The hot, hyperactive season of market-boosting merrymaking is here again, setting us scurrying by the thousands through the mall: bumping shoulders and ricocheting off into stores like distracted dodgem cars; our minds lonely snow-domes of festive preoccupation where mediocre gift ideas flutter and dance like fake snowflakes in a sloshing womb of last night’s office-party champagne. Lovely as it is to get together and celebrate a year well passed, scoff a scrumptious smorgasbord and trade gifts and daggy jokes, the financial pressure smarts like a smack on a sunburnt back. Here’s a stockingful of hints and ideas on how to make gift-giving cheap, creative and fun again … and super eco-friendly. How “noughties”! (I know, eww; but relish it, people, only one year left!)

 

 

 

Stand up and say: second-hand is MORE than okay! When giving something you’ve owned for a while yourself, don’t apologise that it isn’t new; tell the recipient its story: where you got it (especially if it was overseas, or handed down from family) and any funny anecdotes related to it. If it’s from an op shop, describe the morning you spent browsing, the hideous block-mounted unicorn print it was hiding beneath, and most of all, the special qualities that made you choose it for this particular person.

 

Regifting is passing on a present you have received yourself as a new gift to someone more likely to appreciate it - an ecofriendly alternative to throwing away unwanted presents. As with any gift-giving, the most important consideration is the recipient – if they will truly like it, there’s no problem. Everyone has different tastes, after all; letting something good sit gathering dust is wasteful, and waste is never cool.

www.regiftable.com

 

Freecycling is like a free, local eBay: people post descriptions of new or used items that they don’t need, and others respond offering to pick up the stuff they want. Yes, you can get free stuff this way, but it’s a two-way street. Look around your house, decide what you could do without, and log on!

www.freecycle.org

 

If you want to do your free gift shopping offline, organize a pre-Christmas trade day with friends, where you all bring your scha-weet unwanted goods to browse and swap. You’ll get to know each other better, have a laugh in the sun, and almost certainly eat icy poles.

 

At a recent party, my friend busted out a pass-the-parcel bulging with worthless hard-rubbish ‘prizes’. The twenty-something crowd got as greedy, giggly and grabby as six-year-olds: passing as slowly as possible to try and win, eyeing up the lumps in each layer to guess the next prize, groaning jealously when a friend won something ‘really good’. Competing for something magically raises its value in even the most logical adult’s mind; and suspense, anticipation and games make gifts even better. The ‘net has variations on Secret Santa, ‘Yankee Swap’ and other regifting games, so spend time together and make gift-giving silly and fun!