The tree is down and now you need to find home for all those new toys. What do you do when there are simply too many or some to similar? Many of the toy shops don’t exchange without a receipt (Toys R Us – I’m looking at you) what are your options?
Regifting seems an obvious solution, I have a nice big draw that is affectionately named the present draw (original I know!) in which I pop any bargains or great buys I spot throughout the year. Normally this makes up the Christmas stockings. I have seen a couple of tweets about ungrateful people queuing in Marks and Spencers to take gifts back. Which surprised me – what else do you do with unwanted presents?
I have regifted, especially in the days of the infant birthday parties – you know the ones where 25 children end up being invitied. I did then end up taking some of the presents out of Dylan’s room and regifting them. There are only so many £5 /£6 toys that I have room for. Thats not me being ungrateful – I see regifting as a sensible solution.
However I have heard and witness the extremes. I recently heard about a woman that put a necklace into a raffle and yes she won it back some ten years later in another local raffle! Had it been doing the rounds all those years! I did however find it strange when Dylan once opened a box of a toy he had received for his birthday and the whole game was clearly used. I mean it even had elastic band trying the cards together. The box was damaged and two parts of the game actually selotaped together (no – it wasnt from a family that genuinely couldn’t afford a present – I guess it was just extreme regifting.
Therefore when I do regift I stick to a few basic rules –
1. Make sure you don’t regift back to the original buyer – awkward!!
2. Think about the child first and foremost, I only regift if the toy will be suitable for the new receiver – no transformers for girls or board games for the child that can’t sit still.
Finally if there are presents lurking in that present draw that can’t find new owners your local childrens hospital ward are always grateful. A second place we donate toys to is local children charity. Whilst the big charities often have more expenditure and bigger income streams I try to support the smaller lesser known charities where your donation makes a massive impact.
