Blatant Regifting

[McCutieBelle]

I have 2 stories, it really surprises me that people can be so blatant with re gifting. The point is that the recipient should not know it is not an original gift for them! Has anyone ever had this happen? Stories of people saying "Hey I hate this sweater Grandma got me...you have it, Happy Holidays!"

First story happened a couple of Christmas's ago. My BF decided to stop by a relatives house to say Merry Christmas, I think it was a day or so after the Holidays but he had not seen her and some of his cousins were over. They did not know I was coming, we were sitting around talking and his relative said "Funnygal, have you ever heard of re gifting?" I said yes, but I don't think I ever received anything re gifted" and she said "well here is some chocolate I got, but you can have it" Now granted it was Godiva...but I was a little taken aback. I smiled and said thank you.

Yesterday at work I was talking to my coworker, he is a higher up and thinks I am the best thing since sliced bread. He kept mentioning that he wanted to get me something for Christmas. He had mentioned he received a bottle of wine from the CEO and asked what kind I liked. Later on that day I had to drop something off and I jokingly said I would buy his wine off of him for 5 dollars. He said, no he was going to get me a bottle of red wine for Christmas but I can have what the CEO gave him. He did not even look in the package to see what kind of wine or champagne it was and he said "if you take this it saves me a trip" I was REALLY taken aback because I thought he was being kind of rude..forcing this bottle on me. It turns out it was sparkling white wine, I said he could keep it for himself and his new girlfriend for the holidays and he kept insisting so, again I smiled and said thank you. I can bring it for New Years, but still I was really put off by that, am I being silly?

[nliedel]

You're not being silly.

My father in law once re-gifted my sister in laws Christmas gift to him, in front of her. She worked hard to pick him out PJ's she believed he would like. He took a look inside the box, said they would not fit and gave them to my husband, who didn't know what to do. My sister in law looked shocked and I felt terrible for her. I was brand new to the family and didn't feel I was in the position to say anything. The whole family loves one another, but there is a toxic vibe and I know that blatant re-gift didn't help at all.

[Sophia]

The first case wouldn't upset me, but the second would.  In the first case, I assume the person who bought the Godiva was not in the room.  In which case, they weren't regifting in place of a gift, but were just finding a good home for something nice they couldn't use.  In the second case, the intent was to hurt, it wasn't really about regifting. 

[McCutieBelle]

Sophia,

I agree, the one with my BF's relative I think was about her feeling bad that there was no gift for me and I had come over and everyone had gifts. The person who gave her the chocolates was not there.

With my coworker I was very taken aback and I did find it rude.

[DCGirl]

My father -- who hates to shop and usually gave gift certificates -- once gave me a lovely little customized book for someone with a July 6 birthday.  Would anyone like to guess what date his birthday fell on?

[RainhaDoTexugo]

A couple years ago my brother accidentally blatantly regifted BF and I.  He'd gotten married in October, and hosted Thanksgiving in November, so I don't blame him for not going all out Christmas shopping that year

A few months before Christmas, BF and I were at DB and SIL's apartment, and he showed me a pasta bowl/wine glass set, said so and so had bought it for them, and did we want it?  We said sure, we'd grab it another time, though, since we were taking the bus.  We both forgot about it (I'm sure he forgot, he's not the type to do this on purpose), and on Christmas day, we unwrapped that set and a few other things that were nice (wine thermometer), but didn't seem like something they'd buy (although they may have purchased them, I'm not positive).

We were very amused, but didn't mention it, because they'd made an effort to regift us things we would like (and we did like them), and because they'd already spent so much on the wedding and on Thanksgiving, I couldn't blame them for trying to save a few bucks on Christmas.  If they'd given us random junk without thinking about what we like, I'd have been more upset.

[Crazy Chicken Lady]

One time my mom and I chipped in to buy my aunt an expensive bread maker for Christmas.  One of our family members had one and my aunt absolutely loved the bread it made. I was in college at the time so I really had to save up for my half of the present.
Anyway, I wasn't at my mom's house when my aunt opened it but my mom told me what her reaction had been.  She opened it, scowled, and said "Well, I guess April WANTS me to make her some bread now."  My mom acted disappointed but I actually spent the night sobbing about how my aunt could take offense to the gift I had given her. (I had carefully thought out her gift as one year I had sent her roses for her 60th b'day only to have her go down in her basement crying and moping all day b/c of the flowers). 
Several months later, my aunt actually told my mom that she had given it to one of my cousins.  Since this isn't the first time she's insulted what I've given her, I've decided that I will NEVER ever buy her anything again.

[aline]

Not intentionally blatant, but blatant nonetheless. A few Christmases ago, my grandmother gave us a very pretty angel ornament. She went into great detail about where and how she'd found it, and thought of us, etc. Too bad that when we opened the box, there was a sticker inside that said: "Merry Christmas Jo (my grandma)! Love, Desiree (her next door neighbor)". I was amused. 

[CreteGirl]

Today at my office we are all laughing hysterically at the re-gift that one of our coworkers got during the secret Santa gift exchange this morning.  It is a hideous metal nutcracker, with the year 2006 on it, and a small bag of nuts. To top it off, on the back of the box it says "best if the nuts are eaten by February, 2007".  So she got an ugly nutcracker with stale nuts.  She was really disappointed, but I promised her we will have much fun with that stupid nutcracker in the upcoming months.