Worst present you received as a child

[threetethree]

Hopefully this doesn't offend anyone!

Was just thinking about my birthday when I was about 7. My auntie gave me a present and it was a cross stitch of a spider going up a drainpipe after it had rained
At that age i was TERRIFIED of spiders. I was visibly shaking as I threw it to the floor. It put me off opening any other presents.

So what was the worst present you received as a child?

My parents got me shampoo for my 18th birthday. It wasn't special shampoo, just supermarket own brand.

I remember getting a pair of curtains for my bedroom for Christmas. I was about 7.

OMG, me too. Along with matching bedding. It was my main present. I was devastated, mostly because it made me realise that the magic of Santa wasn't real. I think I was 8 or 9.

Thank goodness for loving grandparents who always tried to make up for it.

My parents brought me an extension lead cable for my birthday which was 4 days after Christmas, they brought me a tv and video player for Christmas, so told me i could have the cable for my birthday

Barbies/My Little Ponies - birthday party presents from children at school (or rather their well-meaning parents). I hated anything girly with a passion, they went straight to the charity shop every time. I was (and probably an ungrateful little shit!).

A blackboard and easel.

If only my ten year old self had had the foresight to chalk the words “Fuck You!” on it. 😂

Brilliant thread, thank you OP!

I would say the year me and DB got a game console as a "shared" present. I had no interest, never played it and it was my "main" present so I didn't receive much else.

Every year I would ask my mother for vouchers to buy clothes. Our parents didn't buy us clothing during the year so I would get vouchers from grandparents etc and would buy all clothing for the year (even underwear and socks). Every year my mother would buy me clothing she liked for the sale rail of shops I would never set foot in. I would try to be grateful but I knew I would never wear any of it. It was awful and then she would be annoyed that I never wore any of it.

A toothbrush (just a plain ordinary toothbrush) and a small round bar of soap that might have been free in a hotel in the 90s when I was 8 or 9 by my Mum’s best friend. My Mum had got her daughter a lovely gift and they weren’t badly off. Even if they didn’t want to spend much, a pack of stickers or a bag of sweets was surely more appropriate.

A bag of microfibre cloths and a feather duster as a teenager from an older relative who hated me. It was very embarrassing opening it in front of all my family on Christmas Day when my gift was so obviously different and it was intentionally given to see my reaction and how I dealt with it. My “ah thank you so much, these will come in useful” was met by a sickly sweet “well I know how much you LOVE cleaning” and the rest of the family awkwardly watching and not knowing where to look! She also gave me a toothbrush one year. I must look like a “toothbrush” person.

At the age of 10 I received a kit to make a hanging scented thing to put in the wardrobe.

Except it had already been sewn by the giver. At 10 years old I was more than capable of putting it together myself. The remaining bits of the kit were also included in the 'gift' (all the offcuts and so on).

Bedroom furniture was the worst present by far.

A toothbrush from my Auntie (she has since passed away) however, I am 35 on Saturday and have never had a filling so thanks Auntie!

My DD wanted everything 'Hello Kitty' for Christmas when she was 5. When she found out the truth about Santa aged 8 she told me that I got the Hello Kitty fashion studio so so wrong and how awful it was. This studio she played with all the time. She said yes because she didn't want the elves to feel sad that they made an awful toy. I replied 'so it is ok I feel awful' she said 'yeah now the truth is out about santa I thought I would tell you the truth about the present!'

A used football by my uncles wife for my birthday. It had grass and scratches on it! She was such a cow, she would splash £££ on her friends kids but when it came to us, she wouldn't put any effort in it hence why I haven't seen her in nearly 20 years.

I received one of those pot pourri stuffed dangly things you hook inside your wardrobe as an 8 year old, from an aunt. I didn't really think anything of it but my mum was offended on my behalf and spoke about it for years afterwards calling my aunt a tight arse who must've got it for free somewhere and what was she thinking gifting it to a child?

Ah the Christmas i spent hours looking through a catalogue picking out wonderful goth clothes, i was so excited on christmas day to see piles of clothes filled parcels wrapped under the tree, only to find each one was just some high street item in black not 1 item i had lovingly chosen was there. i was gutted and im still pissed off about it now i think about lol!

One birthday in my pre/early teens (can't remember the exact year as I was so traumatised, but early 80's) my Auntie and Uncle visited and my Auntie, who was a keen home seamstress, brought me fabric, pattern etc to make a body-warmer (she called it a gilet).

She proceeded to sit me down at my Mum's sewing machine and instruct me as I made it up.

On. My. Actual. Birthday!

Needless to say, the thing was worn for the rest of the day then stuffed at the back of a cupboard until I could claim to have grown out of it.

I had no expressed no desire for either a bodywarmer or sewing lessons so this must have been one of my Mum's periodic schemes to get me to take up a hobby other than reading.

(See also asking her French teacher cousin to teach me French and her music teacher cousin to teach me recorder. Over. The. Summer, Holidays).

Scented paper drawer liners from an elderly relative. I was about 6 at the time. Very odd gift but actually my 6 year old self loved them because I thought they were very ‘glamourous’ and grown up

@Greenglassteacup.Was it Avon "Pretty Peach"? I quite liked it when I was young.
My DH and I used to get rather odd presents from my Uncle and his wife; think stainless steel wine goblets etc, things we'd never use. One year we realised why-we received a tartan wash-bag, and inside it had a gift card from someone else. They'd been re-gifting for years!
When I wrote my thank you note I enclosed the tag; they suddenly decided to stop sending presents after that!

Historical Disaster books (Tay Bridge collapse, WW1 transportation train crash at Gretna etc...) from my lovely Great Aunt who was cheery all year round but only spread doom and gloom for Xmas every year.
I was only 6 or 7 when these books became the gift pattern and I was haunted by some of the images but had to suck it up as educational.

A bloody slide rule for my 14th. Admittedly it was necessary for maths at school.

My brother and I have the same birthday, and one year I think I was 12 and him 10 maybe, we both really wanted a guinea pig! Had done all the research, spent months reading books about looking after them etc...

He got a guinea pig, I got this horrible green cardigan! I think I was polite at the time then went upstairs and cried. My mum said something like "oh we thought it was just him that wanted one and you weren't that interested" but I was so upset as it obviously meant they loved him more. She returned the cardigan but I don't even remember if I got a replacement gift!

My DB never has a lot of money but always used to buy my DS lovely books for Christmas. Always tailored to my DS interests.

The first year he met and married his now ex, my DS got 2 Thomas videos (yes, videos, in late naughties) from the charity shop, with tatty corners and torn inserts, complete with 50p sticker she hadn't bothered to remove. DS was 11 at the time.

I was gutted for my DS but he just said "I think DB's wife did the shopping this year" and moved on. I've never brought it up with my DB as I don't want to hurt his feelings and it doesn't matter now as they split not long after.

When I was about 7 a neighbour got me a pincushion. I thanked her politely and put it down and went off to play. After the neighbour left my mother (who had anumber of MH problems at the time) screamed her head off at me for hours (including when she was on the toilet which i remember as the door was half open while she was screaming) what an ungrateful brat I was.

When i was about 16 i went on a school trip abroad and a creepy neighbour came around and gave me a going away gift of a pack of sanitary towels in case they did not have them where i was going (France). Thatw as very

@SonjaMorgan I would say the year me and DB got a game console as a "shared" present. I had no interest, never played it and it was my "main" present so I didn't receive much else.

I feel your pain. When home computers were quite a few idea my older brother campaigned for one but my parents (quite reasonably) said no on the basis that it was very expensive and it wouldn't be fair to buy him a really expensive present and cheap ones for the rest of us. He managed to persuade me and our other sibling to agree to have it as a joint gift but it ended up living in his bedroom and we were never allowed near it.

I also had a lovely but slightly barmy Aunt who had no idea about children so used to buy us gifts that she liked (mainly china figures, things made of lace and pictures of cats) and then asked to see them whenever she visited. She did the same for all the family so whenever she was due to visit Dad pulled boxes of stuff out of the loft to put on display so she wouldn't be upset.

A book on times tables from my Dad, it was way too easy for me and really underlined he didn't know or care what I was up to.

[quote Hesnotlocal]**@SonjaMorgan* I would say the year me and DB got a game console as a "shared" present. I had no interest, never played it and it was my "main" present so I didn't receive much else.*

I feel your pain. When home computers were quite a few idea my older brother campaigned for one but my parents (quite reasonably) said no on the basis that it was very expensive and it wouldn't be fair to buy him a really expensive present and cheap ones for the rest of us. He managed to persuade me and our other sibling to agree to have it as a joint gift but it ended up living in his bedroom and we were never allowed near it.

I also had a lovely but slightly barmy Aunt who had no idea about children so used to buy us gifts that she liked (mainly china figures, things made of lace and pictures of cats) and then asked to see them whenever she visited. She did the same for all the family so whenever she was due to visit Dad pulled boxes of stuff out of the loft to put on display so she wouldn't be upset.[/quote]
Oh yes- the pulling out of things to display to visiting relatives. I remember it well.

My maternal grandmother went through a stage of making crafts. She was quite good at it actually. But one of the things she amde for me was a giant goose egg with the insides blown out, painted pink and decorated with plastic pearls and lace. This was presented on top of a trophy stand and I was told it was a 'faberge egg'.

I had a little spurt of card making at the beginning if lockdown which i planned to distribute to everyone. Then i remembered that faberge egg.