What was the most disappointing present you've ever received? Lighthearted!

[Lsquiggles]

My boyfriend made a big song and dance about having bought me an amazing present one year, I was so excited until I opened it and it was a spice rack

Tell me your worst!

My first boyfriend bought me a china shire horse & wooden brewer's dray ornament for Christmas

It was of the sort favoured by elderly ladies to put on their windowsill circa 1979.

Tied in first place:

The boyfriend who got me a pewter figurine (with inlaid fake glittery gemstone) of a character from a book. What made it so particularly tragic was the guy had genuinely put a lot of thought into it - he'd gone through my bookcase, asked me which books I liked, done his research. It was given with love. Sadly there was no getting round the fact that it was hideous. I had to live with it on my mantlepiece until the relationship ended! (I think I may still have it in a box in the loft, because we parted on good terms and I still think fondly of him, if not of the wretched figurine).

Tied with:
The mahoosive box of my favourite chocolates for Christmas, given to me just after I had got out of a week in hospital on an IV drip after an acute gall-bladder attack and resulting infection. I couldn't eat anything fatty without putting myself straight back in hospital. Relly knew this (had been utterly lovely and had come to visit me in hospital), just hadn't been thinking straight when she bought the gift.

A giant soup maker when we had a tiny kitchen (and I mean, stand in the middle and be able to touch everything tiny). The thing basically filled a cupboard and we did not have space to spare. In one way it was quite a thoughtful gift as I do cook, but I did know about it before hand and told them the issue, so was less than impressed I was completely ignored.

Knowing what I do about MIL now, it was probably bought in July and she couldn't return it.

@Grumpbum123 would you like to swap families? I'd love your gifts!

My MIL always told me if she didn't like a gift we'd given her. Blunt but honest! We got FIL a subscription to a magazine he liked - each month she gave them back to us unwrapped! The best 'present' from her was a set of free mugs she'd collected ... to replace my collection of match ones she didn't like!

Wait a minute - so she gave you back a present that SHE didn't like, even though the present wasn't hers in the first place, and the person to whom the present was actually given did (by the sounds of it) actually like and want to enjoy it? (Presuming it was an inoffensive title about cars or sport and not Razzle or something?!) Does she also regularly go through her DH's wardrobe and give all the clothes away to the charity shop because they don't fit or suit her?

That certainly does sound like a very special kind of arrogance and self-absorbedness.

WeBuiltThisBuffet - I took it to mean that FIL got to read the magazine and then when he'd finished it MIL passed it back to the people who gave it to him?

A friend and I do this. I bought her a magazine sub for her birthday, she reads the mag and then passes it to me, then I pass it on to someone else - three times the value from one magazine and the person who has the sub doesn't have the mags either cluttering her house or filling her recycling tub!

My Nan bought me a postman pat annual when I was 11...

I took it to mean that FIL got to read the magazine and then when he'd finished it MIL passed it back to the people who gave it to him?

That was me being a dingbat My eyes saw 'unwrapped' and my brain read it as 'unopened' !

It still seems slightly strange, though, unless OP and/or OP's DH share the same interest. I do also wonder if FIL might have wanted to keep them longer but he wasn't allowed to. It might have been more diplomatic to pass them on to the GP's or dentist's surgery or barber shop after they were finished with, though.

My Nan bought me a postman pat annual when I was 11...

I do hope you bought her a thermal tartan foot muff with Scottie dog motif when she was 55

I mentioned once to DH that I thought Daniel Craig was a handsome James Bond and suited the role perfectly.
A few Christmases ago, I received a plastic figurine of Daniel Craig as James Bond.
So while DH is opening his gifts that I'd put some thought and money into from myself and the kids, I'm sitting there with plastic Daniel bought from some bloody pound shop so he looked more like Mr Bean than Mr Bond.
It was my only present too. Bloody shithouse.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll come to think of it I might have been a bit older; 12 or 13... my friend and I thought it was hysterical and we learnt the words to the song (it was in the annual)... we used to sing it to ourselves to amuse us

Not me, but my mum.... on my parents tenth wedding anniversary (tin/aluminium) my dad bought her a pedal bin.

My DD has just reminded me of the time that her grandmother gave her one of those books with a cardboard doll with cut out dresses where you fold paper tabs over to hang different outfits on the doll. She was either 15 or 16 at the time.

toothfairy73

You've just reminded me: at uni, my best friend lived in a house with other students. It had been a HMO for students for some years, definitely not a family house for at least a couple of decades, I'd have thought, but the walls of her room were papered with Postman Pat wallpaper!

For some reason, the continuous design showed Pat standing next to and pointing at a blackboard with simple words written on it and he was teaching some children who were sitting by him (maybe ensuring the ongoing supply of future letter-writers to keep himself in a job?!)

Several years of frustrated occupying students had made countless adjustments with marker pens and blu-tack to the various recurring blackboards with the result that the children were now being taught some highly inappropriate words (no Urban Dictionary back then, I suppose) - and Pat often appeared to be, shall we say, highly excited by his responsibilities....

Haven't rtft yet, but I think @Igotta's poor sister wins (loses). That MUST be passive aggression from the Nan, surely?

Just remembered.. The year I had told now exh I was moving out ASAP after the new year. He really didn't believe me tbh.. He got me a sat nav, not a cheap one either. I got him nothing!! Imo we were split up albeit not irl as yet. He ranted and raved for weeks. Not even socks he kept shouting at me!
I left in the May. Thems was rough months..
I took the sat nav!!

Just remembered one Christmas with my ex really wanted Roots on video, early 90s there was a heavy similar shaped present, I unwrapped to find lasagne dishes, but you like cooking he said as my face dropped. Yes I did and did for years, but not as a Christmas present.

DHs first handmade present to me was a spice rack. It was beautifully made

Worst ever Christmas present came from PoisonousSIL, twice. First was a boxy, oversized sweatshirt, leopard print polyester in a weird orange colour. I'm a red head, hour glass body shape with large boobs!

That year I bought her a marble pestle and mortar, rolling pin and board. She lives cooking.

Second was a more direct insult. I got the cheap plastic necklace and earrings that come free with your first catalogue order.

That year I bought her a salsa CD and researched local salsa groups and have her an IOU for her first class.

We used to take great joy in giving her something she would really like, knowing I was going to get something awful. I also took great joy in wearing what she bought me to all her family occasions. I'd tell everyone, loudly, how she had bought me x y z for my birthday or Christmas. The worse the present the more I wore it and told people who it came from

Ten years or so ago we were quite badly off due to me being a SAHM and the house needing lots of work. I found it depressing to never be able to buy anything nice for myself. All our money went on bills and our young children and, if anything was left, the house.

My SIL took this moment to buy me an actual child’s toy for my birthday. I think it was a kaleidoscope and it had obviously been quite expensive. WTF she was thinking I do not know.

Dfil is a bit hit and miss with presents, but we forgive him for the misses because he does really try to get something the recipient will enjoy.

Highlights include, for ds3 on his 11th birthday - three books - a book of cartoons of Cornish cats, a book about Cornish cheeses and a book about Cornish pasties. All interesting or amusing, but not really designed to appeal to most 11 year old boys.

And the best one - another book, for dh this time - Toilets of Cornwall.

He does live in Cornwall.

@BissueTox most of these are just misguided or stingy, but your ex's - what on earth was he thinking? I presume that book was what made him the ex?

@Squeakymarymouse

That was the straw that broke the camels back, yes! I still can't work out what he was thinking!

For my 21st my then boyfriend gave me his old mobile because he'd just got an upgrade. He took the battery out first and didn't give me the charger. Apparently he'd thought about it for ages and his family had all agreed it was a great idea.

An ex friend once made a huge fuss about the amazing birthday present she'd sent me. She asked me twice a day if it had arrived yet. It was valuable, she said, please be sure to be in when it was delivered.
Present arrives- a miniature bottle of Gordon's gin, price less than £2, and I'm a recovering alcoholic. Which she knew.

Kitchen roll. I was the giver Tbf it was to my dad when I was a teen. He was obsessed with kitchen roll. He loved it.

I got a pencil case for my 18th from aunt and uncle. I left school at 17 to work so a bit pointless. Hadn't seen them in years as my mum hated them out of jealously as they had more money than us. Mum has since started talking to them again and acts like she's being bigger person

I got a travel laundry bag from my dad once. Can't remember which birthday but early 20s.