’Tis the season of gifting. And re-gifting.

Serial re-gifters know the worst slip-up is to re-wrap a present that someone has given you, and give it right back to them. Being exposed as a re-gifter harms your reputation. That was the plot of the Seinfeld episode which coined the term many years ago. But still we re-gift. So how to do it cleanly?

You’ve heard of six degrees of separation? In re-gifting, best to adhere to twelve degrees!

Let’s say you get a goody basket in your Manhattan office. Always re-gift to the greatest geographical distance possible. Relatives in a small California town will be thrilled to receive your bountiful offering!

Imagine each part of your life in a different compartment. Your office world. Your home life. Your kid’s school. Your oldest and dearest friends. Always re-gift from one section to another. Never within the same compartment.

The easiest things to re-gift are gift cards. You can easily launder your re-gifting by using your gift cards to purchase a gift for someone else. Or to buy different gift cards.

Re-gifting has become so common that some presents like fancy pens, cashmere socks or wind chimes just scream: I’m a re-gift!!!

I’m waiting for someone to embed gifts with electronic chips, like the ones they put in our pets.

Finally, there are people whose gifts you should never re-gift, and who you should never re-gift to, even under the most desperate of circumstances:

Your secretary or your boss, because they know everything.

Your husband or wife. Because they’ll find out.

Tomorrow: gifts they’ll never give away!