Once again, we have reached the holidays and with this season is the opportunity to shop for our friends and our families. The task of holiday shopping can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how savvy you are when it comes to picking the perfect gift for each individual.

Year after year, we, as a society, fall victim to the stress of holiday shopping. The stress is worsened, one hundred-fold, when we consider the fact that for the 2006 holiday season, 58% of the gifts given were re-gifted from prior years. Re-gifted presents, if we take a negative stance, are the sure sign that we, as shoppers, failed, because our friends and family, felt someone else would better benefit from the gifts we so, lovingly, chose for them. Yet, much good could come from those unwanted gifts if we donate them to a charity that may need them more than we do.

While re-gifting has become commonplace and the practice is not as taboo as it was as late as a decade ago, no holiday shopper wants to consider that their hard-earned money went to waste on an unwanted gift. Yet, if we vow to donate our own unwanted or unneeded gifts to those less fortunate, much good will come as a result.

Do you expect Aunt Christine and Uncle Charlie to buy you the third blender you've received in four years? If they do, consider donating it to a Senior Citizens Center or Nursing Home where residents may be elderly or in need of liquid sustenance.

Do you figure you’ll receive, yet another, ugly sweater? Instead of throwing it away or leaving it buried in the back of your closet, “re-gift” it to a homeless shelter or some other clothing drive to help the less fortunate.

Of course, it is always best to call ahead to the places where you may want to send your unwanted Christmas items to see if your gifts would be of help. If we vow to “re-gift” our unwanted gifts to aid another, we will assure that the holiday cheer will remain, well into the New Year and beyond.

Copyright © 2007 – Jill Eisnaugle. All rights reserved.

Jill Eisnaugle is the author of the Coastal Whispers & Under Amber Skies. She is also the Resident Poet for KODA-FM “SUNNY 99.1” in Houston, Texas. She resides in Texas City, Texas with her family and pets.