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Of American-English origin, the phrase the gift that keeps on giving is primarily used of a present that delivers repeated enjoyment in the course of time.
This phrase has come to be also sarcastically used of a person or situation constituting a recurring problem.
The following, for example, about Justin Trudeau (born 1971), Prime Minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025, is from the Alberni Valley News (Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada) of Wednesday 20th May 2026 [page A9]:
Trudeau’s legacy a ‘gift’ that keeps on giving
To the Editor.
[…]
I was trying to think of some of Trudeau’s great accomplishments and one of the greatest was legalized sports betting. […]
Organized crime can’t thank Justin too much, and youth have jumped onto online gambling like there’s no tomorrow.
[…]
The other great thing that Trudeau brought in was the legalization of pot. Now the science has caught up to those who swore pot was a wonder drug, when it has been shown that it impairs the health of many, makes them more prone to lung and breathing problems, impaired decision making, and brain function, and causes psychosis in many others.
[…]
I just can’t thank Trudeau enough.
Tom Gowan.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase the gift that keeps on giving and variants that I have found:
1-: From the following advertisement, published in The Evening Telegram (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) of Wednesday 12th December 1906 [page 15, column 6]—although, here, the phrase is your gift keeps on giving pleasure:
SANTA CLAUS: “They’ll throw out those old-fashioned book shelves quick enough when they see the fine new SECTIONAL Bookcase I’ve brought them.”
You want to get the boy or girl a USEFUL present for Christmas.
You are trying to make him—or her—appreciate the fellowship of good books—and the comfort of having one’s own library.
Why not make the gift, then, a little stack of our SECTIONAL Bookcases to be placed right in his—or her—room?
As the library grows, another section or so may be added; your gift keeps on giving pleasure month after month and year after year!
Shall we mail you our complete catalog, showing how little is the expense for these beautiful Bookcases?
THE OFFICE SPECIALTY MFG. CO., LIMITED, 97 Wellington Street West, Toronto, Ont. ’Phones Main 4240 and 4241.
2-: From the following advertisement, published in the Reading Times (Reading, Pennsylvania, USA) of Thursday 20th December 1906 [page 4, column 7]:
A Gift That Keeps on Giving
Open a savings account for your boy or girl as a holiday gift.
It will be a gift that keeps on giving and that will give the recipient a boost toward independence and wealth.
Safety for savings and 3 per cent.
Colonial Trust Co.
3-: From the following advertisement for the Scandinavian American Bank, published in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington, USA) of Wednesday 15th December 1909 [page 11, column 5]:
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Did you ever stop to think that if you give your wife, your mother, your son, daughter, sister, fiancee, or any one who is close to you, a Savings Book with $100 entered in it you would be giving them not merely the $100 of NOW but the $4.00 interest that the $100 would earn in each of the succeeding years?
In other words, YOU give them a Holiday present THIS year, and that same Holiday Present will give them an additional Holiday Present NEXT year and the year after and so on through ALL the years that follow.
4-: From the following advertisement for Eilers Music Company, San Francisco, published in The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California, USA) of Thursday 23rd December 1909 [page 7, column 7]:
“This will please ’Em All.”
The Autopiano
THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING[…]
No gift can compare with the Autopiano. It is the gift that keeps on giving. It gives pleasure and happiness to every member of the family for every day of years to come.
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