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Gift-Giving Hall of Shame

abecedarian

abecedarian

Well-Known Member
Since today is my dd Rachel's 21st birthday, I thought I'd honor her by starting a thread about the worst gifts we've recieved over the years. I'll start by telling you all about what Rachel got from her grandma for her birthday this year.
For starters, there's a card. This card was purchased by Rachel while she was staying with her grandma. It went missing, but she's got it now..signed by Grandma. Her gift is a dvd, part of a set of exercise dvds from Curves. Grandma told her she'd paid lots of money for this set, and that she wanted Rachel to "lose weight!" She also let her know that Rachel's sister Katie would be getting one on her birthday in March.

So, how about it? Care to share some of your worst gifts ever? We usually try to save the best of the worst for White Elephant Exchanges at Christmastime. What white elephants are hiding in your closets?
 
Motokid said:
PHEW...if you'da said anything about a puzzle I would have curled up and died...;)
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Are you kidding? They LOVE that puzzle! They took turns adding pieces to it and everything. And not a squabble one..and Ethan has plans for one of his stickers..soon as mom gets her rear in gear and makes his journal cover. He wants me to glue a bit of cut-up roadmap to a spiral notebook like I've done for two of girls and myself, and he wants to plant that sticker on the roadmap. That was his idea..
 
People give me plants, apparently as some kind of capital punishment--for the plants, that is.
 
My mil is the queen of off-kilter gifting. One year for my birthday she gave me this gigantic goldtoned ring with several huge pink cubic zirconias. Not only do I not wear clunky jewlry, the ring was three sizes too big. It was a 'prize' she'd 'won' in a sweepstakes contest.
At least it wasn't as bad as the time she gave my 10 year old dd a size 16 pair of secondhand, bright orange swim trunks as part of her Christmas present. :rolleyes: Or the gaudy plastic ball-shaped Christmas ornament that played Jingle Bells when plugged in. The cord was a mere 12 inches.. I don't think I want to know where she found that one..
 
I'm not an ungrateful person. I take the country style holiday decorations and the weird used stuff old people give with a smile and a thank you, but this year I hit my crazy point. His mother out does herself every year. The good years are when she forgets my birthday, but sadly, Christmas is never forgotten. This year I got a nightgown. Now, I don't wear nightgowns...ever. I wear long pants to bed every night. Even in July I sleep in lightweight scrub bottoms. So, a nightgown in itself is kindof an eyebrow raiser, but this nightgown is um...special. It's a nursing nightgown, an obvious suggestion as to how we should choose to feed our first child. I don't appreciate the too small, outdated contraption that I would obviously never wear, but I really hate the Merry Christmas "do it my way" hint that came with it. Yuck.
 
Once, one of my father's uncles came back from a holiday saying he had some presents for us. We were very surprised as he was really tight fisted. Anyway, he bought two pairs of shoes - a pair of men shoes (to share between my dad and my brother) and a pair of women shoes (to share between my mum, my two sisters and myself). He said that since we wore the same size, there was no reason to get a pair each.
 
mehastings said:
I'm not an ungrateful person. I take the country style holiday decorations and the weird used stuff old people give with a smile and a thank you, but this year I hit my crazy point. His mother out does herself every year. The good years are when she forgets my birthday, but sadly, Christmas is never forgotten. This year I got a nightgown. Now, I don't wear nightgowns...ever. I wear long pants to bed every night. Even in July I sleep in lightweight scrub bottoms. So, a nightgown in itself is kindof an eyebrow raiser, but this nightgown is um...special. It's a nursing nightgown, an obvious suggestion as to how we should choose to feed our first child. I don't appreciate the too small, outdated contraption that I would obviously never wear, but I really hate the Merry Christmas "do it my way" hint that came with it. Yuck.
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:confused: Are you even pregnant?? Besides, from experience, a t-shirt and pants of your choice would be much more comfortable..(and modest too if that's an issue)
 
I gave someone a dog turd sandwich once, for Christmas. It was all wrapped up and everything, in a nice lunch box.
 
When I was in the 9th grade, this guy from my church gave several of the girls in our church youth group dog collars for christmas as a joke. I think he managed to turn into a fairly decent human being, I'll have to check with his wife next time I see her..
 
Ah, I can't compete with some of those horrors.

My grandmother gave me a pair of 'shoes', not for walking but for keeping my feet warm when sitting in the couch, reading.

That's all well and good except that I have a pair of indoors shoes already (and she knows this) and the ones she gave me were patterned with 'nice' little pink flowers. And if there's anything I hate it's pink flowers on my clothing. And she knows me well enough to know that. They were dreadful. I'm cool with the fact that she may not be able to spend millions on buying fancy stuff for me, but considering how well she has aimed with some of her other presents those 'shoes' were just... wow.
 
Well a belated Happy Birthday to your DD abecedarian, and ugh, what awful presents.

I think I'm quite lucky, though my mum buys me books that she would like to read, and I usually don't even believe in (like medium books etc), but which I read anyway. Last Christmas she topped it by buying me scrapbook-making supplies, and it's her that makes the scrapbooks, not me (though admittedly once I did express a faint interest). She also buys me lovely stuff too, and on the spur of the moment, which is a nice surprise.

My Grandmother puts a lot of thought into presents, but they are always unsuitable. For Christmas she bought my DD, who's 3, a grey cardigan, a school cardigan at that. She's 3! Who dresses little girls in grey cardigans?! (No offence to anyone that might, ;) ) and she always gets the wrong sizes, like age 5-6 for my 3 year old DD and 12-18m for DS2 who just turned 2, and 3-4yr for DS1 who's 5. But other than that, I'm very lucky.

My husband, on the other hand, buys me rubbish. And expensive rubbish too. Every year he buys me a really expensive perfume gift set which I never use, and hairdryers and straighteners when I already have the ones I'm happy with. And last Christmas he bought me an expensive watch when the one I have is fine, and cost me a tenner or something. Still, at least he buys me gifts, and at least he doesn't get me a hoover or something, like men are renowned to do, LOL ;)

I, however, buy fantastic presents :p ;)
 
mehastings said:
Yes, we're having a baby in March, but it is still none of her business.
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I'm really happy for you! March is an excellent month for being born,btw :cool:
She probably meant well, but that's one reason I hate to buy clothes for others. Gift certificates are so much more versatile.
 
This thread disturbs me. Yes, I've gotten plenty of gifts I can't use, didn't want, or can't stand to look at. I've forgotten most of them, but I remember the thought. You can't expect everyone to know what your tastes are, but unless a person spends a lot of time around you, they don't have a clue as to what you'd like. Plus, maybe some people can't afford a "real" gift but don't want to come empty-handed or look like they've forgotten you on a holiday or birthday, or admit they can't afford anything. Give people the benefit of the doubt, okay?
 
Miss Shelf said:
This thread disturbs me. Yes, I've gotten plenty of gifts I can't use, didn't want, or can't stand to look at. I've forgotten most of them, but I remember the thought. You can't expect everyone to know what your tastes are, but unless a person spends a lot of time around you, they don't have a clue as to what you'd like. Plus, maybe some people can't afford a "real" gift but don't want to come empty-handed or look like they've forgotten you on a holiday or birthday, or admit they can't afford anything. Give people the benefit of the doubt, okay?
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Absolutely. But in our case it's a grandma who lives 15 miles away, and sees us regularly. Before we moved out here 11 years ago, we lived even closer. Some people just are clueless in the gift-giving department, and we've had to learn to laugh and go on. She's not too bad at picking stuff for the under 10 crowd, so the older kids warn them as they start creeping up on Grandma's Twighlight Zone age.
 
I can understand stuff like that, thanks for the clarification- but the whole thread sounded as if nobody appreciates a gesture, no matter how bizarre it seems. Some people just have absolutely no idea what to give as a gift. My dad gave my mom a vacuum cleaner as a wedding present. If she didn't tell him what she wanted for her birthday or Christmas, he'd give her some kind of household appliance. See?
 
CDA said:
I gave someone a dog turd sandwich once, for Christmas. It was all wrapped up and everything, in a nice lunch box.
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You are truly a beautiful human being.
 
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