to ask what the worst present you ever had was

[Justforlaughs]

When I first started seeing my now DH, he asked what I wanted for my birthday. I answered "nothing" and I got it! I've also been given a size 10 bikini (when I was a size 16), by a Great Aunt and a hose reel by my MIL. What strange things have you been given?

Same sort of teenager? An abused one?!

i think i have that potato cookbook

Rulebritannia- what the actual fuck??

Flyingspaghettimonster, yours has made me very sad. Who would want to do anything other than spoil a child at Christmas? Hope you have lovely christmases nowadays.

Not as annoying as most on here, but every time my dcs have a birthday / Xmas, my mum will say "oh I don't know what to get x, so just buy something they would like, and I'll give you the money".

Needless to say, she has NEVER given any money for presents. It pisses off my dh no end.

Disclaimer - I have never spent more than £20 on 'Nanny's present'.

Zukie, that's vile :( did your DD realise it was hers?

I have seen dictionaries mentioned numerous times - I would love one! In fact when DH and I were planning our wedding, we agreed that if we had a gift list (we didn't in the end) the first item would be an OED! We bought one last year, of course we often use google on our phones but still the beautiful heavy book does get used a lot (and not just for scrabble :o)

Zukie, what your XH did was nasty behaviour.
.And have some

I once got a pack of diet cards from my mum (52 different slimming meals!), she once gave my husband an Amazon voucher (great, but she had bought it from Amazon.com, not co.uk - they wouldn't exchange it) delivery to the UK cost all but £2 of the amount the voucher was worth. Bless.

I bought myself a set of those - didn't each suit have a different take on diet? I used to read them a lot - it made me feel thinner

It might sound ungrateful but when I was about ?12 I got a dressing table for my bedroom. It was wooden, painted white with glassy top and mirror. All my brothers and sisters got things to play with. (I am the oldest). I thought it was the crappiest gift ever...what 12 year old girl wants furniture for Xmas?

And then there was the set of saucepans from my boyfriend, now husband. Second Xmas together and also fell a month before we were leaving the country for a few years. I think one of my sisters may have them.

SIL gave me, other SIL & MIL washing up brushes for Christmas last year. With the tags on saying 3 for £1.
This year, she's getting a bog brush from us. though MIL vetoed my suggestion of a used one

My best friend got a set of car mats for her 30th birthday from her husband.

DH used to work for Boots, one January somebody brought in a toiletries gift set that he wanted to exchange. Fair enough. DH looked it up on the system and it transpired it hadn't actually been manufactured for 7 years! This man's family had been regifting it annually since then :o

I was promised a congratulations present for my first GCSE result (we took ICT early)... new flooring that I loved (had never had so much as a lick of paint in my room before). Great, very exciting... but I had to pay for it myself.

I thought of this thread yesterday - I was in Victoria station and somebody walked past holding a book called "100 Potato Recipes" :o

I have seen dictionaries mentioned numerous times - I would love one!

Dictionaries are invaluable. But since we are not a family who could ever be accused of having a shortage of reference books (including a whacking great version of the OED) - and PIL knowing this and often commenting unfavourably - they knew that my dcs were already well supplied. And with far better dictionaries than the awful, cheapo versions that they clearly bought at the pound shop. They were deeply passive aggressive were the PIL and nothing ever came without an ill-concealed hidden meaning.

Although to be fair, at least they didn't commit some of the present-giving horrors described on this thread. The used items and out of date food are just eye-watering! As are those rude people who announce they've no use for a present and re-gift it to the original giver!

My husband's granny gave me a retractable duster and demonstrated how it should be used....

Dh uses it sometimes.

That would annoy me too pandemoniaa - my post wasn't meant in a "you're ungrateful if you don't want a dictionary" way BTW, just that I would love one myself! Well, a huge good quality dictionary anyway.

Your PIL sound quite unkind :(

a box of food from my gran when i had a baby (in 2010)....everything was at least 6 months out of date and the oldest was a packet of noodles with a best before of august 1986, ive kept them

when I was about 7 my gran gave me a roasted chicken and a hand-knitted jacket with a lead for my hamster.

maybe not my worst present but probably my weirdest. Hammy wasn't pleased with the bodywarmer either and refused to wear it.

A colonic irrigation.

Husbands gran handed us a gift bag one year that contained an original 70's brown and orange jazzy bath towel and a tin of spam , no joke.
She was losing a bit at the time though, bless her, but very uncomfortable trying not to laugh.