The Worst/ugliest Gift You Ever Got

Oh gosh, the hardest part of trying to answer this one is choosing. My mother is notorious for bad gifts (to the point that it has become family comedy, although none of us laugh about while she's around, because she's quite serious about her gift-giving). She loves to shop at yard sales and flea markets and give people the "bargains" she finds.

Let's see... there's the time she gave my husband (who is in culinary school) the knife set she bought from one of those "call now and get a second set absolutely free" ads... the juicer she bought us at the flea market that is 20 years old and missing parts, which she then packed in a box with naked lady lily bulbs (the other name for those is belladonna, very poisonous, packed in a non-functional food appliance... hmmmm)... but my favorite bad present may be the singing big-headed Hank Williams Jr. doll she gave to my 8 y.o. It sings "Why do you drink...?" It now sits in a place of honor on his dresser. the batteries have "mysteriously" vanished. ;-)

I've decided that since her gifts are the type of things that could provoke either laughter or screaming, laughing is the healthiest option. We thank her as gracefully as we can manage while stifling giggles.

My aunt was pretty famous for odd gifts. When I graduated from 8th grade, she gave me a bandana that had printed on it how to tie various kinds of knots. It came with a long length of rope, presumably so I could practice tying knots. (Huh?)

Last year, someone gave me striped toe socks. I'm not the kind of girl who wears toe socks. I gave them to my 9 year old. She loves them. :)

My husband received Hungry Hungry Hippo from his elderly aunt and uncle a few years ago. (His comment: "Oh, man! Why couldn't it have been Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots?!")

You must mean the facial hair trimmer I received from my mother a couple years ago. When I asked her why she gave it to me, she never responded. Yeah, um....awesome. I still don't think I needed it, and I've been super paranoid ever since. At least my husband got a laugh.

My ex husband got me a six pack of water. Yup, a six pack of water. He didn't even wrap it...lol

An ex boyfriend - needless to say ex gave me for Christmas a fire engine red one piece pajama suit that had feet and a potty flap in the back

I received a dirty old used teddy bear from one of my mother's friends for my son's baby shower.

My brother and his wife once gave my son, around 9 at the time, a book that was so poorly written and grammatically incorrect that it didn't make sense. I heard my husband reading the book to my son, and I asked him "why are you reading like that, you don't make any sense" he told me that is how the book was written, when I looked at the book - he was right, the sentences did not make any sense, the book contained a bunch of rambling sentences jumbled in a paragraph.

As a joke, we used to tell our son to ask various family members to read him the book, they would start reading it and they would get so aggravated and confused and say what wrong with this book - I can't read this. My husband and I would crack up!

For me it wasn't an ugly gift, just an inappropriate gift. When I was a little kid I always wanted a Lite Brite. All of my friends had them, and we had one in my Kindergarten classroom. It was my favourite toy. Well, my brother, who was sixteen years older, remembered how much I wanted a Lite Brite and got me one for Christmas one year. Unfortunately I was twelve. I wanted records, clothes and make-up, not my favourite toy from Kindergarten. I was horrified, but I pretended to love it, and even played with it that day.

I got a ceramic mug (?) from my sister in law once. It was atrocious and non functional. It was a southwest design in color with a cactus and a howling wolf on it. The wolf was raised on the mug though and it's muzzle stuck up from the top of the mug, so if you actually tried to drink out of it you''d poke yourself in the face.
Hmmm... I wonder if that was intentional?? Ha!
That mug may have gone in the white elephant pile... I don't remember what I did with it.

My former MIL got me a pink cardigan sweater. I like pink but the style was something my grandmother would have worn and I was 20 at the time. But since MIL always talked about what exquisite taste she had, I couldn't say anything. It ended up in the bottom of my sweater drawer, I don't think I ever wore it.

But that family was notorius for bad gifts. My BIL got his oldest sister a basketball one year. As she looked at not knowing what to say, he actually said something like, I know you don't want a basketball but I do so can I borrow your basketball?

Non thinking totally rude people.

I once bought myself Preparation H as a joke because the inlaws were so aggrevating. LOL

My SIL gave my the exact Yankee Candle that I gave her the year before. I would sincerely like to believe that she didn't remember that I gave it to her and she wouldn't honestly give me the EXACT one I had given her. But I don't know if it's worse if she did it on purpose or my gift was not remembered.

Yesterday I got a salt and pepper shaker that are two ceramic eggs winking at each other. It will be going into the white elephant gift exchange at work.

And for my 11 month old a wooden truck with blocks that was not only completely unsafe for a baby, was filthy and covered in dust. That hit the can as soon as the giver hit the door.

For my dh, a huge thing of cookies which included tons of gingersnaps that he promptly fed to the dog.

They also bring the dog rawhides every holiday even though Ive told them many times that they make him sick/constipated.

If you want the worst gift of all time, that would have to be the recorded story book. When my MIL comes over she talks to the kids in a super annoying squeaky fakey voice, which they have never liked, which is why they were scared of her as babies. She recorded the whole book in that voice. She also buys my husband underwear every year. I just find that to be super creepy/inappropriate. Hes 32 yrs old, I think he can buy his own underwear now, ones without cartoons on them.

Omg.. My mom and her husband just gave us a bottle of that chocolate wine? We thought it was a joke.. Then my stepfather, made a comment and we realized, he really thinks we will like it since we enjoy wine.

I cannot even believe they make such a thing..

Well, this year I got a framed recent picture of my MIL and FIL from my husband's aunt on that side. I lovingly put it on HIS nightstand so that he can see his mother every morning when he first wakes up.

Last year, my MIL got my DH a Kindle...he HATES to read. She thought that it would encourage him to read. The damn thing is still a paperweight.

One of my MIL's is not very involved with our family and so I think it can be difficult for her to pick out gifts. I do think she is well-intentioned. However, one year, she gave us a gigantic framed picture of Joseph Smith kneeling in prayer. Joseph Smith was the founder of the LDS (Mormon) church. While I was raised LDS,my husband and I are not practicing and everyone in the family KNOWS this. So it was pretty weird to give us such an overtly religious gift.
I guess it was probably wishful thinking on her part, trying to get us "back in the fold" lol.
Oh, I am remembering some other really good ones from her! A super nice sweater for my husband, size Medium- he is like an XXXL. Maybe it was another hint? (get ye back to church and lose some weight?!)

Really expensive perfume, I think it was called Opium (really the popular scent at the time)......I hated it even though the bottle was nice. It sat on by bathroom counter for ever.

A good lesson, NEVER by perfume or cologne for anyone if you don't know what they like.

I am a Chanel # 5 person. How about YOU?

My mil gets me a hideous sweater every Christmas in the style that she wears. Turtle necks and cowl necks are NOT my thing.

This year my mom bought me a couple of GIANT tent like dresses because I'm 6 months pregnant and apparently need clothes that are 16 sizes too big for me.

lol! These are too funny!
Last night my husbands aunt got me a HOT pink velvet sweat suit. I'm not the type of person to wear pink, ever, but these are really bright! I think I might just use it for pajamas, lol!

There are gifts that I've received repeatedly that I don't care for. I don't like scented items, but people still give me candles, perfume, and lotion sets. I let the kids use em.
My brother felt bad when his fiancé's cat passed and he bought her a roomba. Not sure what the logic was there. She returned it.
My cousin asked for a kurig and got fluffy pj bottoms. She retuned em, bought the Kurig and loves it.
Most men are pretty bad with gifts. Mine likes to buy me "something for the house" every year. This year I told him to save the money. Hope he listens.

Skimpy sexy lingerie from my mil with no tags.....at my bridal shower...but still. And where did she get it from? Eww.... Oh...and I know there was another time she bought me lingerie..but I can't remember when. Maybe I want to block it from my memories!

My MIL while buying everyone else really nice gifts always give me her hand me downs. I'm almost 30, 5', 130lbs or so and in a juniors size 9 in pants and a medium in tops. My MIL is over 40 5'3" and I won't be rude and mention her weight but let's just say that we're nowhere near the same size in ANY capacity. She also likes to gives things to my daughter that are obviously made for either a teenager or grown adult with the adage of "oh she'll grow into them soon." My daughter just turned 9 so no I don't think so.

Gamma:

I'm sure I've received some horrible gifts - but to be honest - I don't remember them...if I didn't like them, I either donated or exchanged them.

ooohhh wait!!!! I've got it!!! I got a blouse from my sister in law that was OBVIOUSLY NOT FOR ME!!! It was an XS and I've NEVER been an XS - EVER...even when I opened it - my husband (her brother) said YIKES!!! The only reason I remembered that is I've got "the Santa Claus 2" on and I just saw something that reminded me of it!! LOL!!!

I hope you get gifts this year that you love!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

First year I was married, my MIL bought a horrible, ugly sweater. I hated it. Felt guilty about it sitting in the bottom of the sweater drawer I finally wore it to her house one day. She didn't even remember getting it for me. I donated it the next day