I don’t wear jewelry. The only exception? My plain wedding band that I’ve worn since June 8, 1991. I took it off once for some medical thing.

Why then the gifts of jewelry? My sister bought my mother’s 50th birthday gift to me. Back in 2012. That necklace and earrings have sat in their boxes since.

My MIL and SILs same thing. Almost every birthday. Some costume jewelry. I don’t understand.

Someone trying to tell me something?

Not to sound ungrateful but it’s just strange to me.

Speaking of strange, my SIL just gave my daughter MY rocking chair as a gift for the birth of the baby. As my apartment has no room to spare, I asked my brother in law to hold it for me in his 2 bedroom apartment he shares with no one. No problem. Hoping to bring it with me when I move out of this city one day. But I’m stuck here for the time being.

My daughter explained she really had no room or desire for a rocking chair way at the beginning of her pregnancy. My husband explained to her that it was my chair..... then I spoke to her as well....to no avail. I’m I crazy or is she?

Thoroughly perplexed and annoyed. Looking at it right now. Crammed in here. 🙄

With the new reality of life that has come upon us, who is to bet that the gift giving will get a bit more distorted?

I have given up on giving gifts with the exception of the young grandchildren. Even then, that is going to be quite different now. There is only so much that can be appreciated. After that, it is little more than landfill.

This is all a new reality.

It does, however, make for some funny stories, but also some hurt feelings and relationships.

A former boyfriend used to get me really good gifts, useful but also stuff I really liked. Then the last Christmas we were together he brought over this huge pile of gifts... and they were all either dog-related or actually for my dogs. He even wrapped up a box of milkbones.

Our relationship obviously was turning the corner to just being friends. We broke up later that year.

I can't recall any really bad gifts. Most have been great and a few have been spectacular. But I do have a rather creative and oddly quirky family so you never know what you might receive :-) Maybe the oddest one was a sewer pipe I received from my DB. Looked just like one of these....

It was actually intended (by him) to be used - and was - as a plant stand :-) I dragged that thing around for years before it got recycled somewhere. But it did make a darn useful plant stand!!

It probably came with a poem as well. My bro tends to poetry (silly) rather than a standard gift card and very often the poem is the highlight, rather than the gift itself. In fact, his wife compiled copies of all his gifting poems and gave them to all of us one year as part of our individual Christmas gifts.

When I moved on from one job, the ladies gave me a nice brand-name purse. It looked like something an old lady would carry to church. That's what they thought of my style? Oh well. It lived in my closet for a few years before going to Goodwill.

My high school boyfriend gave me two baby alligators for my birthday. Thye were such a pain to care for! There’s another funny story about how i got rid of them. No, i did not release them into a pond.

My MIL also gave me gifts that were really a problem. She went to a neighbor’s house sale and bought a huge desk, a chair and matching curtains for me. The desk was enormous and we had no space for it anywher in our little,house. My husband still brought it home and put it in our den. It was somclose to the sofa that you could just barely open the drawers and couldnt possibly sit at it. He proceeded to heap all kinds of paper and junk on it. When we divorced that desk was one of the first things to go.

My MIL’s idea was that I would make a bedskirt from the Curtains and buy a white coverlet to go over it. With the remaining material I would make window toppers. All this without asking me if I wanted this project or even liked the idea. The chair and curtains sat in her basement until the day she died. It was just a disaster.

Highjack, Ded, you have to share the rest of your alligator story!

I always suspected my sister-in-law of re-gifting at Christmas. She was a manager of a company and certainly many of these gifts were unwanted ones from her employees. I realize some people see no harm in re-gifting but her choices as to whom she gave them was baffling. Plus she lived out of state so they were mailed.

I received many, but the one I recall most was a scarf. Now I'm a low key person, not fancy, prefer natural fabrics, earthy colors, etc. The scarf was long, thin, sparkling gold, and inexpensive. Totally not my style. I was at my Mom's and Step-Dad's when I opened it. For some reason it struck me as being so funny that I got to laughing and couldn't stop. The others looked at me like I was the most ungrateful person on earth.

A men's brown plaid Woolrich half zip top. Clearly men's style. I thought they accidentally put my name on my husband's gift when they beamed and told me how nice and warm it would be for me in Michigan. It was also acres too big for me.

I was insulted that they thought I was a huge burly man.

I got a broom once, from my sister but I loved it. It was striped, all different bright colors. It's a display piece. I don't use it - don't want to get it dirty. :)

I can only think of weird Christmas gifts that I knew about, but didn't receive personally.

My DM's BFF from Providence was living with us at Christmas after her DH died suddenly. An old friend from RI mailed a small package with a note, "You always admired these; now they are yours." We all burst out laughing. The gift was a rather moth-eaten ocelot collar and cuffs that the giver had detached from a 1940's vintage suit. We weren't entirely surprised, as Frugality was her middle name. (She'd drive miles to save pennies on a head of lettuce.)

The other evidently unfortunate gift was a find for me one January day. It was a new Maytag washer and dryer I bought at half price from a middle aged man in a neighboring suburb. They'd been his Christmas gift to his wife. She'd left him. I enjoyed them for over 20 years! (After watching "The Sopranos" I did begin to wonder if they hadn't 'fallen off a truck'.)

Wonderfully awful gifts everyone - but I'm with eld - we need the lowdown on the baby alligators.

And I just noticed that ded-tired is now hyphenated - is that new or another one of Houzz's improvements?

Skibby, try again, your broom doesn’t count ;)

I was really expecting an engagement ring for Christmas one year, I got tennis shoes.

From my husband and sons one year for my birthday or Mother’s Day. We do not live in the south, we are not from the south, we don’t vacation in the south. I don’t decorate with roosters. Nothing about this has anything to do with anything about us or me. I just don’t get it. The rooster stays in the holiday decorating shelves in the basement. Maybe the guys should stay in the basement, too.

When I was a child, I had one aunt who was an Avon representative. She always gave each of us an Avon gift. It was never an item meant for children, but one for adults. Imagine being a 5-year-old boy and opening a gift of hand cream. It continues to be a joke among the cousins to this day.

Fun, that reminds me of another gift. I was 13, a tomboy still with all boy siblings and cousins. For Christmas, everyone received a wrapped cylinder. The boys were opening theirs, they were rolls of quarters! I was sooooooo excited! Money! I opened mine. A lipstick. My first lipstick. I was sooooooo disappointed.

Just reading the title of this message string, my mind went back to the absolutely worst gift ever for a young girl of 12 years old. Our family had drawn names with another family to buy Christmas gifts. On Christmas day, they came to our house and we exchanged presents. When I started to open mine, the mother of the other family said, "No, wait a minute." Then she leaned over and whispered to me what the gift was. I sat there, totally aghast, because I not open the present in front of all those people of both genders. Of course, everyone was telling me to open it. I remember wanting to cry so bad, but would not let myself. What she whispered was, "It's a pair of panties." Can you imagine giving a young girl such a "present?" And when I did get to open the package, it was the ugliest, cheapest, horrible pinkish color, ever. Mom was so angry that they would put me through that and she put them in the trash and we never exchanged gifts with that family again.

Walnut, that woman was mentally ill. Sorry, not sorry.

Again, not the worst, but disappointing. We had a favorite aunt and one day she brought us big plastic dolls. We were past the age for this type of doll.

Fun2BHere - your Avon story reminded me that my sister-in law was an Avon rep and sent half full bottles to my Mother for Christmas and her birthday. My brother was doing very well and had plenty of money - no kids to worry about, they took wonderful vacations 3 times a year but both of them were extremely frugal. My SIL was well known for not spending more than $5.00 on a gift, she re-gifted often and sometimes the name of the first receiver was still written on the box. She frequented yard sales and sent my boys adult size Banlon golf sweaters, some still had sweat marks on the underarm.

When my Mother passed away she went through her closet looking for the items that she had given my Mom and packed them up to take back with her. We all just shook our heads - there was no way those clothes would fit so we figured she would sell them at a garage sale.

In another thread I mentioned my mother in law; she also has the honor of giving the worse gift ever. We bought a new house and she notified us that she had found an amazing old oak desk that would be perfect. Before cell phones so she just had to describe it. One thing I recall is that she was very excited about the unique top, which she tried to describe but mostly stressed how gorgeous it was. I pictured an inlaid pattern of some kind based on her description.

This was in the early ‘80’s and I had some lovely old oak pieces that had been in my family, so I was excited and grateful for her generosity. They lived in California so they were going to drive it to Washington. I think my father in law got to buy a new trailer to haul it, which would have pleased him no end. Gadget guy. And that’s how huge it was.

So they show up with this monster PINE desk, very dark brown stain, very utilitarian looking. The "lovely" top was actually that kind of particle board used in exterior building that had those large shavings all glued and pressed together. Bless her heart, she actually had a piece of glass cut to fit the top to protect that “unique wood” and to make it usable because the particle board was too rough to write on. I hated that thing.

eta: this is the stuff the top was made of. I think the original top had been ruined and someone made one out of this stuff:

Years ago my husband talked incessantly how I will love his Xmas gift. OMG! It turned out to be a polyester(which I never wear) beige jogging suit which I would not have been caught dead in. Never even tried it on and have no idea what happened to it.

Another gift which in retrospect was racist and not funny at all. My paternal grandmother gave me a little black baby doll when I was very little. Maybe five. Being an innocent child, I started playing with it, dressing it, and remember my grandmother and her daughter cackling about it. It was only in recent years did I realize it was a nasty joke for the adults. I don't remember my parents' reaction but only in later years did I realize how racist those two were by the comments they made.

Just a few years ago my hubby gave me a clothes drying rack for Christmas. The same year he gave me a really large, heavy flashlight to keep by the bed (he works away a lot) - heavy enough to use as a club if I ever needed to. He still doesn't understand that a clothes drying rack isn't an appropriate Christmas gift for his wife... lol (I gave him a pass on the flashlight). To him, it was a great idea - he knows I air dry many of my clothes and he thought I'd use it all the time. And I do - but that doesn't make it a *Christmas gift*. It's given us lots of laughs.

I used to complain when my college boyfriend carried his big Canon camera on dates, often asking me to "carry it for a while." I had no interest in lugging around a camera and photographing my life; and couldn't afford the film and processing if I did. He also liked to flirt with the girl who worked at the camera store. I knew she wasn't interested in him; I'd heard her making fun of him behind his back. That birthday, he gave me a paper bag and inside was a camera with the price still on the box. I didn't even bother to take it out of the box, so he did, while telling me how great it was. I never used it and couldn't return it because he'd gotten rid of the box. Two years later, I gave it to a guy who did some carpentry in my apartment. He was thrilled -- apparently it was a good camera.

End of the alligator story. I finally could not care for the darn things anymore. I decided to put them in a shoebox and take them back to the pet store where my bf bought them. On the way to the counter i noticed two little boys looking at the baby alligators in an aquarium. I asked them if they wanted some alligators and they said yes. I handed them the shoebox with the alligators and ran out of the store! I bet that is still a family story for those two boys — how some girl handed them a box of baby alligators and ran away. I was about 16 at the time.

As for Dedtired/ ded-tired, i had to reregister at one point and had to use the hyphenated version of my name since “someone ” (me) was using Dedtired. Now Houzz/ Gardenweb remembers me as one sometimes and the other at other times. I have given up trying to figure it out. I can’t sign in at all on my phone.

You all have gotten some pretty awful gifts! No excuse for used clothes. Ugh.

Again my oldest sister is frugal, to put it nicely. One year we were exchanging presents, I bought one nice gift for each member of her family. ( four people)

My gift was a vegetable strainer! The cheap one that’s folds open. Useful, but still.......

Great bad gifts everyone!

My mil used to come for a visit and bring us "food", as a young couple. She wanted to be praised for this. Open boxes of grains such as barley or something or other. I would open the open boxes and bugs would fly out. I had to ask her son to tell her to stop giving her rotten food to us. Maybe something we could eat would be nice and appreciated.

The rooster up thread reminded me of another mil gift I got. As a young couple we bought the couch we could afford--the one on sale, which had large printed roses and wide green stripes on it. The same fabric is used in The Goldbergs TV show as the parent's bedspread, but they have large yellow stripes where we had green ones. Ugly, but we had a place to sit. I kept it covered as we had young messy children anyways. She got us a new couch one day (did not tell us, just showed us when we were at her house for a visit)...with giant sized RED ROOSTERS and EGGS all over it. She got mad at me that I didn't want it. I thanked her for the thought, but I could not take it. She said my couch was ugly. I agreed with her that it was indeed ugly then I had to say :(( that at least I don't have explain away giant red roosters and giant eggs each time someone comes over. I told her I was not going to haul the rooster couch 400 miles in a U-Haul trailer I would have to rent, sorry. She was mad at me of course. She might have run the idea by us first to see how we felt about giant red roosters...

One time dh gave me an ironing board for x-mas. Technically, yes, I had said outloud sometime in November that I needed a new ironing board, but it wasn't my fav x-mas gift I ever got :( He was so proud of himself too since he got me something I said I needed. I acted like I was pleased with it. Sigh. Teehee.

Dedtired - love the alligator tale. I wonder what their parents thought when the boys came home.

My younger brother went to the corner candy store and came home with a kitten and told my mom that a nice lady had a box of them and she was giving them away - Free. My mother jumped into the car with my brother and the kitten and drove down the street hoping to find that dear, sweet lady. No luck. My brother had serious allergies to cats and dogs. She finally talked the milkman into taking the kitten back to the dairy farm.

DH gives wonderful presents but one year I did receive a riding mower. In all fairness we had just moved into a new home and I had asked for one. But he could have put a bow on it.

When my daughter asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her 3 things, all different price ranges to choose from And she said, Would you like tickets to the dinner theater?" I said no I don't really care for them. Guess what I got for Christmas? SOOOO with the virus all this year so far, I think I can just get my money back. It's not even open. I hope so.

I enjoyed these stories. Some made me laugh out loud. But I also tried to read them as social instructions, as I suspect I am a terrible gift giver. I try, but I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere on the internet there are stories about the awful gifts I gave. I guess the main lesson is never give anything practical because a lot of people find practical items inappropriate as gifts. The secondary lesson is never give anything decorative or ornamental as you may be way off in guessing what the recipient will like. Oh, and for God's sake, do not surprise anyone with large pieces of furniture.

I'm the odd one out as I always loved kitchen appliances and such as gifts.

ETA: and I don't love jewelry!

Not a bad gift, but, a horrible memory. I collected Madame Alexander Little Women dolls. They were on stands, never played with. I got the last one on a Christmas morning. My brother called and said he was bringing his new girlfriend and her daughter for Christmas. My mother took the doll and wrapped it for the little girl. She opened it and proceeded to undress her and ruin her hair. We then went to my brother’s houseboat, the little girl slept next to me in the car on the way, woke up and threw up all over me. Worst Christmas ever!

Teri, oh my. I feel funny putting a thumbs up on that!

Two stories

my sister and I were living together. I was in grad school. I had quit drinking 3-4 yrs earlier. My sister bought a cake and a bottle of champagne to celebrate my graduation. She was miffed when I was not happy about and told me to just take a sip during the toast.

My family for many yrs drew names for Christmas gifts. They were usually nice gifts as that was the only one we gave. My younger brother gave my sister several pairs of socks, not even nice ones, tube socks. To illustrate the type of gifts given the same yr my Dad gave me a boom box.

I felt so bad for my sister, she was not married or in a relationship, so that was the only gift she got that yr. She and the brother who gave the socks used to be really close, so it never made any sense.

I grew up in a family that gave practical and gag gifts so I actually enjoy that. In a time when we all have too much, I appreciate something I like or will use.

I think the worst gifts for me are the ones given without love.

"We were watching TV when the guy gave the girl an iguana because green was her favorite color."

Rob, the first thing that popped in my mind was Everybody Loves Raymond when Robert gave Amy the iguana. :-D

Just can't think of anything that bad for me. Maybe one would be when we were kids my brother scraped all the filling from Oreo cookies and replaced it with toothpaste. In those days there was a lot of plain white toothpaste. I remember thinking it odd he was so willing to give me all those cookies. :-/

The gift was beautiful BUT... my last husband’s first wife had died and he had a very expensive set of jewelry that he bought for her still in his possession...and on the day he married me, he gave me that set for my wedding gift. I wore it a few times while he was alive and he admired it so much when I did, but now it just sits in the box...😟

One Christmas my ex-MIL gave me an envelope with a picture of a sewing machine saying it would be delivered to my house in a week or 10 days. I was thrilled. I was very very young and loved to sew. I spoke with her on the phone weeks later and told her something was wrong with her order as it hadn't arrived. It never arrived. I got nothing.

Oh gosh, Elizabeth. Did you ever ask her about it?

lily, my 83yr.old aunt still has a black baby doll someone gave her many, many years ago. She treasures it. We little girls would always go straight to the cabinet where it sat, but she would never let us play with it.

Yes, it is the thought that counts when it comes to gift giving but sometimes you just gotta scratch your head and laugh.

My exmother from h e double hockey sticks would give all of us girls the ugliest most boyish clothes that she could find. Unfortunately she did not want us to look like girls. There were two reasons for this. One it reminded our father that we were girls instead of boys which was what he wanted.

I think he would have made do with one boy but anyway. I often think if he had been able to accept my brother who was born out of wedlock and raised by my maternal grandparents as his own he would have been happier...

The other reason is she did not like males to pay attention to anyone but her no matter what age was of the male children or men she wanted that attention. Wonderful example of a mother.

I essentially started buying my own clothes at 12 but I had to make sure to hide them otherwise she would throw them away.

Ok Eld - how about a size 18 wedding dress from soon-to-be DH? I'm a size 8. He bought 4 more in sizes going smaller until he got it. By then I didn't care what it looked like.

I reminded the MIL about the sewing machine every now and then and she said she would check on it. After a while she just got irritable and I realized she never ordered it at all. Sadly, everyone in her family thought she gave me this wonderful gift and it was all a lie.

When I was 17 I had bad acne. That Christmas, every gift except for ONE, was to clear up my acne. From my two older sisters and my parents. EVERY gift, but one. I was never so hurt or insulted.

((Hugs)) Debby.

Well, my kids thought it was the worst gift ever. One year for Christmas, one of the gifts DH got for me was a telephone. We only had one phone downstairs and one phone upstairs. This was before mobile phones. Every time the phone rang I would have to run to the kitchen to the wall phone with the 50' cord that was always tangled up. (Remember them?) I thought it was the best gift ever because I could plug it in and set it on the end table next to where I sat in the family room but my kids were horrified. So, best and worst are in the eyes of the beholder.

30+ years ago, DH bought me a red vacuum cleaner for Valentine's Day. A few days prior he kept saying he had put a lot of thought into what he had bought for me and he was so excited when he finally gave it to me. I was a bit disappointed, but never let on.

My dad bought cemetery plots for he and my mom for one of their anniversaries. Dad thought it was a romantic gesture that he wanted to spend eternity with her. After the shock wore off, my mom thought it was very sweet :)

A number of years back my mom gave me a used drink pitcher for Christmas. Not a nice pitcher or one with special memories, this had the nasty dishwasher etching and no idea where she got it. . At the same time mom gave my brother’s girlfriend old coffee cups, based on the design they were probably from the 80’s. No clue what was going through my Mom’s mind, she was not having financial or health difficulties. My husband and brother received very generous gift cards to Best Buy and she gave nice nice gifts to all the other family members. It was as if she was upset with us for some reason. Never figured it out.

For Christmas one year, my sister gave our family or 4 one of those pre-boxed set of soup mugs. 1 mug for each of us and 4 packages of instant soup. My kids were 5 & 9 yrs. old.

My nephew told my kids the reason they were late was due to the fact that they had to stop and "get us something."

Nothing like being a 3rd thought.......

Later she let it slip how she's special ordered some items, (I don't recall what they were) for several of her "closest" friends.

That was the last Christmas I exchanged gifts with her.

My MIL gave me a tea set that was in her family for years. Had 3 cups, 1 saucer and pot was cracked on handle. I thanked her and later told hubby to put it in a box and store in basement.

Elizabeth's story about the man's shirt makes me think of my mother-in-law. She loves a bargain, even if it's all wrong. One year she gave my husband a really nice shirt. Unfortunately, DH was 5'7" and 135 lbs. The shirt was size 2x. But it was nice, and no doubt a great buy. The same year, she gave his brother a pair of boxers of a similar size. The boys could have fit in them together.😅