A shotgun? I'd describe that as a terrible gift, not an odd one.

Had I been on the receiving end of that, I would have gone to a pawn shop at my earliest opportunity and gotten rid of it.

I can't recall too many odd gifts. At wedding and shower times, isn't that what gift registries are for, to avoid unwanted gestures?

Neither my wife nor I like surprise gifts and we've long had the habit of asking people (or their spouses) what would be an appreciated gift. Or when it's for kids, asking their parents. That's become a habit in our family. I think it makes gifts more useful and appreciated.

People are always trying to give me horses. Of course, they are all old and in terrible condition. I can't take any more, because they are very expensive to rehab and maintain.

marilyn, when we had horses, people kept wanting to give us apples. They meant well but we didn’t want them.

Every year, our county has to go out and clean up apples from the ditches. People from the nearby city will drive out to the country, dump their apples, thinking they are doing a favour to the wildlife. They’re not. I know they mean well but it is a poor practice.

Same with dumping unwanted pets/critters. ☹️

hobbitmom, I love grotesques!

I have two that I have had for about 45 years. I just repainted them.

Cute, Rox. Fred is showing his age and is more grey now.

My dad loved going to swap meets and garage sales. He’d buy so many crazy gifts for people, including used clothes. To top it off, he paid no attention to sizes. He once gave DH a double breasted bright red blazer with gold buttons and black patent leather shoes. Both were about 5 sizes too small, not to mention hideous.🥴 Didn’t matter to my dad; he just loved doing it. Over the years he gave me some kitchen gadgets that ended up in the trash, although most of them were actually new. I recall a non stick pasta pan with the strainer insert. The non stick surface started peeling off after one use.

“Didn’t matter to my dad; he just loved doing it. ”

chloedad, dads can be the greatest! I adored mine.

The oddest gift I've ever received was from my DH about 14 years ago. He took my new Honda CRV and had an aftermarket remote start system installed then gave me the control all wrapped up for Christmas. ME: "SO, I guess this means I'm never going to park my car in the garage - right?"

Right. We have a 2-car garage. He has 2 Porsches - a classic 944 turbo S that's registered and insured, then he subsequently added a GT4 track car that's no longer street legal. Those are his babies and that's where they live.

I used the remote start mostly in the summer to cool my car off before I took it anywhere because our driveway is sunny. I don't have the CRV anymore. I still have the husband. I still have to park my car in the driveway...

One year, my brother and SIL gave me a sewer pipe for Christmas. It was a big guy, about 3 and half feet tall and very heavy........terra cotta with a bell shaped end. It made an excellent plant stand and I used it to that purpose for years on my patio. It also came with a poem, as many of my bro's gifts did back then :-)

Once for my birthday, DH gave me a rented cello and 12 lessons. I adore cellos (he also got me tickets to a YoYo Ma concert). After the series of 12 lessons, all I managed was to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in about 8 variations. I have zero musical aptitude - YoYo Ma I am not!! - but it was still a great present!!

I really like creative and unusual presents.....something I would never buy for myself. And I want them to be a surprise, not something predictable or formulaic.

roxsolid, they are pretty special! My dad was such a jokester. For Halloween he would answer the door with a big bowl of onions and potatoes. The kids’s faces were pretty funny but changed to big smiles when he brought out the candy.🎃 Anyway, off topic but a good memory.☺️

My goodness, @roxsolid! Berettas are NOT cheap. My hubby is a duck hunter (read ”fanatic”) and he has been buying Berettas, one at a time. Apparently they are the Cadillac of duck guns. He has purchased one for himself and then one for each of our sons. Now he wants to buy one for each of our three grandsons! They are an investment, he says. 🙄

My DH would love love love to receive one as a gift. Me, not so much, unless of course he’s right about them being an investment …….

A framed performance award given by my former clinic manager and presented to me with great fanfare, after I retired. ???

“My goodness, @roxsolid! Berettas are NOT cheap.“

So I was told at the time. I think Gyorgy wanted to get in good with my husband’s sister.

It didn’t work out.

My husband has a Remington (I think) shotgun, and a .22 (Winchester) He hasn’t shot them in over 45 years. I’ve asked him why he hasn’t sold them. He says that he knows where they are and they are secure. He has no control over them once they are sold. Privately or to a pawnshop. Who knows who’s hands they could end up in. 🤷‍♀️

I think he is leaving them to a nephew who is farming. I’m not sure. I think that my son-in-law has shown interest in them.

eta I’ve just mentioned this thread to my husband and he’s not even sure if he can leave them to anyone. He has his gun owner’s permit but is not sure of regulations surrounding transferring them to another owner. He just knows that he owns them, and where they are.

We’ve had a lot of changes to the laws about firearms in Canada.

When DD was a young teen she bought a t shirt with little farm animals doing the thing that animals do. LOL Her friend told her I wouldn't wear it. her friend was wrong. For years DD would find similar shirts and buy them for me. I've had the farm animals, pigs, rats, lizards and others in their various "positions".

DS once gave me a really nice set of handcuffs for Xmas. He got them to replace the cheap ones he used to hold an exhaust pipe on his bike and they had rusted. and for curious minds no they were not kept in the bedroom, they were in my vehicle. Still carry a set.

Back around 2000 there were popular little collectables called Quarry Critters. They were made from resin and granite powder amd looked like polished stone. Most were cream colored and they were about 2 to 4 inches in size. Well DH didn't know anything about them but he knew I liked polar bears to set out during the winter holidays. He was on a trip I think and came across a gift shop with a polar bear in the window. He went in to buy it and there was no price tag on it. The workers tried to find out the price but were unable to find it in the inventory. So after a bit of discussion they settled on a price. A very, very good price that he and the store felt was fair since they didn't have any more. So I open the box to find a polar bear that weighs about the weight of large turkey and is a bit over a foot tall and almost as wide. I had no idea at the time how he came across such a large piece but months later he told me how he acquired it. I put 2 and 2 together and told him he'd bought the display piece meant to advertise the little table top critters. That was why they couldn't find a price. LOL Here's a pic I just found online of a normal sized one. (2 by 4 inches). Mine is buried in storage awaiting Xmas.

My Aunt Jesse was an EXCELLENT artist! .....Until...she changed her style over to ultra modern splatter painting with nail polish. Yeah. We ALL got one. Mine was a 14" x 14" & on the back she drew a circle and wrote "Man Trap" in the circle. ? Weird, but telling.

Like this one:

It was a "house warming" gift.

OH my, nicole. Why did she go the the splatter side? Odd.

@petalique...Remember Van Gogh's Sunflowers? She painted one like it...GORGEOUS! Maybe even "BETTER"! She sold her work! (She never finished it. My mom commissioned an artist to complete it, framed it, hung it in our house) I have NO idea what happened....

That is fantastic, nicole! Did anyone ever ask your aunt why she changed her style? Brain pathology? Meth? Well the nail polish splatter could not have been healthful for her. All that volatile acetone.

I am sure I mentioned this before. One year my Mom gifted me with a graveside plot next to her and Dad's. He was already gone, and I guess she thought I had no prospects. She was right!

A friend once gave me a very plain, utilitarian pie server. We had never discussed pie, and I am not a great baker. I have no idea what he was thinking, but it's still in my kitchen drawer. I often wondered if he had given me the wrong bag.

Here's one that I asked for: The previous women in my husband's life were big on receiving jewelry. I don't like to wear jewelry. But my husband is a generous guy, and from the moment we started getting close, he kept wanting to buy me a necklace, a bracelet, etc. I wasn't into it and this was hard for him to understand. Well, I went to the dentist and found out that I needed some expensive work done. The next time he mentioned jewelry, I told him that I what I really wanted was a crown. You should have seen his face until he figured out what I was talking about.

My mother often gave me gifts that she would like, but should have known I wouldn't. For my 21st birthday she had some opals she had set into earring and a pendant necklace by a bespoke jeweller. Ever since I was a youngster I had been quite vocal about preferring silver to gold, and had my engagement and wedding rings made in white gold. Had the opals been set in silver I would have worn them all the time, as I really like the settings, but as she liked flashier gold, they're in gold and I think I've worn them maybe 3 times in over 40 years.

(And another time when my brother was contemplating whether to get a gold or a silver thing as a gift for me, she told him I liked gold <eye roll>.)

Then there was the sugar bowl she bought as a souvenir at a pottery she visited when on a holiday. It was hideous, lumpy and a sort of turdish dark greeny brown colour. I can't imagine why anyone would think it was attractive.

And the set of serving platters, all battleship grey. My dishes at the time were white. Few foods look really attractive against a grey background. I wasn't too upset when they were never returned by someone I lent them to.

@petalique.... So long ago....1984. I don't remember why splatter art was her newest thang. My fathers side of the family was ALL artists. My maiden name was "Kuller". Link to her art My aunt on my dads side specialized in mother & child art. I donated THAT one to Goodwill too(mine was a small one, maybe 20" X20")....who ever got it will have a story of found wealth on Antiques Roadshow! Below: valued @ $8600. I have another aunt that designs dogs clothing for little tiny dogs in New York.

And....did you notice the seller is in Colorado? I wonder.....

My husband's parents gave us a desk when we moved into our present home. They lived in LA and his mom was SO excited about the antique desk, a great deal she found that she was certain I would love. As I do love antiques, I was pretty interested in what she'd found (before internet and cell phones) but had to wait to be surprised. She kept talking about the really interesting wood top.

So they put it in the back of his pick-up and hauled it all the way to WA for us. It was hideous. Huge, pine, dark uneven stain, not an antique. This was in the 1980's and I think it was from the 1970's. It must have weighed 200 lbs, that's how huge it was. The "interesting wood top" was actually ??? particle board? I don't know what you call it, but the kind of stuff you see in home construction that looks like large shavings glued together. It had an inset on top of that gross stuff that looked like there had probably been a nicer piece of wood on top of it at some time. It was unusable because the surface was so rough and uneven, you never could have written on it. I think we had to spend $$ for a piece of glass to fit it, but you could still see the crappy pressboard. If someone had a collection of something to display under glass, it would have been suitable for that, but we did not. We left it in an upstairs spare room and never used it. ever. Soon after my husband died, I had it moved to the garage, where it still sits. He didn't like it either, though.

eta: I guess it is called particle board...this stuff:

this is just part of my breyer horse collection. my husband started it for me. he loved to go to auctions and flea markets and would often bring home a breyer horse he'd found. when people saw my collection, they started gifting what they thought i'd love but more often than not, they were just cheap plastic horses they picked up a the dollar store or walmart, rarely did they go to the trouble of actually finding a breyer model. most of those gifts ended up in the shed outside and eventually i donated them to toy drives. the ones on the top shelf are all Christmas models that i bought for myself but the rest of them are ones that we found by happenstance. many of them are "common" models but some are also quite valuable because they are limited editions or very, very old but in excellent condition.

i once saw an ad in the local paper, some guy selling a "lot of plastic horses". i went to look at them thinking maybe there was a breyer or two. got to his place to find a card table set up with about 25 plastic horses. he was selling the collection as a whole for $25. there were 7 breyer models, several of them were draft horse models that were old and pristine. obviously, he had no clue how valuable they were. i told him i wanted those particular ones and that i would give him $50 for them but he could keep the rest to sell to someone else. he jumped at the chance. when i got them home, i got my breyer book out, added up the value of those 7 models and it was $500+.

obviously, things are only worth what people will pay for them but since i had no intensions of selling them, their actual value didn't really mean all that much to me. it was just a really fun find!

My DM's best friend was staying with us one Christmas. A gift arived from her longtime friend in RI. It was a small, soft package with a tag that said, "You always admired this."

Christmas morning the mystery unfolded. Wrapped in used wrapping paper was a moth-eaten fur collar, originally part of a coat the giver had worn thirty years ago. We laughed urselves sick. We would have been dumbfounded had we not known that this was a woman who would drive to five different grocery stores to get the best price on broccoli. Frugal? Oh my! (It's the thought that counts.)

I was given an old (maybe antique but not that old) china gravy boat for no apparent reason. This was for a milestone birthday. While everyone was giving me book store and clothing gift cards that I could really enjoy I acted pleasantly surprised. Weird.

When we were teens, my older brother gave me Phil Silver’s autobiography. I had no idea why.. Yes I read it, it wasn’t even all that good. Many years later I teased him about and he was taken aback, and told me the reason he gave it to me, which I don’t remember now. He is actually a very good gift-giver now! Actually, all the guys inmy family are, brothers, hubby, sons sons. I am a terrible gift giver.

A sparkly turtleneck top.

I received a Remington shotgun one Christmas and it was a great gift! We are a hunting family.

DH once have me a spare part for a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. Fortunately I know his sense of humour.

Nina, do you have a Zippo Royal Pine Bar in your collection?

Colleen, look into having the settings silver plated. I did this with a necklace.

MrsM's gravy boat has me laughing out loud. Gotta wonder about that thought process!

Not so much odd but cherished memories now. 1978, the year I graduated from high school and disco was the thing, my dad, who never ever shopped went to the store and bought me a high/low disco skirt! Knee length in the front longer in the back. It was black with skinny red piping all along the hemline. He was soooo tickled with himself. He also bought fo me, on his own, a 1980 Hallmark Christmas ornament that says LOVE on it. It was my last Christmas living at home. It's the first ornament on my tree every year.

Well, odd, but then again, I asked for it. New wedges for when I split wood. I did think it odd... or perhaps a message ... when someone gave me foot cream for dried cracked heels.

One Christmas after an awful year, my husband was bragging about his gift to me, saying I'd really like it. I was imagining something spectacular, and it was a beige running outfit and polyester to boot. Beige is a color I have never worn, and I only ever wear 100% cotton clothing, so it was thrown away, and gifts ended there between us. Fortunately, my kids give great gifts, always original.

Just remembering this. Years ago, as a joke, a coworker gave me a little battery-powered gadget that said 5 different inappropriate things when you pressed a button. We all had a good laugh about it at work. It was about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and I had it in my purse when I left work. I stopped at a Hallmark store on the way home, and the stupid thing went off while I was browsing through some greeting cards. People glanced in my direction, so I started looking around in an attempt to look innocent.🥴

A friend gave me a coffee mug that says "I'm not fat. I'm just fluffy." with a picture of a chubby unicorn on it. Hurt my feelings every time I saw the mug in the cabinet. Finally donated it. Why would anyone give that to someone they care about?

A shotgun? I'd describe that as a terrible gift

You're right Elmer. It should have been 2 shotguns for the wedding gift. His and hers.

A child’s rocking chair when I was 2 (I’m 78 now)

(Sorry, with my bad eyesight I thought it said oldest gift, LOL)

This was a fun read. Great thread Roxsolid!

My spouse's grandmother was sort-of renowned for her bad gifts. You really just never knew what to expect. For the last 2 decades of her life, she "shopped" her own house for presents. If they had been of modest means it wouldn't have felt so weird - but they were actually fairly well off and I have no idea what she was thinking.

I got a used candy dish. Complete with crusted up bits of old hard candy at the bottom. :-)

She wasn't cognitively impaired either, as far as I could tell anyway. I don't think she had any age-related dementia. I suppose her eyesight wasn't the best and so maybe she didn't notice the candy bits still stuck in the bottom of the bowl.

It was actually a nice crystal bowl from Waterford. I said thank you, took it home, cleaned it up, and still have it now probably 30 years later. It reminds me of her and I still laugh when I think about it.

Not for me personally but a friend, who was a well known vegetarian, got a large sausage for Christmas from her father and stepmother. Not even subtle. What bazaar behavior for adults.

A small trilobite fossil (birthday present). I did not find it odd at all.

How is a child's rocking chair an "odd gift" when you are 2?

Gravy has rescued many a bland meal. We recently watched a series set in WWII London where the gravy boat was the most popular item on the table.

I just gave my DIL a silver gravy boat -- because she makes the best gravy -- and because I'm trying to get rid of all this formal silver, china and crystal.

Sorry Angela ID, I thought it said oldest gift…..

Ah, gotcha 👌

Maybe everyone except Annie D would think it odd, but I’ve asked for & received a small chain saw and a lot of other garden maintenance tools over the years. When we first built our home, there was a lot of underbrush and small useless saplings that needed thinning and I used the chainsaw a lot back then. Now we use mostly battery powered things and I still use those often.

My ex-MiL gave me some doozies a few times. When she retired she took up painting pottery. You all have seen most of it I’m sure…lighted Christmas trees, figurines, etc. I received several and when they would visit they would be on display somewhere.

I’ve also been the recipient of someone grabbing an item from who knows where. Once I received a fat candle in an ugly glass container that had been used at least a couple of times. I never give candles unless I know the person wants a specific one.

Many, many years ago, my friend received (wait for it) a dozen pair of hose from her husband. I don’t call him DH because they had not been married long and divorced not too many months after this particular Christmas. She was totally gobsmacked as they were beautifully wrapped from a very nice department store. None of us friends of hers could quite see the two of them married and now we understood why. So bizarre.

Great thread! I’ve enjoyed the posts, ladies, and as usual, we all have had things like this happen to us.

I'm going to nominate that enormous, gold (of course) oil lamp (?) that's now prominent on the desk in the Oval Office. (Missing from some Coptic church?)