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Original poster

The shit Christmas presents of 22 thread.

721 replies

ChristmasPresentsof22 · 25/12/2022 17:10

Another year, another round of presents from family that I cannot use. I have a serious food allergy and another health condition that means that I can't eat or use some foods/cosmetics. These are not new health issues, had them since childhood, yet there is not a single gift out of the few that I received that I can make use of. I decided to be blunt this year (after years of unsuaitable gifts) and tell the givers that I can't use their gifts due allergy etc but thanks anyway. Now I'm an ungracious brat. Am I? "It's not their fault I'm fussy." I'm really not, I just don't want to get sick. I would prefer not to do the gift thing as I'm not overly bothered about that part of Christmas, but I would be ruining it for everyone else, everyone else who gets decent thoughtful presents based on knowing what they like, it's shit when those thoughts are not reciprocated.

Anyone else want to join the naff presents club.

OP posts:
walnutmarzipan · 26/12/2022 23:49

MIL got me 3 packs of Compeed cold sore patches

JustKittenAround · 27/12/2022 00:14

ThomasHardyPerennial · 25/12/2022 21:57

I mentioned it to my DH (she is his sister), and he said she must just think I like napkins. It is really odd, but I am laughing about it!

She is really rude when she receives presents she doesn't like, so maybe I need to take a leaf out of her book and be the same about these bizarre napkins.

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I just can’t wrap my head around it.

So you think the first time you got them you acted “too” polite. Gave her the idea that paper napkins were your thing? I wonder if you even being polite made her think that because she is so rude when she gets a gift she doesn’t like…

still doesn’t answer the question as to why paper napkins were given the first time….

So I’m in the US and come from a pretty direct family. If my sister gave my partner a gift like that, I’d talk to her. Because it shames her and our family while also possibly making my partner feel bad about the crappy gift received. Is that something that can be done?

probably not even worth it but I just can’t for the life of me figure out how you got such a crazy gift twice. I just can’t. If I were your partner I’d be so embarrassed for my sister. Like WTH?!?

You are taking it so well, but wow.

If you want to shade her then get her a box of blank thank you notes. Lol Again, I just can’t make sense of paper napkins as a gift… I’m haunted.

Babooshka1990 · 27/12/2022 00:25

My Mum bought me a plastic glittery light up oil diffuser, in the shape of a clam. I don’t know how to describe it fully, it’s the tackiest thing I’ve ever seen. It changes colours! I don’t have anything glittery in my house or ocean-themed.

I’m glad I bought myself a present this year (velvetiser)

Babooshka1990 · 27/12/2022 00:26

Just looked again and it actually isn’t a diffuser. Just a weird lamp.

notafruit · 27/12/2022 00:43

My youngest DS got a voucher for the local cinema from my BIL/SIL. Not a terrible present in itself, but if BIL/SIL took the slightest interest in their nephews they would know that eldest DS works at the local cinema. He's allowed to let us all in for free. (And we can have free tea/coffee popcorn and a discount on everything else).

JustKittenAround · 27/12/2022 00:43

CarrieMoonbeams · 26/12/2022 12:53

My mum died in the summer. I didn't feel like hosting on Christmas Day, so we have my PIL round today. They've gone for a walk just now to let DH and I sort out the food.

My gift from them was a box of Ferrero Rocher, which were my late mum's absolutely favourite chocolates ever, so much so that I have to look away if I'm walking past a display of them in a supermarket because it's too painful a reminder. I thought PIL were trying to make a nice - but misguided - gesture in buying me something that would remind me of my mum (although I was thinking "oof, too soon" 😢), but MIL said that she'd bought them for my mum and it seemed a shame to let them go to waste 😲.

So, not only a gift that would upset me but it's also an out of date gift because my mum died in July and these are BBE October. Oh and I'm vegan anyway ☹️

I thanked them politely but DH was furious. He looked like he was just about to say something about how thoughtless and upsetting it was, but I gave him "the look", so he didn't say anything.

He got a pair of women's gloves and a box of jelly babies. He's diabetic, and has been for over 20 years.

We didn't say anything because they're in their 80s and they really wouldn't have meant to be unkind, but seriously, I did not need that ☹️. We're thinking that both of them are starting to show early signs of dementia, but that's a conversation for another day.

if you believe this please do what you can to have them be evaluated. There are cheap generic drugs that will help slow the progression and it does seem like they are losing faculties.

have this conversation with their children present because it sounds like it. The lack of empathy and those higher order thinking traits seem to be lost.

I don’t mean to put this on you but it’s time to really check up on them and have everyone on the same page. Decline has a trajectory and the earlier the intervention the better that decline trajectory line.

my condolences for the loss of your mother.

Tattyoldted · 27/12/2022 01:10

I got some great gifts this year, I also got a pack of disposable glass cleaning wipes.

CarrieMoonbeams · 27/12/2022 02:29

JustKittenAround · 27/12/2022 00:43

if you believe this please do what you can to have them be evaluated. There are cheap generic drugs that will help slow the progression and it does seem like they are losing faculties.

have this conversation with their children present because it sounds like it. The lack of empathy and those higher order thinking traits seem to be lost.

I don’t mean to put this on you but it’s time to really check up on them and have everyone on the same page. Decline has a trajectory and the earlier the intervention the better that decline trajectory line.

my condolences for the loss of your mother.

Show quote history

Thank you for taking the time to reply and for your condolences.

Sadly, the reason we're very alert to the possibility is that that is what my mum died of. By the time she got her diagnosis (and was prescribed the medication) it was far too late for her and she died within months.

DH, BIL, SIL and I have had a conversation already this evening as my adult nephew got a bizarre Christmas present too, which they'd obviously had for years ☹️. We will definitely broach it with PIL. Luckily, they have both types of POA in place already.

It's an absolute bastard of a disease.

Baycitystroller · 27/12/2022 02:30

Present buying is a minefield. If you’re going to be disappointed ask for something specific or don’t do it. Simple. It’s not the law that you have to exchange gifts! Causes so much angst.

Not everyone is good at this stuff.

sashh · 27/12/2022 04:32

BigBadBun · 26/12/2022 14:36

My husband is, of course, colourblind.

Maybe I should meet up with your DH, I can tell him the colours and he can colour in.

You might not have seen my earlier post about my arthritis and inability to do things with my hands, and my brother buying me one of those books.

Mamma2017 · 27/12/2022 05:03

JosephFrancis · 25/12/2022 22:50

My husband decided we had agreed we would not buy each other gifts. We had not agreed this, we had suggested it but then decided not to buy for extended family so that we could afford to spend on each other without overstretching. He, if his version is to be believed, immediately forgot the conversations and only remembered the one fleeting suggestion prior, which is that we were not buying for one another. Despite telling me things he wanted for Xmas. Despite me telling him I had bought him things and not to snoop in the cupboard. For some reason he still felt as if he was exempt from buying me anything.

Anyway, Christmas morning rolls around, he has a stack of well thought out and quite pricey presents from me and dashes out to his car to grab me an unwrapped TV series calendar (watched it a few years ago, never bothered with the newer seasons- it's ok, I don't exactly love it though and I don't get why I've got the bloody calendar now) and a quality street chocolate bar which I hate. These are gifts he was intending to present me with as a triumphant "I couldn't see you with nothing" gesture. But actually, they're all I got for Christmas, handed to me still damp from his horrible condensation car, while I watched everyone else unwrap all their carefully selected (exclusively by me) gifts. And then I went to toil in the kitchen for hours on end.

Oh that’s so crap. I’m so sorry to hear this! I hope you pulled him up on this? Awful.
Hugs xxx

MistyRock · 27/12/2022 06:06

sashh · 26/12/2022 02:22

My brother did quite well this year, an electric corkscrew.

But you are right, it's the thoughtlessness. And I find it stressful wondering what he will get me.

I don't even celebrate it so I'm quite happy with nothing.

I'm also really easy to buy for, I have worn the same perfume for about 30 years. I drink red wine, love the occasional port and love my kindle.

I have arthritis in virtually every joint in my body, it is psoriatic so affects my skin and some times my eyes. My kindle means I don't need to hold a heavy book, I can change the font (I'm also dyslexic). My arthritis means I'm permanently disabled and the DSS report said, "No realistic possibility of work".

I used to love doing arts and crafts.

So over the years my brother has bought me

Books, heavy books.
A Ukulele.
A colouring book and pencils.
Fimo.

It's like he sits down and thinks, "What did my sister used to enjoy but she can't do now?"

And it all comes from Amazon. Oh I have a wish list on Amazon.

Anyway, this year he got a book from me, this one

www.amazon.co.uk/Prick-Succulents-Choosing-Styling-Caring/dp/1784723673

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🤣 That book is an amazing present. You've really done well with that one. 😂

labazslovesliving · 27/12/2022 07:49

Probably not applicable but i sell annd use paper napkins for decoupage??

Sierra259 · 27/12/2022 08:22

Baycitystroller · 27/12/2022 02:30

Present buying is a minefield. If you’re going to be disappointed ask for something specific or don’t do it. Simple. It’s not the law that you have to exchange gifts! Causes so much angst.

Not everyone is good at this stuff.

Absolutely! But that makes it even more frustrating when you have suggested something specific and are ignored and presented with something you don't want/need/can't use. Even more so when it's obvious that it's a last-minute gift purchased as a token gesture just so there's something to be unwrapped. It's the lack of effort/thought that's hurtful.

NippyWoowoo · 27/12/2022 09:36

Bestcatmum · 26/12/2022 23:24

Every single year without fail some pissed off member of staff leaves a capsule coffee machine in one of the clinics for everyone to use if they can a) be arsed or b) buy capsules.
It's obviously an unwanted gift as the whole hospital is full of them now.

That's interesting. You buy capsules in the same aisle you buy the (I'm assuming instant) coffee so I don't see why that would be the reason to not want it.

NippyWoowoo · 27/12/2022 09:38

Babooshka1990 · 27/12/2022 00:25

My Mum bought me a plastic glittery light up oil diffuser, in the shape of a clam. I don’t know how to describe it fully, it’s the tackiest thing I’ve ever seen. It changes colours! I don’t have anything glittery in my house or ocean-themed.

I’m glad I bought myself a present this year (velvetiser)

Oh god I know exactly what you're talking about, there's been a kiosk that popped up at my local shopping centre for the season, the whole thing is glittery and glowing!

It's the worst thing I've seen in my life but shockingly there's always a queue Confused

Simonjt · 27/12/2022 09:43

NippyWoowoo · 27/12/2022 09:36

That's interesting. You buy capsules in the same aisle you buy the (I'm assuming instant) coffee so I don't see why that would be the reason to not want it.

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They’re poor quality coffee and expensive.

2catsandhappy · 27/12/2022 10:58

Well done @StrawberryWater

BigBadBun · 27/12/2022 11:25

What goes through their minds? What will you get next year - an embroidery kit? a DIY matchstick model of Big Ben? a piano?

Indigo89 · 27/12/2022 12:22

Spirograph for a 3 year old
A motorised barking toy dog for a toddler scared of dogs
A set of drill bits (we don't have a drill)
A veg peeler/ julienne slicer 🤷

Indigo89 · 27/12/2022 12:24

We had one of those gifted too but thankfully my 4 year old dropped it and broke it this morning

whoamI00 · 27/12/2022 12:50

cheap chocolate that tastes like a candle

Crackof · 27/12/2022 14:52

My ex mil, god rest her, used to get me things that really girlie teens would've turned their nose up at as being too pink.
I'm big and dark and quite chic/gothy if I'm anything, and I always was.
Who knows why people do things?

Always4Brenner · 27/12/2022 15:04

MistyRock · 27/12/2022 06:06

🤣 That book is an amazing present. You've really done well with that one. 😂

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Mistyrock
im the same even I got told no work due to being registered blind and arthritis. My friend had to open the wrapping paper off my present she got me.

Linnty · 27/12/2022 15:17

Once was bought a brown wooden toilet seat by exH. That’s just one of the many reasons he’s an ex.

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