Do you feel the holiday spirit? It’s time to finally take out your comfy sweaters, blast the Christmas music, and write a personalized letter to Santa. You don’t want to end up getting something weird and useless this year, right? Unfortunately, often people find it tricky to get the perfect holiday gift for their loved ones. Even if you know them well enough, it’s hard to be creative and original every single year.
So when Jimmy Fallon announced his #WorstGiftEver challenge, the most ridiculous stories started pouring in. From shower coffee makers and mop buckets to half-completed coloring books, each one is better than the last. Just by looking at them, you can’t help but scratch your head trying to figure out what was the idea behind them.
Get ready to see some of the most entertaining tweets Bored Panda has collected from this Twitter thread. Scroll down, upvote your favorites, and make sure to share the worst present you’ve ever gotten in the comments below!
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My dads birthday is Christmas eve and my son on the 20th. I always made sure to wrap gifts for their birthday in b'day paper and Christmas on Christmas gifts. They still deserve a special day.
We do that with one of our relatives whose birthday is a couple of days before Christmas. Even if we only see them on Christmas day, they will get a chrissy pressie plus a birthday pressie.
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Yes, all the time. But, you know, people get pissed at you when you do it to them - say a birthday in June "hey it's your birthday AND Christmas present"
Which is really silly because if you make a point of it being for both it is usually because it is a more expensive present than you would give for just one, or in my family at least
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I have a costumer who's kid's birthday is round christmas. They celebrate and they throw him a half year birthday party in summer so he can have his friends over.
My daughter is the 22nd. I have always gone out of my way to make sure they are separate. Gotta be super careful to not accidentally wrap B-Day present in Christmas paper!
A close relative with a grudge sent a black rubber door mat to us for Christmas. It simply said The KRANZ. No plural. We wondered which one of us it was for.
I was lucky. I was born 3 days after Christmas but my mom always made sure I had a birthday party and got separate gifts. Although, once my brother gave me cat figurines that were part of a set, one on Christmas and the other on my birthday.
Not only is my birthday in December, I share it with my sister. To my mother's credit, she'd make a sheet cake, cut it in half and decorate it geared towards each of us as individuals. The bike that was "also a Christmas present " was always a bit of a disappointment as we lived in the northeast and couldn't ride it till spring.
My wife’s birthday is in December and I have a,ways bought her two presents one for her birthday and one for Christmas so your wrong in my case
Hubby's bday is the 20th. When he was a kid his parents got him part of a bike on his birthday and wheels on Christmas. They still swear that the wheels were sold separately and came in later 🤔
If I'm asking for something particularly expensive, I'll specifically say it'll be for multiple occasions. When I wanted a new gaming PC, my husband agreed that it would be basically a year's worth of gifts that covered our anniversary, my birthday, and Christmas.
My son's birthday is on the 13th, so we only set up the Tree and anything Christmas on the 14th of December. So every year when he goes to bed on his birthday he is super excited because Christmas 'starts' tomorrow.
My sons birthday is Christmas day so I truly feel sorry for those with Dec birthdays. He's a young adult now but when he was younger we would celebrate Xmas in morning then right at noon, xmas was over & it was officially his birthday & his friends was allowed to come celebrate with cake & presents. It definitely hard
I have an April birthday, but for YEARS I have been getting Birthdaymas presents from my mom. Mostly because I would rather have 1 really awesome thing than multiple kinda cool things. Most recently it was a joint Birthdaymas from both my mom and my girlfriend, so in total this one gift is equal to 4. It was a chef's knife so beautiful I will wander into my kitchen at least once a week just to stare at it. It'll last me for DECADES. It can cut slices of potato so thin *I can literally see through it*. And it is SO. FREAKIN'. PRETTY. It's a damascus nakiri with a linen resin handle. And it feels SOOOO nice in my hand. I love it so damn much. Birthdaymas gifts are AWESOME!!!
December 13. I kid you not my grandparents (on one side) SKIP right over it because "you'll get enough gifts on christmas" . that's not how that works...
I refuse to accept this 😂 I’ll take a doodle on a used envelope on my bday and a hug for Xmas over one gift for both. It feels like they care more, it’s not about the money.
I've always pitied people with kids born in December. Best to have spring and back to school time!
My birthday is Dec 31st, the only time in 35 years that I got a Christmas and birthday gift in one was when I got a new very nice bike I had been asking for. My son is the 21st we make sure he gets them seperate.
I have never understood this. I have a niece and a nephew born in December. I never give them a birthday/Christmas gift in one. The only exception was a couple of years ago, I found something my niece would love but out of price range for one or the other. So I asked her beforehand if that would be okay. My brother's birthday is also in December, but he gets the same thing for birthday and Christmas that he gets me: nothing.
My birthday is at the beginning of January. Everyone does that to me! Obviously I don't care as an adult, but as a kid I always felt gypped.
My birthday is in early January, and it was impossible to escape the feeling that my birthday present was just one of my Christmas presents that my dad kept in the closet an extra two weeks.
My dad's birthday was on Dec 22 and he hated it as a child because his parents would celebrate his birthday and Christmas as a single event, if they celebrated his birthday at all (his parents were both extremely abusive; his mother was emotionally and verbally abusive, his father was physically abusive). We would make a point of separating the two days so he could celebrate them independently of each other.
I was born on January 1st and as a kid I recieved two seperate gifts. As I grew older, my parents asked me if I prefer two 'regular' gifts or one more valuable. I had no reason to complain. I believe that a child should always get two separate gifts, even small if ypu can't afford more. But no child should feel like their birthday is less of a big deal than others just because it happens to be around Christmas.
Oh come on! My mother gifted me an air compressor in 2019 that I firmly believe STILL covers her for my birthday and Christmas.
It depends, I used to ‘leverage’ better gifts from people who would have given me something crappy I didn’t want by guilting them with the i’ts for both option.
This week’s challenge on The Tonight Show is all about the #WorstGiftEver. Jimmy Fallon kicked off the thread himself by tweeting: “My friend thought her boyfriend of five years was going to propose on her birthday. Instead, he wrote her an original song called “You Make Me Oh So Love Crazy.” But it seems that the people of Twitter have had it way worse. Imagine a wooden toilet seat with a golden eagle on it. Pretty weird, right?
Well, in real life, such things are being gifted quite often. Although when you think about it, it’s really not a big surprise. During the holiday season, many people feel heightened levels of stress because they tend to spend more time and money preparing for it. Also, gift shopping can be really nerve-racking, even without thinking about the possibility of buying a terrible present.
In a study called Why Certain Gifts Are Great to Give but Not to Get, the researchers state that givers mainly think about the moment of exchange, whereas recipients primarily focus on how valuable a gift will be in the future. It seems that the perception of the present is at the center of the problem here. Givers want to charm others and make them feel surprised and touched but do not think about the long-term enjoyment of the gift.
Bored Panda reached out to Jeff Galak, an associate professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business and co-author of the mentioned study, to get some insight on what are the main reasons people end up choosing bad gifts for others.
It can get pretty challenging and exhausting to constantly think about what the other person would enjoy most. Trying to remember successful gifts you have bought or made in the past, scrolling through online shops or wandering around at the mall, yet still not feeling assured. "Most people make mistakes because they simply don't ask the recipient what they want," Galak said.
I just showed this to my Mexican ex, her response was "They wouldn't have found your body."
"There's an odd cultural taboo that exists which makes people uncomfortable asking someone what kind of gift they want. But that taboo is entirely inappropriate," he continued. "Gift recipients know what they want and they are eager to tell gift givers. There is nothing wrong with sharing that information and there's nothing wrong with asking for it."
Another thing is, a bad gift can signal a lack of care: "If a giver gives a gift that isn't well received, there is a chance that the relationship will be strained. Gifts act as a social lubricant that signals care for another person... but that is undermined when the gift is bad."
We all know that receiving a terrible gift is uncomfortable, to say the least. However, there are ways on how to avoid these kinds of situations. One very important piece of advice from Jeff Galak to you, dear Pandas—just ask! "The easiest way to give a good gift is to ask someone what they want. People appreciate the fact that they are being asked as that signals that the giver really wants to give something that is well liked," he explained.
Giving bad gifts is not only impractical but can also hurt your relationships. Elizabeth Dunn, a psychology professor and co-author of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, told the BBC that it can be risky because it shows that you and the recipient might not share the same interests.
She suggests starting by thinking of anything you two have in common. Sometimes we think of stuff that we would enjoy getting ourselves and then try to adjust it for the receiver. “People are better at choosing something for themselves,” Dunn said. “So if you have something in common with somebody, get something that shares the same affinity, because something you would like will more likely be something they like.”
No matter how much thought we put into the perfect present, the psychology professor said, that “the better gift will be whatever it is they say they want.” And this research only confirms it. Several studies show that gift recipients are more appreciative if they get the things they explicitly request than those they do not.
If you already have an idea of what your loved ones would enjoy, good for you! But if you don’t, try not to stress about it. During this time of the year, we should not obsess about things like presents. Instead, make sure that your holidays are all about feeling calm, cheerful, and loved.
If someone gave me a shovel as a metaphor for anything, I'd immediately hit them with it.
Note: this post originally had 65 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
People in my family are so fussy and so darn choosy that they never like what they get for Christmas. I got enough of people rolling their eyes when they open the gifts I gave them. I keep asking myself, why am I spending a lot of my time to find "just the right thing" and spending money on these people that I could put elsewhere to better use?... So I started giving them Walmart gift cards. There are 100,000 items in the store to choose from, or the cards can be redeemed for cash which can then be added to their own money to buy something even more expensive and desirable if they prefer. Even this was not good enough. With Walmart cards, everybody gets EXACTLY what they want every year. How can this be wrong? The ungrateful people considered themselves disrespected because I didn't put any time, effort, research, and money into making them happy. The cards were just too "impersonal" for their tastes. Huh? Why am I doing this again? It really got awkward as everyone got older. I got fed up with this. So the family adopted a new rule that I suggested: No adult gifts exchanged anymore. Christmas is for kids. They like everything, so we only give xmas gifts to the kids from now on. Finish problem.
Great way to handle it. We had a similar thing with my dad's family, no birthday cards with money after you turn 18. I can't believe there are so many ungrateful people out there though! Be grateful for what you get, because at least someone has taken the time to think of you. One of my sisters oldest friends would always put so much pressure on her to get the right gift. Even though she knew she didn't earn as much money she had a certain amount she expected each gift to be worth etc. I told my sister each year to relax and chose a smaller, more meaningful gift, but she would often say no, because the friend would be spending more money.
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My kids father who never gives them anything ever... Once For Christmas, calls them to say he has a lot of toys for them. They ( who were only 7 and 8 at the time) got super excited. When he shows up with two big garbage bags filled. When they open it. They had a bunch of used broken dolls and other toys that they had previously seen and his girlfriend's basement from when her daughters were young. They have never forgiven him. I was heartbroken for them.
I was 10 and had just lost my cat and was devastated. For x-mas, my aunt gave me a book titled, "101 Things to do With a Dead Cat". I spent the rest of the evening crying. a decade later when she passed away, I sang, "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead" in my head for the entire event. It's been another 30 years since and I still hate her for that.
Your aunt was a jerk. She probably did other nasty things as well.
Load More Replies... One year (I was 23) my grandmother sneaked around the house giving cards to my mother, father and brother. Each card had $50 in it. I didn't get a card, not even an empty one!! I heard her ask my mother if she should give me the same and my mother told her not to bother. It's a story I tell now to demonstrate what my upbringing was like.
Sorry you had to endure that. Hope things are better these days
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After dating for over four years I was thinking I may be getting a ring and a proposal for Christmas. Opened my gift...road side safety kit including shovel to dig myself out of snow banks. Practical gift but I was a little disappointed.
A LITTLE disappointed?!? What happened afterwards? Did he figure out how much it hurt you?
Load More Replies... I have been gifted some pretty tacky, broken, and used gifts in my 43 years.. I always say thank you and appear to be grateful. It's the thought that counts, right?
You're right. They clearly weren't thinking of you though.
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My ex-in-laws gave my older son (then 15) a white shirt and an (extremely ugly) tie for Christmas ... and the younger one (then 9) a really hideous looking winter jacket (he refused to wear the thing). They said, that the two of them have nothing “decent” to wear and that they always run around like “street children”! That was almost 10 years after the divorce ... and they still took every opportunity to criticize me.
When my grandma was growing up, her dad would buy a bunch of presents and put them under the tree, but they were all for him. He would unwrap them in front of everybody and the kids wouldn't get anything.
My Dad gave me the book I gave him for his birthday. His birthday is in late November and still didn't catch on.
I had a book called "Best Christmas Gift Ever" when I was a kid. The cover had "Best" crossed out and replaced with "Worst". It was a pretty good book. In it, the young protagonist is desperately trying to save up enough money to buy what she believes is a beautiful vase, for her mother. At the end when she finally manages it, she overhears her mother talking to someone about how ugly this vase is. This is, obviously, very upsetting. But it all works out as she ends up making a sort of scrapbook with a dollar on each page. https://images-na.ss...49i/2909341.jpg
Thank you for sharing this! I added this book to my list bcuz I'm interested in reading it now I'd never heard of it. (I don't care if it's a kid's book.)
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My ex gave me a pair of pants for Christmas. They were cute in a camouflage pattern. I was chronically sick and gained some weight. The pants were size 6 and I was a size 10. He said, "you can lose weight to fit into them." I left him, lost weight and now they are too big. He also gave me a toilet seat one year. I had mentioned that I wanted a new, padded seat once. He waited for Christmas then wrapped it up as a gift.
My sister always complained about the gifts my uncle and aunt gave us each year. They were never things I really loved either (usually a novelty hat or bag), but when they only saw us a few times a year I don't think you could expect things that personalised.
The last Christmas gift exchange we had with my aunt, she gave me a Bedazzler. My step-grandmother gave me and my sister knockoff Barbie things that she turned out to have shoplifted. So she stole but couldn’t even steal the name brand?? For a bonus, her children stole all of my bio grandmother’s heirlooms that my grandpa was hanging on to, so the whole family has almost no heirlooms because of them. :)
i remember one year everyone else got tablets (on sale for $88) ...i got disposable cups because "money was tight"
Horse teeth earrings. Because I love horses so obviously I want their molars dangling from my ears.
These days my family often doesn't buy presents for Christmas but instead makes things, or buys from the op shop (Thrift shop for non Aussies). They are still thoughtful gifts and we are all appreciative of not contributing to more unsustainable human waste
How about a nice caricature of Mark Messier from his time with the NY Rangers? Oh, right, I'm a NJ Devils fan. Really felt bad about telling my mom that one years ago, especially since the parents (obviously, mom) got me a new leather jacket, which didn't fit and was the type I do not like
I no longer observe any of the holidays, just hating all the paganism of their origins....I don't observe Thanksgiving because my son was killed at Thanksgiving 15 years ago, so negative associations...but the worst gift I ever got was from my then-second husband. We'd been married less than two months, and I didn't know he hated me. He made it clear with the "gifts"---a very, very cheap, ugly pair of men's winter gloves, far too large for my small hands, and windshield wiper blades, new, but the wrong size for my car. I'd just spent over $300 on a very nice gift for him... We were divorced the following April.
Worst gift(s) ever? Second husband and I had been married only two months at Christmas, and I didn't know he was still seeing his longtime girlfriend, and had married me so that she'd be jealous and want him again. On Christmas day, in front of my family, I opened his gifts to me: one windshield wiper blade (used, off a car that was far larger than my new tiny one), a super cheap pair of men's gloves, so huge that they fell off my hands, and a $5 certificate to McDonald's (he knew I detested that place and wouldn't use it, but he loved their garbage). We were divorced by the end of the following April, his gf having given him an ultimatum. She ended up dead a few years later, being 16 years older than him, and he 7 years older than me (making her already in her late 60's, and that was in 1992), so they each got what they deserved from each other.
Several comments were just smile and say thank you. But when the gift seems to be completely inappropriate or even mean why bother. I quit just getting something. If I find something great but if not oh well. I buy during the year and try to be thoughtful. I get tea and coffee for my neighbors during the year instead of just Christmas.
My worst gift ever: I was 12 or 13 and about 100lbs soaking wet, and my uncle was/is notoriously horrible with gifts (mostly cause he just doesn't care) got me a 2xl maternity shirt that said "Hot Mama" on it.
My grandmother gave me large Johnson and Johnson talcum powder for my birthday when I was about 11. For many years, I thought it was because I smelt - then I realised that she had just not known it was my birthday. We drove for 2 days to get to her. I don't resent it - I never really knew her, anyway.
The entitlement in some of these people just amazes me. How are you going to knock a grandma or great grandma? How are you going to knock a husband that made an effort? Un real. I remember one year my son was so desperate to get me a gift that he went in my jewelry box found a ring I hadn't worn in YEARS and tried to pass it off as him getting it for me. I hugged him tight and said thank you. It wasn't until he was older we talked and laughed about it. I didn't embarass him. The worst gift was when my ex husband gave me a hand made "necklace" made out of cheap beads. and it wasn't that it was hand made or cheap, that would've been super sweet, it was that his girlfriend he was cheating on me with made it. So yea that's a horrible gift. (I found out a couple weeks later...it was the beginning of the end) Some of ya'll need some act right for real.
On our 1st Christmas (in the midst of PASSIONATELY falling in love with each other!) the man who became my husband gave me a book ... on Grammar!! The devastated look on my face, tears welling up in my eyes & my valiant attempt to graciously say, "Oh, thank you so much!" helped him realize he REALLY hurt me deeply. I NEVER said a complaining word about it, NEVER criticized it nor told anyone. But for the next 32 years, on EVERY special occasion, he has gifted me jewelry from Tiffany, gorgeous pieces of art, luxurious silk nightgowns and once, the car I envied as a college student (a lt.blue VW bug convertible!)! But the best gift he ever gave me was a VERY tender, beautiful love letter! I cried with joy. He finally "got it" right!!
I got a former bf tickets on the 50 yard line to see his favorite NFL team play in the playoffs. For the same occasion he got me flip flops and the third season of a show I had never seen a single episode of.
As an adult it became hard to pick out gifts for other adults because they already had everything they wanted . I decided I wanted to give them laughter because I love making people laugh. So every year I spend the year looking for weird things that each person would find funny . We also started to pass around weird things like this really annoying clock that made loud train sounds on the hour . You never knew who'd end up with it. One year my grandma made these cute little mice out of radishes as a garnish on a veggie tray . My mom kept them that Christmas Eve , and then wrapped them and gave them to my grandma for Christmas the next year. They regifted those nasty dried up radish mice for five years. Those crappy gifts you got will one day be a fond memory of a crazy family member
One year I went all out for everyone. It was me, my husband, my son & his nephew we took in (he is my sons age & had never had a "real Christmas" before). So I bought everyone like 15+ gifts each & had a blast doing it. In return...I got absolutely nothing. It hurt like hell but I had fun giving his nephew, who I have come close to, a once in lifetime gift of having his First Christmas (the boys was 19). Probably the best Christmas I have had in a long time.. I am a giver so I brushed it off because my husband had had an extremely tough year & spent most of year in & out of hospital due to severe Crohns disease & major complications with bowel obstructions. I did chastise him because he knows how to buy HIS stuff online.
I have a meal prep business and My mom gave me an indoor grill she'd just gotten. She said if I liked it, she'd order herself another one and this one would be Christmas. Fine w me as they're $125ish for what I wanted. I've had it for a month. Found out today (12/2/21) that she bought it at a GARAGE SALE for $10 and actually had bought it for my brother. I quickly informed her that's NOT a Christmas gift and proceeded to tell on her my brother & sister and both of my mom's sister. I've laughed all day.
I got a Fitbit for Hanukkah one year. One of my favorite gifts I've ever gotten!
Load More Replies... People in my family are so fussy and so darn choosy that they never like what they get for Christmas. I got enough of people rolling their eyes when they open the gifts I gave them. I keep asking myself, why am I spending a lot of my time to find "just the right thing" and spending money on these people that I could put elsewhere to better use?... So I started giving them Walmart gift cards. There are 100,000 items in the store to choose from, or the cards can be redeemed for cash which can then be added to their own money to buy something even more expensive and desirable if they prefer. Even this was not good enough. With Walmart cards, everybody gets EXACTLY what they want every year. How can this be wrong? The ungrateful people considered themselves disrespected because I didn't put any time, effort, research, and money into making them happy. The cards were just too "impersonal" for their tastes. Huh? Why am I doing this again? It really got awkward as everyone got older. I got fed up with this. So the family adopted a new rule that I suggested: No adult gifts exchanged anymore. Christmas is for kids. They like everything, so we only give xmas gifts to the kids from now on. Finish problem.
Great way to handle it. We had a similar thing with my dad's family, no birthday cards with money after you turn 18. I can't believe there are so many ungrateful people out there though! Be grateful for what you get, because at least someone has taken the time to think of you. One of my sisters oldest friends would always put so much pressure on her to get the right gift. Even though she knew she didn't earn as much money she had a certain amount she expected each gift to be worth etc. I told my sister each year to relax and chose a smaller, more meaningful gift, but she would often say no, because the friend would be spending more money.
Load More Replies... My kids father who never gives them anything ever... Once For Christmas, calls them to say he has a lot of toys for them. They ( who were only 7 and 8 at the time) got super excited. When he shows up with two big garbage bags filled. When they open it. They had a bunch of used broken dolls and other toys that they had previously seen and his girlfriend's basement from when her daughters were young. They have never forgiven him. I was heartbroken for them.
I was 10 and had just lost my cat and was devastated. For x-mas, my aunt gave me a book titled, "101 Things to do With a Dead Cat". I spent the rest of the evening crying. a decade later when she passed away, I sang, "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead" in my head for the entire event. It's been another 30 years since and I still hate her for that.
Your aunt was a jerk. She probably did other nasty things as well.
Load More Replies... One year (I was 23) my grandmother sneaked around the house giving cards to my mother, father and brother. Each card had $50 in it. I didn't get a card, not even an empty one!! I heard her ask my mother if she should give me the same and my mother told her not to bother. It's a story I tell now to demonstrate what my upbringing was like.
Sorry you had to endure that. Hope things are better these days
Load More Replies... After dating for over four years I was thinking I may be getting a ring and a proposal for Christmas. Opened my gift...road side safety kit including shovel to dig myself out of snow banks. Practical gift but I was a little disappointed.
A LITTLE disappointed?!? What happened afterwards? Did he figure out how much it hurt you?
Load More Replies... I have been gifted some pretty tacky, broken, and used gifts in my 43 years.. I always say thank you and appear to be grateful. It's the thought that counts, right?
You're right. They clearly weren't thinking of you though.
Load More Replies... My ex-in-laws gave my older son (then 15) a white shirt and an (extremely ugly) tie for Christmas ... and the younger one (then 9) a really hideous looking winter jacket (he refused to wear the thing). They said, that the two of them have nothing “decent” to wear and that they always run around like “street children”! That was almost 10 years after the divorce ... and they still took every opportunity to criticize me.
When my grandma was growing up, her dad would buy a bunch of presents and put them under the tree, but they were all for him. He would unwrap them in front of everybody and the kids wouldn't get anything.
My Dad gave me the book I gave him for his birthday. His birthday is in late November and still didn't catch on.
I had a book called "Best Christmas Gift Ever" when I was a kid. The cover had "Best" crossed out and replaced with "Worst". It was a pretty good book. In it, the young protagonist is desperately trying to save up enough money to buy what she believes is a beautiful vase, for her mother. At the end when she finally manages it, she overhears her mother talking to someone about how ugly this vase is. This is, obviously, very upsetting. But it all works out as she ends up making a sort of scrapbook with a dollar on each page. https://images-na.ss...49i/2909341.jpg
Thank you for sharing this! I added this book to my list bcuz I'm interested in reading it now I'd never heard of it. (I don't care if it's a kid's book.)
Load More Replies... My ex gave me a pair of pants for Christmas. They were cute in a camouflage pattern. I was chronically sick and gained some weight. The pants were size 6 and I was a size 10. He said, "you can lose weight to fit into them." I left him, lost weight and now they are too big. He also gave me a toilet seat one year. I had mentioned that I wanted a new, padded seat once. He waited for Christmas then wrapped it up as a gift.
My sister always complained about the gifts my uncle and aunt gave us each year. They were never things I really loved either (usually a novelty hat or bag), but when they only saw us a few times a year I don't think you could expect things that personalised.
The last Christmas gift exchange we had with my aunt, she gave me a Bedazzler. My step-grandmother gave me and my sister knockoff Barbie things that she turned out to have shoplifted. So she stole but couldn’t even steal the name brand?? For a bonus, her children stole all of my bio grandmother’s heirlooms that my grandpa was hanging on to, so the whole family has almost no heirlooms because of them. :)
i remember one year everyone else got tablets (on sale for $88) ...i got disposable cups because "money was tight"
Horse teeth earrings. Because I love horses so obviously I want their molars dangling from my ears.
These days my family often doesn't buy presents for Christmas but instead makes things, or buys from the op shop (Thrift shop for non Aussies). They are still thoughtful gifts and we are all appreciative of not contributing to more unsustainable human waste
How about a nice caricature of Mark Messier from his time with the NY Rangers? Oh, right, I'm a NJ Devils fan. Really felt bad about telling my mom that one years ago, especially since the parents (obviously, mom) got me a new leather jacket, which didn't fit and was the type I do not like
I no longer observe any of the holidays, just hating all the paganism of their origins....I don't observe Thanksgiving because my son was killed at Thanksgiving 15 years ago, so negative associations...but the worst gift I ever got was from my then-second husband. We'd been married less than two months, and I didn't know he hated me. He made it clear with the "gifts"---a very, very cheap, ugly pair of men's winter gloves, far too large for my small hands, and windshield wiper blades, new, but the wrong size for my car. I'd just spent over $300 on a very nice gift for him... We were divorced the following April.
Worst gift(s) ever? Second husband and I had been married only two months at Christmas, and I didn't know he was still seeing his longtime girlfriend, and had married me so that she'd be jealous and want him again. On Christmas day, in front of my family, I opened his gifts to me: one windshield wiper blade (used, off a car that was far larger than my new tiny one), a super cheap pair of men's gloves, so huge that they fell off my hands, and a $5 certificate to McDonald's (he knew I detested that place and wouldn't use it, but he loved their garbage). We were divorced by the end of the following April, his gf having given him an ultimatum. She ended up dead a few years later, being 16 years older than him, and he 7 years older than me (making her already in her late 60's, and that was in 1992), so they each got what they deserved from each other.
Several comments were just smile and say thank you. But when the gift seems to be completely inappropriate or even mean why bother. I quit just getting something. If I find something great but if not oh well. I buy during the year and try to be thoughtful. I get tea and coffee for my neighbors during the year instead of just Christmas.
My worst gift ever: I was 12 or 13 and about 100lbs soaking wet, and my uncle was/is notoriously horrible with gifts (mostly cause he just doesn't care) got me a 2xl maternity shirt that said "Hot Mama" on it.
My grandmother gave me large Johnson and Johnson talcum powder for my birthday when I was about 11. For many years, I thought it was because I smelt - then I realised that she had just not known it was my birthday. We drove for 2 days to get to her. I don't resent it - I never really knew her, anyway.
The entitlement in some of these people just amazes me. How are you going to knock a grandma or great grandma? How are you going to knock a husband that made an effort? Un real. I remember one year my son was so desperate to get me a gift that he went in my jewelry box found a ring I hadn't worn in YEARS and tried to pass it off as him getting it for me. I hugged him tight and said thank you. It wasn't until he was older we talked and laughed about it. I didn't embarass him. The worst gift was when my ex husband gave me a hand made "necklace" made out of cheap beads. and it wasn't that it was hand made or cheap, that would've been super sweet, it was that his girlfriend he was cheating on me with made it. So yea that's a horrible gift. (I found out a couple weeks later...it was the beginning of the end) Some of ya'll need some act right for real.
On our 1st Christmas (in the midst of PASSIONATELY falling in love with each other!) the man who became my husband gave me a book ... on Grammar!! The devastated look on my face, tears welling up in my eyes & my valiant attempt to graciously say, "Oh, thank you so much!" helped him realize he REALLY hurt me deeply. I NEVER said a complaining word about it, NEVER criticized it nor told anyone. But for the next 32 years, on EVERY special occasion, he has gifted me jewelry from Tiffany, gorgeous pieces of art, luxurious silk nightgowns and once, the car I envied as a college student (a lt.blue VW bug convertible!)! But the best gift he ever gave me was a VERY tender, beautiful love letter! I cried with joy. He finally "got it" right!!
I got a former bf tickets on the 50 yard line to see his favorite NFL team play in the playoffs. For the same occasion he got me flip flops and the third season of a show I had never seen a single episode of.
As an adult it became hard to pick out gifts for other adults because they already had everything they wanted . I decided I wanted to give them laughter because I love making people laugh. So every year I spend the year looking for weird things that each person would find funny . We also started to pass around weird things like this really annoying clock that made loud train sounds on the hour . You never knew who'd end up with it. One year my grandma made these cute little mice out of radishes as a garnish on a veggie tray . My mom kept them that Christmas Eve , and then wrapped them and gave them to my grandma for Christmas the next year. They regifted those nasty dried up radish mice for five years. Those crappy gifts you got will one day be a fond memory of a crazy family member
One year I went all out for everyone. It was me, my husband, my son & his nephew we took in (he is my sons age & had never had a "real Christmas" before). So I bought everyone like 15+ gifts each & had a blast doing it. In return...I got absolutely nothing. It hurt like hell but I had fun giving his nephew, who I have come close to, a once in lifetime gift of having his First Christmas (the boys was 19). Probably the best Christmas I have had in a long time.. I am a giver so I brushed it off because my husband had had an extremely tough year & spent most of year in & out of hospital due to severe Crohns disease & major complications with bowel obstructions. I did chastise him because he knows how to buy HIS stuff online.
I have a meal prep business and My mom gave me an indoor grill she'd just gotten. She said if I liked it, she'd order herself another one and this one would be Christmas. Fine w me as they're $125ish for what I wanted. I've had it for a month. Found out today (12/2/21) that she bought it at a GARAGE SALE for $10 and actually had bought it for my brother. I quickly informed her that's NOT a Christmas gift and proceeded to tell on her my brother & sister and both of my mom's sister. I've laughed all day.
I got a Fitbit for Hanukkah one year. One of my favorite gifts I've ever gotten!
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