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!

I also can't stand toiletries etc, as I have very sensitive skin, but I think everyone who buys me presents know this by now!

I have washbags coming out of my ears

Multicoloured Fluffy socks.... my dad's partner without fail buys them for me every year.

Biscuits. I don't eat them, neither do my two DC. DP likes Biscuits but we get so many tins and he can only manage one or two tins over the Christmas period and come January he's had enough of them. Any unopened ones get donated to the local food bank.

OP you can still buy Black Magic in supermarkets in Ireland (and I think I’ve bought them in NI - my Nan loves them!)

Whiskey - lots of customers give it to DH. A bottle of wine would be far more appreciated

Autobiography’s- I do not enjoy reading them yet every Christmas for years DH would give me one until one year I said please no more!! However this year I would quite like Barak Obama’s but I dare not ask for it unless it kicks off his autobiography obsession again!!

@Anoisagusaris I remember at my school there were two teachers who used to swap gifts - one didn't like chocolate and one didn't like wine!

Any kind of makeup, perfume or toiletries. (Unless someone has looked inside my bathroom cabinets and bought replacements for the stuff that I use all the time - that would be fantastic).

Wine and other alcoholic drinks.
I don't drink any alcohol.
I've recently left a job and when I cleared my office I left three filing cabinet drawers full of bottles I've been given over the last few years. Goodness knows what the next occupant will think but I wasn't carting it all home to throw away.

@helloxhristmas

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

Hazelnut clusters and cherries in kirsch!

@WhatAreWordsWorth

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.

YES!!!!!! me too.....every year! the smell makes me gag!!

My MIL once insisted on buying me eyeliner - so that she could keep the free gift. DH used to take the DC shopping. They bought me a child's hideous watch with wide patent leather turquoise strap non returnable from a "vintage" stall, and every blooming year highly stinky body moisturiser or bath scrubs even though I tell them that I react to high perfume things and only use showers. Sigh. This is even after I've given them a very simple and inexpensive list.

Mugs - I am picky about mugs and i am quickly running out of room! Don’t give me rubbish poundshop crap ones!

Clothes- I am difficult to buy for and basically only wear three colours. I can guarantee what you buy won’t fit or will feel like bin bag. Unless you share dna with me, don’t bother!

Make up bags. I have loads.

Body lotion. Ditto - enough for me to cover my whole body in it every 2-3 days for at least four years.

Mugs. I am really fussy about mugs - I like porcelain and a certain shape, white inside only. I also have absolutely loads (most of which I don't use).

Eyeliner - never used it.

The sets of foodie jars that you can get with things like pate, chutney, marmalade etc. Never gets eaten here, unfortunately. Always taken to the food bank drop-off.

Novelty socks. I feel the cold a lot, and only wear thermal insulating socks.

My aunt used to give my parents a bottle of Malibu every Christmas. This went on for maybe 10+ years, I used to take it to university with me as we would drink anything. My parents have never drank Malibu, and only every drink once in a blue moon, and then its a small Baileys. I have no idea how it came about, and it was too difficult to address once it had become a tradition.

Ted baker sets , can't stand them
Always get at least 3

Chocolate, Biscuits and strongly perfumed hand creams.

I don't like chocolate, don't like biscuits and have Psoriasis, so there's always a giant pot of emollient cream knocking around in the house. I don't drink particularly often either (once every six months or so) - bottles of cheap fizzy plonk just stack up in the cupboard under the stairs until a gifting opportunity comes my way.

Now, if somebody were to buy me a plant with a nice pot (not an orchid, I already have a small colony of them at work where people get them, think they need repotting, so carefully cover up all the roots or chop them off and then get bored and abandon the poor things in the staff room), I'd be delighted.

Ooo i used to nick the butterscotch ones from my mums Black Magic. Also loved the cherry ones. Mind you i do prefer dark chocolate

@thelegohooverer

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.

My nana is the same with pink/patterned/pink flowery clothes! 😂 She has always picked clothes that ‘suit me’, I hate, and I know she buys because she secretly likes it herself. Her taste is the complete opposite to mine, bless her.

She also always got me a box of After Eights. I love mint chocolate but HATE mint fondant. Ironically, after a few years DH would get the After Eights and I got the Malteasers meant for him! It was a shame because we would always rather she didn’t waste her money and spent it on herself instead.

She has mild dementia now, and we do the bulk of her shopping at the moment, so we tell her (quite honestly) we’re happy not to have anything and we just help her with a gift for DS. Then we spoil her with a few things we know she likes. At least, I hope she likes them! 😁

Smellies too. Hate those bath puff things that are made out of plastic netting - and I seem to have a billion of the things. Also hate all the highly scented body lotions in gift sets - Baylis and Harding etc. I'd rather use Aveeno tbh...

A charity donkey....I don’t even like donkeys

This reminded me of something. My uncle's wife used to always give me a pair of light blue knickers. She said it was to wear for New Years because it was lucky.

1: i don't like light blue underwear....
2: I'm not superstitious
3: they were thongs i prefer something slightly bigger, maybe a brazilian is ok
4: it was awkward.............

@GreatBigBeautifulTommorow That made me chuckle! 😂

@grey12 I was gifted red satin knickers with sparkles on from an aunt. When I was 12. And opened it in front of all my relatives. I understand the awkwardness completely. Since when is underwear an appropriate gift for extended family?!

Also is the underwear lucky because it’s something blue on the day (like the wedding superstition) or is it lucky to wear new underwear (like the old in case you get run over and can’t be seen wearing dirty underwear)??

@DuckbilledSplatterPuff I really feel for you. There’s something disheartening when they divert away from even a simple list. I’d be tempted to regift the eyeliner back to the MIL and do the same to her when you fancy a free gift!

my grandma always got my AnaisAnais perfume as my auntie liked it.
Dh gets me body shop mandarin because that's what his mums liked even though I tell him which I like.
and my dp always get me something really random

Shortbread (it's shit).

Shower gel/ bubble bath - I have eczema people pls stop.

Although DP parents ask him for a list of things I want I choose them and he sends them links.

It's great