Re-gift

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My favorite season is just around the corner. I'm not talking about Halloween, since I've never been big on dressing up. I'm referring to Christmas. I just love the gift giving, the eating like there's no tomorrow, the happiness all around, the crisp cold air. What's not to love?

Here in the Philippines, we have a habit of giving gifts early. So, there's plenty of time for, umm, re-gifting. I know that the concept may sound crass and unbecoming. But who needs all those scented candles and potpourri, fruit cakes (see story below), cute figurines (I call them "dust gatherers".), keychains, etc. I just think that, since I'm not going to need them and I certainly need to save money during these tough times, the next best thing is to recycle them.

Dear reader, you've probably re-gifted at one point in your life. And, I think that some of the gifts you've sent have been re-gifted as well. It's not a bad thing though. (We just don't have enough keys to use all those keychains.)

When you're a bibliophile and you've lots of friends who are book lovers as well, re-gifting books and book-related items can be quite tricky. Unless you're filthy rich, you probably can afford to give books or, even better, Amazon gift checks to all your friends. (I usually hate filthy rich people, but they become my best friends during Christmas.)

I can't bear the thought of regifting books unless they're of the self-help variety. No Coehlos, Chopras, Carnegies, et al will ever get near my shelf. And, in the few instances that I give books as gifts, I can't imagine them being re-gifted. So, here's what I do:

• Inscribe the books with a very personal note such as "Let's talk about this book soon, Alex! Bring it with you next month at Starbucks." Or, "I can't wait to see this book on your shelf when I come over to surprise you one of these days, Martha!"

• Write innocuous notes on random pages of the book. Granted that this wouldn't prevent the person you gave it too from re-gifting. But, if the receiver does re-gift, the look on his or her face would be priceless once you ask if he or she has read the personal notes you wrote on page 37, 203, and 412 of the same book.

• Tell them that you'll be calling them frequently to ask how they're liking the book. This would be better if you have the same book. This way, you can easily ask them about their thoughts regarding specific pages.

The Fruit Cake Myth

There's actually only one fruit cake in the world. Come Christmas time, this fruit cake gets passed around to different people. Since the fruit cake is made of tons of sugar and alcohol, it's virtually indestructible, allowing it to survive one Christmas season to the next. I don't this is true though. I love fruit cake. Or, as an alternative to the myth, all the fruit cakes in the world get passed around and eventually end up in my tummy.