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

That's to hold food bag closed

A set of some really cheap and low quality lip balm that was a clear EOS rip-off. Got it from my ex bf's sister years ago, the girl clearly disliked me and never hesitated to make sure everyone knows. I bet if me and her brother were to marry she'd be the one showing up wearing white.
Guess I should've got her a nicely framed family picture with her face being replaced by Grinch's in some Photoworks but I wasn't petty as that back then (which I regret now ).

@blacklilypad

Not me, but my best friend was given her dog, that had died 2 months before, taxidermied for Christmas! It wasn't even well done and was honestly horrifying to look at. She cried when she opened it and her parents told her she was ungrateful and she was forced to keep it in her room until she left home for uni.

Wow some of the presents on here are terrible but this is the first I’ve seen that’d give you long term psychological issues. It’s like the start of a horror film.

Oh my lovely mil used to be really bad, her heart was in the right place. But one year dh, BIL and i had a gift bag each (pre kids) with a flashing whistle, a tiny walking robot and a packet of what I thought were tissues but were paper napkins. Dh also got a lint roller, three tea towels and a tiny bongo drum for BIL 😁
When I was 11 a pair of sporty tracksuit bottoms in a size 16 ( wasn't a 16 or even close at 11) and a box of chocolate liquors which I didn't mind, but I bit one and the insides were all white and dried up. They were a year out of date. From my aunty.
A pp mentioned a dressing gown belt, was it literally the material you loop through?

Those are awesome presents from your mil, @MinnieJackson !

I would infinitely rather have a silly present that someone had thought about, than a carefully mean “budgeted” present through obligation.

You have just reminded me of a good one!

Old workplace secret Santa (before the really bad ones) there was a guy who's dad ran a corner shop. Whoever he got each year received a bag of random stuff from the shop so a magazine, sherbet dip, a drink, random plastic kids toys, penny sweets and chocolate and the sort of random crap you get in Christmas crackers and a couple of scratch cards. Every year we all crossed our fingers he got us! It was always so funny emptying the contents out on the table 😂

@HoseMeDownWithHolyWater

My MIL always buys me something for the house, and not for me.

Tea towels, hand towels, throw cushions, blankets, ornaments, canvas photos (I have no photos on display anywhere).

One birthday I actually received a Christmas hand towel. My birthday is mid January.

I know she means well but I never use any of this stuff.

I don't mind stuff for the house, within reason. DH once bought me an Ikea light fitting. Its something i had seen and liked but would never buy. (it was £70) We've had it a few years now and he moans about it not giving off enough light and it being difficult to clean. He's never the one who cleans it! He's suggested getting rid of it but i told him he would owe me a Christmas present if he did so

A fake gold necklace with little plastic gem stone in the shape of an angel from boyfriend when I was 20. Think he got it from one of those gift shops at the seaside. Gave me a green rash!

Despite being almost teetotal these days (my painkillers don't go well with alcohol) and everyone knowing this as I don't ever drink on work outings, I always seem to get a bottle of cheap wine in Secret Santas.

One company I worked for had most people working remotely so the secret santa was done by everyone buying a gift, then everyone at the team meal (think over 100 people) would get a raffle ticket that matched up to a gift. Both me and my teetotal (ex-alcoholic) friend got wine. A determindly single guy got a baby toy. Another guy got a makeup set. And so on. There was a LOT of swapping that year!

I've just told the boss I won't be taking part in the SS this year (new job this summer) due to past experiences!

My worst was probably a Spice Girls pillowcase (just one) that had obviously come from a bedding set, along with some other tacky thing I can't remember. I was about 19 at the time, and the Spice Girls were long past being cool.

It was from my lovely but bonkers auntie who had form for weird and wonderful presents (think half used nail polish, or chocolates that were out of date). But she was great I loved her.

One time she gave me on a gift card she had received for a nice restaurant - it was a regift as she didn't like the food they served. It was a lovely gesture, but when I went to use it, after having a lovely slap up meal, there was nothing on the card , and I had no receipt for it. I never told her in the end as I was too embarrassed.

@HoseMeDownWithHolyWater

My MIL always buys me something for the house, and not for me.

Tea towels, hand towels, throw cushions, blankets, ornaments, canvas photos (I have no photos on display anywhere).

One birthday I actually received a Christmas hand towel. My birthday is mid January.

I know she means well but I never use any of this stuff.

My DS birthday is new year and I do admit I shop the Xmas sale but only for things he likes not for random Xmas stuff.

People who combine/mix birthday and Xmas are awful, only one family member ever did it to my DS but did it every year - they would show up midway between Xmas and new year with a selection box and say 'thats for both' and it would be wrapped in xmas paper.

They expected their mid-year birthday to be recognised though and got pissy if it wasn't though ironically.

I'm not a fan of household items for presents because 1) they're rarely to my taste - where am I going to put a cushion with a panda on it or a gigantic fluffy blanket with a photo of a random dog? 2) it's always me that gets the household stuff while my husband gets presents for him. Why? He washes up far more often than I do, yet my present is a fucking tea towel.

I'd rather nothing, honestly, than more crap to fill the house with.

I did give my MIL a shit present one year. Completely unintentional. It was a navy cardigan with a few navy sequins sewed on to give it a bit of sparkle, but in a subtle way. To me, it was really nice (I've attached a photo of what may actually be the cardi!). My MIL opened it and sat there with a face like thunder for the rest of the evening. It was just so awkward! I've no idea why she was so pissed off. My brother noticed and tried to say it was lovely but got no response.

The next day I was at her house and she opened a present from her other son. It was a cheap reed diffuser. She shrieked with delight. 🤣🤣

@mam0918 it wasn't even a joint Christmas/birthday gift. I'm assuming she got it in the sales and decided it'll do for my birthday. It was very weird.

A friend bought me travel hair straighteners. I’d recently started chemo and had lost all my beautiful long hair, and I certainly wasn’t going to be travelling anywhere for quite a long time.

Last year I received a decorative punctuation sign. I assume it was meant to be decorative. It was all battered and chipped 🤦🏼‍♀️

I went through a brutal breakup that I had thought was going to end up in marriage. I was miserable. My ex worked at the same place (not in the same team thankfully)
For Christmas that year, someone in my team picked out a mug for my secret Santa that said “only my cat understands me”

It might have been true but it hurt

@shreddednips

Last year I received a decorative punctuation sign. I assume it was meant to be decorative. It was all battered and chipped 🤦🏼‍♀️

Are you sure it wasn't shabby chic?

@Tangofandango

A friend bought me travel hair straighteners. I’d recently started chemo and had lost all my beautiful long hair, and I certainly wasn’t going to be travelling anywhere for quite a long time.

Wow that is bad.

Last year, at some point, I'd mentioned to my mother I needed a new dressing gown, then, a few days before my birthday I had popped around to see her. I wasn't even thinking about my birthday at the time, so when I saw a florescent pink dressing gown in a gift bag I asked why she had it. She asked "Do you not like it?" and I replied "Ewww, no, it's so pink it physically hurts my eyes!" It was only in the car on the way home that I realised what I had done. I still feel guilty. I never saw the dressing gown again, though, as mother's do, she over-looked my utter ungratefulness and kindly gave me £10 in a very thoughtful card.

I might have sneaked them back into her charity shop where they'd come from!

When I was 11 my DM wrote Merry Christmas in a card and in brackets promised to by me a kindle when we got home. Sound like a nice idea in theory but I had nothing to open and had to watch everyone else open all their gifts. I think I just started tearing up when I realised that she had probably just forgotten or not bothered to get me anything. 😭

And no she never did get me that kindle! 😒

From my now ex dh......an elephant nightdress case

I got a bottle of Marc Jacobs perfume from my ex, the gift itself was lovely but the delivery was vile.
He came home from work, late, a bit drunk and said "I've got your gift" he then proceeded to throw at it at me from across the room, not exactly aggressively, more of a 'don't care' attitude. I caught it and he smiled and left to go back out drinking.
I went into the hallway and the Debenhams bag and receipt were strewn in the floor.

Was my last Xmas with him.

A second hand fleece underblanket from a company that went bust in 2002. It had been opened numerous times and had dirty sellotape holding the outer packaging.
We donated it to our friends for their dog bed.