BERKLEY, Mich. (WXYZ) — It’s the gift giving time of year, and I'm sure we all have those people in our lives whose gift is not exactly what we may have missed the mark, so I hit the streets to find out how metro Detroiters feel about re-gifting.
"I think as long as the other person is okay with it, it's a go," Ronan said.
There are some strong feelings surrounding re-gifting presents for the holidays.
"I'm not the biggest fan," said Josie. "I think you could just do something more personal or even give someone your time if you can. Rather than recycling something. But I think if that's what you have in the moment and you're thinking of someone, that's okay too."
And more likely than not, we all have our own re-gifting horror stories, like getting caught trying to pawn less favorable gifts off onto others.
"It was like a jewelry item that I thought was ugly, actually, and I thought it was a someone else's style," Josie said. "But when I gave it to them, they actually asked me if there was a reason. And he was very gifted again. Yeah, it was very traumatizing."
And trying to convince others that this item is ‘more their style'.
"I wanted something like Timberlands that were, like, wheat colored," one man told us. "And she got me like, some like orange burnt orange timberlands. And I'm like, you know, at the time, bathroom of, like, the worst thing you could wear because everybody was like, warned, like, we color one. So I called my cousin and I kind of thought I'm cool because his favorite color was orange."
But according to etiquette expert Danielle Kovachevich, re-gifting done well is totally acceptable.
"One of the foundations of etiquette is about showing others grace when they're, you know, going through a hard time or struggling. And so I like to think like think about someone's intentions. Like they may not have a budget this holiday season to buy everyone a gift," Danielle said.
"The biggest challenge is to not really getting that to the person that actually gave it to you. I've done that before. A couple of years later. And. It's really familiar," Sean said.
Danielle says she has a good rule of thumb to avoid that awkward moment.
"Avoid re-gifting in the same circle of friends family," she said. "If you think of something that someone really love. Make sure it's in a totally different circle of friends or family."
And there are different ways you can take that gift and add some personal touches to show it came from the heart.
"Elevate in different wrapping paper, adding a bow or, you know, maybe writing a personal note or. Gift tag. But putting that personal touch in is is really important. Highly advised," Danielle said.
