If I get one more...

[MrsLeclerc]

Lighthearted, I know Christmas will be very different this year but some things never change!

What gift do you get every year without fail that you immediately know will be sent to the attic/charity shop/the pits of hades?

My Nan used to give us a box of Black Magic chocolate every year. We all hated dark chocolate but she never picked anything else. They stopped selling it in the supermarkets in the early 2000s but she’d still conjure it up every year! In the years since she passed away I still look at a box on the shelf in shops and it makes me smile.

My MIL also gifts me candles which I really dislike. Luckily she stumbled across a nice Yankee candle a few years ago so DH steers her towards that to fulfil her candle needs.

I’d love to hear other people’s repeat offenders!

Anything make up related. I clearly have never worn any so therefore you should work out I have no interest in doing so.
I used to get one of those expensive Liz Earle type wash face and cloth sets every year. Brilliant if you have a load of slap to take off, redundant if your face is essentially clean after a shower anyway.

Still it saved me having to get a present for someone else later in the year.

Make up and toiletries here too, I have eczema so I can’t use most things, I rarely wear make up and I like to use certain toiletries that suit my skin (no one ever asks me which ones I use), usually toiletries go onto the school Easter raffle.

My nan always used to give me really random items that she would pick up from charity shops and jumble sales, she’s now very elderly and doesn’t go out, I really miss the excitement of unwrapping and silver spoon, a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing or a random ornament from the 1970’s 😂

Been with dh 8 years. Every year dc get him a Toblerone...
Xmas
Birthday
Father's day
Dh confessed last year he bloody hates Toblerone.

What's really funny about this thread is that my nanna used to love black magic so even though she was really difficult to buy for at Christmas we all knew she'd love a box and ended up with loads of them! So they always remind me if her and make me smile when I see them too 🙂

Hand cream, body lotion, bath salts, usually as part of a pack. I love nice shower gel etc but don't really use lotion or if I do I'm quite particular. One year I actually asked for Kiehls body lotion and nobody got me any!

Soap & Glory gift sets.

Every year MIL buys me them. She has actually said to me before “well I know you like the Soap & Glory stuff”. For the record, I have never bought Soap & Glory products.

DH has tried to steer her towards the brands I actually like (not particularly expensive ones, e.g. I quite like some of the Sanctuary stuff) but no. Soap & Glory every year.

Ooo I really fancy a box of Black Magic now.

Wow black magic, I used to sneak from my mum and dad box, I'd forgotten all about them!

My mil loves pink and buys pink clothes for me, even though it isn’t remotely flattering on me, and which I foolishly wear once to please her so there’s always a few Christmas photos with me looking like a sickly vampire with a red nose.

A Body Shop set from DP.

Bless him, he got one for me the first year we were together and now thinks it's a surefire hit.

I don't like their shower gels. I don't like their bar soap. Their body creams smell and feel like melted plastic dollies.

And yet I will never tell him– he finds me SO hard to buy for anyway, I can't take away the one bit of Christmas present security and peace of mind he has!

My mum once bought me some really amazing special perfume (her words) when I was about 18. When I opened it, it was actually something really heavy and old ladyish by Elizabeth Taylor. I was not quite sure what to do with it! She still buys me really strong perfumes every Christmas even now, they give me a headache!

Anything 3 for 2 from Boots. Even worse when you get the discounted ones for your January birthday ...

Candles or moisturiser; I don’t use either and normally end up regifting both. I love a luxurious shower gel but they also seem to come with a moisturiser that I won’t use

Hand cream. I like them but never get through them quickly enough.

Mine is the same bottle of bath bubbles every single year. I'm allergic and always donate it to charity.

This year I was direct. I said I only want a bottle of wine, stick it on your home delivery.

For ten years I've worried about saying anything as it's 'grabby'. This year I need wine more.

lynx box , I dont like lynx!

but I'll have your choc and candles please :)

MIL loves to buy us lots of small presents (she prefers lots of things to open to one bigger present so assumes this is what everyone really wants). She seems to have compiled a list of 'things Bloodyfrosty likes' based on gifts she gave me in the first few years of our marriage and when asked I said were lovely. It's like a sort of Xmas present bingo including:

• Bubble bath and body lotion gift set
• scarf and gloves (with gloves to fit MIL, ignoring the fact that I have massive man sized hands)
• dark chocolates/liqueurs
• tiny bottle of sweet rose wine
• manicure kit
• black mascara
• handbag mirror
• socks several sizes too small

DH has tried to steer her away from all of this, as he is aware I only said I liked these things out of politeness. He's also suggested she cuts back on spending on us and gets something for herself or the DC- but to no avail. She clearly enjoys getting this stuff so I just accept it and pass it straight on to the charity shops in January (other than the chocs that DH eats)

Loving these!

@TheCrow love that your nan was a fan of black magic too! We used to joke that she must have a wardrobe full of boxes of them ready to foist on visitors!

@BessieSurtees oh yes, the BOGOF offers split between xmas and birthday. DH has a birthday that falls close enough that his nan would get him TV series box sets (with the offer stickers still on) separately for birthday and Christmas. But his siblings got the 2 for Christmas

@thelegohooverer see this is what we get when we try to appreciate the dodgy gifts!

@EdwardCullensBiteOnTheSide (love your username!!) Perfume is such a tricky one to buy for someone else, I don’t know why it’s marketed as an easy win type of gift for women. Unless you know specifically what someone wants it’s futile.

I once asked DM for DKNY perfume the pink one in a bottle shaped like an apple. It was my wedding perfume and was so excited to get a new bottle. Opened it up to find Nina by Nina Ricci (pink in apple shaped bottle!). I take the blame for that. DM listens to about one word in every 5 so she just went on the hunt for an apple shaped bottle

Op That is totally something my mum would do, she also only listens to a fraction of our conversation! Apple bottle you say? I'd probably have gotten Apple scented washing up liquid 😂

Baylis and Harding, can’t stand the stuff.

I suffer from migraines and I am very intolerant of scented candles, perfumes, bath stuff etc. Every year I get some though!

The other thing will be a size 10 jumper from MIL, I'm an 18. Perhaps I should save them up and stich 3 together to get 1 usable jumper!

My food bank ended up with a 200kg job lot of Black Magic earlier this year, so that's where it's all going .

Prosecco. Yes, I like champagne. That's not a reason to buy me prosecco.

Slightly niche, but Ikea gift vouchers. I'm not sure what I've done to insinuate that I'm a fan but one person buys them for me annually, and another bought me some for a recent birthday.

I dislike anything related to toiletries and make-up. I don't wear make-up as I can't be arsed with it and I am just find toiletries very "meh", although I act grateful at the time.

I would rather people didn't buy me chocolate either although I do like it and it is the sort of thing I will eat if it is there (and no need to be hungry in order to eat it). I really need to lose weight so want to minimise on my intake of that sort of thing, so please don't buy it for me.

The thing I most like to get is book vouchers so that I can choose my own reading material. Or money to choose stuff I would like.

Oh, and perfume and candles would not be me either. I almost never use perfume and with candles I worry about the risk of fire, so would never use one.

@BessieSurtees my mum absolutely LOVES bubble bath so I often shop the gift set sales for her! I know which ones she likes though!

Mine is chutney! MIL like to do "hampers" of things like chutney, chocolates, drinks etc. Which is nice but she does it for birthdays too and there's just no way we can eat chutney fast enough to keep up with it coming in! If we get loads this christmas I'll do a foodbank trip I think!