What is the worst Christmas present you ever received?

[Newdad19]

In the spirit of helping others prevent the same mistakes... what is the worst Christmas present you ever received?

Mines has to be the sculpted hand photo frame I received one year... that looked like someone's decapitated hand that held a photo for you in its palm

Friendship secret santa where the budget was £50 and we did secret santander to stop the random £5 gifts between the ten of us

I watched all my friends open beautiful thoughtful gifts personal to them.

I was gifted a bottle of echo falls rose, nothing else. I was also 5months pregnant.

nothing

A friend at school once gave me a game that she had had for years, the box was battered and pieces were missing. When I was older another friend gave me a bottle of martini that she had clearly drunk half of and topped up with water.
But the best one was a passport cover from my now ex MIL with my maiden name on the front. Maybe she was telling me something, she did come to our wedding in black 🤣

An acrylic mirror in the shape of a Welsh dragon and last year a embroidered banner with a bee with 8 legs! both from my DH.

For me, the dead rats are still the ones to beat! 💀 🐀

Although that might be for comedy value, really, cos their motives were good.

But it's reading about the deliberately spiteful and presents that upset me.
Broken biros and shit like that.

And, to this day, my mum goes on and on about wearing down the batteries on toys.

@EverdeRose - I am curious what the reaction of the person that gave you the wine. As a group of 10, I would think you can figure out who your 'secret Santa' was. I don't know how someone that knows the gift amount is around 50 but is happy to skimp on the value of the gift they are giving. I would feel terrible opening an expensive gift when I knew that I only spent a token amount on something not suitable for someone as in your case wine for a pregnant friend. I really don't know how your friend was not embarrassed, especially when everyone is opening lovely gifts and you were presented something that you couldn't even drink:(

Medicated face wash, in the secret santa at work a few years. As an acne sufferer, that hurt. Also work SS, 2 years ago, minimum spend of £10, I bought my recipient a beautiful gin gift set, as they love gin. In return I received a £1 chocolate orange and a miniature bottle of wine which wasn't more than £2. I'm never joining in SS again.

@Loopielu

Medicated face wash, in the secret santa at work a few years. As an acne sufferer, that hurt. Also work SS, 2 years ago, minimum spend of £10, I bought my recipient a beautiful gin gift set, as they love gin. In return I received a £1 chocolate orange and a miniature bottle of wine which wasn't more than £2. I'm never joining in SS again.

Yep, there's always a 'Santa' who takes the piss and humiliates someone else with their insulting contribution.

I don't participate now, either.

I've suffered, in the past, with my skin and it was a constant source of embarrassment for me.
It took me years to walk with my face not perpetually looking at the floor.
I'm so sorry to hear that someone did that to you. 💐

Both from my Dad:

A jar of Dolmio pasta sauce

And last year - a bath gift set that wasn't bad in itself but was the same one I gave my stepmother the year before. They regifted my present back to me!

@TheYearOfSmallThings

A washing machine. I know it was the thought that counts but honestly, a washing machine!

I think that's a great present!

Right now, I'd love a new washing machine or dishwasher, as I need them and can't afford them right now.

(In fairness it was chosen with love), but a nightwear set from my FIL emblazoned with "Take me to bed". Followed up the next year with similar set with "Little Miss Naughty". My colleagues used to love interrogating me on his Christmas presents.

This still continues. He asks for gift ideas, I give him ones such as a frying pan or spade but they are dismissed (with some anger) as being too impersonal. He loves flitting around ladies' clothes shops trying to pick something. He means well but my heart sinks when the squishy present is produced.

Thanks for the flowers 💐 I'm sorry you've suffered too.

I don't participate in SS anymore either. They probably think I'm a grumpy old bag but after the free gift from Avon present and then a few years later my SS was too busy to buy a gift but didn't tell the organiser until present swap day. Someone rushed out and bought a shit £1 Christmas mug for me.

Oh and I once started at a new company at the start of November. Apparently they had already drawn for SS. It was fun fucking miserable on the last day sat at my desk while they all opened their lovely presents.

@Loopielu that always happens in our secret Santa too. £10 budget with people buying thoughtful gifts and then someone gets a random £1 box of milk tray.

Secret Santa, gosh never again! I joined in Works SS one year, however the secret person who drew my name did not buy anything, so I was left out but my person happily accepted my gift! Mainly though, I would never join in a SS was when the Team of 30 colleagues witnessed one man going bright red with embarrassment, when some clever idiot in the Team bought him inappropriate items. It was painful to watch it. Suffice to say SS did not happen again!

Some years, I never even got a gift from my ex. Yet he always expected plenty of thought and effort from me.

I recall one year he was ecstatic at buying me a gift, a CD that it turned out I already had. He complained about my lack of appreciation for his "effort". Seriously, he thought the gift was enough for me to let him of his share of chores for weeks. He was an extreme housework avoider.

Another year, I got a kitchen knife for Xmas. Yes, I still use it, but I got the knife because he'd gone into town on Xmas eve and bought pretty much the first thing he came across.

He knew something was up when on his last birthday before I left him, I got him a beer selection box, and socks from the dc. Dc and I left the abusive wazzock about 2 months later.

Laugh's on him now. He died last year and the DC inherit everything.

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon

As a child I got a lot of crafty kits and sticker books and such.

Nice presents. But my control freak parents never let me do them.

The kits they would do for me, I’d have to sit and watch. And the stickers were never allowed to be used, they had to stay in the sticker books.

So basically they were not presents I could use. Disappointing.

As a child I also received lots of presents I couldn't use, though not for the same reason. Money was very tight at the time, and quite often my Christmas and birthday presents were spirited away to be re-gifted at a later date.

MIL has form for gifting any random old shit she finds in her house she doesn’t want. DC regularly get stuff wrapped up she got from somewhere for free. Mini tubes of hand cream one year were a highlight, think my youngest was 2 and my other kids were like
My best gift from her was a bottle of Baileys. Fab I thought! I love Baileys. Already had a bottle on the go so put her one away but when I went to open it the label caught my eye. My last label didn’t look like that…
Checked the date and it was best before 2004, the year she gave it to me was around 2016/2017.
Poured it down the sink and it glooped out in massive chunks.

@FuckYouCorona

A pair of men's Christmas socks with a scantily clad woman on dressed in a Santa outfit. Another one was a mug with "hard work never hurt anyone but why take the risk". A sly dig at my disabled, non-working status.

@FuckYouCorona, that’s just plain nasty. What horrible people.

Oh and I once started at a new company at the start of November. Apparently they had already drawn for SS. It was fun fucking miserable on the last day sat at my desk while they all opened their lovely presents.

When we did this before lockdown, we had a similar situation. We put all the names back into the hat and re-drew the names. No way were we going to leave someone out.

And we used to set a minimum and maximum budget, so min £10, max £12, precisely to avoid a situation where one person gets sometthing shitty compared to the others in the SS. The last year we did SS (2019) we even used an online website that did an automatic draw for us, and we could put hints on under our names. Worked well.

Sadly, with all of us wfh, we didn't do anything last year, and we've not restarted this year. We might manage a meet-up, it's been a long time since we've met each other in the flesh, and Teams calls aren't quite as good. I work with some good people, so would rather a meet up than a SS.

A few years ago , I recieved a chunky scarf with the remnants of a chewed toffee stuck to the bottom fringe

Toilet seat.

Secondhand.

My bday is at Xmas so DM carefully explained the gift was for both.

At 15 my mom purchased as a "stocking filler" present for me a box of lacy thongs... I was mortified. As is our tradition these were opened in front of our extended family including lots of uncles, cousins etc. I asked her afterwards why on earth she did this along with telling her how embarrassed I was. She said she understood they were "just the thing" for girls who did lots of sport....

Oh and also as a teenager from an aunt- A bootle of Head and Shoulders shampoo- for greasy hair...

When I was seven my man bought me and my sisters/female cousins the Rosemary Connelly Diet planner and cook book. We were all under ten and hardly fat. She herself was a size 28 though. It really affected my confidence and I spent a good few years worrying I was fat despite the fact I never went above a size 14