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 uncle bought me a calculator every year. Then when I reached 16, it changed to a pen. Same with my sisters. I've never met a 4 year old that had much use for a calculator tbh. He bought everyone the same presents every year. My mum also got a pen, my dad got a sponge and car wash. One year he switched it up and my dad got a pen and my mum got out of date anti wrinkle cream which admittedly was hilarious.

My parents gave me a home made nylon dressing gown for Christmas one year when I was about 8 or 9.

When I was about 13 my mom bought me a Christmas present. We never had much money and some years we got nothing. So my mom passed me this wrapped box and I was happy for that moment and my moms face was all smiles with pleasure. I unwrapped it and started opening it and in it was this gold knitted sweater with silver tinsel looking stuff in it. All the joy drained from my face, but I did try to hide it. I could see she wasn’t as happy now either....Thinking back on that day; I wish I would of worn the sweater. I wish I would of let her have that moment. I’m 40 now and I realize the thought she put in it. It would of matched my skin tone, my hair, and my eyes beautifully. I was a ungrateful brat back then. I love you mom, Amen

Omg! These are brill...you lot have been very descriptive about the giver, the gifts, and your long ago memory of disappointment. I wish I could think of one, though.

These stories are so disheartening. The common theme is shortage - short of ideas, short of money, short of giving a shit and so on.

Every birthday and Xmas was shit tbh. Never received anything other than a tshirt now and then or pyjamas. One year I got a picture frame, a small one. That was it. Yes we were short of money but also I don't think my mum gave a shit. She could've gone to second hand shops for toys. Or saved throughout the year, she managed to buy other things.

the year there was absolutely nothing under the tree for me. THe same as I am now, i was a very quiet unassuming child and because i hadnt made a big fuss asking for anythign in particular because id have been grateful for ANYTHING, everyone forgot to get me anything. I had to sit while everyone else was unwrapping things from under the tree wondering why no one was passing me any parcels and once everything was unwrapped, my mum was horrified when it dawned on her she'd bought me nothing. of course nothing was open being christmas day so i had to wait until boxing day when she legged it to the shops to get me some things. I still get upset sometimes when i think about how easy it was to forget me

My grandparents once got me a pack of knickers. I was embarrassed opening it in front of my male cousin.
But generally I was a very spoilt child and that was a one off :)

@OneNightTimeMenaceStrikesBack that's awful! How old were you? I can't get my head around how your parents wouldn't notice when wrapping. Perhaps they had something specific in mind and forgot they hadn't got it. How many siblings do you have?

And you too @imsofuckingtired, that sucks.

My grandma crocheted me a brown chenille beret.....I was about 8..

When I was 7 Santa brought me a top of the range Scalextrix track with flashy cars.
I was the girliest girl you can imagine, with absolutely no interest in remote controlled cars and all I had asked for was a Tiny Tears dolly.
My dad and my grandad spent the whole of Christmas Day setting up and playing with the bloody thing and I was barely even allowed to have a go in case I broke it
It was only years later that I realised that they had actually brought it for themselves and disguised it as a present for me. I also realised that my dad had probably always been a bit disappointed that he had a daughter instead of a son 😞

From my brother on my 18th birthday: norovirus

From my then-H: a MacBook Pro. That sounds like a great present if you don't know the background, which was that he kept me so short of money that I scraped to feed us all and adequately clothe myself, while spending ££££ on designer gear for himself. He liked to give me crap 'presents' when no one was there to see and expect me to be grateful or I'd be in for days of sulking. If someone was going to be there - my parents for the MacBook incident - then he'd get me something flashy and bask in the compliments of how generous he was.

Christmas the year I divorced exH: nothing. We do a one present each secret Santa in my family and my secret Santa had forgotten to get anything. It had been such an awful, horrible year and I really could have done with a lovely, thoughtful present.

Mostly though, I've been very lucky and had great presents, so the few that haven't been stand out.

@user68634 im one of 7 so i can sort of see how it happened i suppose. it was still awful to sit there havign tro swallow tears and tell everyone else how nice their presents were

Wow to the poster which was forgotten! How extraordinary, did you come from a massive family?.. How can a parent, whose usually functioning ie not a drug addict.. M forgot their child!!

Some one sparked a powder puff revery earlier. They were all the rage at some pont I was memorised by mine it felt so grown up!

X post.. One of 7....still!!!

For my 12th or 13th birthday, from my mums mother, who openly disliked girls
This type of 'lovely' smocked dress in an eye jarring bright pink & orange tartan...

We weren’t well off growing up. My dad worked overtime for two months to get my brother an Atari computer. They had told him they couldn’t afford him so it was a brilliant surprise for him. The problem was that we took a turn each year getting a ‘big’ present so the next year was my turn....no he got a colour tv as he was using a small black and white set for his computer. The year after ‘big’ presents stopped and we got cash..,I can’t remember what it was I wanted the year he got the tv but I was upset.

not a gift really but we were on holiday in Portugal or somewhere and we begged for a euro got the toy machine with the toys inside a plastic ball. when we brought the toy ball back to the table and opened it (infromt of our parents) it turned out there was a thong inside!
us kids were so upset and embarrassed.
the worst part was I found them in my parents underwear drawer 10 years later!

Hahahalol! I thought of one!
It's not that it was the worse present I ever got, but my reaction to it.
I was 13 and a boy in my grade handed me a wrapped package on the last day of school before Christmas Holidays....I was sooo terribly shy and it embarrassed me because everyone else knew he was going to give it me and all were watching to see what my reaction was going to be.... when he handed it to me , I just stood there with my eyes bugging out and was struck mute.
I can't even remember if I opened it up then or when I got home, but I was so embarrassed I didn't even tell my DSis or DPs about it. Worst part was...I LOVED the gift! It was a bottle of Avon perfume shaped like a bell that you could actually pick up and give a little jingle. The fragrance was nice, also, but it was that bell part that I found fascinating! I kept it up in my DPs loft for about 50 years and just recently finally threw it away.
I feel so bad for my horrendous reaction when I think of how he and his mum had planned the whole thing for me and I was too shy to tell him I loved it! Probably because I had never even spoken one word to the poor guy in the entire time we had been in class together...but still...I bet my name was mud in his household when he told his mum my reaction...I may have just put him off gift giving altogether!

One Christmas when I was probably about 9 or 10, I had been begging and pleading for an electronic Casio keyboard. Cut pictures out of the Argos catalogue, wrote begging letters to Santa bla bla bla.
Anyway, Christmas Day arrived and there was a very promising looking rectangular present with my name on it. I was SO excited. I saved it until last and then slowly and hopefully unwrapped it.

It was the Game of Life.

I went and hid so my parents wouldn't know I was upset, and absolutely sobbed my heart out.

@WhatKatyDidNxt

A roll of wrapping paper. Auntie thought it was a poster

nearly woke the kids up reading that!

From my then church, a smellies set. I was only about 7/8. It upsets me to think about it even years later as we were neglected as kids and always bullied because, 'You smell!'

I can't remember my age at the time, 12 perhaps? I'm not sure, anyway one Christmas I opened a gift from an aunt and I was disgusted and puzzled. I asked my mum what it was. She chuckled and informed me that it was an underskirt. I said what on earth do I want with an underskirt. I never more skirts etc. My mum said not to worry it will be disposed of which I think meant she would give it away. I'm

Personalised note paper. Which was my name and address, in Comic Sans, at the top of about fifty sheets of A4 printer paper.
They were rich as Croesus, as well.