Truly Awful Gifts (Christmas and otherwise)

[Cachoo]

What is the worst gift you have received? Or what have you heard from social media or people you know on the subject? At another site this came up and I have to laugh (or cry) at some of the responses. Some samples:

A library book for my 13th birthday from my cheap skate grandmother who then got mad at me when I returned it late and she had to pay over $4 in late charges...

From the in-laws:
One year I got a phone book for our hometown (my BIL got the same gift) which is of course free to them. Several years in a row I have gotten fire extinguishers which they themselves get free from their insurance company.

For Christmas one year, we each drew a name and bought one gift for our Christmas with extended family. Gifts were supposed to be in the $30-40 range. My cousin ended up getting me a set of novelty Thanksgiving meal flavored sodas. So there was a turkey and gravy soda, a green bean casserole soda, etc. He left the price tag on it, which obviously had a clearance tag (since Thanksgiving was over, I suppose demand for Thanksgiving-flavored sodas was waning) and it was marked down to $2.99.

So what has been your worst gift or what have your heard/read about on this subject?

 

[Aceon6]

When I was engaged, my aunt gave me a bride doll and a doll stand for Christmas. I'm not a doll person and the things have sat in their boxes for 25 years.

 

[Susan1]

My boss got me one of those desktop sized plastic snowmen like you can buy off the front shelves in Target. Geez!!!!!

 

[Wiery]

Well, this is one I gave, not one I received. A few years ago, our godson and his mother came to visit with very short notice. DH told me to wrap the gifts he had gotten to exchange once they got here. I did so, and my godson, who was a junior at Yale, was perplexed to open a child's wooden logic puzzle. I had wrapped and given the wrong gift.

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

We had an office exchange - the limit was $15. I got dollar store lotion and a dirty friendship bracelet. She said she was in Mexico and she bought it from a kid on the street.

Last year my daughter did an exchange - a $15 limit as well. She got a roll of green duct tape.

I don't do exchanges anymore - they all end up being bizarre thoughtless gifts.

My friend lives in an apartment in the city-no yard, just an apartment. Her inlaws gave her tree faces. http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Tree-Peeple-Simon-Face/dp/B002ULRTOM

One thing I do like - people complain about getting fruit cake and bring it to work. I LOVE fruitcake. Mmmm with a scoop of brandy butter and it's heaven. I don't get them or make them, I'm the only person in the house who likes it so it is a nice treat.

One year a group of friends online, we had an exchange of bad gifts. It was a lit of fun because for some a bad gift is a treasure to another.

 

[Anemone]

I was once given a partially used bottle of perfume - and it wasn't good perfume either.

 

[Spun Silver]

Several years in a row I have gotten fire extinguishers which they themselves get free from their insurance company.

So that's why we got a fire extinguisher from hubby's sister that year! I actually didn't consider it a bad gift, though certainly odd. Our insurance company does not send them.

The only memorably bad one was a kooky glass vase my niece gave me one year. It was a super arty, delicate Rube Goldberg contraption with all kinds of breakable multicolored shapes sticking out of it. I was living quite poor in a tiny, cramped NYC apartment and had neither space for it nor money for flowers. Undoubtedly a regift and I continued the chain by putting it out on the street.

 

[judiz]

My first year of teaching, I received a half slip from a parent. Over the years I have been given silver pins that were tarnished, candlesticks with a gift receipt dated four years earlier, Christmas ornaments even though the parents knew I did not celebrate Christmas and last year I was given a box of individual cakes with an expiration date of October 2014.

 

[shan]

A half slip?? @judiz

I used to get some fun teacher gifts. For a few years, they seem to follow a random theme. One year it was cat coasters, a cat magnet, and a cat ornament. Mind you, I didn't own a cat or ever talk about cats. The next year it was an angel Christmas complete with decorative pins, ornaments, mugs and a calendar.

 

[Japanfan]

When I got married - 20 years ago - my brother gave me a new, small TV. As I'd never in my life had a new TV, I asked him whether I could use it as part of a trade to get a bigger new TV. I do realize now that this was very tacky on my part.

In any case, he got mad, took back the TV, and sent us a state-of-the-art frying pan.

As it turns out, that was the better gift. I still use that frying pan, and it's the best I've got. The TV would be long gone by now.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

my FIL gave the kids a robotic moving and singing MAGGOT.

 

[Spun Silver]

My brother just gave my sister an exerciser of some sort to reduce her double chin. He unveiled with great whoops at a family birthday dinner for her. But all the whoops were his. Nobody else was amused. My sister wouldn't even accept it.

Cracking up at some of the gifts in this thread. I wonder if the givers realize how tacky they look.

 

[kittyjake5]

The first year of my marriage my mother-in-law gave me a Chia Pet to welcome me to the family.

 

[PDilemma]

*My grandparents gave me a "Magical Musical Thing" one year. For those who don't know or remember, it was this musical toy:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2577/4116569086_ae53fa68ab_b.jpg

I was 15, played in a bell choir, took piano lessons and was in band. In other words: had access to and knew how to play actual musical instruments and was a bit old for toys.

*Four years ago, my sister-in-law gave me two used books which were filthy. Not their content. Their actual physical state.

*Two years ago, my sister-in-law gave me a dried out chocolate cake she ordered from somewhere by mail because she wanted me "to experience quality baked goods". That same year, I brought made from scratch chocolate cake for dessert to Christmas. Which even she ate as if it were good.

 

[quartz]

My husband gave me an iron one christmas because he had work shirts that needed to be ironed. Needless to say, I have never once touched the iron, and he did his own ironing.
He has also given me a sweater with a gigantic bib collar in a color that I have never worn in my life and had nothing in my wardrobe that it matched with. (Thank goodness!)

He has given me a very sporty Columbia winter jacket in powder blue (yuck) because it "looked warm". Umm, no. I am not even remotely suited to the sporty look. And I don't dress for warm, I dress for fabulous.

He has finally learned.... This year he is taking me to a Styx concert.

Thanks @Cachoo .....this is a great thread!

 

[Xela M]

My husband gave me an iron one christmas because he had work shirts that needed to be ironed. Needless to say, I have never once touched the iron, and he did his own ironing.
He has also given me a sweater with a gigantic bib collar in a color that I have never worn in my life and had nothing in my wardrobe that it matched with. (Thank goodness!)

He has given me a very sporty Columbia winter jacket in powder blue (yuck) because it "looked warm". Umm, no. I am not even remotely suited to the sporty look. And I don't dress for warm, I dress for fabulous.

He has finally learned.... This year he is taking me to a Styx concert.

Thanks @Cachoo .....this is a great thread!

I say be happy with your iron because my ex-husband never gave me anything for Christmas (and neither did his dad or brothers to their wives).

He also continued the nice tradition when it comes to our daughter. Every year I take my daughter to spend Christmas and New Years with my family in Germany, but two years ago my ex-husband guilted me into staying in London because "it wasn't fair that I was taking her away from him every Christmas". Fair enough, so I changed all our plans and we stayed. My ex-husband then got so drunk on Christmas eve that he forgot about Christmas altogether and switched off his phone on Christmas day. Not only did he not come over or even call to wish his daughter Merry Christmas, but he also never even bothered to give her a gift or even a card. I don't actually remember him ever buying her a Christmas gift.

 

[made_in_canada]

My dad gave my mom a toilet seat cover their first valentine's day together He got much better at gift giving over the years, thankfully.

My brother once gave me a box of candy that was so stale I couldn't even bite into it. I've never let him forget that one

 

[quartz]

I say be happy with your iron because my ex-husband never gave me anything for Christmas (and neither did his dad or brothers to their wives).

He also continued the nice tradition when it comes to our daughter. Every year I take my daughter to spend Christmas and New Years with my family in Germany, but two years ago my ex-husband guilted me into staying in London because "it wasn't fair that I was taking her away from him every Christmas". Fair enough, so I changed all our plans and we stayed. My ex-husband then got so drunk on Christmas eve that he forgot about Christmas altogether and switched off his phone on Christmas day. Not only did he not come over or even call to wish his daughter Merry Christmas, but he also never even bothered to give her a gift or even a card. I don't actually remember him ever buying her a Christmas gift.

I think him being your ex-husband is a gift in itself!

 

[DAngel]

The first year of my marriage my mother-in-law gave me a Chia Pet to welcome me to the family.

This doesn't sound like an awful gift to me...

Is it a tradition for mother-in-laws to give their daughter/son-in-laws welcome gifts?

 

[kittyjake5]

^I was being facetious about the welcome thing. At that time my mother-in-law was
not my biggest fan. I thought the gift was tacky and insulting.

 

[DAngel]

I see. Thank you for the explanation.

I find them quite cute... especially the turtle and the hedgehog.

 

[vireo]

One Christmas my mother gave me a scrunchy and a flashlight. My hair was short at the time, so I couldn't even use the scrunchy. My mom was financially comfortable, so money wasn't the reason for the bad gifts. She just finds the whole gift giving custom an annoyance.

 

[Aussie Willy]

We had an uncle and aunt (my mum's brother and his wife) who sold Amway. So any bet the presents were Amway. The most embarrassing one was the box of washing powder that they gave to my mum. To make matters worse it was terrible for washing clothes.

I also had a friend whose sister one year gave her a large jar of preserved fruit.

 

[twinsissv]

My first year of teaching, I received a half slip from a parent. Over the years I have been given silver pins that were tarnished, candlesticks with a gift receipt dated four years earlier, Christmas ornaments even though the parents knew I did not celebrate Christmas and last year I was given a box of individual cakes with an expiration date of October 2014.

 

[madm]

My brother gave me a digital bathroom scale one Christmas (he probably thought it was cool and high tech). My hubby gave me a vacuum, and I told him "objects of toil" are not gifts. He redeemed himself by getting me a nice jacket for the following Valentine's Day.

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

I just bought chocolates for my daughter's teachers but now I'm paranoid about exp dates. I'm going to check and see if they were old on the shelves!

 

[Sparks]

When I got married in the 80's, my sister gave me a big avocado green suitcase that came from her luggage set our parents gave her for her HS graduation in 1968.

 

[barbk]

A handmade, cloth microwave potato baker. Kind of like a potholder glove into which you put a potato. And out of which you pull potato pieces after it explodes. In an attractive pink calico pattern. From my MIL. (Who was a remarkably lovely woman, even if she should have been banned from attending her church's craft sales.)

 

[Habs]

One year for Christmas, my MIL gave me two sweaters and a t-shirt. All quite nice, but she bought size small. I am most definitely not a small. When she asked if I had to exchange them and I said yes, because of the size, she said, "Oh well, those clothes were made to fit skinny girls."

We have come a long way since then. She stopped trying to buy me clothes, I stopped pretending to like them, and she stopped passive-aggressively judging my (average) weight. Now she just gives me books and money.

 

[Spun Silver]

This thread is making my family look really good!