Recycling pressies! 26 July 2011 at 7:27PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Special Occasions & Other Celebrations 10 replies 1.2K views

Tiggy223

Hiya all,
So we all must be guilty of this? You receive an awful Christmas or Birthday pressie and simply don't have the heart to throw it away... so then it is always hiding away somewhere gathering dust until another anniversary crops up and you just recycle it... anyone got any funny stories?

I recently received egyptian cotton towels from a best girlfriend, now she knows that my bathroom is cream and granite but the towels were a hideous pink - I asked her what her inspiration was until she finally admitted that she had recycled them! That's it, I think I will store them away and give them to her at Christmas!

Julie xx

McKneff

I often do this, not had any #whoopsies' though.
I get gift sets of perfume, that I know I dont like and pass them on for birthdays or something,
Saves a fortune,

If its a really naf present, I give it to the charity shop or give it for a raffle.

Torry_Quine

Not something I really need to do only having a very small family. I think though that I would feel wrong giving a present away to someone else. OP do your towels have to match the walls or was it just that they were an awful colour?

browneyedbazzi

Re-gifting was a bit of a tradition in my best friend's family - they used to cross names out on cards and give them back!
It was done as a bit of a joke really (because they all could quite clearly afford to buy new cards) but it started up after someone got caught out re-gifting one christmas.

I have a drawer full of nice body shop (and other smelly) bath products that I was given and can't use due to skin sensitivity and will be re-gifted!

Tesco_points_addict

I once gave a friend/work colleague a very unusual candle and holder (a lot of thought had gone into it as she was having trouble sleeping so I researched it and got her a candle that was fragranced to aid relaxation and sleep). Gave it to her for her birthday in September and got it back for Christmas the same year! She is normally a really generous person and would be mortified if she realised her [email protected]@k up lol:rotfl:

TPAx

SugarSpun

I keep a list of gifts I have for different people, and if I receive something I know will be regifted there's space on the list for the gift, the person who gave it to me, the person I think will like it and when it was given. Let's say my friends Bert and Ernie live together, if Bert gave me a gift for my birthday I obviously wouldn't ever give it back to Bert but I also wouldn't give it to Ernie, I would give it to someone who isn't part of that circle of friends at all so Bert isn't upset that his gift isn't to my taste and my other friend isn't upset to find I didn't spend money on them.

A friend of mine gives me blatant regifts every year, she delays meeting up till after Christmas and invariably produces something that has an extra set of marks where paper's been stuck to it. I gently suggested that now we're adults we stop exchanging gifts but she wasn't having any of it - maybe she just likes getting rid of her tat and I've done too good a job pretending I've not noticed.

SailorSam

I've been given bottles of booze as presents over the years and 'cos i drink so little they were mostly just piled in the wardrobe, and i often passed them on.
The worst recycled gift was when i went to a party one night and wrapped one of these bottles to take, i thought at the time the guy looked at me as he opened it, then later in the night his wife told me it had been opened and about a third gone.

Birdie85

My MIL is terrible for regifting. I remember one year she'd complained about a birthday present her friend had given her as it was a smelly set she'd given that friend for her birthday the previous year. I then saw it at christmas when she passed it onto BIL's girlfriend! That year I gave her a really sweet (IMO!) Spaceform mini glass photo frame... it ended up in my stocking the following year! Luckily I like it! It does make me wonder where all of the other presents we've bought her over the years that we've never seen since have ended up though!

My Mum's always reusing gift bags and tags, the names get crossed out and a new one written on, sometimes there are several names scribbled on one tiny tag! It's all fine until I get a present meant for my brother because she's forgotten to update the tag! Christmas in my Mum's house is always a case of pass the parcel because the presents are labelled incorrectly!

January20

You really have to be organised to re-gift successfully or have a good memory!

As well as the odd present, I recycle Christmas cards into gift tags. Saves me money and is good for the environment!

I do wonder about all the effort that some people put in over Christmas. Just look at the queues at the returns desk in M&S after Christmas and you do wonder if anyone ever keeps their present?

Gingerbiscuit_2

I regift if I am not going to use it usually stuff like bubble bath and bath bombs when I dont have a bath! I do spend alot of time chosing gifts so only regift it if I dont know the person well (or to be honest care much) or if I think the person will honeslty like it. Failing that its charity shop, I agree some people give a gift for the sake of when neither one of you gets what you like so is just a waste of money.

Hadley

when we got our son my sil gave him two gifts one was a set of books in a box which when I took the books out had wrapping paper in from when they were given to her daughter the second were a box of singing dolpins for the bath which when I opened them they were dirty and had been used.The funny thing is at his birthday this year my son got some bath flutes from my sister which he loves and my sil said oh my daughter had some singing dolpins when she was younger you could see by the look on her face that she knew she has let it slip.
The thing that bugs me about this is her and my bil are well off and she is always bragging about what she has got and slagging everyone else off.She is well know in the family for regifting she is always giving my mil and fil out of date chocs for birhdays and chritmas she does not even check the things she is giving to see if they are ok or indate.This year she gave my mil a bag of chocs which had a gift tag in them with her dd's name on.