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Regifting is the act of taking a gift that has been received and giving it to somebody else in the guise of a new gift.

Term origins and similarities

The term comes from an episode of Seinfeld ("The Label Maker") () in which Elaine calls Dr. Tim Whatley a "regifter" after he gives to Jerry a label-maker that was originally given to him by Elaine, although the practice pre-dates the term substantially. On The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson would frequently joke about the single Christmas fruitcake that was given from one person to another, year after year (). It also is common in White elephant gift exchanges, in which items can be regifted from year to year.

The concept of a repeatedly regifted item is similar to "mathom", a word coined by J. R. R. Tolkien in his novel The Hobbit (1954). He wrote: "Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort."

References in popular culture

• On the December 18, 2005 Christmas episode of The Simpsons, Professor Frink as one of the Three Wise Men admits to "regifting" the myrrh he's brought for baby Jesus because "nobody needs myrrh!".
• The Rush Limbaugh Show had a mock advertisement for a fictitious company called "Thanks Anyway." The premise was that a person could bring unwanted gifts to their local Thanks Anyway store to have the gift packaged and re-wrapped to give to someone else.
• In the movie Old School, a bread maker is constantly attempted to be regifted throughout the film,

External links

• CNN Money: Regifting 101
• MSN Money: 12 rules for 'regifting' without fear
• USA Weekend: Regifting takes over the galaxy

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