(spin off) What is the WORST Christmas gift you've ever received?

[RangerPooh]

The first Christmas that DH joined my family for (2001) he got to experience my moms family's white elephant gift exchange. Poor him, he was the recipient of the 'junk drawer" box. Old broken calculator from the 80s. Old glasses, old pens, that sort of thing. He was not happy and left grumpy. Thankfully he jokes about it these days.

 

[ronandannette]

I'm a bad Canadian. I have never eaten it and I never will.

Don’t tell tv guy - you’ll blow a hole in his thesis.

 

[aprilchem]

I've posted this one on the DIS before. When I was a kid in the early 80s I was big-time nerd (and I still am)! I loved science, school, reading, had my own little chemistry lab set up in the house, etc. This was well-known amongst my relatives. My sister was the "popular kid" - a cheerleader, homecoming queen, super into makeup, etc. We were (and are still) total opposites.

So one year when I was probably 11 or 12, my aunt gets us these handmade straw doll things for Christmas. They were atrocious - they were supposed to be decorations, and they were around 10 inches tall and each had a sign sewn onto its hands so it looked like it was holding the sign. I think you were supposed to sit them on a shelf or something holding the sign.

Anyway, my sister's doll said something totally benign - I don't remember what it was exactly. My doll was holding a sign that said "Homework makes you ugly". I remember opening it, not knowing what to say, and just putting it back in the box and saying thanks. Worst gift ever!

 

[Domo]

This was many years ago.

A guy at my work gave me a dead duckling in a glass globe - something like the pic below, but skinnier duckling and bigger globe. Needless to say, when I moved to a different location I left that behind for the next occupant.


View attachment 286569

Good grief. You win the DIS!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Little different spin, but our family used to exchange REAL gifts - everyone drew a name. There was also a gag gift of this horrible plastic lamp. Whoever got stuck with the lamp would regift it the following year along with a REAL gift.

So one year, my BIL gives the lamp to my dear grandmother. Grandma hadn’t paid close enough attention to previous years to realize she’d received the gag gift. So, she politely thanked him and set it aside. Once she realized what had happened, she was so mad at herself for not getting the joke. She apologized to everyone in the room for failing to come up with something clever and funny to say.

A few days later, everyone in the family (each of us, recipients of $200 checks from Grandma) received hand written letters from Grandma apologizing for “ruining Christmas”.

It’s been 20 years since Grandma passed, but we still needle my BIL over that one LOL.

 

[wenrob]

Little different spin, but our family used to exchange REAL gifts - everyone drew a name. There was also a gag gift of this horrible plastic lamp. Whoever got stuck with the lamp would regift it the following year along with a REAL gift.

So one year, my BIL gives the lamp to my dear grandmother. Grandma hadn’t paid close enough attention to previous years to realize she’d received the gag gift. So, she politely thanked him and set it aside. Once she realized what had happened, she was so mad at herself for not getting the joke. She apologized to everyone in the room for failing to come up with something clever and funny to say.

A few days later, everyone in the family (each of us, recipients of $200 checks from Grandma) received hand written letters from Grandma apologizing for “ruining Christmas”.

It’s been 20 years since Grandma passed, but we still needle my BIL over that one LOL.

Awe. Now I miss my grandmas.

My maternal grandma didn’t have much money and she would never accept any from us. My sis and I would bring over groceries pretending like we had too much or act like we’d let her pay us back but make up excuses why we couldn’t take her check. Anyway, one year we got the bright idea to give her Visa gift cards for Christmas. Oy, what a mess that turned out to be! First she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t deposit them into her bank as cash, then she couldn’t figure out how to activate them or spend them. So worst present was on us, I suppose. Don’t give technologically challenged grandmas Visa cards, lol.

 

[maxiesmom]

If any of you have ever worked retail, you know the fun of the return lines after Christmas. And the poor people in them that you have to tell Grandma bought this 3 years ago and we can only give you 50 cents. Or that the item is so old the system doesn't recognize it. Happen every Christmas.

Not me, but a coworker has a mother in law who dislikes her. One year she received a used candle for her gift. Nothing says Merry Christmas like a half burnt candle.

 

[Albort]

i remember as a kid, i got a bar of soap that can be found at a hotel...
i guess its better than getting coal... :\

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

My extremely frugal cousin has a "gift closet" where she puts all the gifts she gets that she doesn't like (with the giver's name attached, so at least she doesn't regift). On my birthday one year, she proudly threw open the closet and offered me my pick! Yeah, no thanks....

Terri

Your cousin is a genius lol! Why don’t all re-gifters name tag who they got things from? All regifters I know end up forgetting who gave them what and gifting it back haha.

 

[leebee]

Every year for as long as I can remember, my great-aunt, Auntie Petie, used to send a couple of paper grocery sacks just filled with little presents. Each was nicely wrapped, labeled for the recipient, etc. We were always SO EXCITED to see these sacks arrive, and watch them pile up under the tree. Then there'd be Christmas morning, and nobody could understand why we'd been so excited. She gave the oddest gifts- packages of cocktail napkins, an iced tea spoon, a pocket book that nobody in her right mind would carry, weird scarves, bars of soap, packs of birthday candles, post cards, etc. It got to be a joke in the family, and we'd always wonder who'd be getting "the Petie Purse" this Christmas! As an adult, I learned that it was her husband's family's tradition to give many small, useful gifts for Christmas (he was Swedish... not sure if that's a traditional custom or not), and this was her interpretation.

Petie's gone now, and we all miss her greatly. We still laugh about the presents, but every year I give my siblings a package of cocktail napkins. Why let a great family tradition die, right?

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

Get ready for it..........Fruitcake. Does anybody really eat it?

I love fruitcake! My MIL makes the best fruitcake. Actually, you can probably smell it from where you are. It's been soaked........

 

[Jaya]

A maternity sweater. Granted, it was an absolutely beautiful maternity sweater, but I was 47 years old and a grandmother.

 

[nursejackie]

When I was a kid I HATED receiving clothes for Christmas. A relative used to buy us a polo neck jumper (and I don't mean Ralph Lauren Polo!), I found out years later she worked at a catalogue company, hence the jumpers every year.

 

[disykat]

My husband and I rarely exchange gifts, but when we do my joke is that he reads women's magazine for his ideas. He gives me things I hate like flowers, (I have allergies) jewelry, (I don't wear jewelry because it bugs me, I barely tolerate my wedding ring) lingerie, (this is a gift for ME? Really?,) chocolates with yucky stuff in them (the only candy I like is plain chocolate,) etc. Those are great gifts for some people, but not for me. It makes me mad and hurts my feelings because he KNOWS all these things about me and the gift was supposedly FOR me. He just doesn't pay attention. I could tell him "I hate _________" and if he saw an advertisement claiming that women like these things, I'd find it wrapped up the next time we exchanged gifts. I'm honestly not hard to buy for, I love practical stuff. I just don't like the typical "womens" gifts.

Last year we decided to exchange small gifts at Christmas. Foolishly I thought he could manage it. I would say lingerie wrapped up and given to me to open during family gift opening was the worst. I'm well into my 50's. My young adult sons don't need to see that - even the very small glimpse they got before I realized and shut the box. Really?!!

 

[pianogirl73]

My MIL gave me a sweater in size 2XL (22-24). I wore a size 16.

My MIL gave me a sweater in size 2XL and at the time I was a size 2.

So the wrong sizes thing by numbers of sizes is common? That's so weird. I can see buying a small or large for somewhere who is a medium, but a range of sizes off.

My MIL always accused me of being on a diet but at the time, I was just lucky to have a great metabolism. She didn't like that at all! She bought me the shirt way too big on purpose to try to get to me.

My worst gift was when I was about 12. My Step Grandmother bought me a nutcracker. Not even a cute Christmas themed one, just a plain nutcracker. It was so bizarre!

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

Every year for as long as I can remember, my great-aunt, Auntie Petie, used to send a couple of paper grocery sacks just filled with little presents. Each was nicely wrapped, labeled for the recipient, etc. We were always SO EXCITED to see these sacks arrive, and watch them pile up under the tree. Then there'd be Christmas morning, and nobody could understand why we'd been so excited. She gave the oddest gifts- packages of cocktail napkins, an iced tea spoon, a pocket book that nobody in her right mind would carry, weird scarves, bars of soap, packs of birthday candles, post cards, etc. It got to be a joke in the family, and we'd always wonder who'd be getting "the Petie Purse" this Christmas! As an adult, I learned that it was her husband's family's tradition to give many small, useful gifts for Christmas (he was Swedish... not sure if that's a traditional custom or not), and this was her interpretation.

Petie's gone now, and we all miss her greatly. We still laugh about the presents, but every year I give my siblings a package of cocktail napkins. Why let a great family tradition die, right?

My Grandmother and her sister used to do this. They would each send the other's grandkids the most random stuff. I didn't meet these cousins in person until I was in my 20s and the first thing we all mentioned was how awesome these gifts were. One said she remembered getting a pair of sparkly tights when she was 6 - in a womens size xl. My grandmother sent scarves, soap, hand cream, socks, mens flannel shirts, whatever she had found and stashed away during the year. My great-aunt was an antique dealer so she just grabbed random stuff out of her store to send us - dishes, books, jewelry, pictures, whatever caught her eye. We loved getting those packages.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

I love fruitcake! My MIL makes the best fruitcake. Actually, you can probably smell it from where you are. It's been soaked........

When we moved into our current house, we found the most beautifully wrapped fruitcake (wrapped in pretty piece of cloth, hand tied bow) in the freezer. I can just imagine some little old lady wrapping that up special to give to the bachelor who owned the house. Obviously, it didn't make the cut and got left behind with all the other junk he didn't want.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My MIL gave me a sweater in size 2XL and at the time I was a size 2.



My MIL always accused me of being on a diet but at the time, I was just lucky to have a great metabolism. She didn't like that at all! She bought me the shirt way too big on purpose to try to get to me.

My worst gift was when I was about 12. My Step Grandmother bought me a nutcracker. Not even a cute Christmas themed one, just a plain nutcracker. It was so bizarre!

I can remember 2 nutcracker gifts in my family. Mom got one that was a dog. You put the nut in his mouth & his tail was a lever. She loved it. Her father loved receiving gag gifts & his favorite was the naked lady nutcracker. My grandmother also thought it was a hoot, but she made him keep it in the drawer. He wanted to display it LOL.

 

[nkereina]

A few years ago, my boss at work was a very wealthy executive. The kind who drove a very expensive car and had a wine cellar in his house. For Christmas, I was fully expecting a nice bottle of wine or maybe a gift card. Instead, he gave me a serving tray with poinsettias on it. It was square and too small to use functionally when entertaining and with the poinsettias on it, it didn't make sense to use it other than Christmas. I put it in a closet and threw it out recently. Never used it. I shouldn't feel too bad though - he gave some of his other employees coffee cakes that can be found at our local grocery store!

After that, I had a new boss and he gave each of his employees a book for Christmas about how to work well in a team environment. Couldn't have been more impersonal and I don't think any of us read it. It was almost offensive, as if it was insinuating we didn't work well as a team! I don't think that's how he meant it, I just think he wasn't thoughtful.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

So the wrong sizes thing by numbers of sizes is common? That's so weird. I can see buying a small or large for somewhere who is a medium, but a range of sizes off.

In my case (4xl pajamas) the give had weight issues herself and was borderline anorexic at one point. She was constantly making comments about me needing to lose a few pounds. Hence the 4xl pajamas to let me know how big she thought I was. Then there is also the possibility that she just grabbed the first thing she saw and didn't bother to pay attention to the size.