What is the best/worst gift you ever received?

I have a catalogue of worst gifts. We have a running joke in our family about one relative who always sends the worst gifts. They mean well and we don't see them often (yes I am being deliberately vague here, you never know who is reading!!), but they have absolutely no idea. Some examples I can remember are a kiddy toy watch when I was 20 years of age, an ugly knitted sweater (what is it with them? everyone hates them!) or a hideous "decorative" plate from Slovenia or somewhere they travelled. Its the thought that counts though!

Best ever Christmas present wasn't really a present - it was card from my wife with a message from my unborn baby telling me that they couldn't wait to meet me. It was so sweet.

To be honest I would be perfectly happy to forgo gifts at Christmas (at least for the adults). I just like having my kids around and seeing them happy with their new whatever!

Fun topic! I will be back. 🙂

the best gift i ever got was when i got a new lap-top, a camera and my ipod <3

the worst one was the candlestick 😐 I was like wtf? 😕 😀

the best one was a big Nutella 😀

and antique watch 🙂

My best gift ever was a glass ball with an angel inside for Christmas, I've got it last year from my boyfriend... 😍 And the worst one was a pair of knee high boots on extremely high hills, with a Zebra pattern... 🤢

Why didn't you like that boots? or do you prefer Tiger pattern? 😀

You should be careful not to get the ones for the next birthday 😂

I have been very spoiled by my family through the years, because they all refuse to draw names and everyone buys for everyone. But the gifts that mean the most to me, as others are saying, are those gifts my boys would either pick out on their own or made for me with their own hands, even if it was a card made out of construction paper. I still have a serving platter that my son picked out for me when they used to have "Santa's store" set up at that school, through community education, where they put up affordable trinkets for the kids to buy for their parents and siblings. I serve cookies off that tray every single year still. My son made me earrings one year, and they were so cute! Yup. Those are the BEST gifts of all.

My niece made me a key keeper, out of wooden blocks, and the blocks spelled out my name. I still have that somewhere, too, and I love it!

Another gift she gave me, that I loved, and still love, lol, was something as simple as a pancake griddle. Before that, i could not make a decent pancake, and now I think I am wearing that griddle out!

One year my boys surprised me by buying me all the seasons of the show, "Weeds," which was my favorite show at the time. That was fun.

I am still trying to think of a worst gift? I guess it was when my ex-husband bought me a word processor (before computers, lol). I had wanted one so bad, but the thing is he took the funds from MY money that I had received as an inheritance, and he beamed and beamed as if he was so proud that "he" bought me that. Yup. Thanks for spending MY money on something I wanted. lol

The rest of the "worst gifts" i must be blocking out of my memory, like a bad memory, lol

hope777 wrote:

The rest of the "worst gifts" i must be blocking out of my memory, like a bad memory, lol

good approach 😀) but sometimes you can't just erase really bad gifts from your memory 😀)

CL-Ed wrote:

I have a catalogue of worst gifts. We have a running joke in our family about one relative who always sends the worst gifts. They mean well and we don't see them often (yes I am being deliberately vague here, you never know who is reading!!), but they have absolutely no idea. Some examples I can remember are a kiddy toy watch when I was 20 years of age, an ugly knitted sweater (what is it with them? everyone hates them!) or a hideous "decorative" plate from Slovenia or somewhere they travelled. Its the thought that counts though!

Best ever Christmas present wasn't really a present - it was card from my wife with a message from my unborn baby telling me that they couldn't wait to meet me. It was so sweet.

To be honest I would be perfectly happy to forgo gifts at Christmas (at least for the adults). I just like having my kids around and seeing them happy with their new whatever!

CL-Ed, we had a relative like that, too, God rest her soul. She didn't understand that the boys were growing up and she would give "age inappropriate" gifts, like Action Figures when they had moved on from playing with toys, or items of clothing or jewelry that were way too small. She must have pictured them as forever young. lol!

salivan_genius wrote:

good approach 😀) but sometimes you can't just erase really bad gifts from your memory 😀)

LOL, SG! Well, I must have done a good job with it, because I know I must have received a really bad gift at SOME point in time, and I honestly cannot remember right now, lol!

Did the person who gave a candlestick give you the matching one to the set the following year? Just kidding. 😉

Hi all.. 🙂 the best gift would be the VISA gift card from my honey.. i already used it on Club World Casino & almost lost it all.. i should not have signed up for the bonus 'cause i could not use it for the tourney until i played through...... btw, the worst gift last X'mas 2010 from my sis-in-law.... how could she?? in a 1986 candle-box-springy-colors (literally, where's my cute bunny?) and all that cheap-poh!

I just thought of the WORST gift, but it was not TO me, but it did involve me. It was my very first Christmas with the last man I had a long-term relationship with. My sister-in-law gathered every AWFUL, horrible, un-photogenic picture she could find of me, plus old photos of me with my "eighties hair," ridiculous outfits, photos with me half sleeping, sticking out my tongue, whatever, you get it. She put them in a photo album and gave it to my then-beau as a Christmas gift! I saw him paging through and laughing and looking at me, and when I realized what it was I was SO devastated and humiliated! She thought it was the funniest joke ever, but I have dedicated my life, ever since, to getting her back for that (and I have done a few things to do just that, already, through the years).

Can you even imagine? 😢

LuckyMe wrote:

Wow, what an awful thing to do to someone. I'm appalled.

I know, right? She is lucky that I love her and that we are still friends, right? They all thought it was all in good fun, but I could have shrunk into the carpet. Many years ago, now, and I have gotten her pack a few times since. 😉

hope777 wrote:

I know, right? She is lucky that I love her and that we are still friends, right? They all thought it was all in good fun, but I could have shrunk into the carpet. Many years ago, now, and I have gotten her pack a few times since. 😉

LOL hope, she is definitely extremely lucky to be your friend ever since!

I've just remembered one of the WORST present to my B-Day : it was a very nice gift box, tempting to open it as soon as I got it ..... and there was a brooch inside. But if only it was just a brooch (regardless the fact that I never ever wear them) it was huge and had a shape of a gigantic chandelier you may find in old Opera Houses......

GambleMaster wrote:

LOL hope, she is definitely extremely lucky to be your friend ever since!

I've just remembered one of the WORST present to my B-Day : it was a very nice gift box, tempting to open it as soon as I got it ..... and there was a brooch inside. But if only it was just a brooch (regardless the fact that I never ever wear them) it was huge and had a shape of a gigantic chandelier you may find in old Opera Houses......

Yes! One person's "trash" can be another person's treasure, and you never know what that brooch may be worth...maybe even vintage? Do you still have it, GM? 🙂

I was talking to a friend I hadn't seen for years the other day. He's been going out with this girl for a few weeks and all was good until he gave her a Christmas present. He recently bought a new stereo so decided to use the big box for the old "big box little present" trick. He packed it with progressively smaller boxes and in the middle had a necklace or something. Anyway apparently it did not go down well. She had gotten excited after unwrapping the first layer and thought she was getting a new stereo. She gave a very lukewarm thanks at the end and she hasn't called him since!

If you ask me she sounds too high maintenance for my liking. You'd have to see the funny side of it wouldn't you?

That is golden, Ed. People should at least act like they appreciate the present.

And what woman chooses a stereo over jewelry?!? I mean come on...

Aaaah yes. The eternally unfathomable mystery that is "woman".

Although now you mention it I can see the positive side to a woman who would rather a stereo. Maybe she's a keeper after all.

CL-Ed wrote:

I was talking to a friend I hadn't seen for years the other day. He's been going out with this girl for a few weeks and all was good until he gave her a Christmas present. He recently bought a new stereo so decided to use the big box for the old "big box little present" trick. He packed it with progressively smaller boxes and in the middle had a necklace or something. Anyway apparently it did not go down well. She had gotten excited after unwrapping the first layer and thought she was getting a new stereo. She gave a very lukewarm thanks at the end and she hasn't called him since!

If you ask me she sounds too high maintenance for my liking. You'd have to see the funny side of it wouldn't you?

I agree that she has no sense of humor! I would be attracted to him just for the creativity and thoughtfulness that went into the gift giving, no matter if I wanted a stereo more than a necklace.

We did that to my youngest son once. We packed his box with cans of green beans (his least favorite vegetable) so it looked like that is all he was getting. There was a CD (or something, I think it was a CD) in a hidden area of the box. It was fun to see his face, lol!

LuckyMe wrote:

My ex sis-in-law did a message in a box gift for me. I opened the package, had a note to go upstairs to find another box, which had a note to go down to the basement to find another box. That box had a box inside a box inside a box. I don't remember what the gift was now. It made me tired and frustrated but in the long run was fun.

LOL, that does sound like fun!

I did something similar for my ex-husband. On his golden birthday (31) we bought him 31 gifts. The "big" gift was a really nice suit. We put it in the dryer and wrote up a scavenger hunt. At the end of the hunt he found a piece of yarn which he followed to the gift (in the dryer). The kids had fun helping with that.

One time we bought my son a bike for Christmas. We put it in the bathtub and shut the shower curtain, then wrote up clues so he had to also go on a scavenger hunt.

I like the creativity that goes into some gift giving, because it truly is the thought the counts, isn't it? 🙂

LuckyMe][quote=hope777 wrote:

One time we bought my son a bike for Christmas. We put it in the bathtub and shut the shower curtain, then wrote up clues so he had to also go on a scavenger hunt.

I like the creativity that goes into some gift giving, because it truly is the thought the counts, isn't it? 🙂

Soo sweet of you.... I adore creative presents, even the worst one can be gifted the way that makes it memorable for life...