I remember when I was a little child if there was anything less than supreme excitement shown over every gift opened by someone in the family it was harshly frowned upon. I remember even if it was a small gift that you didn’t even ask for, as a child, it was your job to make everyone feel good about spending their hard-earned cash on you for the holidays. This is not necessarily how you teach gratitude, but somehow I found my way to it.

How the times have changed. I have witnessed, with my own eyes, a child opening up a gift, looking at the parent in disgust and then vocalizing that they didn’t like the gift and had no idea why that adult had thought to gift that child something they didn’t ask for. If grandma found out you returned your roller blades to the store to exchange for something else, her heart was hurt and the Christmas fun was dampened by the pain of rejection.

What an extreme difference in generations. Does this mean that everyone unable to find use for a gift is ungrateful?

The purpose of gift giving is to demonstrate personal sacrifice to make someone else happy. Everyone works hard for their money so when someone buys something for you, it means they thought of you, they know what you like or at least gave it their best shot even if they were clueless you didn’t care for Harry Potter books. A gift says “I love you”, “I care about you” “You are worthy of gifts” “Here is my way of showing love or kindness to you”.

Personally, I feel as though regifting is an excellent way to recycle things we didn’t need while we appreciate the thought, finding someone to give an unwanted item to is still a gift in itself. That saved someone a trip to the store and the dollars spent to hunt down an item on another risky gift purchase.

When it all comes down to it, returning gifts and regifting are all a matter of mindset.

It doesn’t matter what you do in life, you will always offend someone unintentionally so I wouldn’t allow a family member’s feelings to necessarily stop you from making good use of the presents you were given.  At the same time, we do need to use discretion and remember things are just things but if that one family member or friend keeps inventory of the items they have given you, maybe “stuff” isn’t worth hurting that person’s feelings. Afterall, what if it was their last $20 dollar bill they spent on you and you didn’t even know it. So what, so you now have 2 of the same hoodies. Is it really the end of the world?

I am the type of person that enjoys looking at everything in life as a test. A test of our humanity, thoughtfulness, ability to love unconditionally and a test to prove to ourselves, first, that we understand why we are here on earth. We are here to give and when we happen to receive, allow natural gratitude to shine so that everyone can see what gratitude looks like. You never know when someone is giving you something just because they need to see what gratitude looks like.

With that being said, all of us here on the Crispin Team at Keller Williams Tri-Lakes hope you had a wonderful Christmas and may we have one incredible year together in 2020!