Wow, a lead balloon.... gifts you have given or received that were distinctly underwhelming.

[wewishyouamerrylissiemas]

I once gave dh a mini scalextrix racetrack thing. to this day I dont know what I was thinking! he doesnt do cars and he literally opened it, muttered a thank you and it turned up 7 years later in a box destined for the car boot sale. the seal had never even been broken!

UV nails thing.

Even worse: Spa day.

Bought Dh a new penknife thing for Christmas, as he'd lost his. Christmas Eve, sitting in his mum's house, DH sticks his hand down the side of the cushions (looking for spare change ) and sodding well found the one he'd lost!

I gave my parents a salt & pepper mill one year. Twas very expensive but don't think they thought it was personal enough.

oooh i'd have liked that!

i got dp a suitcase! lol
to be fair he had been moaning for ages about needing a case small enough to take on as hand-luggage so he didn't have to check anytrhing in at the airport
he wanted a samsonite one but decided they were too expensive, so i got him one for christmas. he is impossible to buy for anyway, there is never anything he wants

but yes, same response. in fact, i think he just opened it and walked off

Hi Lissie

I must tell this every year on here but a few years back i opened a present from a friends on Christmas day - and it was:

.......an advent calendar

A polyester vest. From an ex-BF. Just a vest, no knickers, not even a nice vest. From M&S's grotty old lady dept.

I was not amused.

They were my worst recieve gifts btw.

The worst gifts I've given were mp3 players. both for xp, two christmases in a row, never used either - why did I not just get him an ipod?

MIL seems to specialise in distinctly underwhelming domestic xmas gifts for me. Highlights over the years have been a roasting tin, a special bread board for garlic bread and half a back door. (fortunately dh got the other half)

my fil is impossible to buy for. he has 3 versions of the same trousers, t shirts and jumpers. he wears shoes til they fall apart and socks til they are just holes joined by threads. everything we have ever given him has remained in the wrapper. now we just give him a framed pic of ds.

Yup, received a cloth shopping bag (a5 size) from my dad for my 30th. My Sis got the same for her birthday (not a big b'day)

I categorically do not expect big pressies, but 30th, after a really tough year and my second child being born?!! It wasnt even wrapped

I once gave an expensive scarf to my gm in law, who tried to pass it on to someone else in front of me, until they got it out of he wrapper and commented on the quality etc...

Most of my family and inlaws are not mad, honest!!

Oh, ProfYaffle, my MIL gave me a silicon muffin tin for making Yorkshires in last year - but it was actually a very thoughtful gift, as I'd been moaning to her about how I could never get my Yorkies out without breaking them (and it was a little extra present anyway - she and FIL also gave me my perfume).

I know this is xmas, but dad's present is setting an interesting level for Xmas now!!

Got given a small box of roasted nuts once.

From my nan.

When I was eleven.

Was very put out as I put it down to her not liking my mum (lots of friction there) and she was spilling it over to me.

Looking back now, I realize she must have mixed up labels, similarly aged cousins having all received smellies. Some distant Uncle must have been quite at a box of Body Shop.

I gave my Catherine Cookson-loving nanna a copy of Angela Carter's 'Wise Children' one year

However, nothing and no one can beat my DH's dad for random presents. One year DH unwrapped a hardback copy of Rudy Guiliani's book on leadership His sister has in the past received a pink plastic cowboy hat (she is a teacher in her thirties) and John Junor's autobiography.

This year DH's dad phoned to apologise for sending DH's birthday gift late. When it turned up it was...a fan scarf for the dad's local football team, in which neither man has any interest at all.

Pmsl at advent calendar did it still have the sale sticker on?!!

Think I'm getting one this year...judging by the "people who bought the items in your basket also bought" on Amazon last night...

...Saucepan holders

years and years ago my granddad really bigged up a present he had got me, was just from him, not from gran too, gave me it xmas eve, strict instructions not to open it, i'd love it, took ages to find etc etc. Was quite weighty, i was about 14, and i just couldnt stand the suspense so opened it, was a christmas pud, he had tricked me and i fell for it.

A matchbox car - from DH.

The sentiment behind it was lovely - it was our wedding car and this was our first Xmas as a married couple.

But the shape and feel of the box (I had been poking it on Xmas Eve) led me to believe it was jewellery and I was so disappointed.

He disappeared upstairs to fetch the pearl earrings that he had bought me for my birthday.

:o

My MIL and FIL once gave me a homemade box of fruit i.e fruit in a cardboard box with a bit of clingfilm over the top.

The fruit was all rotten and the box had green and black mould all over the bottom of it. If I hadn't realised already, I think I would have got the message they don't like me much !

I can list any number of wonderful presents I have received utterly gracelessly, but then I have a bit of a psychological condition when it comes to my birthday and receiving presents.

Reading MmeLindt's post though, reminded me of a more amusing moment (well, amusing retrospectively). My first Christmas after meeting dh, he gave me a tiny package and, because I was already madly in love with him and wanting to marry him and the size of the present was so small, I jumped to the same conclusion as MmeLindt and assumed he had given me some jewellery - not an engagement ring, but something very touching which revealed his love for me.

Not a bit of it. It was a poxy little rabbit similar to Sylvanian families animals. WTF? I was 25 - not a child. I was singularly underwhelmed by that.