law back her tacky sweater) as long as your item is in new condition and is appropriate. So don't regift a box of chocolates to your vegan friend, or pink frilly towels to your husband's male co-worker (unless he's in to that color). But it does save time and money, it can be just as thoughtful as long as it's something chosen with the recipient's interests in mind, and it clears your house of things that you would not use or just throw in the trash anyway!