Question of the Day Saturday Dec 21

With just four days till Christmas I thought it would be appropriate to ask:

What's the weirdest, most awful or funniest gift you've ever received?

(any time - not all of us celebrate Christmas,

and you may have been given an odd birthday/wedding/whatever gift)

                                  

In high school, for my birthday. I found a big box, big enough to use as a mini table, in front of our doorstep. No name, just addressed to me. Back then, deliveries were very rare where we live, and to get one that I wasn't expecting, I was stoked.

Went inside, starting opening the box.

What's this? Another box?

I opened the second box, and sure enough, inside was another box. There were eight levels of boxception by the time it was done. Whoever it was must have bought one of every size at the supplies store. :lol3: And inside the last box was a birthday card.

I never figured out who the sender was. I had a shortlist of friends most likely to play a joke like this, but none of them owned up.

The hubby and I had been married less than 3 weeks when we celebrated our first Christmas together.  His Mom, for some reason that I still don't understand, gave me a floor length, long-sleeved flannel nightgown.  Not the sort of gift an 18 year old newlywed expects.   Needles to say, I returned it.

My Mom thinks we are going to freeze to death and has given us so many blankets every few months for this or that holiday that I had to tell her no more.  Felt HORRIBLE but I was not going to use them and she does not have alot of money that I could feel ok donating them...I mean like dozens of blankets.  Still have 2 in bags that I will get to when puppy is more reliable with not eating bed. 

But the worst gift was 101 uses for a dead cat from brother.  Who now owns a cat and got the book back last xmas.

2 years ago my daughter gave me underwear and 2 bras.for Christmas. Of course she had to guess at the size cause I'm not actually that over weight or that skinny I'm in between.  But last year I got a fry daddy,this year my daughter is buying me my grandson's new book.  ( Perfect size )      

Likely not all that weird, but for the longest time my Grandmama would give me undies. Xmas and Birthdays, I would get a package of underwear from her. This lasted for a good number of years   Childhood to teens. Small complaint, she is a wonderful grandmother altogether. Though not sure why I got so many, it wasn't like my mom was neglecting my underwear and cleanliness needs!
 

Though I do remember one other peculiar time - I was 8 years old, it was Christmas Eve, and was in the hospital after one of my surgeries (Was already in the hospital for about a month). It was evening, and I was in the hospital bed along with many other kid roommates whom I was sharing the room with, when a friendly fellow dressed as Santa came in with a huge bag, handing all of us sickie kids lovely wrapped presents. At first it was really nice, I recieved all these toys, particularly ones from the animated movie Aladdin. But after a good few minutes playing with them, the Santa said "Ok, everyone has to give back the toys now"
 

I was like "Wait, whaaaatttt?" and we all proceeded to give back all the gifts that were given to us. Apparently were not to keep them, just borrow to play with them for a bit.

I still remember that experience clear as day   needless to say I was not entirely impresssed. I couldn't help but think on what was the point in all that, give this whole show of gifts and Xmas then telling us after the fact that they were to be to returned. I was confused, as was my family. Oh well, despite being in the hospital during the season and that event, I had the family with me and they were great.
 

My mother in-law once gave me a black 100% acrylic sweater with faux leopard patches on the front of it. OMG it was SO ugly, add to that I'm a fabric snob, I wear only natural fabrics. I'm not sure why someone would think making that ugly thing is a good idea, much less buying it!  She's not a bad MIL but she doesn't pay much attention; she sent our daughter polyester clothes for the first 7 years of her life before she listened that we won't wrap our daughter up in plastic clothes, either.

I wish I'd taken a picture of it, so hideous! MIL sends cash these days, much better. Moral of the story: unless you know for a fact someone likes a particular article of clothing, don't buy people clothes for gifts. Most people are pretty picky about what they wear!

THE MOST AWFUL GIFT: Several years ago I asked for a bow and arrow.. I was thinking of a wooden bow that was crafted by hand and real arrows made of wood, an arrowhead and feathers. Like the bows I use on Mabinogi. My parents got me a plastic bow with plastic arrows which had a rounded point. It was disappointing and needless to say I never used it.

THE WEIRDEST: When I was young, my parents bought me a new bed for Christmas. It was great. Before that I had slept on a rock hard bed that was not only extremely uncomfortable, but it as gave me aches and pains so bad. (Some doctor told my mom that it was "good" to have children sleep on hard beds.... so I slept on that until I was 10 or 11).

THE FUNNIEST GIFT: When I was 5 years old, I unwrapped a puppy for Christmas. That was the best dog my family ever had. They got her from the pound because they told my parents she would be a little dog... Turns out she was a Rhodesian Ridgeback so she got to be a fair size, but she was so well behaved. I named her Ginger because I got her during the time that I loved Black Beauty. Ginger passed away several years ago.

I just remembered the gifts my Mom gave my brothers and me for several years running---we each got our own box of Chef-boy-Ardee pizza mix. 

The worst gift I got when I was a kid was a bicycle. My siblings and I never had very much; I started working when I was 12 so I could afford fabric to sew my own clothes. We had a few hand-me-down toys, and I wore my brother's hand-me-down plaid flannel shirts and jeans when I was a kid. My parents were not poor but their children were never a priority.

I lived in a small town and got around everywhere on my bike. My bike was my life and connection to the world outside of my family. I had a hand-me-down bike that was originally bought for my brother, but it was a small one, so when I was around 11-12 I had outgrown it. I needed a new bike.

I entered an art contest sponsored by a major food company because the 2nd prize was a new bicycle! I ended up winning 1st which was an all-expense paid vacation for my family, that was pretty sweet. But I still needed a bike. I had to wait for months, but asked for a bicycle for Christmas.

We used to celebrate on Christmas Eve, and my parents had hinted I was getting a new bike, I was SO excited! Until I saw it, that is, it was an OLD rusty, heavy iron bike. Someone had slopped some thick blue paint on the body of it, it was a really bad paint job. The tire rims were painted a yellow-gold, with clumps of paint on the surfaces, the blue and yellow colors clashed, the hole thing was really hideous. I was genuinely a kid who had nothing and appreciated anything, but that bike was such a disappointment.

I stopped riding bikes for the next couple of years, then got a car when I was 14 and drove that around everywhere. I was driving illegally until I got my license at 16, my parents knew and did not care.

The worst gift I ever got was a picture frame as a wedding gift. It had writing on it and said "father walks daughter down aisle." My dad passed away 2 years before I got married. It was a family friend so it's not like she didn't know.

There have been several:

1.  When I became pre-diabetic, my friends, who were just recently told all about it, gave me candy for Easter (they never had given candy ever before!). One even said, "I thought you could eat it, and then see if your blood sugar rises." She was serious. I could see if they had a tradition of doing that, and just automatically bought me candy, but they never, ever gave me any kind of food as a gift before that!

2.  One of those page-a-day calendars--for the previous year. She probably was so excited that it was 75% off...what a cheapskate! I did use the wrong side for scrap paper and cat toys. My cat at the time loved to fish crumpled paper out of the wastebasket. I'd toss it in, she'd run over and fish it out. She seems to prefer the calendar paper for some reason.

3.  Broken jewelry for a yard sale for a birthday gift--and she knew it was broken, as she ever so kindly included a note about it in the box.

4.  My best friend gave me a new t-shirt she had bought and tried on, but didn't like. It was in the bag, all rolled-up the way she removed it, and had some of her curly hair was in the rolled-up part. Yuck. TRASH!!!  (And she's done this since then!)

5.  My boss is a heavy smoker. She is very nice to us, and she recently handed out notepads that stank of smoke. I threw it out. I can't bear that smell. I felt bad trashing it though; she meant well. She did, though, give me a large pair of 14kt gold hoop earrings. Her aunt had died, and she inherited her jewelry. She knew that I like snap-bar hoops. The box didn't smell of smoke, luckily.

6.  At work, staff often leave stuff they don't want in the lunchroom with a note saying "FREE".  I once left a small Chinese porcelain box; nothing wrong with it; I was just de-cluttering. It did have a distinctive rust paperclip mark on the bottom (it got wet).  A few weeks later, I was opening my birthday gifts at work. Imagine my shock when I opened...you guessed it! (I threw it out, so I wouldn't get it the next year!)

Everyone above was a co-worker, BTW. And they wonder why I no longer exchange birthday and Christmas gifts!

I had two bad gifts, kinda similar:

I requested a hiking GPS so I could geocache. The GPS was given to my husband, who never requested it and showed no interest in geocaching, with the acknowledgement that I had asked for the GPS. I was told, "Well, you can both use it..."

A gas station gift card was given to us. The giving party said, "Yeah, we know it's really for Steve, but it's for both of you." (Meaning that they knew in reality that my husband would use 100% of it and I would get nothing, but they were just marking it for both of us. Presumably so they didn't have to buy me a separate gift.) I don't socialize with these people anymore as they when we came over they would only pay attention to my husband. They would insist on practicing singing with my husband while I had to sit around for hours and wait for them with nothing to do. They did this even when we told them I was not interested in singing and they needed to find something else we could all do.

Awaiting Abyss said:

THE MOST AWFUL GIFT: Several years ago I asked for a bow and arrow.. I was thinking of a wooden bow that was crafted by hand and real arrows made of wood, an arrowhead and feathers. Like the bows I use on Mabinogi. My parents got me a plastic bow with plastic arrows which had a rounded point. It was disappointing and needless to say I never used it.
 

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I think your parents must've been overwhelmed and settled for the best thing they could decide on. I've practiced archery for about 10 years. A bow is a very personalized piece of equipment. You have to take into consideration the archer's experience and physical body measurements. Even the arrows have to be measured to a custom fit length. Our archery club trains people for about 3 months before they're ready to purchase a bow, and even then an instructor has to help them pick and spec out the bow and arrows. Yes, I can see how you would be disappointed, but I can also see why the plastic set chosen, and it's not just for economic and safety reasons.

I've had a few amusing gifts over the years.

I think it was the Christmas DH and I were engaged or the first after we were married.  My Grandmother; bless her heart, sent me a satin nightshirt and another nightgown type set.  My Gram grew up with little and grew to really look at labels and just having things.  She would put things away for us granddaughters down the road.  So this nightgown set had to be decades old.  My mother thought it was a nursing set!!  It wasn't! 

That's only 1/3 of the problem though.  The other 2/3 is that even though I was thin; I am built like my Mother's side of my family.  My cousins on my Dad's side are petite and pear shaped.  I'm the tallest of us at 5'5" and I've been an hourglass since middle school.  So yeah; these weren't going to fit!  I ended up giving them to a friend who thought the vintage factor was so cool! lol  There was also a sweater 2 sizes too small that year.  To Gram's defense; it wasn't more than a couple years later that she was diagnosed with dementia.  But it was partially just her.  Even in high school she'd try to pull out bras she had stashed away for us.  Way wrong size again.  But then her sister did the same thing.  So it wasn't all dementia!   I do love my Gram to pieces though.  She would take me shopping for my birthday and get me a pair of Calvin Kline jeans every year in high school.  Those were really appreciated!!  A huge treat!  Now at 95; it's just great to have her around ya know?

Weirdest:  Some time in high school my step-grandparent's gave me a Snow White doll.  It was probably 18" tall or so I think.  The eyelashes were glued on wrong and her body didn't even conform to the dress shape.  hehe  They also gave me barbies while I was in high school.  My Mom and I made some alterations to the doll (fixed the eyelashes too) and passed it on to someone who could enjoy it. the barbies went to my younger step-sister who was still elementary age. 

catsallaround said:

 
But the worst gift was 101 uses for a dead cat from brother.  Who now owns a cat and got the book back last xmas.

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Glad he got the book back....serves him right.

We received a big plastic clock that plays Christmas carols on the hour from my parents one year. Never put a battery in it, never put it up.

Winchester said:

 
We received a big plastic clock that plays Christmas carols on the hour from my parents one year. Never put a battery in it, never put it up.

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What were they thinking!!

When I wrote the question I had no idea that there would be such a diverse lot of answers... some hilarious and some very touching..

To be honest, anything I have to offer pales into insignificance!