Okay for a lighter side and taking Tutorme's suggestions to heart

Enjoy this forum on gift giving........ it's all about people's kaveat's on the worst xmas gifts they ever received and some are so funny. Some poor kid got a stuffed armadillo. Enjoy and have fun.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/community/message/thread.asp?threadid=463939&boardname=Hide&header=SearchOnly&footer=Show&boardsparam=Page%3D41&linktarget=_parent&pagestyle=money1&forumid=18&board=YourMoney

Not my worst Christmasgift ever, but surely the wierdest event:

Well, the strangest gift time I had was when I was about 13 years old.
Each time it was my time to open a pressent, it was some rubbish from under my own bed (!) nicely wrapped up. Even an old dried up apple core! So after 6 or seven packages like that, the next nicely wrapped little pressent I was given to open was one too many.
"Yes, yes, another apple! I know I am not good at keeping my room clean!!" I cried, and I simply threw it in the pile of paper. To my huge surprise my father made a mad dash after it!
He gave it to me and said: "Open it!"
I did. It was a gold ring! My first real gold ring. Just like the one I had pointed out in a magazine a few weeks earlier, when my father showed me a page full of rings and asked if I ever had one, which one would that be....

Well Anna that had a nice ending for you and that worked out good. I imagine you cherish that ring. I can't think of a bad xmas present I ever had which I think is a good thing.
My mom and I exchange a ratty old gray hanky that came from a great great grandfather and it's a running joke, you never know where it's going to pop up but it is not the main gift, it's the fun gift. This year I got it for my birthday in an eyeglass case.

The old uncles and aunties in my family have stopped doing birthday gifts, when they noticed that money in an envelope (as a gift) passed from one person to the next each year.

My gifts were never that bad... but my mother has this thing for soap. I don't know WHAT it is.. but no matter WHO she buys a present for, she buys them soap.
Think "I got it on sale for $0.99, Dial is a great buy!" kind of soap.

However.. my friend Michelle ALWAYS gets the best gifts from her mom
One year she opened her present to find puke green socks made specifically for people with abnormally shaped feet... on clearance clearance.... clearance clearance clearance.. (Meaning they'd been marked down several... SEVERAL times... which isn't bad, except for she left ALL the stickers on it )

poor girl. ahahaha

My worst Christmas gift ever? One year, when I was about 12 or so, there was this HUGE box behind the tree... all the other packages were in front of it. I could barely peer around and tell that box was for me! FOR ME! WOW! What could it be?! I never had such a large present before! We all opened our presents, one at a time, enjoying each other's enthusiasm and surprise. But all the while, I kept thinking about that BIG box. No matter how I distributed the presents, I could not get it out from behind the tree. It was, indeed, the LAST gift opened that Christmas.

Eagerly, I finally slid it out from behind the tree, and brought it to the middle of the floor. It wasn't very heavy. Okay, I thought. Maybe it was smaller than the box and had lots of foam packing material? I undid the ribbons and tore the pretty wrapping paper. It had sort of a basket-weave printed/molded on vinyl... I kept tearing the paper. I couldn't quite figure it out until all the paper had gone and this mystery present stood, clear as day, like a mushroom cloud in the center of a shockwave of discarded wrapping paper and trimmings.... a new clothes hamper. With love, Mom and Dad.

My deepest consolation, Cafn8d. Your parents must be quite evil to do that to you.

No, they weren't evil at all. They were just practical... they couldn't have put that large gift anywhere else without it getting in the way. We had a good laugh about my anticipation even then, and certainly for years afterwards.

After we had gotten our first microwave oven, we were in a restaurant that packed our leftovers in a microwavable styrofoam container. Mom said, "Wow, it would really be handy to have some containers like these." Microwave ovens were still relatively uncommon, and most containers and dishes were not yet made to be "microwavable."

I helped Dad search high and low for containers like those from that restaurant. We finally found them. Unfortunately, it was from a restaurant SUPPLY place... and a minimum box contained 1000 of these containers. So guess what Mom's BIG box was for Christmas that year? I don't remember if it was before or after the hamper year, but it was another thing we laughed about forever afterwards!

One year, after the unavoidable socks and underwear "gifts," I shook a smallish box that had my name on it. Hearing the rattle, I said, "Well, at least it's not underwear!" We all laughed when I opened it and it was "Underware" --a computer utility (screen savers and other eye-candy) I had wanted!

That same year, I handed each of my parents a present. My dad said, "Grumpy old men go last." I was beside myself with giggles waiting for his turn. Both my parents thought I was crazy. When he finally opened the gift, we all laughed again--it was the VSH of the movie "Grumpy Old Men" I had gotten for him!

Lot of fond memories here, even of "bad" gifts. Thanks for the thread, Manic!

You are more than welcome Caffgirl. Your stories made me smile.

Well it's not a Christmas gift but it does have to do with a set of "worst" gifts.

My step-father (read alcoholic asshole) moved my mom, older sister and I from Idaho to California right before my 16th birthday. See he finally got back to speaking terms with his own father after years. He also wanted to be near his biological kids.

Anyway my new "grandma" and "grandpa" were invited over for my 16th birthday. Somehow they had me confused with my sister. So they brought HER gifts. Never did get me anything or even apologize. The next year they got me a tool set in a red drawer toolchest. See step-ass and step-grandass were both gearheads and were trying to get me to be one. Anyway shortly after "giving" me the tools they billed my mom for the "gift".

Oh Tofu, I am so sorry about the step grands gift issues! You became a computer techno despite them trying to make you a tool time techie lol.

So you got "girly" gifts. Sometimes gifts cards are the only way to go... it maynot be creative but it sure beats giving the wrong gifts. Wishing I could hug your 16 year old self.

I had a husband that was very much like a 5 year old when it came to any holiday that involved getting a gift. Birthday, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter... even our wedding gifts. He couldn't wait to open gifts and was very much into getting lots of them (for himself)...

He wanted an Easter basket full of lots of gifts, fun things, and candy/chocolate... He'd get to the insides of the basket and ask "is that all?"

Christmas was no different. However, he spent more time on his list to Santa than his shopping for others. And of course Christmas stockings had to be stuffed to the brim with a lot of goodies too...

One year my stocking was about to burst from something that had been shoved into it. I carefully took the large, folded in half item... and when I saw what it was, I just cracked up! I knew exactly what had happened... He had totally forgotten to get something for the wife for the Christmas stocking... He was a manager in an auto parts store.... 'it's closing time in the store - I gotta just get something!'

He gave me a pair of MUDFLAPS! bwahahahahahahahaa That is still damn funny!

He tried to play it off, like I was hurting his feelings laughing so hard... "I got you really nice ones. I thought you'd like them." I told him I knew what really happened and he could not deny it.

Mudflaps? OMG! that is bad. I think I understand why you say you "had" a husband.

te he he

for our wedding, well after the wedding, we helped load stuff up and clean up and went out to dinner with my family - some had come out to California from Kansas, so we wouldn't see them again after the honeymoon... Well let's just say I know we were eating pizza, but I had had my champagne glass filled so much at the wedding, I was a bit miserable when we got home. But that husband of mine, made me carry wedding gifts up the stairs, over and over until they were all upstairs... They would have been safe in the car in the garage all night.... but no! He went around like a maniac (not like you) he just had to open all of the gifts while I was really feeling ill on the couch. After a few gifts I reminded him to write down who gave what for thank yous...

that's right - I didn't get to open a single wedding gift. That nut was running back and forth like the excited 5 year old, in his underwear - open a gift, run over and open another one. Back and forth, back and forth... while I layed there in agony! Hello!! The Mrs. isn't feeling well, and you didn't let her open her own wedding gifts! ha

bwahahahahaha