Reconsidering regifting?

Here’s a fun little scoop I picked up on gala duty Saturday night. Someone told me that he regifted an item I gave him as a holiday present .. to Tyler Perry.

Love it!

No, I’m not saying who. I don’t want to embarrass anyone. And it’s not your typical regift story, where someone tries to fob off an unwanted item and pretend it didn’t just come off the shelf.

Apparently Mr. Perry was visiting the home of this person and admired the item, a butterfly wine stopper. (It really was fab). Perry’s host, the epitome of grace, offered it to him and the filmmaker happily accepted. I hope he’s enjoying it!

It got me to thinking about regifting. It’s an issue that comes up around the holidays but with June wedding season upon us, you have to figure there’s a crystal vase or silver photo frame out there about to get dusted off and rewrapped.

Given our languishing economy – and perhaps a newly rekindled spirit of recycling and paring down – I wonder if regifting will seem like a tolerable, even admirable, practice.

My husband’s family = big regifters. Sometimes this works out well. Our wedding silver, most of our furniture, some jewelry, a few paintings and various odds and ends are all generations-old pieces, passed down to us. I suppose inherited items are regifted, in a way, and we are so grateful to have these cherished family heirlooms.

But this clan also sees nothing wrong with taking a book off the shelf, wrapping it up and saying “Merry Christmas.” We’ve received gifts monogrammed with other people’s initials, books inscribed to someone else, and a couple of times we’ve had the very item we gave someone return in regifted form. Mr. Butterfly thinks his eccentric family’s antics are hilarious. His wife does not always agree.

I’ve regifted bottles of wine, but that’s about it. The practice is evidently somewhat respectable, given the numerous how-to-regift web sites out there.

Is it okay to regift? Is it a way to cut down on waste and save money, or is it thoughtless? Do you mind getting items you think have probably been regifted?