Regifting is about to get a makeover. As Maria Popova of Brain Pickings writes: "What if we could pass that stuff we don't really want or need along to someone who might? What if we could normalize regifting, remove the guilt that bedevils it, and bake it into the gift-giving process from the get-go as an open and beautiful expression of honesty?"
Her solution? The Brain Pickings Regifting API — a free set of tools that aim to remove the social stigma from regifting. Use them to let your loved ones know that you openly endorse regifting and are "encouraging them to pay your gift forward if there's someone in their lives better suited for it than themselves." What a great idea!
The set of tools includes a regifting icon, pattern, and stencil stamp, all available as free, shareable downloads under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license, which means you can use, remix, and share with attribution for non-commercial purposes. Then print or stamp the graphics on your own wrapping paper or greeting card and spread the word!
• Download all the icons at Brain Pickings
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Cool idea!
This website, because someone invented a graphic, is trying to blur the line between gift-giving and assistance with disposal of unwanted objects.
I don't consider the giver of a regifted package of bath salts automatically destigmatized because they've attached a cool vector graphic to it. If they don't want the bath salts and want me to help dispose of it, say so, but don't pretend it's a gift TO me.
I like the idea of re-categorizing a gift and also being honest about it. I don't need a gimick to do so, but instead of giving 1 or 2 gifts to friends, I could say this third gift was something given to me that I think you would appreciate more. It is 100 percent eco-friendly and honest. Thanks for the idea!
Every time this topic comes up on an AT site I think of the many other cultures around the world in which giving something of yours is valued more highly than giving something newly made or purchased for the recipient. Do people not realize that their attitude towards regifting is heavily influenced by the culture they grew up in? I've had to be careful what I compliment in my Asian relatives' homes, or what I mention to visiting missionaries because they will try to give the item to me when I leave. That's just part of their culture: to give away something of your own is a sacrifice (NOT because all non-Americans are poor either, sometimes it can be the sacrifice of giving something they themselves cherish) and shows how much you care about the recipient, about being a hospitable host, and about generosity (which is a highly revered concept in many cultures).
Would anyone involved in this discussion do or say anything to let the giver know, in the situations I've mentioned, that the gift is not well though of? That the giver is seen as cheap, tacky, or lazy? Or would anyone restrain themselves to only gossiping behind the gift-givers back?
Or how about this: how about we realize that even within our own country (America or one of the many South American or European countries that a sizeable portion of the AT readership is from) there can be cultural differences among citizens? How about we take time to be thoughtful *ourselves* before adopting a poor attitude and judging someone to be in the wrong because they did not purchase the gift?
Denisegk is taking this way beyond my criticism. I was criticizing a website that offered a Pope-like dispensation for guilt when someone uses their graphic when regifting.
The meaning of "regifting" (see Wikipedia) can be neutral (passing on a gift) but in my experience in the US is usually if not always negative (getting rid of an unwanted, usually junky gift).
I think there's a useful distinction to be made:
giving/gifting = giving a gift that you think the recipient would like, regardless of its origin (bought, made, received)
regifting = passing on a low-quality and unwanted received gift to another person under the guise of giving a gift
denisegk Thank you for that lovely comment. I think we are all so disconnected that we do not give with love anymore, we simply give out of a desire to appear smart or clever. Also when Americans get a gift they do not like, it is kept seperate from everything else as though it is a reviled pest in the house. Maybe that's why people are reluctant to regift, because the objects are inherently unliked. I like the thoughtfulness you mention in your comment.