The rules of regifting

OOPS. Looks like Donald Trump, ever the rulebreaker, didn’t pay any attention to the three cardinal rules of regifting.

His own son, Donald Trump Jr, last week revealed that he was a regifter. “There was one Christmas,” Junior said, “where he may or may not have given me the gift I had given him the year before because I had monogrammed it. And I’m like, ‘I know you didn’t get this.’

‘How do you know that?’ ‘Because I gave it to you last year.”

I might offer a few guidelines to The Donald for next time.

One. Make sure that the person you are giving it to is not the original giver. Regifting does not mean returning it rewrapped to the person who gave it to you in the first place.

Two. Don’t regift things that are opened or halfused. I remember my parents once being accidentally given back a bottle of whisky they’d gifted the year before. To add insult to injury it had already been opened – a small dram drunk.

Three. Gifts with monograms or personal messages are really only for a specific person.

Four. Regifting should not be about inflicting some useless piece of junk on to another member of your family or friendship group, even if it is monogrammed. Some things only deserve to be passed on to the unending school tombola in the sky.