National Re-gifting Day Date in the current year: December 19, 2024

In 2008, the state of Colorado designated December 18 of that year as National Re-gifting Day, and so the tradition was born. The choice of the date makes sense since the Thursday before Christmas is the day when many companies hold their annual end-of-year parties, and office parties are a common source of gifts that are just begging to be re-gifted, as well as a setting where re-gifting occurs quite often.

Some people think that re-gifting is tasteless and tacky, but it doesn’t have to be. National Re-gifting Day holiday is meant to combat the stigma that surrounds re-gifting and encourage people to re-gift the presents they don’t really need or want to those who will appreciate them.

Of course, the act of re-gifting must be thoughtful. What’s the point of giving your useless gift to another person if they find it just as useless as you did? It won’t do any good and will just contribute to world entropy.

To celebrate National Re-gifting Day, go through the unwanted gifts you’ve received over the years and consider re-gifting some of them. To do it properly, properly, you should learn the basic rules of re-gifting. For example, you should re-gift only when you are 100% sure that the recipient will enjoy your gift. Say, if you’ve received a potted plant that will most certainly die on your watch because you will forget to water it, you should re-gift it to a plant person and not to someone who’s indifferent to plants or even hates them.

Items that are okay to re-gift include books that you haven’t read, jewelry that doesn’t have a a sentimental value attached to it, duplicate household appliances you’ve received as housewarming or wedding gifts, gift cards and certificates to stores you don’t shop at, new clothes that don’t fit or suit your style, etc. Of course, the gift must be unused and still in its original packaging. 

You also need to take the feelings of the person who’s given you the gift into consideration; if the gift has a special meaning to them, don’t give it away even if you don’t like it, especially if the gift is handmade or personalized. Don’t re-gift something if you’re not sure who gave it to you because if there is the slightest chance of the gift making its way back to the original giver or the giver discovering you’ve re-gifted it to someone else, you shouldn’t risk it. 

If you do not feel comfortable re-gifting unwanted gifts to the people you know, you can donate them to charity or bring them to a thrift store. For example, a scarf or sweater you consider truly hideous may keep someone less privileged than you warm during the cold winter months.

Other ways to celebrate National Re-gifting Day include throwing a gift exchange party where people can re-gift stuff without being judged for it because everyone is on board with the idea, sharing your re-gifting stories on social media, and spreading the word about the holiday with the hashtags #NationalRegiftingDay and #RegiftingDay.