GTKY: Worst Gift You Ever Received

buggirl72

What's the worst gift you ever received? 

Only rule is this must be a real gift from a person (not something the universe did to you that happened to fall around a gift giving/receiving time).


Example:  A friend of mine once received a box full of the little jams and jellies that you can get at restaurants along with other "freebies" that his grandma had collected over the past year.

Nikolie93

I once got a bra from my great aunt. It was more like a training bra...and I was a C at the time. 

It was white with lace on it and I am pretty sure it had been down in the basement in a box for quite some time. 

buggirl72

The worst gift I ever received requires back story - because it's something some people would be fine with receiving.  My ex-h and I lived in an insanely large house (2200 sq ft 5bed/3bath) that I seemed to do nothing but clean every day.  Problem was 1) I worked full-time and was attending college full-time, 2) my cleaning was not good enough for the ex, and 3) he thought it was my job to do all of the cleaning. He became a real a-hole about it. Like, he took a picture of me while I was vacuuming one day because, as he put it, it was like capturing bigfoot on film. As I said, a-hole.  So, my worst gift happened on my 30th birthday.

He bought me a vacuum.  Happy 30th, now go clean the house.



This is pretty much how I felt:


He followed up a couple years later with a California Car Duster - and a vacuum for the car :ar!

cooldown726

For our wedding, one of my co-workers at the time gave us :

#1 - a 2 foot tall African style tribal mask
#2 - a multicolored neon rainbow spice rack thing. 

Both gifts were just SO odd, I don't even know if I am explaining them right. We ended up getting rid of both in a white elephant type gift exchange a few years ago.

Nikolie93

@buggirl72 that would be enough to make me rage! 

I have another one..

My ex b/f got me a small jewelry box. 

You wouldn't think that is bad except (1) I didn't have ANY jewelry at the time, and (2) I found out later that he had other "girls" (and a wife) . He would buy a bunch of shit through out the year and just pick something out of the closet for different girls. 

Obviously he didn't think mine through very well. X(

buggirl72

jj32 said:

My grandma once gave me a Barbie when I was 17.

A few years back my Mom gave me this size medium petite old lady looking owl sweater. First issue is I am not a petite, I am tall. It looked boxed shape. Second issue is it looked like it should have been for my grandma, and my Mom was so proud of it. I wish I could remember the brand I would find a pic.

@jj32 - that made me remember another gift (also from the ex)! One Christmas he got me this outfit that was sold as a set - pants with matching sweater. It was old lady polyester pants with an elastic waste bands in some weird burgundy color with a matching "sweater" that had cuffed sleeves and waist. I'm not sure what he was thinking since I have never as an adult worn elastic wasted pants and we used to work with a few different 60 year olds who wore shit like that.

It was on par with this:

I opened it and had two thoughts: this is a gag or, are these just ugly pajamas. Neither. He was incredibly insulted that I did not like what he picked! I don't think he ever forgave for not trying it on and just returning it.

rmpar29

My grandmother gave me a birdfeeder one year in the shape of a Cardinal.  Funny part of this story is that I never expected a birdfeeder to be in the box with the picture on the front.  I thought it was something my grandma had bought and then reused the box.  So, I said very sarcastically "a Cardinal birdfeeder, what I've always wanted", then opened the box to find the birdfeeder inside. 

Turns out, I had been thumbing through a catalog (possibly Harriett Carter or the like) and had found something I wanted.  Since my Grandmas had like 5 of the same catalog I wrote down the page number and indicated it was the Cardinal birdfeeder catalog.  So, my Grandma thought I wanted the birdfeeder too.  Thankfully, she didn't pick up on my sarcasm and thought that I really like it. 

meredithcarole

I had a aunt who always gifted my with clothing items that were intended for toddles even when I was 10. It was, of course, a major insult to a 10-year-old. I suppose I should be happy it wasn't bunny pajamas and that my mom never made me try them on.

yellowcat10

I dated a guy that was so insecure that I had been in a sorority (probably because we were in the same graduate program) that for Christmas he bought me books that 'every enlightened person should read' in an attempt to stick it to me I think.  He got mad when I informed him I had read or owned them all already.  It was stupid stuff like Marx and Charles Dickens, things you read in college or grad school anyway.  We stopped dating soon after that. 

reginaphilangee

When I was around 10 or 11 my family moved overseas. My grandparents through a going-away party and people brought us stuff they thought we would like to have/wouldn't be able to get where we were going. We were opening gifts in front of everyone and my gift was a pack of grannie panties. They were HUGE and super ugly. I was so embarrassed that I started crying in front of the whole family and exclaimed "my butt is NOT that big!"

It's still a joke in the family: last year my brother stuffed a pack of Walmart granny panties in my stocking. Punk.

rubysi

For this last birthday I received a metal sculpture for my yard from my MIL. My yard is simple clean lines not alot of fuss. This is a sculpture of a cartoon dog in an aeroplane, little metal scarf flying in the wind. It might even be a weather vein. I would take a picture but I would have to assemble it. It now sits in my closet and I have no idea what to do with it. I guess this is what I get when I tell them not to worry about a gift.

It looks alot like this:

catvaughn5002

My gifts also require a little back story.  My immediate family has always called me "Kitty" ever since I can remember.  My dad has probably called me this since the day I was born.  Now my grandma constantly buys me Hello Kitty gifts for both my birthday and Christmas.  I'm 26!!! First I was annoyed by it thinking of all the little girls that have hello kitty everything but now I actually look forward to seeing what I'm going to get.  My grandma is 87 years young and truth be told I will miss it when she's gone.  The gifts have ranged from shopping totes, bracelets, notebooks, etc.  I could go on and on.  My grandma volunteers in a hospital gift shop so that is how she gets all the stuff. See one of the gifts I received last year below 

)

mrspipp

Mine is similar to @rmpar29

When I was in  high school, my dad got me two smoke detectors. When I unwrapped them, I thought he had just put my real present in smoke detector boxes, but nope...there they were inside. I couldn't figure out why he would give me them, when I lived in his house which had plenty of smoke detectors. 

He said that he went to Wal-Mart on Christmas eve, and they had a big buggy full of them... Lots of thoughtfulness...

CC1017

Well, my MIL got me a duster for my bridal shower. Hint hint I guess?

And DH, oh my poor DH. He got me a rain coat one year. He was so excited because he didn't want me to get soaking wet walking from my parking garage to my office. But this is a coat my 80 year old grandma would wear. I can't tell him I hate it, so on days when it pours, I have to wear that stupid coat or DH will ask me why I forgot my rain coat. I hate rainy days.

catvaughn5002

@CC1017 At least your MIL got you the duster for an occasion.  Mine got us a swiffer type thing on her first visit to our new house.  I did complain about cleaning all the dog hair but still I feel your pain.

bfonz619

Mine was a holiday pack of Jones soda.  The flavors were gross like turkey and gravy, antacid and pea and I want to say some sort of potato.  Yuck!  The worst part, it wasn't a white elephant gift, this person really thought I would enjoy them even though I haven't had a soda in over 10 years. 

buggirl72

HoldingOutHope said:

Oh, man. I have apparently been pretty darn lucky in the gift-receiving department. Sure, I've received plenty of UGLY sweaters over the years from my grandparents, but that was just expected. My grandfather sent us a thoughtful box of goodies this year, but unfortunately there was a bag of pancake mix in there that had exploded in the mail...didn't make for a pretty scene when I opened the box the other day.

What I consider my worst is just going to sound ungrateful, I think, but here goes:

For my first wedding, my parents bought us an Amish quilt rack and a quilt to go in it. Not an awful gift by any means, but I still have no idea where they got that idea. The decor in my house has always been pretty much the opposite of Amish or quilt-y, so...

I've been dragging that thing across the world as I've moved frequently since then. I feel guilty, but I actually tried to sell it on craigslist multiple times. No bites. Now I am remarried and this gift for my first wedding is STILL hanging out in the house - not matching anything - and I don't know how to get rid of it. Maybe I should just donate it.

On a related note...is anyone in the market for a quilt and rack? :P

)

Seriously though, have you considered ebay?

CC1017

@HoldingOutHope I think it's totally acceptable to get rid of a gift from your first wedding. Your new husband should demand it - maybe that will make it easier.

I'm actually trying to mentally prepare myself for my new years "decrapifying" plan. I've been reading about guilty clutter. For example, I have a set of crystal champagne glasses (one for every color of the rainbow) from my grandma. I've had them for 6 years and they've never come out of the box. I go back and forth between "They're crystal. But they're ugly. They're expensive. But they're ugly. They're from your Grandma. But they're ugly." They've got to go. So does your quilt. Let go of the guilt, get rid of your quilt!

mflowers929

My family has a tradition - if you get clothing, you have to try it on for everyone to see. It makes for some pretty amusing Christmases.

When I was, uh, I wanna say 12, we spent the Christmas in Toronto with my family. My cousin is the same age as me, and we both got the exact same gift from our aunt - a set of baby blue lingerie. As family tradition dictates, we had to try it on for everyone. Somewhere out there is a picture of the both of us, lingerie on over our clothing, hiding our faces in shame.

nicnackmama

Over the years we've received some random gifts from family, but I think the worst was to DH from my FIL.  (Little backstory - DH does NOT drink, ever!  He hates the smell and the taste.) 

So it was a little odd when his dad gifted him a gift set of some crapy bottom shelf liquor and poker chips.  It was a little weirder when we learned that's what all 4 brothers rec'd from their dad.  Then to top it off, we later learned that FIL picked this gift set b/c it came with yellow poker chips that he wanted to add to his set.  He took out the yellow chips and put other ones in before gifting the set.  

peregrinefalconx

My mom gave me size 2-3X pantyhose (I may have been a L or XL) because she knew that I didn't like how tight they were or how they felt. Not helpful! But funny. To this day, somebody's got to die before I'll put on a pair.