MIL gets the strangest gifts

[Thejewellershands]

This is lighthearted, I dont actually mind I just find it funny.

DPs mum got me a bottle of blackcurrant squash, some washing pods but they weren’t new ones in a box. She had put 6 washing pods into a plastic ziplock bag, a pair of Disaronno earrings (why lmao) And a money box disguised as a tin of baked beans. Me and DP can’t stop laughing at how random these are.

Has anyone else got any “wtf” gifts this year? 😄

Why do people give gifts like this? Passive aggressive? Lazy? Mentally unwell?

Bizarrely, I often see it correlate with wealth. Someone I know has PIL who are quite wealthy. Every year her MIL buys her a single bar of soap. Neatly wrapped with a bow. She buys her son a single book or a toy from the charity shop. Meanwhile her own working class parents give very thoughtful presents and spend a fair amount of money.

But in return she buys her MIL fancy chocolates, books about her particular hobbies/interests, lovely plants for her garden etc etc. I don't understand why the MIL isn't ashamed to hand over a single bar of soap in return. It's so bizarre.

Send my your address, we'd love to send them on to you. :)

I got an old rank
Blouse from my MiL which she'd made into a bag for me 😵‍💫

This is cracking me up,

My nan bought me a pack of 'greeting cards' which I suspect is a hint for the kids to send her a few as 'thank you cards' for their Christmas presents.

My teen has received a dagger letter opener in a box from MiL. I thought he was opening a pen and couldn’t understand the puzzled look on his face as he had no idea what it was. Such a useful gift for a teen in a world of emails.

My SIL gave my three year old a hat stand last year.

My mum once gave me a commode.

Tbf, I was heavily pregnant with no bathroom upstairs, so it did get used, but still…

We agreed no gifts for adults, yet MIL snuck a pressie each for me and DH under the tree. His was a chopping board (he doesn't even cook) and mine was a lint roller.....

I get yorkshire tea from my dad every year. But with Fox's chunky cookies which piss all over brunch bars.
(Also theres always a proper gift too, the tea and biscuits is just a "thing" after a throw away comment I made years ago!)

An unfortunate skill inherited from having a Mum like this is that I can be this person in a panic or obligation 😂

I've learned that no gift vs these types of gifts, is a gift. I cringe at the wall mounted coat hooks I've purchased for my grandparents and other shits gifts given over the years.

I'm reformed, but had many years of mum gifting like this to me. No one else bought me things....so it was "normal". Woops haha

Yes this is definitely a thing. It’s likely to be a Terry’s Chocolate Orange covered in chocolate with malteasers stuck on it. I always used to make one and we’d eat it when playing games on Christmas afternoon.

7 bins

This year I've given one SiL a gift box of 2 guest soaps. They're commemorative ones from Charles and Diana's wedding. His picture on one, hers on the other.

Someone had actually given them to the food bank where I work and no one wanted to give them out to anyone as they are so obviously old and unwanted. I was pleased as Bro & SiL have a collection of C&D mugs etc which started as joke gifts.

fyi - before anyone comments - people working at our food bank operate on a one out/one in policy so if you take something home yourself you bring something else in. Mostly the stuff going home with us is something no one goes to a FB to get and we bring in things that we're short on for distribution.

So it’s a chocolate orange mucked about with, and lots of touching of the maltesers? “Happy Christmas, I’ve touched your chocolate.” Yuck.

Weirdest bad gift award for me goes to the aunt who sent a box addressed yo the whole family containing assorted unwrapped things, so we had to rummage and choose our own: a 3D puzzle of an owl, a James Bond paperback, a paper bookmark, oversize knitting needles, can’t remember the rest but it was all similarly unrelated. Just a hodgepodge of crap, for five people to share.

@spitefulandbadgrammar

That used to be known as ‘lucky dip’ it was a big thing at children’s parties in the 1950’s. They sometimes had big versions at garden parties and fêtes, you paid sixpence and sometimes got a used tennis ball and sometimes got a decent bracelet. There was always a star prize, though, which was the incentive.

maybe your relative has distant dim memories of these in her childhood, too. Tbh they were fun.

My BIL seemed to fill a large gift bag with food from his kitchen cupboards so we got various types of noodle, some sweet chilli sauce, a tin of coconut milk, a bottle of lager, a small bottle of wine and a can of vodka and coke!

One year my ex husband got 3 body warmers. One from his mum, one from his aunt and one from his nan. The thing that made us laugh the most was that they had all come from a market stall which was obviously fine and all 3 of the present givers had been together when they bought them. I mean there are some things like pairs of socks for instance that 3 pairs are useful. He didn't even like body warmers and they were very odd colours too. Still on the bright side my dad and my aunt found them useful and cosy.

My granny's brother (is that a great uncle ?) was notoriously miserly. When he died they found mountains of prescription medications he kept hoarding but not taking. He was so tight.
anyway one year he gave Granny a jumper from M&S that she didn't like. She took it back only to be told she could not exchange it because it was last sold about 12 years previously !

My Nan once got my boyfriend a mankini… no context, nothing that prompted it, we were early 20s at the time. That sums up how random and out of the blue our presents can be. We have great fun trying to guess each year!!

Ummm, you're gonna have to post a pic of this... beauty. Please.

A hammer. From DH.

It was when we were in our first flat. The sofa needed the occasional bash with a hammer to bash a strut (?!) into place. Apparently I had spent the year complaining that he kept moving the hammer. So he bought me my own. I can't think what possessed him. He thought he was a genius!

My mil once gifted me a rubber duck with a ginormous Willy 😳.
I don't know wtf she was thinking because we definitely don't have a friendly funny kind of relationship we barely see each other!

Not for Christmas but MIL once got me full length black leatherette gloves and a bright red parasol for my birthday 🤔😂😂

DH's grandma (now in her mid 90s) has given me things like these in the past , either made by elderly ladies at her church Christmas bazaar or from a market in Bradford. Now she lives up here with PIL, she still does her bit of shopping in the village- I got a secondhand book this year , a 1960s autobiography of a naturalist which looks interesting.
I miss the more eccentric presents 😁

This one has absolutely sent me. What on earth possessed her?? 🤣🤣