Sources close to the Democratic Presidential Nominee, Barack Obama say the Illinois Senator has on multiple occasions over the past 20 years redistributed gifts given to him around the holiday season.
Reacting swiftly to the report, Obama's opponent Sen. John McCain told Sean Hannity in a Fox News interview that too many Americans are going without presents for Barack Obama to be redistributing his presents.
"Ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber may not have a very jolly Christmas this year, and they deserve a president who will have the good taste to keep the gifts he is given -- or at least exchange them for store credit somewhere," McCain said. "We need a commander-in-chief, not a re-gifter-in-chief."
At a campaign rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Gov. Sarah Palin made reference to the breaking story before a crowd of undecided voters.
"Barack Obama says it's time to spread the holiday cheer around," Palin said to audience jeers. "That's not Christmas joy we can believe in."
In a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio, Obama's running mate Joe Biden mounted a defense of his fellow Senator.
"John McCain would like you to think that re-giving holiday gifts is an uncommon thing. I know most of you have re-gifted a sweater, or a tie at least once. Why, I had a set of cufflinks that I re-gifted just last year. I've got enough cufflinks," Biden said, adding that McCain's attacks only show how out of touch he really is with the American people.
Biden made some counter-charges of his own against the McCain/Palin ticket for what he called their hypocrisy concerning Presentgate.
"McCain's own running mate has said that she plans to give away most of the clothes that she was given with RNC money. What do we call that? That's right -- re-gifting! It's total malarkey what they're saying," Biden said.
On a Fox News radio show, talk show host John Gibson railed against Obama for his alleged re-gifting ways.
"When you give someone a gift, it's for them, not for whoever you want to give it away to. This is all part of the War on Christmas, and if Obama becomes president, he'll confiscate our trees, stockings and candy canes," Gibson said.
Since the present redistribution scandal was made public through a Drudge Report posting two days ago, the mood on the campaign trail has turned ugly.
The original story, posted by blogger Matt Drudge, read "HOLLY JOLLY PHONY: Obama recycles gifts!"
A YouTube-posted video showed the remarks of several attendees of a McCain/Palin rally in Colorado.
One member of the audience shouted, "Re-gifter!" as Sen. McCain spoke.
"I find this whole thing scary and shocking," said one McCain supporter who refused to give her name. "For one thing, I didn't know that socialist Muslims even celebrated Christmas, but this raises questions about Obama's character."
The story took a whole new turn, however, when Santa Claus himself made a rare public statement from his workshop at the North Pole.
While Claus, also known as Father Christmas, would not say who he plans to support in the U.S. presidential election, he leveled some serious allegations against McCain's running mate.
"We do have some offices in Northern Alaska near the Arctic Circle, and things are awful there. People are shooting reindeer from planes, and Gov. Palin is offering $100 for every severed hoof. They already killed Blitzen and Comet," Claus said tearfully.
Claus also remarked that several worker elves have complained of sunburn and heatstroke, a problem they have never experienced before at the North Pole.