Gifts are a powerful way to acknowledge and strengthen interpersonal relationships. As with any relational space, gifting plays various roles in forming and maintaining relationships in political contexts, but its contribution to relationship-building has attracted little attention. This paper examines how politicians in Aotearoa New Zealand both engage with gifting and how they navigate the perceptions of others. Four current members of parliament (MPs) and six retired MPs participated in semi-structured interviews with questions on common practices and common understandings about political gifting. Their responses indicate their use of four different processes: formal processes are the guidelines provided by the government on gifting, but when these are insufficient, contextual processes regarding perceptions of the media, constituents or colleagues are used, or, alternatively, MPs rely on personal values or view gifting in terms of transactional processes with both parties receiving benefits. The paper explores perceptions and complexities of a sequence of gifts during events (event gifting). The authors recommend an improved awareness and understanding of the contribution of gifting practices to political relationship building., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Ara Maria Leal Rodriguez has not received funds from tobacco, alcohol, or gambling industry sources and has no conflicts of interests to declare. Peter Adams has never accepted funding directly from gambling, alcohol or other unhealthy commodity industries. He participated in research projects in the 1990s funded by two hypothecated funding sources; money levied from alcohol consumption and administered by New Zealand's Alcohol Advisory Council, an Autonomous Crown Entity (established by an Act of Parliament in 1976, and disbanded in 2012), and the other from money levied from gambling consumption and administered by the NZ Ministry of Health. Since 2004 he has not accepted funding from hypothecated sources. Kypros Kypri has not received funds from tobacco, alcohol, or gambling industry sources and has no conflicts of interests to declare. From 1999–2011, he had research projects funded through a levy on alcohol administered by New Zealand's Alcohol Advisory Council. He held a Lottery Health Research Grant (2009–2010) from the New Zealand Lotteries Commission, an Autonomous Crown entity. His contribution to this research was supported via a Senior Research Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, and a University of Newcastle Senior Brawn Research Fellowship. Edwin Sayes has not received funds from tobacco, alcohol, or gambling industry sources and has no conflicts of interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)