Re-Gifting 101 – Raiding the Treasure Trove
“These gifts are actually very cool.”
– Anon teenage gift-wrapper, age 14
You know you are on the right track with a re-gifting mission when the teenage girls you’ve enlisted to wrap said gifts actually approve of the majority of the presents.
This isn’t particularly surprising, however, because my Mom – who purchased the gifts in the first place (over the past 4 decades) but didn’t quite get around to giving them away – had excellent taste. She was a great shopper. Getting around to wrapping the items and actually giving them away, not so much.
As you may recall from previous blogs, I ended up with the vast majority of these gifts that need to be re-gifted. And thanks to the hard work of my friend, Jackie, who helped me sort through all the boxes and move the gifts into one bureau, when the time came to put my enthusiastic young wrappers to work, I was ready to roll!
Here are a few cute shots of the gift-wrappers hard at work:
Many of the gifts are destined for my family. Although most of the presents are brand new items (I did my best at guessing WHO my Mom was thinking of when she bought the gift in the first place), there are some slightly used items (such as Momma Pope’s favourite coffee cups that she called her “memory mugs”) that I think will put a smile on their face 🙂
Another thing that will put a smile on some faces is the choice of wrapping material:
But I promise I only used these old (but not used!) Depends – found (oddly enough) in the boxes from my Mom’s place – on a few of my brother’s gifts! I actually think the damn things were bought in error because they are rather LARGE and my Mom was rather tiny at the end of her life.
At any rate, here are three tips about re-gifting during the holidays:
1. Be creative.
2. Try not to re-gift an item BACK to the same person who gave it to you in the first place…this doesn’t tend to go over well.
3. Consider making the wrapping material part of the fun.
As for yours truly, I am thoroughly enjoying the items I kept for myself from the stash of stuff in the boxes from my Mom’s place. Check out my “new” yoga pants from the ’70’s (the tag was still on!):
My yoga peeps were rather impressed 🙂
Take care and have a great week! There will be no WWOW next Wed (Nov 30th). The Watering Hole Christmas e-zine will be going out instead.
Related Blogs by Maryanne
Trundling Through the Treasure Trove…With My Tallest Friend
Say WHAT? Sorting Other People’s Stuff
Tact, Timing and Titillation – The Tao of Re-Gifting
Maryanne Pope is the author of A Widow’s Awakening, the playwright of Saviour and the screenwriter of God’s Country. Maryanne is the CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and the Chair of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. If you would like to receive her weekly blog, please sign up here. To receive The Watering Hole quarterly e-zine, here is the link to subscribe.