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

My Mum has this awful habit of doing her Christmas shopping in whatever shop she happens to find herself in on Christmas Eve.

One year, it was Halfords. On Christmas morning, I opened an ice scraper, a car air freshener, and an AA Road Map of Great Britain.

I was 14.

An electric tin opener .

A bottle of Elseve shampoo from my dad. Only a few years ago.

I thought you liked shampoo he said.

He got my mother a handrail for the cellar steps, so it could have been worse.

I don’t think anyone can compete with dead rats though.

@MegSpace

An obvious regift from a friend years ago which would be fine if unused...Body shop shower gel which had been used then topped up with water (it was watery and all bubbly at the top) plus the usual accompanying shower puff and moisturiser which I also feared may have been used but less obvious if so, they all went in the bin.

My late MIL once gave me some partially used Avon. She hadn't tried to disguise it, it was just... partially used, and it wasn't a set. Just two partly empty bottles stuck together with sellotape.

A cling film dispenser was a very low bar beaten only by a home made "dusty bin" (plastic bin covered with fuzzy felt) and a pair of hand knitted toe socks with six toes in each foot. (Thanks aunty Jeanette) Child of the 70s me.

My ex's aunt once sent my daughter a bar of soap, bought from a craft fair with a teddy bear head attached to it with pins. I removed all the pins (so I thought). Luckily it was my hand that got torn when the soap wore down to the pin whose head had snapped off. Everything from that woman went straight into the bin thereafter.

My DH once got a Next jumper from his ex PILs that was totally unsuitable - just not his style at all. When I took it in to exchange it - it had been manufactured 13 years previous.

Oh god a hand rail - actual genius. Was it wrapped!?

Half a scarf.

Packet of lockets and tissues from work secret Santa as I'd had a cold three months before in case I got another one? It was ridiculous but funny as everyone else in my office got nice ,funny or thoughtful things..room went silent when I opened mine and just looked at my secret Santa like wtf? ..they went a bit pink and just said they thought Secret Santa was about useful things?!🤣🤣

A friend of mine received a grave for Christmas from her uncle. There wasn't much room left in the graveyard in her home village so her uncle booked her a plot so when the time came she wouldn't have to be buried in the newer graveyard out of town. She was about 25 when he bought the grave for her.

An Airwick airfreshener!

A set of saucepans from my mother. Utter bollocks Xmas pressy

@nancydrew

A vibrating foot massaging giant slipper that you put both feet into. I was 30 years old, I don’t think I was the target demographic. It was returned to the shop by my then boyfriend. All my friends laughed.

My friend was given a packet of pegs and some dishwasher tablets by either her mum or grandma

Reminds me of the foot spa I got in my mid 20s. Was immediately re-gifted to my DH's grandma!

Mum gave me a very random set of gifts a few years ago that she'd clearly won in a tombolla. It included a packet (not a tin) of shortbread biscuits and a shower gel that I was allergic to.

@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.

Oh my word, Lightside this made me so sad. Mine loved doing those books and kits and would have been v. cross if we’d done anything other than hover in an irritating way, hoping to be asked for help (which generally meant cleaning up after).

Though, thinking about it, I must admit to being the control freak mum setting up the playmobil/dolls house sets at Christmas and having to go into another room to squeak as they got trashed when they actually played with them.

My worst Christmas present was a Father Christmas jumper where one of the googly eyes had fallen off - he looked so sinister that it gave me nightmares.

As a teenager from my grandparents - a book about cystitis

Some light green velour gloves with a pink and lilac flower on the top of them! Same person, my stepmother, sent a shit brown satin clutch bag the following year and a repulsive crinkle satin tie dye scarf the next year.
I did engage in some sport with her as i believed she was playing a game of who could find the worst gift, so the year after i did buy a camoflage fleece neck warmer from the petrol station for her for Christmas.
Funnily enough, she then suggested we didn’t buy each other anything….result!!!

Not me, but a former work colleague told me that, in the 1990s, her ex-husband bought her a Yorkshire pudding tin one Christmas. She said the following year she showed him a coat she wanted and made him write out the cheque for it there and then!

A toilet seat from my mother.

Tea towel. From MIL of course

@impressivelycunty

Oh god a hand rail - actual genius. Was it wrapped!?

Only in the manufacturer’s plastic protective sleeve.

My friend was given a packet of pegs and some dishwasher tablets by either her mum or grandma

I remember my mother giving such items to my sister as a wedding gift.
Our mother disapproved of the wedding and bought my sister a huge array of scrubbing brushes, mops, scouring pads, a toilet brush, dishmops, detergent etc. Very passive agressive gift.

Bottle of "Cillit Bang" rom H.
He thought it was funny
Except there was nothing else

Knock off Barbie - I was about 14/15 at the time.

Wow! This really is the worst story ever. Is that how you found out about the OW? What a spectacularly horrible moment!

I knew about her, but he told me he'd ended it with her months before in the summer though and I believed him. I had my suspicions he was still seeing her but it was a pretty harsh way to have my suspicions confirmed!

My mum is not a good gift giver. “Really, you shouldn’t have bothered” is oft said. Also bollocks, if it’s the thought that counts then it on out works if they demonstrate some thought. Every year I say “don’t bother” and every year I get sad.

Two years ago she’d bought a multipack of plain black socks. I’m guessing it was a pack of seven. But she wanted some socks too, so I got a pile of six individual black socks. But it’s ok, they were wrapped in a (nylon, crackly, car blanket 1985 style) tartan shawl, in case I got cold.

Still. At least I wear socks. The earrings she bought for me to go with the (two sizes out, in a colour I never wear, Tesco) jumper were special. I’ve never had pierced ears.