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Original poster

Hilariously awful or weird gifts we have received...come tell!

183 replies

NCy · 25/12/2022 18:21

Yes, yes, we should all be grateful for people making the effort to buy us things etc etc (just to pre-empt the usual thread kill joys.) However. I am 48. I dress kind of ageing rock chick, chunky biker boots, leather jacket, wafty dress sort of thing. Just what I do. My sister is more Next and Boden which is fine, doesn't bother me what she wears. She has bought me this: fluffy rabbit jumper Is it a passive aggressive comment on my dress sense? Has she forgotten Im 48? My partner thinks its hilarious! (Disclaimer: I have not had too much prosecco and I am not sat here wearing it!😂)

OP posts:
FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee · 25/12/2022 21:28

PleaseTakeItOff · 25/12/2022 21:21

My exh got me a voucher for bungee jumping in a card that said “someone wants you to jump off a cliff”. Which I actually quite like.

That's hilarious and the sort of thing I'd buy my husband.

Atethehalloweenchocs · 25/12/2022 22:15

Asked my DF for a heated throw after my puppy chewed the cord through on mine. He bought me a full length massage pad with heat which I will probably never use. Sigh.

MargaretThursday · 25/12/2022 22:30

Not awful at all but made me laugh when I opened it.
It was a new food processor.
I said "but we have one."
Dh confessed he broke it a couple of weeks ago. 🤣

It's actually a very nice one, and our previous one was a wedding present so nearly 25 years old. So it's actually quite a good present.

OP, I'm afraid I quite like that top. I could happily wear it to embarrass the dc
I also love the inflatable unicorn from a distance of not having to deal with it myself.

Poppyseed14 · 25/12/2022 22:36

I got this monstrosity a few years ago from SIL. Complete with kitchen roll. This year she has upgraded me to a packet of broken biscuits.

Hilariously awful or weird gifts we have received...come tell!
Babdoc · 25/12/2022 22:41

A packet of recycled plastic clothes pegs. I don’t even own a washing line! (And had sent the gifter a £50 hamper of gourmet food).

HangingOver · 25/12/2022 22:50

My old nanna got me a tie clip one year (I think she thought it was a hair slide)

DixonD · 25/12/2022 22:59

Aliceinunderland · 25/12/2022 19:18

My DP gave me an air fryer recipe book this Christmas. We live together and have done for 2 years. You'd think he would know we don't have an air fryer. I've spent all evening thinking he's hidden one as a surprise present but nothing yet. He's the cook in the house 🙄

My mum got an air fryer recipe book for her birthday this year and couldn’t understand why, as, like you, she didn’t have an air fryer.

What she didn’t know was that the air fryer had been delivered and was still sitting in its box on her driveway! My brother, who lives abroad, had ordered it for her.

Maybe yours is on its way?

DixonD · 25/12/2022 23:00

SweetSakura · 25/12/2022 18:40

DH got me some boots I already have, his logic being that he knows I like them 🙄

Clever!

beastlyslumber · 25/12/2022 23:00

My dad got me a very nice, expensive-looking man's wallet. With a card holder.

Nice, but I'm not a man, I don't use business or credit cards, and I pay for everything on my phone.

He knows this because we've had several conversations about it and whenever I pay for anything for us together, I use my phone.

He seemed so pleased with this present, but it's so wrong!

He usually just gives me cash. How bad would it be if I asked him for the money instead?

DixonD · 25/12/2022 23:01

Tiredo · 25/12/2022 18:35

I’ve received second hand trainers off dh this Christmas 😬 complete with dirt. I’ve had a google and they’re only £30 brand new!

My husband would do this (and in fact has bought me two second hand coats from eBay).

He buys all his clothes from there!

mumonherphone · 25/12/2022 23:08

A book about horoscopes. Thankfully it was in amongst a couple of other more thoughtful presents, but struck me as very random as I've never expressed an interest in horoscopes.

Iamwhatiam52 · 25/12/2022 23:28

Someone i know. Married to a selfish arse. He buys her (or so she thought) a new iPhone. She was chuffed with it as he never buys her anything decent for bday or xmas. Penny drops a few days later when she sees him with a brand new iPhone and realises that her 'new' phone was in fact his old one.

He'd even had the cheek to package her 'new' phone up into the new box his phone had come in to make it look like she had a brand new phone! 😳 🤦‍♀️🙄

FlorettaB · 25/12/2022 23:40

That is a very angry looking cow/kitchen roll holder.

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 25/12/2022 23:45

This is a lovely gift, I know, but we were given a fancy coffee machine today by MIL. We drink tea.

Poppyseed14 · 26/12/2022 00:06

FlorettaB · 25/12/2022 23:40

That is a very angry looking cow/kitchen roll holder.

It went to the charity shop in the end. Though we did have fun hiding it in random places round the house beforehand 🤣🤣

BizarreOclock · 26/12/2022 00:07

Last christmas my ex got me a toy Teddy dog and nothing else. I was 27 🤣🤣

Apparently the gift was bought before we broke up and I "just had to desperately have it", safe to say he remained a NC ex but I've always wondered why he even bought it for me.

GilianQadir · 26/12/2022 00:20

A cheap nasty giant novelty frying pan. The handle already coming loose. Too heavy and unusable on induction. A glass mug, encrusted with diamantés and garish flowers, paint and jewels already flaking off. Not just tacky as hell, but a health hazard too.

MadMadMadamMim · 26/12/2022 00:30

My DM has bought me clothes that I don't like and that don't fit. She does this every year. They are 2 sizes too small. When I said, 'Thanks, but they won't fit. They aren't the correct size' she was most put out and said I was ungrateful. Well, I am. I'm not grateful for clothes that don't fit me. Maybe ask me what size I am, if you're desperate to buy me clothing (that I won't like anyway)?

I'm not sure if she's deliberately irritating or making a passive aggressive comment on my weight gain. We don't share any tastes in clothing at all. I've never liked anything she's bought me from a teen, and we are almost 60 and mid 80s now. I'll grant that she is persistent...

I'm not hard to buy for. I asked for a book token. I like books.

sweetdreamtennasee · 26/12/2022 00:40

12 years ago I was 18 and like you OP, definitely had a rock chick/ leather jacket style at the time.
I was a size 6/8.

A family member gifted me size 20 dumbo disney pajamas. Clearly a regift looking back but I had a lot of complicated feelings about my body / ed and body dysmorphia at the time, I laugh now but it was very awkward and confusing.

LaffTaff · 26/12/2022 00:54

user55875537986543 · 25/12/2022 18:50

If I told you what my “awful” present was you’d all tell me it’s not awful. It’s not really. But I’m trying really hard to declutter and my friends has given me several large presents for my birthday/Christmas that are not massively to my taste, not useful and are physically big. Im actually really tempted to put them all in the charity shop bag but there’s no way she won’t notice that at least one or two of them are out when she comes to my house. Bloody scented candles can go straight to the charity shop (they’re nice ones but I never get around to lighting them and there is only one diptique scented candle I like - I buy one about every 4 years!). The other items are basically very large random bowls for fruit/display? They’re really large. I don’t have anywhere for them. She also gives my children enormous games that they won’t play - they’re quite novelty and the sort of game you play once and then shove in a cupboard. I hate the waste so I’ve put them straight into the charity pile before they’re opened.

I know I’m ungrateful. I really do. And I really am. But there are so many things I would have loved and a £5 book token would have been brilliant! (The presents she’s given me are not at all cheap.)

I find it hard to know that I should feel grateful but I’m actually not. I’m grateful that she wants to buy me presents. But I would so much rather not have presents than have things I won’t use and don’t have space for.

It actually makes me quite sad to think of her buying things she thinks I’ll like and the reality of my opening her gifts with zero excitement and the charity shop nearby.

I think it’s ok to ask friends vaguely what they might like. Even vaguely. I’d love a book token or some bubble bath. I’d so much rather someone only spent £5 on me and got something I’ll use/love.

I have a friend who does similar. She buys me jewellery that is clearly pricey, but hideous. Matching sets, like necklace and bracelet, with big chunky stones - and I hate big jewellery! She buys me expensive candles too, 40/50 quid numbers, and I don't use candles. So they just sit, still boxed, on a shelf.

Haydugee · 26/12/2022 01:10

I have received bowl champagne glasses from my extended family.
I also received bowl champagne glasses from them in 2020 and 2021.
I now have 22 mismatched bowl champagne glasses to store...

I rarely drink champagne and have absolutely no idea why they keep giving them to me.

Meercat3 · 26/12/2022 01:25

MIL got me a cross stitch set of Big Ben. I have never shown any interest in cross stiching. Ever. In fact she got me one last year too of another London sight. It will make its way to the charity shop as soon as she leaves

SouperNoodle · 26/12/2022 01:26

When I was a pre-teen in the early 2000s, my nan got me a weird purple spandex outfit with glitter all over it and a book about Gareth Gates.
I must've done a really good job at pretending I liked it because the next year she got me the same spandex outfit but in green. 🤦‍♀️

whatausername · 26/12/2022 01:50

Five pairs of gardening gloves. I do not have a garden.

LookItsMeAgain · 26/12/2022 01:55

Walkingtheplank · 25/12/2022 18:37

I have a friend that always regifts (not necessarily unused) gifts. We've received a completed child's journal, half used or mixed up toiletries, a previous year's calendar and pencils with her child's names on them.
Shes not short of cash. In fact this year she's had a massive inheritance. Which might explain why we've clearly received gifts that have come from her dead relative's house thus year.
She is of course the person who insists that as a group of friends that we continue with buying our families' presents. I dont get it.

Time to start buying the gifts from the local charity shops. Better yet, buy them gifts that can't be returned or brought back to the charity store like a selection of schoolbooks for a school in Africa.