What's the worst/strangest gift you've ever received?

[Opals462]

You know those huge advertising posters that are put on bus stops behind the perspex? Today I was gifted one of them, an enormous poster over 6ft tall advertising none other than Mentos, the mints/sweets.

Folded up into a padded postage envelope and addressed to me and my other half.

Gift giver is my eccentric aunt.

I couldn't tell you what her thought process was behind it, but she claimed ownership of it when passing her nearest bus stop and seeing the posters being changed. Apparently I was to be the perfect recipient.

Ironically, my ASD son is obsessed with mentos and we've recently had to ban him having them as he gets too overwhelmed (she doesn't know that though, so it's purely coincidence)

What's the worst/strangest gift you've ever received?

Lingerie from my aunty and uncle when I was a young teen. I opened it in front of them and my entire family including grandparents and young cousins. I was absolutely mortified and wanted the ground to swallow me up. I don't know what on earth they were thinking! My gran asked me to hold up what I'd got for everyone to see too . NOT a great gift for a very much still a child teen who was more interested in horses than clothes!

I opened a gift from my mum one Christmas, it was a drill which was an odd thing but I was gracious. A year later DH opened the drill and instead of a drill, inside the box was a lovely silk TShirt! That was my present! Mum had used the empty drill box to keep it nice

@Themadcatparade

I once received sanitary towels for Christmas. I didn’t even use them. The same year my brother received an advent calendar… on Christmas Day

similar. i was about to go on my gap year and our 60 year old male neighbour (married with children) came over with sanitary napkins for me and presented it with a flourish that made it clear he was expecting to be congratulated for his foresight.

I think my comment was along the lines of 'They get periods in Thailand too'.

I also once was given a bottle of red for a birthday that was half empty and then the giver (my aunt) took it away with her again when she left the party as we had 'not opened it'.

I had an iron for my 18th birthday from a family friend. I'm 40 now and still don't iron!!

My friend, let's call her K, begged me to help her organise her garage as it was a filthy dumping ground. While I was helping her throw stuff out, she found an open, half empty, bottle of champagne from her wedding day about eight years ago.
We were both invited to another friends birthday party and asked to bring a dish for the bbq. Guess what K gave the host? Yep. That same old bottle 🤢

I was gifted a goat for my 16th birthday during breakfast time.

I then did a bit of sight seeing and came back mid afternoon.

I asked to see the goat. Everyone was very pleased looking as they lead me to an outside kitchen. Said goat was being butchered up for a birthday meal treat

Safe to say I wasn't in the UK and this was a highly highly well thought of present. I was treated like a Queen, quite literally!

My Nan once sent me and my sister a pair of those haunted looking China dolls you used to see advertised in the back of Sunday magazine supplements. We were 21 and 27 at the time.

Love the poster though!

My MiL is the queen of dodgy presents! I think she draws names out of a hat for who gets the shit present each year

I once got a pack of pencils for christmas....

Another year I got a very expensive pair of hair straighteners

She's very inconsistent!

A horrible resin skull with a bleeding head wound and a snake coming out of the eye sockets.

There are no words for just how horrible this thing is.

A tartan drummer girl in a clear plastic tube - for a birthday present. The sort of tourist tat you’d buy on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh for £3. She had those doll eyes that close when you tilt them. Helpfully, the gift giver stuck three map pins in her back and a stuck a typed note into the tube saying, “SCOTTISH VOODOO DOLL”.

An ironing board, for christmas, from my then boyfriend. I was 19

We lasted another two weeks

Ive a list, but the top 3 are probably...

The ugly brown, green, burgundy & beige patchwork rabbit fur bomber jacket given to me on my 18th birthday by my DM. I was vegetarian, had been since about 6 & had loved, kept & bred pet rabbits for most of my childhood. Couldn't have been further from my style as a young punk rocker either, even without the dead rabbits🥴

A book of "sexual exercises & weight loss tips for the over 30s" for my 30th birthday. I was fit & very slim at the time. He genuinely thought it useful & not the first time with him either & wonders why he's an ex😂

Many years ago... A blank firing gun from a boyfriend of the time

Though it did make Xmas day spent with friends more memorable 😂. When I opened it at a friends flat on Xmas day, my big hairy assed biker friend grabbed it, thought it was a toy & shot it at his head. The noise shook the whole block of flats & our usually very noisy friend was very quiet after that. Will never forget the expression on his face. Nor his paranoia that the police would be knocking any minute 😂

Size 20 white broderie anglaise French knickers (I’m a 6-8) and clothes hangers with nylon crocheted covers decorated with plastic pearls glued on.

When I was 13 and newly installed at boarding school I opened my birthday present from my mum to find...a subscription to BBC wildlife magazine. I was particularly interested in wildlife and my schoolmates weren’t v impressed by the gift!

And when my daughter was born my mum presented a tatty carrier bag of charity shop baby clothes - nothing against charity shops of course but these were bobbled sleepsuits and things where I’d be given a much nicer new version by others g(eg a white wool cardigan). Had to look suitably grateful!

I was given a pair of souvenir ornamental slippers with 'Rhyl' on one xmas by an auntie who never bought presents for me . They were covered in dust and went promptly in the bin.

@ACPC

I opened a gift from my mum one Christmas, it was a drill which was an odd thing but I was gracious. A year later DH opened the drill and instead of a drill, inside the box was a lovely silk TShirt! That was my present! Mum had used the empty drill box to keep it nice

Did the weight of the box not give it away that it wasn’t a drill?

I got a packet of dumpling mix off of my MIL

Ex mil bought my then 4 year old daughter a second hand adult sized baseball glove.
She had no interest in baseball, was far too tiny for the glove and just looked at me bemused when it arrived by parcel force.
Wouldnt have minded, but she's very wealthy and could easily have afforded something new and more suitable.

A Primark bath mat. At a Christmas I was hosting, and had paid for all the food, drink and merriment for 3 days.

@Chicchicchicchiclana

My step mother and father gave me an egg poaching pan and a CD of whale music for my 40th birthday.

This made me cackle! It's something my dad would do.

@Chicchicchicchiclana Please tell me you've used them simultaneously (even better if while they were visiting).

I'm loving these. What goes through people's minds I'll never know

From my MIL, a box of soaps decorated with transfers of mountain views.

The next time she visited she asked to see them, as "they were so pretty". I had to admit that I'd used them. She was horrified, saying she thought I would have kept them to enjoy the beautiful views!

DH once got a black, nylon balaclava. The type with just the eyes visible and used to rob a bank!

A very cheap, nylon jacket with charity shop label inside!

A thin, neon orange, nylon carrier bag with the logo from the gift givers company. She gets them free!

DH has an allergy to nylon and synthetics so certainly would never be seen wearing the jacket, balaclava and carrier bag!

DH and I got a joint gift of hot chocolate (which was clearly stolen from the givers workplace) decanted into an old coffee jar, with one very old dusty mug to share.

After 'giving' mil a dgd after 6 dgs's she told me my gift was in the car..
Not grabby honestly....
It was a Tefal frying pan!!
Guess where I wanted to swing it?