Disappointing/weird/inappropriate christmas gifts

bigmomma051204

MIL is obviously on a time delay and I am starting to learn the process... So this years present?

A Lush gift set!!

I will expect the Cath Kidston purse I asked for (when she specifically asked me back in October) for Christmas 2015

On the upside - I DID receive a USB "flower in a pot" fan, two ceramic doves covered in silver glitter (one of which is missing half its tail) and the piece de resistance... a wooden star with half an antler on. :cool:

Spendless

My presents all fine this year but coming under the disappointing category is the clothes bought my teenage son because he'd told the relative 'that he didn't own any trendy clothes'.

Since my view of him saying the above is as likely as me hearing him say 'I can't wait to do my homework' or'I really need to tidy my bedroom I have quizzed both him and his sister on what really was said and it's the relatives interpretation of a comment, so they bought him trendy clothes that don't fit and when this has been mentioned there's been a shrug and an 'oh dear' No offer of returning them and getting another size.

kerri_gt

Spendless wrote: »

My presents all fine this year but coming under the disappointing category is the clothes bought my teenage son because he'd told the relative 'that he didn't own any trendy clothes'.

Since my view of him saying the above is as likely as me hearing him say 'I can't wait to do my homework' or'I really need to tidy my bedroom I have quizzed both him and his sister on what really was said and it's the relatives interpretation of a comment, so they bought him trendy clothes that don't fit and when this has been mentioned there's been a shrug and an 'oh dear' No offer of returning them and getting another size.

I'd be tempted to ask straight out for the gift receipt saying they don't fit and you don't want them to go to waste.

sillyvixen

bigmomma051204 wrote: »

Now you know that I have a perfectly beautiful one in pride of place in the spare bedroom cupboard which you could have... no need to complete that purchase!

and i bet it brightens up that cupboard no end!!

i felt quite hurt when i first visited a friend in her new house - i spent ages choosing a nice candle in a very tasteful glass holder. she stated it would have pride of place in the downstairs loo window sill. i must have looked gutted until she proudly showed me the downstairs loo which they had created out of a wasted space in the hall - putting up partition walls and completing to a high standard - it was the only room in the house they had completed and the candle matched the colour scheme - the rest of the house was very much a miss matched work in progress.

aileth

Think we're on the giving end of the disappointing gifts this year. I sent a limit of £15 per person, but with 20 or so people to buy for in the family even that is expensive. I panicked a bit, even though I did the shopping in early November, got everything from John Lewis and winged it to the greatest extent.

Well, come Christmas Day and we open our gifts and they're fantastic. We also got a good bit of cash. I shudder to think how much people have spent on us, and I feel absolutely awful that I received from one couple a Swarovski necklace and £50, to whom I'd given a 'Make your own gin' kit!!!!!!!

Birdie85

My SIL is well known for picking out useless tat, so much so that for this Christmas I made a rule that we only buy for each other's baby now. I thought we were safe but no, because we hosted Christmas Day at our house she turned up with little presents for us as a little thank you. I got a small bottle of peach bellini in a ceramic shoe??? DH got an R2D2 tin with tiny child size flannels in! Bless her!

My BIL picked me for the family secret santa and bought me some Barbie pyjamas, this wouldn't be too bad as I do love Barbie, but the top is a crop top and the shorts are tiny hot pants, in a size smaller than I normally buy pyjamas in! Not the kind of thing that someone who is still trying to lose the mum-tum wants to be given, from their BIL no less!

And then there's the yearly rubbish from my 2 oldest friends. I would love to know what their thought process is. I got 2 Disney dolls (The Prince and Princess from 'The Princess and the Frog'). I am a grown-up with a baby boy. I have nowhere to display these things (if I did have space, I wouldn't choose to display cheap play things!) and my DS is too young to play with dolls! I just hope I can return them to the Disney Store without a receipt and exchange them for something I can give my DS! I just hate the money wasted on rubbish gifts.

jozxyqk

My birthday is in the holiday season. Every year, my PILs ask my wife what I'd like, every year I ask for money / vouchers or something specific. Every year I get a bottle of Jack Daniels, despite me detesting the stuff.

This year, for Xmas I got...nothing.
For my birthday I got...an unwrapped bottle of Jack Daniels and a tatty card saying "happy graduation".

I always suspected they didn't like me that much.

AmyTurtle

I got yet another watch from OH's uncle and aunty. People are always buying them for me because they notice I don't have one. Yep, because I don't like them and hate wearing things round my wrists! It's a cheap Avon one so I guess I'll eBay it. I also got from OH's family so many toiletry sets I can't fit it all in the bathroom, & some really hideous blingy jewellery. They are very 'Essex' and I'm not so I think they struggle to buy for me, bless them.

My grandad gives odd presents - in previous years he has given my 62 year old mum: a camping stove, a framed picture of himself, a framed photocopy of the first pound note he ever earned, a framed mini autobiography he wrote about his self. This year she got a pencil drawing of the church near the sanatorium where his father died of TB when he was 4, and a copy of a really ugly painting that apparently his mum had hanging in their house when he was a child! I have previously received from him an inkpot with 2 quills he claims my dad made for him in the 80s, a claim my dad categorically denies :rotfl:

fairy_lights

This year I received a small ceramic box with a (strangely deformed looking) cat on the top, and the words 'cat lover forever' inscribed on the side.
I've only got myself to blame...I've got a cat, so am destined to receive bizarre cat themed presents for the rest of my natural life.
I'm using to box to store the cat's stash of 'nip :rotfl:

1stBusiness

All my presents have been pretty good this year. I knew who my secret Santa at work was and I had expected something awful (I know, but she's know for it). So I was pleasantly suprised when I was given a Christmas tree cookie cutter set (I love baking).

Not really a bad gift, but it still annoyed me was what happened over Christmas at my OH parents house. We recently moved into a new place, so his parents bought us a new bed as an early Christmas gift. When we went to theirs over Christmas they gave my OH a token Dove Men gift set to open and I got nothing! Everyone was handed their presents to open (small gifts such as smellies, board games, Costa Coffee gift card etc) and I had nothing. I haven't said anything, but it really upset me that I was the only one without a gift. It especially annoyed me as I had gone out of my way to buy his step mum the Costa voucher and I bought his 12 yr old cousin a load of stuff from New Look (his parents bought her a phone charger?!) :-s