What was the shittest present you ever received?

[BrightonOrLancaster]

Christmas I was 13, got a lacy training bra from an aunt I wasnt close to. WTF? I had to open it in front of family, was fucking mortified.

Birthday present from ex: dumbbells with flashing colour changing lights from ALDI. Lol. No comment

A Martine McCutcheon workout DVD from an ex boyfriend who admitted he very much fancied Martine McCutcheon.

A gothic cat top that was ripped and looked like it was more suited to an edgey 7 year old. I hate cats.

@randomchap

A famous five book; Five Go Down to the Sea

When I was 19.

It was from a rather distant uncle. I still read it out of politeness

My grandma gives me these even now. I think I have the full set. I read them then pack them away. I had them all when I was younger and keep them out of pure nostalgia.

See also sweet valley high.

Three thermal vests and a box of rose fertiliser. From DP, when we lived in a flat with no garden

I also got a lacy bra as a present from my aunt when I was teenager. She lived over the other side of the world and hadn't seen me for years so a weird choice of present. It was huge and forty years later I still haven't grown into it!

My XH gave me hints about my 30th present, leading up to telling me it was alive. I thought it was a kitten and was very excited. It was a bloody bonsai.

Never personally had a shitty present (its the thought that counts) but once my 8yo DD got a set of Bunny Girl jeans and t-shirt from MiL.... they went straight in the bin and i told MiL never get her crap like that again.

For my 30th from my MIL. An ashtray. Also from MIL an oven glove with a hole in the end. Also from MIL a set of 4 glasses with one removed. 🙄 used to piss DH right off because she would phone him with what she wanted present wise... nothing ever under £40.

Bruce Springsteen album from a so called good friend. I just looked perplexed when I opened it and she said ‘What?! I thought you LOVED Bruce Springsteen!?!’ I’d never ever even listened to any of his music. But the part that makes this the worst gift ever was the fact she had forgotten she had written a note in the album cover to another friend who she had recently stopped being friends with… 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I didn’t ever mention that to her!! No longer friends. Countless other idiotic moments.

Half a scarf.

My Ex gave me a rape alarm for my 30th.... pretty sure it was a petrol station present. Nice to feel loved on your special birthday when you've worked a night shift and are due back in to work later than day.

My MIL bought me a chest freezer for Christmas but declared that my house was too small for it so she offered to look after it for me. About 2 years later we swapped houses (another story) and low and behold the freezer now fitted. I still wonder if it was the freezer that shrunk or the house that grew.

@SpindlesAdventWhirl

My mother would often buy me something she wanted herself, wrap it, and then after I'd opened it take it back saying that it was 'too good' for me.

As we only got one present and a few sweets and orange/walnut, this was a bit of a blow.

But what teenager really needs a carriage clock for their mantlepiece?

My Aunt once bought me a carriage clock ( I was also a teenager) and she promptly told me that she had bought my sister a better one. She had, my sisters is probably for a jewellers shop or similar, mine, possibly a chemist. My sister still has hers, it’s rather nice.

My mother had experienced ongoing issues with her brand new oven from a well known and usually great quality high street store. Eventually DH took it on for her and wrote to them on her behalf expressing her dissatisfaction with their after sales service. Everything got sorted and they sent her £50 in gift vouchers as a gesture of goodwill.

The following month was my birthday so Mother sent the self same vouchers to me, enclosing a note telling me she had decided to buy them so I could get myself what I wanted. She was genuinely puzzled why I wasn’t grateful. She didn’t get it that a bar of scented soap chosen by her would have really have meant something rather than passing off some free vouchers that had saved her making any effort.

My MIL once bought an electronic blackhead remover from Betterware for my DD’s 14th birthday! Luckily, we can laugh about it now but I remember DDs shocked look when she opened the parcel.

An engraved wine box with no wine in it. To be fair, I think the giver sent it direct to me assuming the wine would be included- it wasn't.
Also, as a teen, a used diary (the "dentist at 4pm" kind rather than the juicy gossip kind) from an aunt who never liked me...

An ex once got me a pandora charm for valentines day, very thoughtful.

But i opened the pandora box and it was empty 😂😂 the sales person forgot to put the charm in the gift wrapped box.
Not really an awful present but still makes me laugh.

My dad also once got me fluffy dice that you put in your car.
I was 14 and didnt have a car.

From DM on my 18th (to go with the £100 she also gave me): A bottle of Vidal Sassoon Wash & Go - she thought it would be a 'nice surprise', a bottle of the same shampoo that I bought myself all the time anyway. She is not a great present giver - recently she bought me some gin-filled chocolates which were absolutely vile, and some tacky fridge magnets which I couldn't use even if I wanted to as our fridge is built inside a cupboard!

From my first boyfriend, for Valentine’s Day: a dictionary.

Like the fool I was, I stayed with him for another two years!

@thetaleunfolds

I’ve had a fair few presents which have made me raise my eyebrow. One elderly family friend has always bought me things like coat hangers, scented drawer lines, pot pourri etc but it is just a gesture and the thought that counts

We have one family member well known for buying the oddest presents every year so we all wait eagerly to see what she’s given people 😂. Nose hair trimmers shaped like potatoes, random ornaments for the garden (when the recipient lived in a flat so didn’t even have a garden!) and for my DDs first birthday, clothes aged 4-5 that I could apparently keep until they fitted her. She’s so proud to give what she does but just always misses the mark

My ex h never bought me anything. 10 years together and not a single Christmas or birthday gift, bar one year where my birthday gift was an engagement ring. To this day I’m sure he only proposed to have a gift for me. He always had excuses why there was no gift, or promises of a dinner or trip in lieu which never materialised. I’m not sure why I stayed with him as long as I did

I’m not a good gift giver myself though so I cut people slack! I remember one year when I was living in the US as a teen I came home and brought my mum a gift of measuring cups. Not Christmas or birthday, just a gift. In my head they were a good gift - this was pre internet days and she was into baking and had been commenting on how she never understood the American measurements in some of her recipe books as cups weren’t known here at the time. So I thought this set would be ideal for her to bake her cakes and try recipes from her books she’d not been able to before. She hated them. Shouted at 19 year old me that after all she’s done for me over the years THAT was what I gave her? And threw them across the room.

Ever since, gift giving has caused me so much anxiety. I hate Christmas and birthday shopping now because I know I never get it right. And she’s not even a good gift giver herself - I can flat out tell her not to buy me something and why I don’t want it and she was go out and buy it 🤷🏼‍♀️

That made me very sad.

I love to bake and even with the internet available now for conversions, I think that your gift was so very thoughtful.

Your mother should have appreciated it for all the thought you put in xx

My BIL gave me a blanket for a wedding present ( he owned a drapers shop) with “ slight seconds “written across the packaging . It had a large hole in the middle of the blanket .
I started a new job for a charity.After a couple of weeks a colleague who I had only met once had a special birthday . I was asked to contribute. I gave all the money I had ( pounds not pennies) which was quite a lot as it was years ago. They bought her silk pyjamas and perfume. On my birthday they gave me a dead miniature rose with the label of a local garage still on it -99pence ! I would rather have had nothing !
Oddly enough the best present I ever had sounds awful on paper but I was 12 and loved it . My grandmother ( who was not well off) gave me one of those shoe store things that have sections and hang over the door. In each section she had wrapped up sample shampoos and face cream , tiny samples of perfume , a comb , socks , tights, notebook, pen, scarf . Chocolate , Everything was wrapped separately. I loved it .

Thick, useless, tea towels from my Aunt, my OH got a bottle of whisky.
A Terry's chocolate orange for my 50th from OH, who knew I loathe them, it was the only time I've ever commented on his inability to choose presents for anyone. For my 60th I got an expensive SLR digital camera so he had been listening!
My mother's lovely neighbour always gave me a bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream sherry at Christmas, 'because I know you like it', don't know why she thought that but I never said anythong other than Thank you.

A plaster mini Greek village sculpture a boyfriend gave me, I think he pinched it from his mom. I chucked it in the bin, no way was I carting that in my luggage. Also wall mirror with fake crystals around it. Super cheap looking. Suited the person who gave it to me, but not mi style at all. Was a wedding present. I resented the first one much more and now I would have said it was awful and waited for his excuse, put him on the spot. I was way too nice.

Girlfriend in a coma single by the smiths. When I was 20 from my then boyfriend

@DorothyZbornakIsAQueen

I once got a fridge magnet off an in-law, with a poem on about a donkey threatening to kill me.

That was strange. I still have it for some reason.

Please add a pic of the donkey magnet, it sounds so odd!