CULTURE OF GIVING AND THE SPIRIT OF GIVING
Singaporeans have consistently been adept at regifting; the Lion City came up tops in a 2014 Rakuten survey of 7,000 respondents across seven nations, with 45 per cent happy and willing to regift.
Does this mean the needle on regifting is clearly moving towards the yea side of things, and that regifting can help make the season more sustainable and less wasteful?
We could draw a neat line under that and call it a day, but that would be missing the forest for the trees.
Consumers are spending more on their credit cards, and they are not always able to pay their bills fully.
According to credit and charge card statistics from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the rollover balance in the third quarter of this year was S$6.86 billion, an increase from S$5.78 billion in the same period last year and the highest amount since at least 2014.
In countries like the US, about 25 per cent of shoppers are still paying off holiday debt from 2022, according to WalletHub’s November holiday shopping survey.
And, after all that, to have billions of dollars wasted on unwanted gifts.
In fact, Americans waste more than US$10 billion on unwanted gifts every year, according to a report by finder.com. In Australia, Christmas gift waste is expected to exceed US$900 million, according to figures by the Australia Institute.
We are spending more, or spending money we cannot afford, to buy gifts we don’t get quite right. Are we okay with that because we have found ways to move the item about, so we feel we are managing waste?
Considering this, it is worth pondering whether regifting is just another superficial solution we adopt in the litany of things we do to infuse deeper meaning into a world swamped by consumerism.
I wonder if having circular conversations skirt the uncomfortable fact that we might just be overindulging in the relentless accumulation of things.
The old adage reminds us that it’s the thought that counts. The true spirit of giving, perhaps, lies not in the abundance of what we gift, receive or regift, but in the thoughtfulness of how we express our care for one another and our place in each other’s world.
And maybe, the greatest gift we can offer is to reduce our consumption, choose more mindfully, and redefine the culture of giving to one that values connection over collection, and where the measure of our gifting generosity is not in the material but in the meaningful.
Cherie Tseng is Chief Operations Officer at a local fintech company, a mother of three and editor with The Birthday Collective.