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today's question

today's question

One year for Christmas, back when I was married, a cousin on the inlaw side came bearing gifts. Everyone got beautiful crystal vases or stemware or expensive shiny toys. The gifts were obvioulsy well thought-out and very personal. When I opened mine, there was a picture frame. A plastic, hideous green picture frame. I thanked her politely with my teeth clenched. It wasn't until later on when I examined the frame that I saw the sticker on the back, from a Christmas long ago. It was inscribed to the person who gave it to me, signed from another relative. Not only did I get an cheap, ugly ass frame, but it was a recycled present.

So, what was the cheapest/worst/ugliest Christmas gift you ever received or gave someone?

Posted by on December 1, 2001 06:01 AM |

Comments

I got a plastic microwave backon cooker for christmas once. Without a trace of irony.

Posted by: Daniel Talsky | December 4, 2001 06:21 AM

Dude, that was cold!

I once received a very tacky plastic horse with Real Synthetic Hair from a senile grandmother...two years in a row. But that hardly counts, I think, since her senility had robbed her of her customary malice.

I once gave my sister's third (and sadly, still present) husband a book on how to be less of an asshole. I recall he was somewhat less than amused. Made my Christmas though. ):)

Posted by: Sekimori | December 4, 2001 06:25 AM

I know I should be grateful for what I get yada yada...but my friends gramma got me 2 pairs of purple socks, and this coin purse that was obviously part of a variety of purses that I later saw that she had the other half of the collection. Brown, fake leather purse with an ugly strap, with my matching coin purse. Now that I think of it, I always managed to get an ugly go-go purse pretty much each year. Thanks. guys.

Posted by: Mariposa | December 4, 2001 07:21 AM

My aunt gives such hideous presents that its always a joke to open them. We are never in the same state when we get her gifts, so its okay to giggle as we open them. When I was 16 or something, she gave me a placemat with the sign language alphabet on it. Okay, just because I took one class on sign at 13 doesn't mean I need a placement!!! Goodness sakes!

Posted by: kristine | December 4, 2001 07:24 AM

For a very long time, my stepmother gave my sister and I both a bottle of that cheap, stinky, "make you want to barf" Avon perfume every year for Christmas. It was the most disgusting stuff in the world and would always get tossed in the trash as soon as she wasn't looking. But we smiled as we opened it - knowing what it was the whole time- , smelled it and smiled all the while trying not to puke, and thanked her kindly - thinking "again?" for the millionth time.

It's the thought that counts. It's the thought that counts.

Thankfully she quit that a couple of years ago and now just gives us money to buy our own presents.

So I ask you - which is worse? A tacky gift or none at all?

It's the thought that counts. It's the thought that counts.

:)

Posted by: Lee | December 4, 2001 07:37 AM

Hehe, Lee! I've got you beat. My dad's wife gave me perfume SAMPLES that you get in the mail or in magazines last year! Talk about cheap - they were free! LOL

She also gave me some of that jewelry you can buy at a dollar store that you'd get for a five-year-old girl. I turned around and gave it to that girl I was mentoring last year. Ha!

Posted by: Candi | December 4, 2001 08:19 AM

anything and everything my in-laws have gotten me. My favorite is the clothes, always one size too small (no matter how many times I tell them what my size is)... What exactly are they trying to hint at?! GRRR!

Or the gift certificates to places that aren't even in our entire state!!

Posted by: Jennifer | December 4, 2001 08:30 AM

While I suspect it might be a factor of the era she was brought up in (or mental state), my great grandmother gave me a little box containing her old gold fillings. Mmmm, disgusting.

Posted by: Morgan | December 4, 2001 08:50 AM

I had looked for a gift for my aunt & uncle who, shall we say, are difficult to shop for. I went to a local boutique and purchased a beautiful (and unfortunately expensive candle) , which came on a plain white ceramic crappy holder. He opened it and said "well, the holder is nice." gah.

Posted by: jocelyn | December 4, 2001 09:13 AM

I suspect I have suppressed some of my more bizarre presents, but this year, I've given strict instructions to stick with my list, which includes gift certificates from major electronic retailers. If it's not on the list, I no wannit. :)

Posted by: shel | December 4, 2001 10:09 AM

The worst gift I ever got was a knock-off version of the Rocketeer video game for the original NES. It was called "Rocket Man" or something. The game play was awful.

A few years later, I dumped it on Funcoland and got $1 for it, which I used toward 2 other games I liked that they were dying to rid of.

Posted by: Fredo | December 4, 2001 10:56 AM

Sorry Michele but thats real bad!

I once received off my dad these tiny jam jars.When the stores opened again after the holiday season i went in to buy my normal food shopping and i came upon these jam jars that cost $2.99

My dad is the the most tight arsed man in our family,and he makes the most money out of all of us.

Also last year he gave his first granchild a rattle! She is 4 years old and she gets a rattle!

Posted by: Nicole | December 4, 2001 05:11 PM

Ready for this? Last year I got a stuffed, dead penguin. Granted, it was at a White Elephant Party so I knew I was getting something bad, but man ... dead birds?

Posted by: Davezilla | December 4, 2001 05:39 PM

My great-grandmother was a dead-ringer for Aunt Bethany from Christmas vacation. One year in junior high, she wrapped her "great collection" of empty "old lady" perfume bottles for me. She thought they would look lovely displayed in my room. Then it was my toddler sister's turn. She handed her a wrapped round tube, which Jennifer immediately tried to tear into. Great-grandma SHRIEKED at the top of her lungs to stop! She had "made" her a "stick horse", by wrapping a wrapping paper cardboard tube, I kid you not! We still joke it was the best Christmas ev-ah...

Posted by: Robyn | December 4, 2001 05:52 PM

Last year I recieved a cardigan and a gold chain from my mother. I about fell out of my chair laughing. She generally has good taste, I have to wonder if she's not loosing touch with the world.

Posted by: EdgartheBent | December 4, 2001 07:52 PM

The man o' my dreams clearly forgot my birthday one year...that Sunday morning he scampered to the neighborhood store and returned with a bicycle tire pump, clutched in a brown paper bag. Romantic, eh? He's history.

Posted by: Laurie | December 4, 2001 09:59 PM

There is no possible way I could top some of these.

Posted by: Charles | December 4, 2001 10:49 PM

One year my ex forgot my birthday. When he realized his mistake, he ran out to the drugstore with the kids and came back with coloring books and crayons for me. That was about the beginning of the end...

Posted by: michele | December 5, 2001 04:03 AM

As the poet said, Only God can make a tree -- probably because it's
so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.
-- Woody Allen
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Posted by: Texas Holdem | November 6, 2004 08:02 AM