Regifting hits the 14 million mark

Received a present in a tatty old box? Or with another person’s name engraved on it? Chances are it has been regifted.

Rest assured you’re not alone. This Christmas, Britons received an estimated 119m unwanted gifts - two per person - of which 14 million will be regifted, according to research from the Gift Card & Voucher Association.

“It appears the perfect gift gets lost in translation - despite family and friends attempting to drop hints, the message might not be as clear as they think,” said gift app Whatwewant cofounder Yiannis Faf, who advises people to be crystal clear about presents they want. Regifters often feel considerable guilt about their actions, as well as fear at getting caught out. Yet, on the occasions where they are caught out, the people whose presents are regifted - the regiftees, are often surprisingly relaxed about the situation, research shows.

“People believe regifting will be seen as horrifically offensive by the person who gave them the gift in the first place, but these “givers” actually are OK with regifting,” said Professor Mike Norton, of Harvard Business School.

Receivers believed passing a gift on to someone else would be more offensive to givers than givers actually reported feeling. They worried regifting was as bad as throwing the present away, while the givers thought it was much better to regift, he said. Almost one in five of unwanted gifts will end up in the bin, that’s 23 million presents, according to the Gift Card association. The tendency to throw away unwanted presents has significant implications for the environment.

Gail Cohen, of the Gift Card & Voucher Association, added: “It is disappointing to discover just how many unwanted gifts go straight to landfill.”