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Original poster

What's the worst gift you e ever had?

148 replies

kwetu · 22/08/2023 09:41

I've got a couple of examples, for our 20th wedding anniversary my husband bought me a toilet brush (admittedly it was one that I'd been seeking for a while, but really!).
Many years ago I was in hospital (gallstones) and my get well gift was a massive book of 1001 recipe ideas, I tried not to take offence but once again....really?
Would love to hear of anyone else's gift fails.
Lighthearted.

OP posts:
WinterWitchy · 22/08/2023 23:06

A petrol strimmer! He’s an ex for a reason….

La Senza thongs and a weather owl from my mother. Why she bought me thongs and a weather owl is still a mystery!

MercedesD · 22/08/2023 23:12

Me and my partner had separated after my second son was born for a while and I was staying at my brothers. Partner was trying to get back into my hood books. Bought me an electric toothbrush for Christmas… I had mentioned that I’d like one once when the advert came on but really didn’t mean as a Christmas present to try to make amends.

another year is asked for some flat, brown leather cheek that boots. Instead I got black suede heeled ones. Wanted them
for everyday. Obviously couldn’t use them for that…

WhatAPalaverer · 22/08/2023 23:19

Laundry basket from “d”h one year for Christmas. He rapidly learnt that presents for the household are not presents to give just to me- I am not the default laundry/cooking/cleaning fairy.

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Scramblelina · 22/08/2023 23:24

My father visited from abroad and gave me a portable bidet…

ISeeARedDoorAndIWantToBreakIn · 22/08/2023 23:29
  • a cookbook with the words “meat feasts” in the title when I had been vegetarian for over 10 years by that point.
  • tickets to a well known theme parks that has lots of rollercoasters and fast rides, when I had been suffering pain from a car crash for about two years by that point
  • a dressing gown in a colour I am known for hating. I must have looked surprised as I unwrapped it, as the giver said “I know you don’t like blue but they didn’t have any other dressing gowns in your size.” So you deliberately bought me a present you knew I wouldn’t like, rather than buying literally any other present from that department store?
TheFormidableMrsC · 22/08/2023 23:29

I got a book about somebody dying of cancer when I had just lost my mum to cancer 🙄

HollieHobbie · 22/08/2023 23:36

A book "101 uses for a dead cat" to cheer me up when my cat died. From my then boyfriend. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Joeylove88 · 22/08/2023 23:38

A bunch of plastic glittery unattractive flowers for Christmas from a friend. We were in our 20's. I had to pretend I liked the gift and pose for a photo with them.

Longingforthesummer · 22/08/2023 23:38

Our first Christmas together DH bought me a hoover.

Peajee · 22/08/2023 23:42

My brother once gave me a giant paper mache bunny that he got from the school Christmas fayre, to be fair though he must have been 8 or 9 at the time and it was the first Christmas present he bought me so I tend to remember it fondly.

My exMIL and SIL one Christmas both gave me the same scarf in different colours. I thought it was a strange coincidence until I saw that they were buy one get one free in the shop they were from. The next year they did the same thing with gloves. Thing is I thought they were nice and that we got on well but there's things like that that I think back to and wonder, "what the hell was that?!"

DrMadelineMaxwell · 22/08/2023 23:45

I got a twin clock/picture frame thing from dsis. It was clearly from a charity shop but that didn't bother me.

What bothered me more was....

It was ugly.
It was cracked and broken in one corner.
And it was engraved with some bloke's name because it was his long employment gift for working at Shell Oil.

Greensleeves · 22/08/2023 23:50

An acid green and hot pink sponge bag stuffed full of little toiletry samples, disposable toothbrushes and perfume samples saved from magazines. Thanks, MIL. We all know you're a millionaire Grin

IHateLegDay · 22/08/2023 23:53

A Gareth Gates book and an orange spandex and crop top with matching flares that had glitter fireworks on.
Both gifts were given to me at the same time by my nan when I was about 13.
They were not jokes presents.

I pretended to like the outfit so I wouldn't hurt my nan's feelings (my mum made me put it on and tried so hard not to laugh) that she got me the same outfit but in purple for Christmas.

Also, I hated Gareth Gates.

shieldmaiden7 · 22/08/2023 23:55

Poundland screen cleaner that had leaked so there was only half a bottle left if that.

AdoraBell · 22/08/2023 23:56

Frilly knickers from MIL.

Peachyscream · 22/08/2023 23:58

Housewarming gifts-
A set of knives - used
A chocolate fountain, also used and not cleaned...

OhLookIveChangedMyNameAgain · 23/08/2023 00:00

It’s a toss up between fingerless gloves in a poo brown colour from sister-in-law and a useless £1 (the price was still on it and it was my only present) umbrella from MIL. My in-laws hate me!

cherryassam · 23/08/2023 00:04

An ExBF’s parents got me train tickets for my birthday one year to be able to spend Christmas at their house.

I was 19, we’d been going out for less than 3 months and I had zero intention of spending Christmas with them. The tickets didn’t even leave from the town I was living in but the town he went to university in.

We’d broken up long before Christmas and I gave him the train tickets back.

I hadn’t expected any gift from them - they weren’t given to me by them directly but instead via the then boyfriend. All very odd.

CallistaFlockfart · 23/08/2023 00:07

It's either

  1. a brown check nylon overall
  2. a brown plastic fake tree branch cuckoo clock
BasiliskStare · 23/08/2023 00:08

A print of a tree with sparkles on it in a box frame . Nothing about it was my taste and this person has been to my house. I appreciated the effort but the person had put my name in it. My name was spelled wrongly. Sounds ungrateful , but it came out of its Christmas wrapping and straight in the bin. I do feel slightly guilty but with a tiny house there was no where I could stick it. Given it had a name on it I didn't think I could even given it to a charity shop

SpaceRaiders · 23/08/2023 00:10

A plastic hanger from now ex mil. The previous year it was another set, only these were kind of fabric padded ones with twee writing on.

Dd1 got a sure roll on deodorant for her 11th birthday from her dad last year. Dd2 seemingly always gets jigsaw puzzles aimed at pre-schoolers. She’s 9 FFS.

It’s the lack of thought that’s especially grating. They rarely ask for much but for them to spend time writing a small birthday or Christmas list then to not a single item off said list but instead get stuff they neither want nor need which just ends up being donated to charity is pretty poor. They no longer ask him for anything, he’s oblivious of the impact it’ll undoubtedly have on their relationship long term.

becarefulofyourheart · 23/08/2023 00:15

A few Christmas mornings ago I found under the tree a beautiful white Dior gift bag with something heavy and probably made of glass nestling in the matching watermarked tissue - bottle of budget TK Maxx chilli oil. Thanks, MIL!

Aged fifteen, from my father, I got an XXL towelling bathrobe from a fire-sale. It was my main Christmas present (also, I was a size 10, so wearing it felt like giving a piggyback to a damp carpet). We were not skint as a family, but the following year he bought me an XXL Pringle jumper in tomato red (I was into grunge, wore plaid and DMs)

My DB (20) who had laughed til
he wept at the bathrobe, intercepted it by saying said he loved it so much he needed it instead. So DF let DB buy it off him (WTF) and I got the money. I was very touched. My brother still guffaws at the memory of my teenage Christmas presents.

OhLookIveChangedMyNameAgain · 23/08/2023 00:15

I just thought of 2 presents my DC received - a used notepad with a coffee cup stain on it and a sticker book obviously from a charity shop with most of the stickers missing from it! You do wonder what goes through peoples minds sometimes when they give presents like that.

KMA2023 · 23/08/2023 00:16

From my in-laws who hated me (feeling was mutual) in my twenties.

A really ugly, multi chevron pattern headscarf.
A bottle of Poison perfume, think they only bought it for the name haha.
The creepiest was a cream, silky set of french knickers and camisole. I was 22 and they were in their sixties.

Plus they were notorious for regifting and had shelves of shite with dates and labels to remind them who sent what.

TGGreen · 23/08/2023 00:18

NC for this as it will be outing to anyone who knows me well. MIL spent years sending P/A gifts to me. I collect rarer pieces of a certain pottery (see username) and like muted tones. I've been gifted the most hideous garish Murano glass knock offs, a particularly splendid example being a bright orange and black crab (could pass as a mutant spider too and she knows how much I hate them). It's huge. I have no interest in any form of crustacean, or glass. She's usually a little more subtle. Everyone laughed when I did the usual performance opening on Christmas Day, saying how gross it was; even DH couldn't deny it was given with the intent of upsetting me.
Other notable gifts have been oven cleaner, (the one in the orange box. I'm a neat freak. At least it was useful but it's hardly a Birthday gift). Aldi own brand wrinkle cream on my 40th, size 16 pants (I'm a six), a bright blue and red age 12/13 reindeer onesie and many many awful projects from her pottery class. I could go on and on...
After the crab DH told her I wouldn't be accepting any more gifts. She now gives me vouchers.