Worst gift ever received?

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Originally Posted By: JerryBob
Back in the 70's I wanted "The Who's" Tommy album. My not-so-hip aunt got me a Tom Jones record thinking that's what I meant.


That is priceless!

Many years ago, one of my roomies, let's call him Rob, drove to northern B.C. a few weeks before Christmas to meet his fiancee's parents. He had bought them a rather ugly glass coffee table ornament, and he returned to Kamloops with a Tom Jones double album. The in-laws to be were considered to have won.

We mocked the album, and it sat unopened for several weeks. (This would be late '77, when disco was king.) Anyway, eventually we opened it and put it on the turntable and did reverse Karaoke. We would take turns pretending to be Tom Jones while lip-syncing. I was really bad at it (very repressed, self-conscious, no rhythm) and the other guys would mock me mercilessly. It was great fun. We used to laugh until we cried.

Then Rob remembered when he was a child his family had this little boat with a chemical toilet called the Potpourri. They called it 'The Poh'. He and his brother used to sing a version of a Tom Jones song thus: 'The Old Poh smells the same, as I sit back down again ...'

Fast forward many years. My wife's parents are very strong feminists, and we joke (not to them) of singing 'She's a Lady' in their presence. (Not going to happen!)
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
A cordless Dewalt drill. It's not often that I need to use a drill. I prefer something I can plug in and it works when I need to use it. And I'm not wasting energy keeping a battery on a charger plugged in only to use it once every 6 months.


An expensive tool that the giver thought you might like, and all you can do is complain about it?

Were I the giver, I would simply never buy you anything again.

Problem solved.


I tried to get people to do that. I said every year for almost ten years: I want nothing. It took an ultimatum: gifts addressed to me will be burned unopened.
 
My extended family used to do a blind gift exchange. The gifts were supposed to be gender neutral. I'm sure at least two of my realitives were just getting rid of junk. I recieved a greeting card organizer/planner with flowers on it. Just what a 20 yo member of the military needs!
 
Not the worst gift, but the worst experience.

My birthday is Christmas Day, and amongst other things, I've never had birthday dinner at a restaurant .

The nastiest thing that you can give a Christmas Kid is a "combined present", and the worst of them was my Aunty explaining that there was no separate birthday present because they got me an extra special, doubly expensive gift...fair cop.

So I open my present, and there's a Tonka bulldozer, exactly the same as the one that my brother opened 5 minutes previously.

Not a bad gift, just a rubbish message...15 years of that, and I seriously aren't interested in getting stuff...if I want it, I buy it. (*)

Best ever was when my parents bought a couple of goats on my behalf for an African family.

(*)...that being said, my two children are seriously the most amazing and thoughtfull gift givers...I look forward to seeing what they think of me.
 
Holiday birthdays present a challenge.

My brother was born January 2nd. I try to send two separate packages to his house, the first with Christmas gifts for everyone (him, wife and two boys) and the second with his present. IF they all go in one box, then I make certain that the labeling/wrapping is clear.

Last year, it was a Bosch 18V Li-Ion Drill for his birthday. It was a really nice drill. He's always doing projects around the house...perhaps that's why I found the comments on some presents here to be truly ungrateful. If I dropped $150 on your present and you complained about it...well...next year, I'll take my wife out to dinner and just send you a card...
 
My sister in law gave me a bottle of aspirin and a box of ziplop sandwich bags one year for Christmas. Even wrapped it up very nicely and put a bow on it. I dont really like getting gifts anyway and the ones I do get I prefer to be practical, so I actually kind of liked it, but aspirin and sandwich bags... I never would have thought of that one on my own.

The most seriously awkward gift was when one of my best friends from the college days came over for our annual christmas get together and as we all sat around exchanging gifts, hands me a larger box and I proceed to open it.... and pull out several hardcover pictorial type books. I open one up and start flipping through it, and it very quickly became one of those "Um, was this for ME?" kind of events. The books were filled with pictures of people... all of the same gender... mine and HIS... in various stages of....intimate activities. I quickly closed the book and put it back in the box with the others. My wife and I just kind of looked at each other and squirmed a bit. Ok, I squirmed a LOT. She kind of chuckled and whispered "Umm..can I take one more peak at that?" We made nice as un-awkwardly as we could, and did our best to make the focus on everyone elses gift opening. Those books got chucked into the fireplace onto the still-raging fire before his car was even halfway out of the driveway. Found out from some mutual friends that coach was wanting me to switch teams, so to speak.

"Not that there's anything wrong with that!"

You'd think the wife, two kids, and picket fence house in the suburbs would have been enough hint to which way I lean, but I guess he thought this was an appropriate way to ask. Saw him a few times socially after that. He never mentioned the...gifts... neither did I. We drifted apart pretty quickly thereafter.
 
Someone thought giving me a box of condoms for my 15th birthday was a good idea. Not that it was a bad gift in itself, but when I was unwrapping this particular gift in front of family and friends I wanted to die. My mom tried to save me by asking, "Are you ready for your cake now, honey?" I will never forget gramma's face.
 
There was a spottily applied custom at work called "Secret Santa" where a gift was given to someone who's name you pulled from a hat.
FUN was one stated goal and "breaking the ice" was clearly another because the crews were constantly changing.
'Twas a good idea actually.

A grown man gave me a 15+ year old Philippine die cut box which contained 12 ridiculously small "chocolate" figures behind small, swing out doors. Perhaps a "12 Days of Christmas" theme, I do not remember.
The chocolate had deteriorated into dust. The ripped cardboard box was heavily yellowed and it had been sat on more than once.

I'm all for the politically correct, happy and appreciative flavor of some of the answers here but that "gift" was nothing but trash bestowed by a cheap, phony human being.
I stand by the assessment because I got to know this creep a little bit.

"Better to give nothing..." my mother used to say. Kira
 
Every year I re-gift to my brother in-law the same gift that he gave me the previous Christmas. At this point it's more of a running gag.
 
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
A cordless Dewalt drill.


Wow, I'd have thought that was a really nice gift!
 
My wife got a free cell slick flip phone from a friend however she to pay for the associated monthly plan FOR 2 years which I think really paid for the phone itself.

She still has that phone in her car as 911 backup only.
 
My Father in law with my first wife gave me 4 shrubs for my birthday because he said we needed to landscape the front more. I thought that sucked and they hated me, till he gave his daughter shutters for the house on her birthday. So maybe they just sucked at gift giving.
 
Originally Posted By: rjundi
My wife got a free cell slick flip phone from a friend however she to pay for the associated monthly plan FOR 2 years which I think really paid for the phone itself.

She still has that phone in her car as 911 backup only.


LOL, that reminds me.

MIL (RIP) was sothankgfull for us driving her and FIL own to Sydney every Sunday, and driving down to collect her every Friday that she booked us an Austar (satellite) subscription for two years,and paid the first 6 months.
 
My ex MIL was quite a nut job. I once got an old expired packet of meatloaf seasoning and an obviously used knit ski cap. I live in San Diego.
My ex got a plastic Jesus for her dashboard. Now I laugh every time I see Cool Hand Luke.
 
Originally Posted By: Mezmo
My ex MIL was quite a nut job. I once got an old expired packet of meatloaf seasoning and an obviously used knit ski cap. I live in San Diego.


Maybe she was just trying to call you a meat head?
 
I gave a friend some of that "surplus 35mm movie film" you could get free via coupon that cost her $12 to process instead of the usual $4.
27.gif


There was some anti-reflective tar on the back of the film that called for a special process to undo.
 
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