Time for a worst/most bizarre Christmas present thread

[pinkksugarmouse]

Ex DH and I separated on good terms and the first Christmas exchanged gifts in front of our 12yr old DDD.To show we were friends. He got me 2 lush bath bombs. Now I have life long Rheumatoid Arthritis and haven't been able to use a bath since I was a child. We'd been married for 14yrs. We'd lived in a place with a walk in shower due to my arthritis. I wasn't upset just baffled.

Oh yes, the bath cubes! My sister and I used to take the wrapped present from under the tree, sniff them, both say ‘bath cubes’ and put them back for xmas day. Fortunately these gifts were from an aunt and uncle who we never saw on xmas day so no having to pretend we liked them, we just had to write our thank you note saying ‘thank you for the gift’.

My DH needs total direction with buying gifts, now and then he has surprised me with something really thoughtful but when I asked for a new dressing gown a couple of years ago, you know, a proper dressing gown which ties up at the waist, knee or calf length, long sleeves, suitable for winter and a size 8/10 in a soft, neutral colour I got this hideous, bright green, furry thing that goes on like a jumper, massive size. I was so disappointed that he’d got me something that after 36 years of marriage, he should’ve realised I’d hate. He took one look at my face, asked me if liked it, clearly I didn’t so it was exchanged for something that is actually asked for.

Some of you have been given such awful presents that I guess mine would barely make it into a top 20 of shit gifts…..

Exactly. I was the child in the sixties, being given things by grandparents and great aunts, who were Victorian/Edwardian by birth and to whom the 'bottom drawer' was a sacred fact.

After I split from my ex husband (when our children were very small) he said we should continue to get gifts for each other from the children which I dutifully did small gifts i knew he would like and got nothing in return i tried to be the bigger person then decided fuck it and bought him stollen (because the kids wanted to give him a gift) so for several years until he disappeared he got a stollen cost around 99p one year i spent a whole £1.59 on one

Awful "gifts" from awful ex SIL, circa 2019 or 20

a packet of chocolate Brussels sprouts from m&s
her clearly used loofah
maybe something else that was useless I can't remember

IF she actually went out and bought all of those items I calculated that it would have cost less than a fiver. And that's IF. I think she spent about £1.50 on the chocolate.

That year I spent £50 on her, by the way 🫠

My grandma got me a pair of bright red knee high socks with giant yellow sunflowers hanging off the side. They were hideous but theyre probably one of the few gifts I remember getting off anyone. I think I particularly remember them because about a decade later when she had dementia she was wearing a pair of knee high socks with bunny heads hanging off them that reminded me of the ones she bought me, I said "I like your socks, where did you get them?" And she said "my granddaughter Ashlee bought them for me(i'm Ashlee), turns out my niece had bought them for her but she was stuck a decade in the past and still thought I was a little girl.
So they were hideous but a fond memory now.

My son was 1 week old on Christmas Day a long time ago. I wasn’t coping very well to put it mildly. I hadn’t opened any presents I was just trying to get through the day. My awful SIL kept phoning to ask me what I thought of my present and wasn’t happy I hadn’t opened it. Eventually I said ‘thank you so much it’s lovely’ just to get rid of her. I opened it a couple of days later and it a set of hangers. Just ordinary hangers. What was she wanting from me. The following year my now exh as usual left the present buying to me and I bought her a nice expensive perfume, Poison. I am just glad they are all ex’s and I don’t have to bother any more.

I was given a set of rubber cup holders that you put over the arm of the sofa and they have a pocket for the tv remote as well. It wasn’t just a set of two, either. There were about eight of them. More cup holders than I have sofa or armchair arms.

I want some lily of the valley bath cubes now.😁

And yes to a pp who mentioned the 'bottom drawer' thing, and it was still done in the 70's - I had one. A right collection of random shit, now I come to think about it.

I have no idea if they're still made, but my Mum (born 1932) always had one in her handbag. She called them Rainmates, which I assume was the brand she used to buy. I probably had one myself in the 1970s but have never bothered since leaving home! I suppose back in the days when most adult women had a shampoo and set once a week they wanted to protect their hairdo in between times.

Xmas gifts from MIL to me (aged late 20s at the time) include scented drawer liners, fabric-covered coat hangers, lavender talc and dehumidifier tubs. DH has received a pot of goo for cleaning crumbs out of computer keyboards, and an identity theft prevention stamp, for blotting out your address on envelopes prior to recycling them (he actually has used this, paranoid weirdo that he is!)

I’ve mentioned this on another thread, but one Christmas I got the yarn and knitting needles to knit my dad a scarf, as my ‘main’ stocking present. When I changed the habit of a lifetime and told my mum I wasn’t happy about being given a gift that was a job for me and a gift for my dad, she guilted me into keeping it and knitting the scarf.

I found your crab on sale on Etsy for 40 quid! 😂
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1516526240/vintage-murano-glass-handmade-crab?ls=s&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=large+glass+crab&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&sts=1&loc=1&local_signal_search=1&content_source=eb6e7855-7f95-4018-acf0-5a9cbb7865e4%253ALTa360e247c8c5cda30b37c4fcd894fdf558bcab62&organic_search_click=1&logging_key=eb6e7855-7f95-4018-acf0-5a9cbb7865e4%3ALTa360e247c8c5cda30b37c4fcd894fdf558bcab62

A camera. Cost about £70 - this was late 1990s, so quite expensive. (Like £160 now.)

It was from a couple who me and DH knew at the time.

I had a camera already, and only bought it the year before. Batshit gift.

I took it back to Boots, (where it came from) said I'd lost the receipt, and asked for store credit. Got a high chair for the DC, and some new clothes for them, and some nappies. They never knew. I just kept using my (1 year old) camera, and they never even noticed.

I rarely notice any smell in charity shops, but there was one time I walked into one and my nostrils were immediately assaulted by a very recognisable (to pet owners) scent of flea spray. I turned right round and went out again.😂😂

Lol, ex husband gave me a candle in the shape of a hyacinth (I'm allergic to virtually every fragranced air freshener, candle, smelly anything ) his wife gave me a huge box of 'posh' toiletries. .. forgot in her 'regifting' to check , it had a voucher inside that had expired 5 years before!

My lovely late DM (who lived through WW2 and was fond of make-do-and-mend) used to make us open presents really carefully so we didn't rip the paper, and she'd then iron the paper and put it away for next year. Or use it to line the kitchen cupboard shelves & drawers.

I’m 63. Boxes of handkerchiefs. Bath salts. Writing set. Box of coloured pencils (they were quite nice actually). Pomander

Fusty

An ex's mum gave me some Johnsons baby powder.
My big brother and his now ex wife gave me a kids hot pink, plastic hairbrush and mirror set when I was around 20, the same age as my SIL 🤣.

When I was very young in the late 80's, we were very close to the elderly couple that lived next door. The wife used to run raffles for the British legion and their spare room was full of scented soaps, satin pyjama cases, scented drawer liners, lavender pouches, handkerchiefs and fancy writing paper sets etc. I used to love looking at all the pretty things, but I wasn't allowed to touch them 😂. I can almost still smell that room now ❤️😍

The funniest birthday present I received was a rape alarm when I was 8 .

Yes the days of the weekly wash and set, the plastic rain hat was definitely required. Although the other day after I came out of the hairdresser and it tipped it down with rain I thought how useful one of those old plastic rain hats would have been!

I too remember the days of Notelets, bath cubes, embroidered hankies, jar of scented bath salts that had a ribbon around the neck etc. I recall the bath pearl things where the outer shell didn't dissolve properly in the bath and floated around then stuck itself to the side or bottom of the bath like superglue when the water was let out! Fond memories.

Yes I do. I’m the same age as you and I remember getting a LOT of those types of things along with thank you notes (so I could write and thank everyone who’d given me a gift lucky me) and a set of antimacassars once! Were they meant to be for your ‘bottom drawer’ do you think? I am a little confused by the crust set though…

Or foisty

My mum's SIL once bought her a loo brush

• just the brush, not even a holder!!!