For the past four or five years we have gotten together with
a group of friends for a few hours of foods, festivities and re-gifting. That’s
right, we exchange gifts that we received and will never use, don’t know how to
use, or possibly can’t quite identify.
Here is how it works. Everyone brings a wrapped item, which
is placed among the collection of assorted, brightly wrapped packages and gift
bags. Each participant picks a number (we used a deck of cards with different
numbers written on them). Whoever has Number One is first to choose something
from the gifts. When the second person has their turn they might decide they
don’t really want their re-gift, so they can trade it for what the first person
has. Here is where the trading and the fun begin.
The higher your number, the better chance you have of
collecting something that you might really like… at least until someone with a
higher number eyes it. Once everyone has had a turn and several trades have
taken place, Number One has the chance to choose from everyone else’s booty.
As of last weekend, Spouse and I are the proud owners of an
adorable holiday candleholder and the world’s smallest cast iron skillet that
accompanied a cornbread mix. I
like them both, thanks to luck of the draw and decent numbers.
We watched through laughter (and fear of having our precious
prizes traded) as decorative paper was ripped off time and time again to
reveal, among other treasures, a cheese slicer, a set of wine glasses, a toy
motorcycle, something that resembled an urn… and a donkey. Much to his wife’s
bewilderment, the guy who unwrapped the donkey decided not to trade it. Come to
think of it, this might be the same guy who kept the football helmet ice
bucket.
Some re-gifters choose to keep what they started with and
hope nobody else will decide they want it. Some re-gifters keep what they have
just to antagonize the person they came with. See donkey reference above.
The one re-gift that keeps returning to haunt us all made
its debut during the very first re-gifting party. At that time a certain
bachelor who apparently didn’t quite grasp the concept of a re-gift, entered
the depths of his cellar (or maybe it was his attic) to unearth a forgotten,
grimy device that hardly anyone under the age of 30 would recognize – a
television antenna, better known as rabbit ears. It had been wrapped up with
the original, inch-thick dust, rusty antennae protruding from the base and
wires hanging off the back. Needless to say, that sucker was traded more times
in an hour than Wall Street trades stocks in a day.
Over the years this prize has made its way in and out of
various homes where it resides for a year before returning to the scene of the
Christmas crime. Ironically, the ancient relic has become a staple of the
event. I don’t think it’s an
exaggeration to say that everyone more-or-less dreads picking the wrong package
and spending the next year with this contraption. Still, it has become part of
the hilarity and weirdness that we can always count on at these gatherings.
This event could be a test of your sense of humor if you
open something more along the lines of a booby prize. In the long run, though,
it’s just a fun night with people you probably don’t get to spend a lot of time
with, especially during the rush of the holidays.
If you didn’t have a funny bone before, you will after
you’ve been to a re-gifting party, where your luck can run out with the flick
of a pretty red bow. There may be presents and pranks, but the connections and
conversations we finally take time to nurture truly make it worthwhile.
Rabbit ears and all.
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