50 Of The Most Disappointing And Outright Cruel Christmas Presents Ever Received, As Shared By People Online
Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa la la la la, la la la la
Give the kids some burnt broccoli
Fa la la…wait what???
Christmas is right around the frozen riverbend, and most of us have been racking our brains for ideas of what to get our beloved people and pets. It’s gotta be something they’ll enjoy, something they might use, or something that won’t make them cry upon unwrapping.
It doesn’t seem like too much to ask, and people with a semblance of empathy and soul should be able to give a gift that won’t leave a trace of trauma. However, many have not been so lucky, memories of horrid Christmas presents continuing to haunt them each and every year since. Thanks to r/AskReddit, today we are bringing you a list even the Grinch would be appalled at.
You guessed it, we’re talking about the worst Christmas gifts people have ever received. Make sure to upvote your favorites and share your own experiences in the comments below. And if you're craving some more horrid gift stories, here's one, but if you'd like something nice for a change, here's an article full of sweetness. Now let’s deck into it!
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When I was eight or nine, my grandma gave me a Christmas ornament. It was a little stuffed cherub with pink cheeks and yarn hair.
I cried because I had saved up my allowance to buy it for her the year before.
Gift-giving and Christmas are two things that are difficult to imagine separately, similar to caramel and salt, or, to be more festive, hot chocolate and marshmallows. One colleague of mine has recently revealed that they prefer their cocoa plain, without any toppings, and to that I say, bit sad innit? I go all out—add fricking everything you got! But I digress.
The wonderful community of r/AskReddit got asked the very difficult question: “What’s the worst Christmas present you have ever received?” Sadly, hundreds of comments followed, with people sharing their stories of heartbreak, forced smiles, and unfathomable questioning of the festive season and life itself.
My husbands step mother gave me, a 36 year old at the time, a kindergarten size back pack and when I opened it she said, “I actually bought that for ——- (a child) a few years ago and she hated it so I threw it in a closet and I saw it and thought you’d like it. None of us did, we all think it’s ugly.”
That same year they gave my 3 kids gifts totaling all together $15 with the clearance stickers on them while her biological granddaughter opened a $300 unicorn. Which they made sure we knew cost $300, and then they pointed out to everyone our clearance stickers and what great deals they were (they weren’t), and then they made my kids leave the room so the grand daughter could take pics alone with her unicorn.
It was the last Christmas we visited them. lol
So one year, my mil asked (read:demanded) that I knit a scarf for her for Christmas. She was very specific on colors and style and called several times during December to check on the status of it She opened it on Christmas day and was absolutely delighted with it and immediately put it on. Then she started to hand out her presents. Tons of stuff to the kids, my husband, her husband, her other son, and her other DIL. Nothing for me. Then I heard 'OMG, I FORGOT PRESENTS FOR YOU!' and I turned around and found her talking to my cat.
She brought the cat presents later. No, I did not get anything.
From absolutely nothing to the traditional lump of coal, to gifts being re-gifted back to the original gifter one year later, it’s hard not to feel sorry for lots of these fine Reddit folk. There’s no worse day to realize that you mean very little to your relatives or loved ones than the one day the Western world glorifies as the day of family unity and love.
As for myself, the one “bad” gift I recall from my youth (it wasn’t bad, just confusing) was a ceramic elephant the size of a dollhouse from my grandma. I really wanted a dollhouse that year, so I got super excited, only to find this ridiculous thing I couldn’t even use. We still laugh about the elephant to this day, the fancy gift being a stool for a little houseplant.
A set of miniature butter knives with ceramic fruit and vegetables as the handles.
From an aunt who said that
I was "So hard to shop for"
I was 7
I am a single guy.
I think I’m a horrible gift giver. My sisters and brother tell me what my nieces and nephews want.
But in the end all I do is just make a contribution in their college savings accounts. $500 for birthday and $500 for Christmas for each of them. My hope is that they will appreciate it when they get older.
I love them all very much and I would do anything for them.
A diet book. I was 15. Thanks grandma, that became an eating disorder!
When did we decide that the middle of winter was a great time for some gift exchanging to happen? Is Christmas really just a modern consumerist’s daydream? According to Love to Know, the gifts given at Christmas are symbolic of the tributes made to baby Jesus by the Three Wise Men after his birth. A modern interpretation of the custom is the recognition that Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, furthering the notion of gift-giving.
However, the custom of giving presents during the middle of winter dates back long before the birth of Jesus. Many early cultures, such as the Romans and the Norse, had winter solstice festivals that included gift-giving. One such event was the Saturnalia celebration, when the Roman pagan god of agriculture, Saturn, was celebrated on December 17.
According to History.com, Saturnalia was a day when slaves would be considered equal to their masters and free speech was embraced. It also included the exchanging of pottery figurines, sigillaria, described as symbols of human sacrifice once practiced as part of past pagan celebrations. This tradition was one of the many customs adopted by Christianity as a way to merge these cultures together.
A $100 bill. I was dating and living with an ex at the time. For Christmas he wanted a very fancy and very specific looking button up shirt. I spent a month making him the shirt and making sure it was perfect. I also made us a nice Christmas dinner with some fun drinks. Christmas morning rolls around and I give him his shirt, he tries it on and loves it! Yay! He then gets a panicked look and his face, reaches in his pocket, pulls a $100 out of his wallet, and says "Um....here ya go. My friends are coming over today so...you have somewhere to be, right?" Basically he was paying me to leave. But the bright side was, I knew right then and there how he actually felt about me. He was dumped before for the new year.
A book entitled, "How to Help Kids Cope with Divorce", given to me by my husband (at the time) on Christmas morning, in front of our kids....
...Who we hadn't yet told about the impending divorce, yet.
Oh, yes, and there was that one time he bought me "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husband's."
When the tamagotchi craze was in full swing my siblings and I asked for one.
My sisters both got one, and I got a jacket because mine was torn up and small.
When I asked my dad why I didn't get one and if Santa thought I did something bad that year. He told me I was too old for Santa and needed to learn life isn't fair.
I was 8.
My sisters were 7 and 5.
From that point forward I only ever received clothing.
What followed was the emergence of various gift-givers. St. Nicholas was the most prominent figure in many European countries, morphing into Father Christmas, and then the well-loved Santa Claus. There’s also Christkind, La Befana, Babadimri, Jõuluvana, Senis Šaltis, Baba Noël and The Smallest Camel.
As explained by GiftsInternational, in the 20th century USA, Christmas became a phenomenon. The boom of the American dream and times of economic prosperity after World War Two fuelled a whole industry around the holiday. Instead of being a religious endeavor, it pushed the focus toward the material aspects, such as decorating the home, buying gifts, and preparing meals, emphasizing it all as the best way to enjoy the celebration.
Although the commercialization of the festive season has come under a lot of criticism, some arguing that it obscures the true meaning of Christmas, it’s important to consider the fact that people give gifts to show their appreciation and love for others. But what happens when the gifts show the complete opposite of that?
My step family was a giant group of total a******s. My step sisters got designer clothes and jewelry, shoes etc. Actual toys. They got mounds of gifts. My brother and I literally got a bag of switches and/or coal. Like that joke about bad kids? What sucks so much is that my step dad loved hitting us with switches when we were in trouble. We'd have to go pick out one ourselves too. And how we'd be considered the bad kids is beyond me. They were the ones who were terrible. One of my step sisters broke my arm twice just being a sadistic psycho. Cut off my eyelashes while I slept. Among other f****d up things over the years. God I was so glad when my mom finally left him and his piece of s**t family. I was 9 when we left. And 2 when they married. So this went on for 7 years of my youngest ages. Oh yeah, I guess one year the grandma gave me a coloring book. (No colors) With my switches.
Edit for those who don't know. Switches are basically long, thin, limbs of a bush or young tree with the leaves stripped off. Not a branch or limb, bit the very thin ones that are bendy. They hurt like a MF and split your skin open sometimes.
I’m 2 years older than my sister. When she was 5 we walked up to the tree a couple weeks before Christmas and found a huge box with her name on it. I was pissssed. I would cry and she would brag about it every night.
Then Christmas came and she opened the huge box. It was a large reading lamp. She couldn’t stop crying, I couldn’t stop laughing.
Best Christmas ever. Wait what was the question?
My sister is five years my senior and we are very close. However, one year she convinced me to tell her what special gift she was to receive if she told me mine. She was to receive a stereo (we are old), I was to receive a JUMP ROPE!😂 It wasn't my special gift, btw. We still laugh of my naivete.😂
A goose. Like, a real life full sized female goose. It was fun tho, I named her Rufina
Yamile Torres, a psychologist at Tecnológico de Monterrey, argues that receiving a gift that you don’t like may feel like you’re not being validated as a person. “On a psycho-emotional level, you don’t feel observed; that gift without any words indicates that ‘I did not observe you, I was not interested in you. There is no recognition, you are not important to me,’” he explains.
Sometimes it may happen by accident—the ‘I wanted to do the best I could but it didn’t work out this time’—but it’s more perplexing when someone gives a rotten gift on purpose. Deborah Y. Cohn, an associate professor of marketing, argues that there are 5 types of inconsiderate gifts: confrontational (gifts that are essentially personal affronts), selfish (gifts that benefit givers more than recipients), aggressive (meant to offend), obligatory, competitive (intended to out-gift someone else).
The best thing to do when receiving one of these gifts is to say ‘thank you.’ Don’t let it affect you too badly unless you know the person’s intention is to directly harm you. A conversation between the two of you should follow in that case, to get you closer to a middle ground. If they can’t be reasoned with, maybe don’t spend Christmas with them. Lastly, donate or sell the gifts you don’t like; you know what they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Nothing. My parents are Muslim and Christmas was f*****g miserable every year. I'd go back to school after winter break and hear about all the cool stuff my classmates got while I got nothing. Imagine what that does to a kid over the years.
Now as a parent, I spoil my son every Christmas. I don't believe in religion but every kid deserves Christmas.
F**k you mom and dad. You were s****y parents. Rant over
Christmas as reg current time is anyway not a Christian ceremony anymore. We celebrate a chubby man in red in a sledge with flying reindeer coming down from the north pole in a big sledge, sliding down chimneys to put presents from his large bag under decorated firtrees in our living rooms. Not the birth of Jesus.
Titanic DVD, pirated copy, already seen it before twice, didn't have a case, just had Titanic written in marker pen, it didn't belong to the person who gifted it, the DVD was SCRATCHED AND DIDN'T EVEN PLAY!
The year I gave my ex husband a Tag Heuer watch he gave me a $19.99 Walmart blender. We already had 3 blenders.
Regardless of everything, Christmas is coming! You don’t have to follow any stereotypes to have a good time, especially as these days the prices are higher than high, so gifts may not be as fancy as before. And they don’t have to be! Just make sure it comes from the heart and it’ll all be well.
As you continue reading through the stories, make sure you upvote your favorites, or those that you find most heartbreaking. Either or works. Leave your thoughts in the comments below, maybe share your own horrid gifts if you have those kinds of stories, and I shall see you in the next one! Toodaloo!
Not one I got, one I didn’t get. My mom crocheted my two sisters tablecloths and gave it to them in front of me. I just stood there, trying not to cry.
When I was 12 I bought myself a kindle. Me and my sister spent an entire summer working for our grandpa and stepdad to save up for them, each of us spending about 200$. My mom got all 3 of my brothers a kindle for Christmas and I got some Clothes from old navy.
I was livid and when I talked to my mom about it she told me that my sister and I had been excluding our brothers from hanging out while we played videogames and it was unfair. She never apologized or saw anything wrong with what she did, and I honestly still haven't forgiven her almost a decade later.
I love watching parents fostering a "never want to see my kid again" relationship.
When my dad was young he was hell-bent on becoming a drummer. He would make full drum kits out of my grandmother's pots and pans and whatever he could find. Very detailed setups. After months and months of building drum sets and drumming on anything, he could find he woke up Christmas morning…to acoustic guitar and guitar lessons.
He told me he took a few lessons and would always end up flipping the guitar over in the class with the other students and just play it like bongos.
A case of Slim-Fast. Was I overweight? Yes, but my (not so) passive aggressive ex sister-in-law was a b***h. She fairly soon after was talking about weight loss items and specifically told my then-wife and I we should never use products like Slim-Fast as they will poison you. I can't decide if she was trying to kill me or was just a stupid a*****e.
A bottle of allergy medication from Costco. The med I took had recently gone from prescription to OTC & my mom thought it would be great to get me a year's supply. I was in my 20's & by that point you're not supposed to care as much anymore, but I had worked dozens of hours of overtime at my s****y factory job to buy my mom a custom made birthstone ring for Christmas that year. My sister got beautiful leather boots, my brother got an XBox. I cried all the way home.
A used cookbook, graciously given to me by the same people that gave my little sister a full snowboarding set, snowboard and all that other stuff you use when you snowboard
Eons ago I worked for a company owned by the richest man in Minnesota. One year, all of us peons (and there were a couple thousand of us) got a copy of his book; it was al about how he became the richest man in Minnesota.
Cheap bastard.
My dad, his first christmas divorced and living alone, first time ever shopping for us clearly lmao because my mom did all the shopping before, got me a nose hair trimmer...
I was 12.
And definitely did not understand why I got that gift.
Temporary glittery metallic tattoo kit made for an 8-year-old girl (butterflies and phrases like "GIRLS RULE!") when I was 15... I am male too.
I flat out got a lump of coal when I was 11 or 12. I was such a handful s**t head kid man. I deserved that lump of coal.
A ceramic jar for holding dog treats when I was 15 when we had JUST given him away. Miss u Rascal
My very first period.
This wouldn't have been so bad if I had been told to expect it beforehand, but no. I cried and said I was dying in front of my entire family. Grandparents, cousins, everyone. Of course they laughed at me, but I am still mortified 25 years after the fact.
You know one good thing about being raised during the AIDS epidemic? People took sex-ed seriously when I was a kid. Knowing about your bits and pieces was literally life or death in the late 80 and early 90s.
My mom bought me one of those 3D posters that were all the rage on the 90s. I am blind in one eye.
🤣 oh she probably didn’t think about the logistics of the posters. Gosh I used to love those posters, don’t know why.
My dad played a running prank on me for years where he would either wrap up a toy he dug out of my room I forgot about, or he would do something like fill a small box with rocks and put it with the other presents. Without fail every year I would beg and plead to open a single present early of my choosing, and EVERY time I got the joke box. The rocks sounded like legos which I loved so I opened that one. One year he put one of my forgotten toys right out front begging for attention, bamboozled again. Another year he nestled it towards the very back like he was hiding a real present, he got me again. Without fail he got in my head somehow to guide me towards that present.
The information that my parents were getting a divorce when I was 12.
The Christmas spirit in me died that day.
A bottle of raccoon urine. Not joking. A completely sealed, brand new bottle of raccoon urine.
Sensory toys. Very degrading. It's like my mom didn't know what I would like, so instead of asking any of my siblings, she took my autism and just picked out a random bundle of sensory toys on Craigslist. I haven't used sensory toys since I was 10. I just wish she would put more thought into it, yknow? It would have been better if she didn't get me anything at all.
My step sister and I both received a box inside was a roll on Avon deodorant and one of them rainbow lollipops . Meanwhile my mother and her girlfriend were exchanging $1000 gifts
The boxes they put our "presents" in cost more then the deodorant and lollipop seeing they got our presents from the cupboard 😑
My mums girlfriend was a Avon sales lady , the lollipop from a show bag 😂
I hate soap bags. I get at least one every year. I have never once worn through a soap bag.
One year i came home for Christmas.
made the dinner. 11 courses/sides etc.
Got up at 6am to start making it.
Presents opening at 9.00 am my parents get me a posh leather soap bag. I hate it. In side is a mediocre bottle of after shave that i will feel compelled to keep but will never use.
I kick off cos tired stressed drunk, bit of a d**k
I rant about the no thought present.
Joining us for Christmas is my aunt. Recently divorced, son committed suicide.
I open her present next.
A s****y soap bag and a really cheap bottle of aftershave
And Thats how i ruined Christmas
This was actually a recent one. Been with my girlfriend for like 2-3 years now. Her family considers me a part of their family, but my girlfriend’s mom, and aunt, are probably the most hypocritical and bat s**t insane people you could ever meet. Aunt believes that if you use a gps you are a b***h that doesn’t deserve to live in that state (she proceeded to get everyone lost when she was driving us around on vacation. She lives in Florida for 27 years by that time). The mom is a manipulative narcissist, that actually said to my girlfriend and a mutual friend of ours that the only reason she has my girlfriend around is because she is the person that she uses to let her anger out on, (I.e. yells about nonsensical c**p, pushes her, or makes her feel like she is worth nothing 24/7).
For Christmas, I went over to my girlfriend’s home to celebrate with them before celebrating with my girlfriend t my house. Got a present from the aunt who sent something over. I received, a single rubber duck, that had the bottom torn out, a note was stuffed in the opening, and on that note, was the sentence, “If you are reading this, you killed the birdie!”, and a painted rock that was just painted black with the words “best buds” on it.
The mom was the worst one though, I got a nutcracker. I didn’t fully understand it at the time. But I finally got it when my girlfriend’s dad took me aside and said in a hushed tone, “I’m sorry for the gift, but Tray has given that to [eldest daughters] boyfriends as a threat.”
That’s right, I got a broken rubber duck that blamed me for killing it, a painted rock, and a threat that if I did ANYTHING to hurt my girlfriend (more than what the mom already does), that her mother will use the NUTCRACKER.
I was six years old and I really really wanted an electric train set. I was like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" harping on about his BB gun that he wanted. The big day arrives and there's a large box that looked pretty close to electric train set size but my parents would dictate in which order the presents were opened and of course it was saved for last.
I don't remember the other gifts, but I do remember the big electric train set sized box. I'll give you a hint. It wasn't an electric train set. It was a box filled with sweaters and socks. No joke. Just what a six year old boy wants. Sweaters and socks. Worst part was that the person giving me this wanted to see me model the sweaters and my parents forced me to. Yes, because a six year old boy with his heart set on an electric train set really wants to be disappointed and have to model sweaters he didn't want in the first place.
A size 3xl dark pink sweater from my sister. I wore xl and was very vocal about hating the color pink. But my sister had just lost like 80 pounds. Probably about the sweater for herself before she lost weight then never wore it. So she took it out of her closet and gave it to me.
My sister is 25 years older than me and I was in my twenties at the time. This wasn't just youthful ignorance
I hate when people gift clothes that are totally the wrong size. That really f'ed me up when I was young and on the verge of an eating disorder.
Worst was from my grandparents. Me, my brother and dad all got a used book each from a charity shop. Like the cover was bent and pages yellowed. My brother and dad have barely read any books in their lives and mine was some adult drama romance novel (I was about 12 at the time) that nobody has ever heard of by some author nobody knows. To top it off these grandparents were ridiculously wealthy, my granddad was making almost 2 million a year, and their other grandchild got a ps3, which had just came out, and big stack of games to go with it plus other toys and some clothes.
We absolutely get my son used books from charity shops. He always gets a pile every birthday and Christmas/Hanukkah. We’re doing a book advent this year so he’s literally getting 24 of them. 🫤 So I hope the problem with this is one book only of an inappropriate age range and inequality of gifts and not actually getting books from thrift stores. Edit: well, we’re starting to get some lovely comments down below. 1) used books is only one of many things my kid gets for birthdays/holidays, he gets plenty of toys and “fun” things too 2) my kid loves books/reading, we snuggle and read every night, when he was 2/3 ish we had to set the limit to 10 books max before bed, the number is much lower now but the books are much longer 3) thank you to everyone who like this idea and shared they also love buying used books too 🥰 Read on my friends! 📚
The Christmas after my grandmother passed away, my aunt gave us all the various and sundry junk that she cleaned out of my gma’s house as presents, but signed the tags with my gma’s name. So I got a rusty broken bell ornament from my dead gma that year
That's so insensitive and thoughtless. I mean what kind of person does this?
So with the ex wife, I made a effort with gifts. Got her the second gen iPod one Christmas, then because she got big into hiking, I picked out an expensive GPS with an SOS. What would I get? Lame a*s excuses. “Christmas is really for the kids.” Or my favorite, “Well, we buy stuff throughout the year, so that is our gift.”
Last year my dad promised me a whole bunch of steaks at Christmas whenever i bought a deep freezer to store them in. I bought a deep freezer immediately, then in April of this year he gave me the steaks, which were packaged in March of 2018, the only taste left was freezer burn
When I was 10 years old money was rather tight for my family. So my parents bought a hammer and nails for my 5 siblings and i and told us to get creative and build something. That was a really sad Christmas. That was also all any of us got. A hammer and nails.
I received a pair of used earrings that had obviously been purchased at a second hand store. They had a sewing needle in th box with it. He tried to tell me he got them from an artisan street vender. One earring had green growth on it. Totally vile.
Still an awful gift, but the green growth isn't disgusting. That's just what copper does on the air, it oxidates and creates that greenstuff.
My ex wife bought me snowshoes for Christmas the last year we were together, after multiple discussions about the fact that I was not interested in going snowshoeing with her and her friends.
Reminds me of a coworker whose boyfriend teased her about the BIG Christmas present he was getting her. She was thinking engagement ring, she got cross-country skis
My father wrapped and gifted me a wrecked front bumper.
It was from his car that I wrecked earlier that fall while in college.
Fords fly nice, but landing is a b***h.
A barrel of Quaker Oats. It was f*****g hilarious though
Grandma got me a dollar store electric toothbrush. Y'all know that thing didn't even turn on
Due to unforseen circumstances, the electric toothbrush is now a manual toothbrush that never needs to be recharged. Sorry for the convenience. (Mitch Hedberg...💖)
When I was 5, I had gotten a sephora gift card from my grandma. My mom ended up using it.
That's awful. She could have let you get something for your hair, or nail polish etc.
One year, I was maybe eight years old, my sister and I got just a card from my grandparents saying that instead of buying gifts for us that christmas they would give money to missionaries in South America.
This is a fine and thoughtful idea when it comes to adults, but for kids? Let them have a childhood, fgs! BTW, When I think of 'missionaries', I think of peeps being forced/coerced into religion in return for the promise of aid (many examples in History). You don't need religion to be a good peep (if you do: that says more about the peep, imo).
I have a story within a story. In my family, large/ exciting gifts get bespoke riddles/ clues leading on a hunt culminating in the gift. One year, I drew a sister of mine in the exchange who HATES frogs. So I purchased her a pair of well made, stylish scarves as she was about to move to a colder part of the nation.
I also bought her perhaps the most grotesque frog shaped coffee mug I have ever seen in my life. And then I wrote out a 5 step scavenger hunt to the mug.
As I was setting everything up on Christmas Eve, I was telling my dad about what I was doing. He laughed, but then he got a little somber. He then told me about the gift he gave his youngest sister for her 5th Christmas.
It was a gigantic box, beautifully wrapped. In it, he carefully layered pastel tissue paper. As she peeled back layer after layer, her excitement became palpable. The tension was building. WHAT COULD IT BE?
It was a single piece of nickel gum. "She was absolutely crushed. I'll never forget how badly I hurt her. So just keep that in mind."
In spite of his warning, I didn't feel too bad--I'd gotten her a real gift too, after all.
So Christmas morning arrived. And, as fate would have it, this same sister drew MY name for the gift. It was a decent sized box, maybe 8x10x4 inches. It was heavy, but not noisy. There were many things on my list that would have been a good fit in that box.
So I opened it. It was an Amazon box. Within it?
Another, wrapped, box. I opened it. Another slightly smaller wrapped box.
Inside that one? Several rocks embedded in a tissue nest, and another. WRAPPED. BOX.
I opened that one to find a packet of duct tape. At that point, I just looked at my dad. He starting laughing and finally choked out "forget about that story!"
My gift ended up being a gift card, which was plenty and appreciated. And she got a kick out of her frog mug, even if it only gets used by her husband to creep her out.
A Starbucks gift card with a $0 balance and a gallon size ziplock bag of coffee straws. The straws are at least useful, the gift card was just mean. I’m glad I had enough money when I tried to use it though. Lol
My ex's parents gave him an alarm clock for Christmas when he was 15. Not even a clock radio. Just an alarm clock. That was his "big gift" because it was "electronic." These same people gave their grandson (my son) a book about manners for his 3rd birthday, and me one (1) kitchen towel for my birthday. Today my ex was over here picking up our kids and he announced, "guess what?!? Grandma and papa are getting you SHOES for Christmas!!!" My kids already had shoes on their feet. They were like, Oh-kay. Good? It's bleak.
My aunt gave me an alarm clock when I was 9. I f*****g loved that thing. It was just an alarm clock, no radio. The traditional kind with the two bells on top except it was clear and you could see all the clock parts. I wish I still had it.
My sisters father. I wanted Pokemon sapphire or ruby so bad for Christmas it was the only thing I asked for. A few days before Christmas he came home with a GBA cartridge wrapped in wrapping paper and set it on one of the Christmas tree branches. He said "you can't open it until Christmas" excitedly so my 3rd grade brain assumed he had gotten what I asked for.
Christmas day comes and I open it immediately to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown staring at me. It was the first time I faked liking a present.
Edit: For those wondering I did indeed get the game a year later, my moms good friend bought a used version of sapphire for me.
So like that episode of The Simpsons where Bart asked for a Mortal Kombat-style game and got a golf game instead?
My aunt. Poor lady. She wasn't in the best financial situation and she had arthritis and cancer. But was sweet beyond what she should have been.
She gave me 2 gifts.
When I was 16: a vampire makeup kit. I had never mentioned anything about vampires. I was kind of your run of the mill jock just worried about sports and friends.
When I was 15: a floppy black hat with an elastic piece on the back, with pennies glued to the bill with glitter glue.
I grew up in the 90s and two different years we got bible video games.
1. Bible Adventures https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Adventures
2. Exodus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_(video_game)
These games were terrible, repetitive, hard, and boring with s****y controls. The only exception being the one where you play as Noah and have to kidnap animals and force them on your boat.
My brother got a toothpick dispenser from our grandparents one year. We had a strange childhood...
My nana once got me this really creepy looking porcelain doll. It only had one eye and it was dusty and I’d never, ever played with dolls like that before, let alone one that is definitely haunted. I don’t know if she was trying to offload a cursed doll on me or something.
I was 8 or 9, I really wanted one of those Furbies who were really popular back in the days. Come Christmas, my aunt is all proud to give me my present, hyping me it's something I really wanted. Then I open it and it's a... plushies furby keychain. I don't remember much but I was told my face fell when I saw it. Though I was raised to not complain about receiving gifts so when she asked me "you don't like it?", I forcefully (and badly) smiled, reassuring her that yes, I liked it and I was just surprised. I even put it on my jacket zipper to prove my point.
Turned out it was a joke and she did get me a real furby that she gifted me after, but still, the immediate disappointment was something hard to hide!
I fail to see the humor in disappointing a kid. It's actually just cruel.
My aunt and uncle are comfortably off, but get us presents from TK Maxx. I could tell you about my mother's 'glamour poncho' or my brother's 'airport thriller novel', but their most recent Christmas gift is the one that's caused me the most inconvenience.
Last Christmas, they gave me a small anthology of short plays based on Shakespeare, which I actually thought was quite nice - I did my undergrad dissertation on Shakespeare, and I have [this poster](https://imgc.allpostersimages.com/img/print/posters/shakespeare-big-w***y-funny-poster_a-G-9843569-0.jpg) up in my room - but I must admit I haven't read it yet. In fact, I'm not entirely sure where it is.
More recently, however, I learned that their AmDram group have been trying to perform the anthology since before the pandemic, and are just about to do so now that lockdown is lifting. They must have brought the books in bulk for the group and given me a leftover. And what's worse is that my uncle actually reminded my dad that he'd brought me this book, and my dad lied that I'd read it and loved it so as not to offend him. We're seeing them soon. I've got to read that bloody anthology cover-to-cover and find things I liked about it, or my dad and I are toast.
My great grandma gave my cousin a jock strap from goodwill. Her mental health was bad at this time. 1992ish? He started crying. He was 9.
I was getting into photography and there was a very specific lens I wanted. A close friend of mine mentioned that she knew someone who sold lenses super cheap and she might be able to get in contact with them. Christmas comes and she got me a gift. It was an exact replica of the lens, but a coffee mug. The only problem is that nowhere on the box did it say it was a coffee mug.
I was thrilled and didn’t realize what it was and she had to awkwardly explain that it was not actually the lens.
My dad is into photography and I got him a coffee mug shaped like a camera lens - on purpose, that is. Might even have been the same one! He was thrilled. I also got him a t-shirt with a picture of a camera and the slogan "I Shoot People". Heheh.
My brother’s ex gave me a boyfriend pillow and a stepper one Christmas. Bit of a slap in the face with that combo.
A pogo stick. I was 14 years old. I wanted a BB gun and when I picked up the box I was like YES! Same size and weight. When I opened my Dad says “A pogo stick?”. My mom swore I said I wanted one. We returned it and I got the green light for a BB gun. It became a family joke. I guess the memory made it a good gift after all.
My sperm donor and my stepmother had a Christmas tradition: My (half) brother and I got a split gift every year, something too expensive to buy individually but we both wanted.
Or, at least that was what it was supposed to be.
One year my brother wanted a Playstation 4. Of course, being ten years older and 18 at the time, I explained it may be too expensive for Santa to bring him. Spoiled brat that he is, he didn't believe me.
Cut to the morning. Opening gifts, drinking coco, all is well. Last package is the joint gift. Guess what it is? A Playstation 4. I was pissed. I know how bratty this sounds, but it isn't that I was pissed about getting a PS4. I was upset that they were pretending this was a joint gift, that they expected me to excited about something I had never so much as mentioned before. I would have been fine if they had gotten just him the PS4, even if it meant skipping the joint gift that year. He's their blood son, and I'm just a half, obviously they will care more about him. But it was still like a punch to the gut. It was like the gift was them saying that my brother will always be above me. Merry freakin' Christmas, right?
I don't even know why I was surprised, the year before "we" got a rifle. My brother loves shooting guns, especially rifles and shotguns. I don't care too much for it, but my prefered choice are handguns and revolvers if I have to choose. Before that was an air hockey table. Guess who's the sporty one between the two of us? Year before that was a TV, to be used for my brother's Wii and other gaming systems.
Anyways, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. We haven't done joint gifts since, mostly because I refused to come over for visitation during holidays since then. Of course, that means stepmom thinks I'm a brat for picking up gifts anyways, but I've made it clear I don't expect gifts from them. I'll pick them up, because I'm not an idiot, but I never ask for anything more than a Merry Christmas and maybe a candy cane.
....Well that turned into a rant. My apologies.
TL:DR Worst gift was the crushing realization I meant less than my half brother, even more so than I thought.
Edit: Thank you everyone for the reassurances and hugs, I really appreciate it. Thankfully I have an awesome mom, who took care of me most of the time(only had visitation on weekends every other week until I was 18). And yeah, I guess I kind of get that their behavior is kind of messed up, but eh, at the same time, I was only around four or five days a month from five to eighteen, didn't see them often enough for them to really bond with me while my brother saw them daily.
“He's their blood son, and I'm just a half, obviously they will care more about him.” That’s not the way it should be though. I wouldn’t treat my kids differently, regardless of bloodline.
When I was 5 years old I got a belt, a comb, a frisbee, and a piggy bank as presents from my relatives for Christmas.
[Here is a video](https://youtu.be/LkLYEqq7c4s) of me opening them and slowly breaking down into tears because I just wanted a toy.
Omg, cute video! You were a real trouper up til the last strange gift.
A 1000 piece Nightmare Before Christmas puzzle
Now at first glance that sounds pretty sweet, but the completed picture was that of the final scene of the movie where Jack and Sally hold each other’s hands on Spiral Hill. Still sounds nice? Yea, well do you know how much of that shot is just black background??? I must’ve spent 3 weeks putting together that puzzle which was 80% colorless and featureless black pieces before ultimately giving up on it.
My mum is notorious for bad presents, I've had such delights as toothpaste and vitamin pills wrapped up for me at Christmas. But one that stands out was a car crash kit. It had a disposable camera for recording the scene, a form for both parties to fill out, a tape measure for measuring... I dunno stuff and some chalk, for what I assume was for marking out where the dead bodies landed, or something, I dunno.
A bit old school now with everyone having decent phones to record everything, but these used to be a really good idea. It was something that you didn't know you needed until the time you suddenly did, by which point it was too late.
When I was 13, I asked for Dungeons & Dragons books. I even wrote out directions to the 4 local stores that sold them. My aunt and uncle were known to deviate and try to give whimsical gifts, and hated pre-planned gifts. I got a He-Man pop up book.
100 piece Tupperware set. I was 19 and living in a dorm.
Edit: well this blew up while is was sleeping. To address some comments
100 pieces absolutely means 50 bottoms and 50 tops. Of the 50 shapes, only 4 were large enough to hold a piece of American sliced bread. So think small. Many were odd shapes. Like the four half circles, and 8 quarter circles. Those were probably meant for dips and dressings. They were low quality, so the lids didn’t stay on. I realize I wrote Tupperware and should have said “food container storage set from Big Lots.” I also know it was from Big Lots because the price tag was still on it. It was gifted to me by my boyfriend’s grandma from her “gift closet,” which was a literal closet full of things she regifted to people. I saw it the next year. When I was told to just pick something out from it by my boyfriend’s mom so I didn’t open something strange in front of the their entire 55 person family gathering again. The grandma always wanted everyone to have something to open, and I was the only one she either forgot or just didn’t buy for. For three years.
Of the 100 pieces I have 98 left. They sit in the box they came in. I have used them many times for sorting small things when needed. Again I can’t use them for food as the lids never really stay on very well.
Only one thing to do with a gift like that. Start selling drugs.
It was more of a gift for my family to enjoy rather than just for me. I don't know what it's actually called, but in my family we called it the pizza cookie. It was an inedible mass of mostly cashews baked on a pizza pan. We got one every year, we'd politely thank my aunt for her thoughtful gift, and throw it away when we got home.
A notebook made out of elephant poop
I had to Google it & now I know that something called PООРООPAPER actually exists. BP is educational.
First married Christmas my brother inlaw gave me a fake cat turd with kitty litter and all. Welcome to the family! He gives similarly gross/funny gifts to someone every year.
I had a friend that I used to be close to-one of my hobbies is cross stitch embroidery, so one year I decided to do her a tapestry. They take hours and hours to do, and the cost of getting them professionally framed is high. She really liked it and hung it in her hallway, and the following year asked me to do her another one. This went on about 5 years, she basically had a gallery of tapestries going up her stairs. And every year, without fail, she would phone me in early December and say I was really hard to buy for, and did I have any ideas what I wanted. So I gave her some ideas-yellow cushions, a garden bird feeding station, a jewellery box with drawers. And every year I ended up with a basic pack of shower gel, body lotion and cheap eau de toilette and the comment, sorry, I didn't the time to get anything else. I know its not the monetary value that's important, it was the lack of thought, the lack of engagement, the fact I wasn't worth spending time on.
I’m sorry. She’s cruelly thoughtless. Embroidery of any kind takes time and patience and is even more expensive to frame than many pictures. You were a good and kind friend.
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First Xmas with my now wife, I gave her a board game I wish I had gotten as a kid but never got (Mouse Trap). I was excited to play it with her, but I’ve learned over the years that you’re supposed to give people stuff they like. My point is I was young, immature and of course selfish… but people can change, took about 10 years but it happens.
My best friend at school had Mouse Trap and I have always wanted to get it but would never think to buy it for myself. I’ll play a game or two of it with you :)
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My father always gave our son, his grandson, the loudest of toys. Once is was a Rugrats clock that would yell out a phrase every quarter hour. It did have a light indicator on it so it would sense when there was low light and shut the sound off. Then it was a little mower with loud popping sounds, then a toy xylophone. Every noisy toy came with "Oh look, another toy that you can play with when you visit grandpa." My father said "Why are you making him leave his toys here." My mother piped up "Because they live in an apartment, dear, and they don't want complaints from the neighbors." It had never dawned on him that we lived in an apartment and not a house like we grew up in. He bought quieter toys after that.
Christmas can be cruel, it often reveals your worth in front of other people's eyes :')
It's hardly the worst gift but accidentally discovered my husband and I have bought each other the same Lego set for Xmas this year - guess it shows how alike we are. And yes, I still play with Lego at the grand age of forty and will continue to do so
I read all of these and they’re downright cruel. Thoughtless and emotionally abusive. My parents, even when we were poor, I don’t know how they did it, but they made it magical for me. Not a lot of presents, but nice toys, one year my first watch, a Chatty Cathy another year. And somehow we always had a wonderful Christmas dinner. I am so blessed to have had the parents I did. They always, somehow managed.
i guess i am an OK gift giver. i love getting weird/unusual but appropriate for the person gifts. my dad is the hardest bc he doesn't need/want anything. best things i have gotten for him was one year a deodorized compressed fertilizer shaped like a snail for his roses. as the weather/time goes on it looks like concrete & is absorbed by the soil. he had the best time telling his friends that i gave him s**t for xmas. the other thing was when i first heard him exclaim he didn't give a flying f about something. that yr i got him the literal word f shaped helicopter.
Trauma dump time: When I was 5 I nearly died from bacterial meningitis. The vast quantity of medication I was on absolutely ruined my metabolism/digestion. I packed on weight despite not eating much. Even now I can look at food and gain weight. So flash forward to Christmas one year later, I'm 6. Everybody is packed up to go to my Aunt and Uncle's house and their then 3 sons. Whole family is there. Think a solid 25 people. Our family had a tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve. I had two gifts under the tree. Cool. Yeah, no. Opened the first box; it was an old used pillow. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. Open box 2; an old adult's Santa suit. I was promptly forced to put the suit on and be Santa for the rest of the kids that night. My cousins were egged on by the very drunk adults to come up with the "funniest" fat jokes to toss at me. Reminder: I was 6 and I nearly fùcking died a year prior. I knew if I didn't play along "Santa" was going to get her àss beaten.
I couldn't tell you how the rest of that Christmas Eve went. Pretty sure I stole a glass of whiskey and beer to get through it. Yes, really. Fast forward to Christmas morning. My stocking was full. An apology maybe? Nope. A massive package of enormous adult sized underwear. I was "instructed" to put the Santa suit back on and to place several pairs of the undies over it. I was to keep it on the whole day. This torture became a yearly "tradition" until I was 12 and spent my first Christmas with a foster family. That was the happiest Christmas of my life. I didn't even get anything and it was still the best by a long shot.
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My dad gave me a used copy of mouse trap missing the trap and most other pieces. Another year he gave me a used lite Brite with no papers and only a few of the pegs. That same year my mom had picked up one too from "Dad" that was new, without knowing he got me the half there one. My mom was a stay at home mom, my dad worked and made decent money but was just super cheap. Good thing he saved all that money as kids so he can buy his girlfriend plastic surgery.
An airport lighter (pre-9/11). I bought my bf Music CDs, a nice band shirt, and a video game. He gave me the lighter he bought for himself when he flew back into town after visiting family. Even his mom commented how lazy he was and thoughtless. We had been dating 10 months. What hurt wasn't the lack of gifts, it was the lack of thought. Dumped that loser within a week.
You know what? Everybody who submitted anything to this post, give me your relatives' phone numbers. They will soon be their jail numbers.
My brother is useless at presents, so my mother told my niece who was about ten at the time and a bright little button, if he asks, she wants a blueberry bush. Well wires got crossed and the kid told her mother that granny wanted a blueberry bush. Her mother said that they didn't have that kind of money since daddy left them, and to pick out something less expensive. A plastic necklace with a butterfly on it. Such a calculated insult if you knew my mother. Just to clarify, my brother gave the house to his ex wife and was paying her £30K a year, and she was working, and managed to buy a new car. And managed to wangle free school meals for the children as she was a single mother. I guess I'm not as over it as I thought. But the next year I bought bought my mother a blueberry bush. It set me back all of £6.99
Teeth whitening c**p. Both me and my daughter had been given this on separate Christmases. Whenever my mom feels our teeth are not white enough for her standards she makes a fuss and this lady is a queen of passive aggressive gifts. The same year she gave me the teeth whitening kit she gave us a bunch of toilet paper as stocking stuffers. When I asked her wtf that was, all she said was "I thought you could use it." For clarity, we were living in a rougher neighbourhood, in a very old apartment block that needed more than few nuts and bolts tightened, and she was open about how felt about us living in "crappy conditions".
My Aunt genuinely thought I would like Nascar Monopoly. I neither like Nascar nor Monopoly. But I pretended to like it and if memory serves, left it at their house for her kids to play with
one year my mother - who usually gives me a $50 gift card wanted to know what i wanted for Christmas. i told her pillow cases. my sister told her a week on the beach. she went, i got what i asked for. we laughed.
my moms favorite story to tell me is how when my mom and dad were first dating, time and time again she told him how much she hated non fiction books. she just could not stand them. when christmas rolled around, my mom got him some heartfelt gifts that she spent a lot of time picking out. he got her a nonfiction book. he said it was perfect, because he could read it after her! tl;dr my dad bought a gift for himself
My mother in law gives my kids (not my husband’s (her son) biological kids, dollar store toys. She once gave my 16 year old son a plastic power rangers toy 🙄 while her bio granddaughter got a big a*s playhouse and dolls. The thing is, she doesn’t take the price stickers off so all kids know how much she paid for their presents. I try to teach my kids to be grateful for everything but its just plain insulting. We went to their house last year for Xmas and that was the first and only time I took my kids there. I’m not going to subject them to more humiliation.
Xmas as a kid: I wanted a Barbie Doll, I got a ( cheapass) Cindy doll. Next Xmas: I wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid, My mom got me a homemade "Patch Kid" If you look at the pics of me with the gifts well enough you'll see the disappointment in my expression. Luckily I have a really nice aunt who got me a REAL Barbie and I finally got REAL Cabbage Patch Kids! The funny thing is: I have no idea why my mom was so cheap on those things.... my dad had a really good job, we lived in a nice split level house in a nice neighborhood and I went to a private school.... Found out later my mom preferred to spend the money on ( expensive ) stuff for her....
When I was like 15 my mom gifted me a set of scarves she'd had for years that I always really liked. Awesome gift on the surface. But this was the year she had literally taken off and moved out of state without a word and she hadnt even attempted to contact me in months. She sent them to me because she had no use of them where she was living. It was like she'd said "here, something I don't want for someONE I don't want"
Nothing. I have gotten nothing for Christmas and my birthday for 30 years. My brother gets a brand new mustang and this year an 2021 Mach E while I ride public transit with a mobility device. My dad goes to Europe for 3 weeks my brother and daughter make out like a bandit I get the pamphlets and a receipt from a museum. Don't forget Mother's Day where I get nothing as well.
Ditto! Even though I'm older now, it's still just as painful. :(
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My mum just gave back a gift she didn't like. It didn't matter how much it was, how much effort you put in, how hard you worked, if she didn't like it, she'd tell you . In front of everyone, right back into my hands and told me to keep it. She did it with all gifts. So, aged 10, I stopped giving her anything. She still bitches about not getting anything from me or my siblings, but she's the b***h here. Never gave her anything again and never will.
One year after our mother died, our dad forgot to get us stocking stuffers and I found an empty Coke bottle and an unhealthy orange in mine. I’d rather it had been empty. My sister made him go out to a gas station later and get us some Smarties.
When I was a kid, about 8 yo, I was finally promised a dog for Christmas after years of begging for him and after doing everything as I was told to (good grades, dog sitting for neighbours etc.). I was really excited and even bought him some toys for my allowance money. And with my hopes up I remember running to Christmas tree. Well I didn't get a dog. (But some years after that I adopted one and now he's a senior pup and such a sweetheart).
Christmas of 06 in Iraq. The insurgents decided to celebrate the season by shelling our camp on X-mas eve.
Technically YOU were the people invading their home. Not sure why you would expect a warm welcome.
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Most years I just get thoughtless gifts. I feel childish not really appreciating them but it bugs me how thoughtless and generic they are. I'm not difficult to shop for but there's never any effort. For birthdays I always say I want pretty flowers, just a nice bouquet you can grab from Lidl for like $20 USD, I never get flowers. My one ex would buy me crazy expensive gifts and I was always disappointed because he thought the price was more important than the thought; I would've preferred a video game over the $1200 earrings (I'm not big on jewelry and had rarely wore any)
My parents like to tell me this story. So when I was maybe 4, I REALLY wanted a Dora the Explorer roller bag for Christmas. Like, obsessively. So Christmas rolls around, I get my bag, along with some other stuff. I throw a fit… because there was other stuff. I wanted JUST the bag. Sorry mom…
My ex husband gave me an Iphone for Christmas that was not his. He was partner in a company back then. The partners and their wives got a free phone plan as bonus back then. In my country fees for phones are pretty cheap. You pay like 20 Euro and have unlimited phonecalls and unlimited download plus you got to choose a new phone every 3 years or so. It was the latest Iphone (6 back then) and I got to chose the color. Which was all paid for by his company. He wrapped it up and gave it to me that year as his Christmas present. Flash forward three years later, we are getting a divorce and he wants the phone back. I had already bought a new one and had given the IPhone to my daughter because her phone had broken. Up to this day he demands it back, worthless by now, stating I had stolen it in the first place. Never give something as a gift that does not even belong to you!
I will always remember the year my now (thankfully) ex mother in law gave my son empty boxes for Christmas! Not just any empty boxes, empty toy boxes for toys he wanted. He was 2 at the time!! And she wonders why I hated her! That's just one of the things. Worst thing is she denies doing it! Bought it up a Christmas or 2 later and she was like 'I would never do that!!' And totally denied it! And because my ex husband was a mummy's boy he went along with her!!!!
When I was 12 my older sister got a clock radio (a big deal in those days), my younger brother got a new bike (he was the favorite), I got a cheap nylon bath robe that was too small and the seams started coming apart within days. Par for the course, neglected middle child. :)
You know what I got for Christmas this year? It was a banner f***in' year at the old Bender family. I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said "Hey. Smoke up Johnny." (Any movie buffs out there? 😋)
My stepmom's family gives all the biological grandkids hundreds of dollars worth of gifts. I'm lucky to get a gift card half the time.
I got a scathing political rant from my son yesterday, telling me he's had more experiences than I and my hub combined. That "I'm a" f*#*ing idiot" and if I'd just listen I could maybe not be so horrible as a Christian (I'm not even) Nazi (wow, me?) And that talking to me about the kids or "weather is not gonna cut it ya dig"? So that was fun.
One year, my fiance bought me a large pack of Kraft Singles, no idea why because I'm not a fan. He also gave me three large pieces of plywood with odds and ends nailed on and told me his artist friend created each one. IIRC one looked like a doorbell. Everything went in the trash. This year, a friend wrapped an embroidery kit and magnets from the dollar store in washcloths and tied each "package" with used bread bag twist-ties. One guess where everything went...
My birthday is the day after christmas, I've always gotten the combo gift from everyone except mom. Never had a birthday party, only a cake that would be christmas themed. On the plus side I've skipped every christmas since I was 15, so I don't have to buy gifts for anyone.
My favourite so far has to be from my ex wife's father, without doubt every Christmas I would get given a pack of beer. Now I'm not one of these folks that complains about s****y gifts because no matter how little thought has gone into a gift for me it still means someone has thought about me but every year without doubt that damn beer would be out of date by at least a year
Not me, but my grandfather. When he was little, he did not receive pajamas, but fabric to sew one
When I was 15, I got a stuffed animal from a cousin. It was a turkey. It was cute, but I collect raccoons... 🦝
I'm disabled so I got Sick People Presents - wheelchair lap blankets, gadgets, floor grabbers. Everybody else got lovely jewelry, perfume and clothes. It wasn't to be mean. They just didn't THINK!!! Finally one year my Aunt gave all the girls cashmere sweaters. I couldn't wait to open mine. Whst color? What pattern? I got aromatherapy products instead. I kept asking my sister to show me her pretty sweater. Then went home and cried. Aunt called and said "you wanted one too, didn't you?" Like, yeah. She apologized, then reamed all the relatives for me. That s**t finally stopped. People still apologize and say "I can't believe we did that to you."
I always got the 'free stuff you can get with points!' from a catalogue (random stuff) - that my mom actually thought I should have (ie: nothing I wanted nor asked for) - when my brother got to be around 8 or 9... suddenly, he'd get nice stuff (new clothes, not 2nd hand, real transformers, not knock-offs) AND also whatever my parents bought for me "to be fair" - because 'fair' meant I could *never* have things he didn't get to have (even if he flat out didn't want the thing I got). Oh, and my 'nice stuff' I still had to pay half for, because the 'gift' was that they'd subsidize half the cost. So.. soooo fair...
One of my earliest memories, I was maybe 5 or 6, and my grandmother had for some reason gotten me an "Old Maid" card deck game. Now, keep in mind I had never played a card game of any type in my life, nor had I ever heard of "Old Maid". So, holding this small box with a little old lady printed on it, I innocently asked what it was. I was immediately yelled at, told I should say "thank you" for the gift, etc etc. Which I did, of course, but I don't recall that anyone ever did teach me how to play, and the box kicked around for several years before being donated/given away.
I was 22, with a 3yr and 1yr old. I didnt have money to buy my kids anything much less my nieces and nephews. Told my mom this, but she said it was ok and to still come to Xmas. One nephew (John - 4yrs old) gave my daughter a picture he had colored from a coloring book, wrapped and all, which was sweet. Nothing for my son, but I digress. Then I heard my sister tell John to come ask me why my daughter didnt get him anything. John comes to me and loudly says, "I got Sara something, why didn't she get me anything?" as my sister laughed and smirked and whispered to her husband. Told John I was sorry, but I didnt have any money to buy anything. John continued with "I colored her a picture. She should have got me something." I apologized again as the 4yr old kept telling me that he should have gotten a present and my sister watched happily, saying nothing. My mom said nothing. I didnt attend Xmas again for 15 years and when I did, I let everyone know why I had stopped coming. Never got apolo
When I was… twelve (?) I got nothing. It was really hard to sit there and put on a smile for my siblings as they unwrapped their many presents. I was crushed. But the pain subsided in time and it vindicated my understanding that I was unwanted and unloved, two deeply hard feelings for a kid. I never had to spend Christmas morning with my family again, because we all knew what would happen. I found out thirty years later that that Christmas hurt all of my siblings as much as it hurt me.
It is better to get some one absolutely nothing, not even cash, then waste their time, money and emotions like this. I used to love buying gifts and souvenirs and especially cards for everyone in my life, even people I wasn't close to. They never appreciate it and many I would say even feel embarrassed when you get then something they like and they don't even think about you, so quite rightly they prefer to never get anything again, so that's what happened. Even between my parents and my partner we stopped getting presents.
I have to say this. Just remember some parents do not celebrate Christmas or birthday days. So if it even a bad gift, it is way better than than no gift. Sign never received a gift
Jehovah's Witness? And sometimes nothing is better than a truly thoughtless or hurtful present
Load More Replies... I had a friend that I used to be close to-one of my hobbies is cross stitch embroidery, so one year I decided to do her a tapestry. They take hours and hours to do, and the cost of getting them professionally framed is high. She really liked it and hung it in her hallway, and the following year asked me to do her another one. This went on about 5 years, she basically had a gallery of tapestries going up her stairs. And every year, without fail, she would phone me in early December and say I was really hard to buy for, and did I have any ideas what I wanted. So I gave her some ideas-yellow cushions, a garden bird feeding station, a jewellery box with drawers. And every year I ended up with a basic pack of shower gel, body lotion and cheap eau de toilette and the comment, sorry, I didn't the time to get anything else. I know its not the monetary value that's important, it was the lack of thought, the lack of engagement, the fact I wasn't worth spending time on.
I’m sorry. She’s cruelly thoughtless. Embroidery of any kind takes time and patience and is even more expensive to frame than many pictures. You were a good and kind friend.
Load More Replies... First Xmas with my now wife, I gave her a board game I wish I had gotten as a kid but never got (Mouse Trap). I was excited to play it with her, but I’ve learned over the years that you’re supposed to give people stuff they like. My point is I was young, immature and of course selfish… but people can change, took about 10 years but it happens.
My best friend at school had Mouse Trap and I have always wanted to get it but would never think to buy it for myself. I’ll play a game or two of it with you :)
Load More Replies... My father always gave our son, his grandson, the loudest of toys. Once is was a Rugrats clock that would yell out a phrase every quarter hour. It did have a light indicator on it so it would sense when there was low light and shut the sound off. Then it was a little mower with loud popping sounds, then a toy xylophone. Every noisy toy came with "Oh look, another toy that you can play with when you visit grandpa." My father said "Why are you making him leave his toys here." My mother piped up "Because they live in an apartment, dear, and they don't want complaints from the neighbors." It had never dawned on him that we lived in an apartment and not a house like we grew up in. He bought quieter toys after that.
Christmas can be cruel, it often reveals your worth in front of other people's eyes :')
It's hardly the worst gift but accidentally discovered my husband and I have bought each other the same Lego set for Xmas this year - guess it shows how alike we are. And yes, I still play with Lego at the grand age of forty and will continue to do so
I read all of these and they’re downright cruel. Thoughtless and emotionally abusive. My parents, even when we were poor, I don’t know how they did it, but they made it magical for me. Not a lot of presents, but nice toys, one year my first watch, a Chatty Cathy another year. And somehow we always had a wonderful Christmas dinner. I am so blessed to have had the parents I did. They always, somehow managed.
i guess i am an OK gift giver. i love getting weird/unusual but appropriate for the person gifts. my dad is the hardest bc he doesn't need/want anything. best things i have gotten for him was one year a deodorized compressed fertilizer shaped like a snail for his roses. as the weather/time goes on it looks like concrete & is absorbed by the soil. he had the best time telling his friends that i gave him s**t for xmas. the other thing was when i first heard him exclaim he didn't give a flying f about something. that yr i got him the literal word f shaped helicopter.
Trauma dump time: When I was 5 I nearly died from bacterial meningitis. The vast quantity of medication I was on absolutely ruined my metabolism/digestion. I packed on weight despite not eating much. Even now I can look at food and gain weight. So flash forward to Christmas one year later, I'm 6. Everybody is packed up to go to my Aunt and Uncle's house and their then 3 sons. Whole family is there. Think a solid 25 people. Our family had a tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve. I had two gifts under the tree. Cool. Yeah, no. Opened the first box; it was an old used pillow. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. Open box 2; an old adult's Santa suit. I was promptly forced to put the suit on and be Santa for the rest of the kids that night. My cousins were egged on by the very drunk adults to come up with the "funniest" fat jokes to toss at me. Reminder: I was 6 and I nearly fùcking died a year prior. I knew if I didn't play along "Santa" was going to get her àss beaten.
I couldn't tell you how the rest of that Christmas Eve went. Pretty sure I stole a glass of whiskey and beer to get through it. Yes, really. Fast forward to Christmas morning. My stocking was full. An apology maybe? Nope. A massive package of enormous adult sized underwear. I was "instructed" to put the Santa suit back on and to place several pairs of the undies over it. I was to keep it on the whole day. This torture became a yearly "tradition" until I was 12 and spent my first Christmas with a foster family. That was the happiest Christmas of my life. I didn't even get anything and it was still the best by a long shot.
Load More Replies... My dad gave me a used copy of mouse trap missing the trap and most other pieces. Another year he gave me a used lite Brite with no papers and only a few of the pegs. That same year my mom had picked up one too from "Dad" that was new, without knowing he got me the half there one. My mom was a stay at home mom, my dad worked and made decent money but was just super cheap. Good thing he saved all that money as kids so he can buy his girlfriend plastic surgery.
An airport lighter (pre-9/11). I bought my bf Music CDs, a nice band shirt, and a video game. He gave me the lighter he bought for himself when he flew back into town after visiting family. Even his mom commented how lazy he was and thoughtless. We had been dating 10 months. What hurt wasn't the lack of gifts, it was the lack of thought. Dumped that loser within a week.
You know what? Everybody who submitted anything to this post, give me your relatives' phone numbers. They will soon be their jail numbers.
My brother is useless at presents, so my mother told my niece who was about ten at the time and a bright little button, if he asks, she wants a blueberry bush. Well wires got crossed and the kid told her mother that granny wanted a blueberry bush. Her mother said that they didn't have that kind of money since daddy left them, and to pick out something less expensive. A plastic necklace with a butterfly on it. Such a calculated insult if you knew my mother. Just to clarify, my brother gave the house to his ex wife and was paying her £30K a year, and she was working, and managed to buy a new car. And managed to wangle free school meals for the children as she was a single mother. I guess I'm not as over it as I thought. But the next year I bought bought my mother a blueberry bush. It set me back all of £6.99
Teeth whitening c**p. Both me and my daughter had been given this on separate Christmases. Whenever my mom feels our teeth are not white enough for her standards she makes a fuss and this lady is a queen of passive aggressive gifts. The same year she gave me the teeth whitening kit she gave us a bunch of toilet paper as stocking stuffers. When I asked her wtf that was, all she said was "I thought you could use it." For clarity, we were living in a rougher neighbourhood, in a very old apartment block that needed more than few nuts and bolts tightened, and she was open about how felt about us living in "crappy conditions".
My Aunt genuinely thought I would like Nascar Monopoly. I neither like Nascar nor Monopoly. But I pretended to like it and if memory serves, left it at their house for her kids to play with
one year my mother - who usually gives me a $50 gift card wanted to know what i wanted for Christmas. i told her pillow cases. my sister told her a week on the beach. she went, i got what i asked for. we laughed.
my moms favorite story to tell me is how when my mom and dad were first dating, time and time again she told him how much she hated non fiction books. she just could not stand them. when christmas rolled around, my mom got him some heartfelt gifts that she spent a lot of time picking out. he got her a nonfiction book. he said it was perfect, because he could read it after her! tl;dr my dad bought a gift for himself
My mother in law gives my kids (not my husband’s (her son) biological kids, dollar store toys. She once gave my 16 year old son a plastic power rangers toy 🙄 while her bio granddaughter got a big a*s playhouse and dolls. The thing is, she doesn’t take the price stickers off so all kids know how much she paid for their presents. I try to teach my kids to be grateful for everything but its just plain insulting. We went to their house last year for Xmas and that was the first and only time I took my kids there. I’m not going to subject them to more humiliation.
Xmas as a kid: I wanted a Barbie Doll, I got a ( cheapass) Cindy doll. Next Xmas: I wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid, My mom got me a homemade "Patch Kid" If you look at the pics of me with the gifts well enough you'll see the disappointment in my expression. Luckily I have a really nice aunt who got me a REAL Barbie and I finally got REAL Cabbage Patch Kids! The funny thing is: I have no idea why my mom was so cheap on those things.... my dad had a really good job, we lived in a nice split level house in a nice neighborhood and I went to a private school.... Found out later my mom preferred to spend the money on ( expensive ) stuff for her....
When I was like 15 my mom gifted me a set of scarves she'd had for years that I always really liked. Awesome gift on the surface. But this was the year she had literally taken off and moved out of state without a word and she hadnt even attempted to contact me in months. She sent them to me because she had no use of them where she was living. It was like she'd said "here, something I don't want for someONE I don't want"
Nothing. I have gotten nothing for Christmas and my birthday for 30 years. My brother gets a brand new mustang and this year an 2021 Mach E while I ride public transit with a mobility device. My dad goes to Europe for 3 weeks my brother and daughter make out like a bandit I get the pamphlets and a receipt from a museum. Don't forget Mother's Day where I get nothing as well.
Ditto! Even though I'm older now, it's still just as painful. :(
Load More Replies... My mum just gave back a gift she didn't like. It didn't matter how much it was, how much effort you put in, how hard you worked, if she didn't like it, she'd tell you . In front of everyone, right back into my hands and told me to keep it. She did it with all gifts. So, aged 10, I stopped giving her anything. She still bitches about not getting anything from me or my siblings, but she's the b***h here. Never gave her anything again and never will.
One year after our mother died, our dad forgot to get us stocking stuffers and I found an empty Coke bottle and an unhealthy orange in mine. I’d rather it had been empty. My sister made him go out to a gas station later and get us some Smarties.
When I was a kid, about 8 yo, I was finally promised a dog for Christmas after years of begging for him and after doing everything as I was told to (good grades, dog sitting for neighbours etc.). I was really excited and even bought him some toys for my allowance money. And with my hopes up I remember running to Christmas tree. Well I didn't get a dog. (But some years after that I adopted one and now he's a senior pup and such a sweetheart).
Christmas of 06 in Iraq. The insurgents decided to celebrate the season by shelling our camp on X-mas eve.
Technically YOU were the people invading their home. Not sure why you would expect a warm welcome.
Load More Replies... Most years I just get thoughtless gifts. I feel childish not really appreciating them but it bugs me how thoughtless and generic they are. I'm not difficult to shop for but there's never any effort. For birthdays I always say I want pretty flowers, just a nice bouquet you can grab from Lidl for like $20 USD, I never get flowers. My one ex would buy me crazy expensive gifts and I was always disappointed because he thought the price was more important than the thought; I would've preferred a video game over the $1200 earrings (I'm not big on jewelry and had rarely wore any)
My parents like to tell me this story. So when I was maybe 4, I REALLY wanted a Dora the Explorer roller bag for Christmas. Like, obsessively. So Christmas rolls around, I get my bag, along with some other stuff. I throw a fit… because there was other stuff. I wanted JUST the bag. Sorry mom…
My ex husband gave me an Iphone for Christmas that was not his. He was partner in a company back then. The partners and their wives got a free phone plan as bonus back then. In my country fees for phones are pretty cheap. You pay like 20 Euro and have unlimited phonecalls and unlimited download plus you got to choose a new phone every 3 years or so. It was the latest Iphone (6 back then) and I got to chose the color. Which was all paid for by his company. He wrapped it up and gave it to me that year as his Christmas present. Flash forward three years later, we are getting a divorce and he wants the phone back. I had already bought a new one and had given the IPhone to my daughter because her phone had broken. Up to this day he demands it back, worthless by now, stating I had stolen it in the first place. Never give something as a gift that does not even belong to you!
I will always remember the year my now (thankfully) ex mother in law gave my son empty boxes for Christmas! Not just any empty boxes, empty toy boxes for toys he wanted. He was 2 at the time!! And she wonders why I hated her! That's just one of the things. Worst thing is she denies doing it! Bought it up a Christmas or 2 later and she was like 'I would never do that!!' And totally denied it! And because my ex husband was a mummy's boy he went along with her!!!!
When I was 12 my older sister got a clock radio (a big deal in those days), my younger brother got a new bike (he was the favorite), I got a cheap nylon bath robe that was too small and the seams started coming apart within days. Par for the course, neglected middle child. :)
You know what I got for Christmas this year? It was a banner f***in' year at the old Bender family. I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said "Hey. Smoke up Johnny." (Any movie buffs out there? 😋)
My stepmom's family gives all the biological grandkids hundreds of dollars worth of gifts. I'm lucky to get a gift card half the time.
I got a scathing political rant from my son yesterday, telling me he's had more experiences than I and my hub combined. That "I'm a" f*#*ing idiot" and if I'd just listen I could maybe not be so horrible as a Christian (I'm not even) Nazi (wow, me?) And that talking to me about the kids or "weather is not gonna cut it ya dig"? So that was fun.
One year, my fiance bought me a large pack of Kraft Singles, no idea why because I'm not a fan. He also gave me three large pieces of plywood with odds and ends nailed on and told me his artist friend created each one. IIRC one looked like a doorbell. Everything went in the trash. This year, a friend wrapped an embroidery kit and magnets from the dollar store in washcloths and tied each "package" with used bread bag twist-ties. One guess where everything went...
My birthday is the day after christmas, I've always gotten the combo gift from everyone except mom. Never had a birthday party, only a cake that would be christmas themed. On the plus side I've skipped every christmas since I was 15, so I don't have to buy gifts for anyone.
My favourite so far has to be from my ex wife's father, without doubt every Christmas I would get given a pack of beer. Now I'm not one of these folks that complains about s****y gifts because no matter how little thought has gone into a gift for me it still means someone has thought about me but every year without doubt that damn beer would be out of date by at least a year
Not me, but my grandfather. When he was little, he did not receive pajamas, but fabric to sew one
When I was 15, I got a stuffed animal from a cousin. It was a turkey. It was cute, but I collect raccoons... 🦝
I'm disabled so I got Sick People Presents - wheelchair lap blankets, gadgets, floor grabbers. Everybody else got lovely jewelry, perfume and clothes. It wasn't to be mean. They just didn't THINK!!! Finally one year my Aunt gave all the girls cashmere sweaters. I couldn't wait to open mine. Whst color? What pattern? I got aromatherapy products instead. I kept asking my sister to show me her pretty sweater. Then went home and cried. Aunt called and said "you wanted one too, didn't you?" Like, yeah. She apologized, then reamed all the relatives for me. That s**t finally stopped. People still apologize and say "I can't believe we did that to you."
I always got the 'free stuff you can get with points!' from a catalogue (random stuff) - that my mom actually thought I should have (ie: nothing I wanted nor asked for) - when my brother got to be around 8 or 9... suddenly, he'd get nice stuff (new clothes, not 2nd hand, real transformers, not knock-offs) AND also whatever my parents bought for me "to be fair" - because 'fair' meant I could *never* have things he didn't get to have (even if he flat out didn't want the thing I got). Oh, and my 'nice stuff' I still had to pay half for, because the 'gift' was that they'd subsidize half the cost. So.. soooo fair...
One of my earliest memories, I was maybe 5 or 6, and my grandmother had for some reason gotten me an "Old Maid" card deck game. Now, keep in mind I had never played a card game of any type in my life, nor had I ever heard of "Old Maid". So, holding this small box with a little old lady printed on it, I innocently asked what it was. I was immediately yelled at, told I should say "thank you" for the gift, etc etc. Which I did, of course, but I don't recall that anyone ever did teach me how to play, and the box kicked around for several years before being donated/given away.
I was 22, with a 3yr and 1yr old. I didnt have money to buy my kids anything much less my nieces and nephews. Told my mom this, but she said it was ok and to still come to Xmas. One nephew (John - 4yrs old) gave my daughter a picture he had colored from a coloring book, wrapped and all, which was sweet. Nothing for my son, but I digress. Then I heard my sister tell John to come ask me why my daughter didnt get him anything. John comes to me and loudly says, "I got Sara something, why didn't she get me anything?" as my sister laughed and smirked and whispered to her husband. Told John I was sorry, but I didnt have any money to buy anything. John continued with "I colored her a picture. She should have got me something." I apologized again as the 4yr old kept telling me that he should have gotten a present and my sister watched happily, saying nothing. My mom said nothing. I didnt attend Xmas again for 15 years and when I did, I let everyone know why I had stopped coming. Never got apolo
When I was… twelve (?) I got nothing. It was really hard to sit there and put on a smile for my siblings as they unwrapped their many presents. I was crushed. But the pain subsided in time and it vindicated my understanding that I was unwanted and unloved, two deeply hard feelings for a kid. I never had to spend Christmas morning with my family again, because we all knew what would happen. I found out thirty years later that that Christmas hurt all of my siblings as much as it hurt me.
It is better to get some one absolutely nothing, not even cash, then waste their time, money and emotions like this. I used to love buying gifts and souvenirs and especially cards for everyone in my life, even people I wasn't close to. They never appreciate it and many I would say even feel embarrassed when you get then something they like and they don't even think about you, so quite rightly they prefer to never get anything again, so that's what happened. Even between my parents and my partner we stopped getting presents.
I have to say this. Just remember some parents do not celebrate Christmas or birthday days. So if it even a bad gift, it is way better than than no gift. Sign never received a gift
Jehovah's Witness? And sometimes nothing is better than a truly thoughtless or hurtful present
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