how do you feel when someone gives you a present that you once bought for them!

I think it's hilarious! A friend gave another a bottle of mead for Christmas [yuk] and the following year, that friend gave it to another neighbour, who gave it to another ..... I wonder if it's still going around.

I gave a small thing that reminded me of someone I preferred to forget, to the charity shop. Lo and behold a friend then gave it back to me saying she bought it because she had seen one I already had .....

I bought some fine Swiss lawn hankies for DH's godmother. She loved anything delicate or embroidered and they were very expensive. Some years later she sent them to my DD for a present. As she was then in her 90s I didn't say anything to DD but wondered to my MIL if godmother was hard up and should I send vouchers or similar explaining why. Guess what? MIL told godmother who was terribly distressed. I now would never mind if it happened and would never mention it.

I have a very practical, not to say down to earth friend who simply agrees with the family members that each one buys themself something they like and then tells the other what they have "given" them. Not very romantic, but she says it saves a lot of unwanted trips to the charity shop!!

I get lots of presents every year and I can hardly keep or use them all.
I do recycle presents I must admit, so I hope I never get caught out in that way. However I only recycle gifts that I think are nice, things that I really don't care for go to charity.

Sometimes I get something that I am keeping for suitable occasion that never seems to arrive and so when I need a gift, I think, "look at this super thing that is just sitting here unused, why don't I give it to someone who will actually use it?" So when I give something away, it isn't necessarily a rejection.

I have 4 bottles of Baileys Irish Cream in my cupboard and I can't remember who gave them to me. If I give them to people that I think will like Baileys I will probably be returning them to sender. So what do I do?

Offer them as prizes in a charity tombola unless they have a sell by date .

I've heard about people who do pass on presents they have received but don't like I've never received any myself but if I did I'd make a comment.
If this is a good friend there shouldn't be a problem about it and you would both have a good laugh about the lapse in memory.

This thread made me smile as I have just bought a present for my Sil's birthday and would be happy to be given it back [not that she would] I have wrapped it so that I'm not tempted to use it for myself as I haven't time to go and buy a replacement

I tend to buy things that I really like myself, I have never been given back any of the top-end candles or perfumes that I have gifted

I do receive a lot of 'thank you' gifts and I always appreciate the thought, however I admit that some of them are re-gifted or are handed on to charity shops. For instance I receive many scented candles, but as I have an allergy to most artificial scents I never risk using them and pass them on to others. Similarly I have a nickel allergy so earrings and bracelets that are not nickel free get passed on too. I wouldn't mind at all if gifts I had given were passed on; I'd be a little disappointed in myself that perhaps I had misread someones taste.

At least it wasn't a used gift from a charity shop :-)

I have a friend that likes to make sure she gives the first gift and made a bit of a thing about it, wrapping it very nicely and making sure you know she has got the present to you early. I always made sure i spent a fair bit on her presents, until a few years ago. About 2 weeks before Christmas she made a point asking me to pop round as she had our presents, she gave me an expensive looking pampering gift set, I was surprised she had spent so much. I opened it when I got home, only to find out it had been used, not only that, the charity shop sticker was still on the packaging, (it had a flap cover over the front, and the sticker was on the closed flap,) and inside was a USED hard skin remover, it Was still clogged with someones hard skin! yuk!!!! and two of the creams inside had been opened and partly used. I have to admit I have not bought her anything in return ever since! I know everyone likes a bargain, but she could have at least checked that her charity shop bargain was new and with no added nasties from a previous owner.

My sister's mil (who was not exactly skint) once gave me some M&S talcum powder. It was in a tin (M&S very old stock), was rusty around the bottom and had a tatty piece of sellotape across the top.

My DD often 're-gifts' as she calls it. I have yet to receive a gift I have bought her. I wonder how many of her friends have gained back their presents. Mind you she does work in a junior/infant school so receives many many gifts of smellies, chocs etc. each Christmas

My two uncles presented my DDH and I on our wedding day a table cloth with napkins pinned onto it with rusty pins. Their kind words were, We bought you an expensive gift the first time round!!!! Charming.

Myself and all my local friends recycle bags that we give presents in, the same bags go round and round, I hate waste and some of them are to pretty to throw, so we just change the labels each time they are used