How do you feel about regifting? Is it good? Is it bad? Does it depend? When the topic came up recently among a group of friends, I was surprised at the intensity of feelings on both sides of the issue.

According to Merriam-Webster, a gift is something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation. Technically, regifting is nothing more than the act of taking that gift and passing it on to somebody else. I don’t think the concepts of good and bad enter regifting at this point. But the waters get muddy when Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English defines regifting as giving an unwanted gift to someone else. The crux, I believe, is in the “unwanted” aspect of the gift, not in the giving.

If regifting is done under the guise of a new gift or as means of disposing an unwanted gift, I agree wholeheartedly that it is tacky. But if my friend is given a blue ceramic vase when her house is decorated in green, while mine is decorated in blue, then I gladly receive her regifted blue vase as a birthday present. I see no reason why perfectly good and desirable stuff should have to go into the landfill just because a gift isn’t coming directly from a store. I consider thoughtful regifting a form of Green Giving. How about you? I would love to hear your thoughts.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.