Best and Worst Christmas Gifts

mrsmig

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My youngest sister once gave my husband and me a set of light switch plate covers in the shape of a Hamsa. Why she thought this would be a good gift I have no idea - the design had nothing to do with our lives, our interests or our decor, and was kind of ugly into the bargain. I laughed about it but when we unwrapped them it was definitely a WTF moment.

My husband gave me a cast-iron skillet as a stocking-stuffer surprise Christmas gift last year. My sister in law turned up her nose at it ("A skillet? For Christmas?"), but I love it. Different strokes.
 

Wilde_at_heart

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ETA @MM: - back in my 20s my room-mate/best friend at the time gave me a cast iron skillet for Christmas - I loved it and still have it!

My mother for the past few years has been giving away 'antiques' - i.e. stuff she no longer has any use for and is wanting to de-clutter.

So she gave my nephew (who has been vegan for many years!) a pair of ivory salad tongs. Because, well, vegans must eat lots of salad ... :facepalm:
 
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Bolero

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Being given a present on my sibling's birthday. I was most taken aback when I was given a perfectly nice small present - good quality sort of jack-in-the-cone - pops up on a stick. Friends of the parents gave it to me. I thanked them but was puzzled, so I asked my mother quietly, and out of earshot, why I was getting a present when it wasn't my birthday. She explained that some children would be upset by not getting a present when their sibling was getting one. I was most hacked off that those people thought I was that kind of person.
 
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Deb Kinnard

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Wow, lots of "worst" scenarios here, so I'll share one of my "best" stories.

It was 1956 and I was five. We lived in a two-flat apartment in Chicago at the time. My father did professional catalog photography and he was always bringing home toys for me to play with just for one night--the toys were merchandise, didn't belong to the photo studio, and had to go back in the morning. I loved playing with that stuff 6-8 months before it became available, but I didn't have any fuss over that then. They were just cool toys.

One was a drink-and-wet doll called Betsy Wetsy (I know--but this was the fifties). She came with all the gear--the clothing, the bottle, the diaper, the whole enchilada. I wanted her like whoa but the parents said, "No, too expensive."

You already know the punchline. She was under the tree, with the whole set of gear she came with. I have photos of that Christmas, with five-year-old me holding Betsy and beaming.

I played with that doll until she looked like she'd gone through both World Wars.

Like Ralphie in "The Christmas Story", she was the best Christmas present I had ever received or would ever receive.

Now my husband and I have "gifted" each other over the past 28 years with the same non-working cassette tape player. It broke years ago. We find weird ways to gift each other. One evening I wrapped it up as a birthday present, slipped it to our Mexican-restaurant waiter, and whispered to him in Spanish that this was something really brilliant for my husband's birthday, and would he please present it to him after the main course with the appropriate ceremony and panache?

My DH almost choked on his margarita when he opened it. Yes. I am evil.
 

stormie

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I do love dolls, though decidedly not the creepy ones (cracks down the face, crossed-eyes...). When I was a child, and one of four sisters,
we had plenty of dolls to play with.

Every few years, my parents would give us each a new doll, and they came in rectangular boxes. So I knew when I was getting a doll
if there was a rectangular-shaped present under the tree.

That was decades ago, and all but one doll from my childhood survived. One Christmas a few years ago, right after my parents passed away,
my husband handed me a long rectangular box, nicely wrapped. It brought back a flood of memories but...a doll?!

I laughed and said, "A doll, right?"
He looked stunned. He asked how I knew. Now it was my turn to be stunned.

He had won the doll in a raffle. It was new and one of those collector's dolls,
dressed in a winter Victorian outfit.

I cried. It was the best gift ever.
 

stormie

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And here's my worst:

My SIL had received a lot of bowls and dishes for her wedding. My MIL rewrapped one of the boxes of plates
and gave it to my husband and me. When we got home, I noticed an odd smell coming from the box.

When I opened it, there was a tiny dead mouse in the bottom corner.

My MIL never did like me.
 

Bloo

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I'll share a couple of stories.

This is going to sound weird, but the best present I got, the one I still ask for to this day and still baffles my parents was...a box of meat.

It wasn't my first apartment or I had just moved out or anything, so I don't know what prompted my parents to do it-maybe my love of cooking? Anyway, they went to a local butcher and got a box of different kinds of meat; steaks, hand cut bacon, pork chops, sausage, hamburgers, chicken, etc. All locally raised and butchered. At first glance I was like "it's a box of meat." But I treasured that box and would take great care in taking the time to cook and prepare it because it was limited supply. I would plan menus on my days off around that box of meat in my freezer.

I still get meat LOL but not at the level as that present, one of the best.

Another one, a couple of years ago, I lost my job as a hotel manager just before Christmas, wasn't collecting unemployment and actually moved back into my parents basement just after Thanksgiving (I had about 2 months before I moved to a different town to go back to college). My dad pulled me aside and said, "I know you don't have any money for Christmas presents for your brother and sister, here take this." and he slipped me a $100 to spend on them. Not really a present per se but just something genuine and nice.
 

Kashmirgirl1976

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Best: My son born twenty-three days prior.

Worst: A regifted dvd player my husband got from his office Christmas party.
 

rhymegirl

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Wow, lots of "worst" scenarios here, so I'll share one of my "best" stories.

It was 1956 and I was five. We lived in a two-flat apartment in Chicago at the time. My father did professional catalog photography and he was always bringing home toys for me to play with just for one night--the toys were merchandise, didn't belong to the photo studio, and had to go back in the morning. I loved playing with that stuff 6-8 months before it became available, but I didn't have any fuss over that then. They were just cool toys.

One was a drink-and-wet doll called Betsy Wetsy (I know--but this was the fifties). She came with all the gear--the clothing, the bottle, the diaper, the whole enchilada. I wanted her like whoa but the parents said, "No, too expensive."

You already know the punchline. She was under the tree, with the whole set of gear she came with. I have photos of that Christmas, with five-year-old me holding Betsy and beaming.
I played with that doll until she looked like she'd gone through both World Wars.
Like Ralphie in "The Christmas Story", she was the best Christmas present I had ever received or would ever receive.

Great story! And I remember Betsy Wetsy! I was a wee one in the fifties.
 

rhymegirl

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And here's my worst:
My SIL had received a lot of bowls and dishes for her wedding. My MIL rewrapped one of the boxes of plates
and gave it to my husband and me. When we got home, I noticed an odd smell coming from the box.
When I opened it, there was a tiny dead mouse in the bottom corner.
My MIL never did like me.

Ewww. I can see why that would be your worst gift.
I normally shake out empty boxes that have been sitting in my cellar for a while before I use them to wrap gifts. I'm generally looking for bugs that might have crawled into the boxes. But I've never come across a dead mouse.
 

stormie

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How that mouse crawled in, I don't know, or if it was before she wrapped it (she's cooked outdated food that smells and we've gotten sick) or after she wrapped it and stored it for Christmas. There was probably a tiny hole in the bottom corner. She kept all sorts of things in her mice-and squirrel infested third floor attic area, or the basement. Just had my husband put the entire box in a large trash bag and dump it all in the outside trash can.

That was a Christmas to remember. And not fondly.
 
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Shakesbear

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Does Hanukkah count? Not very often but now and then my paternal grandfather liked to have a bet on the horses. It infuriated my grandmother who thought he was throwing his money away. One year he had a big win. There were five grandchildren and he gave us £44 each. That totalled £220, roughly £3000 today. Why £44 - because that is how many candles are lit during Hanukkah.
Worst present? As a teacher I was given gifts by my tutor group and also by individual pupils. Worst, from an individual pupil, was a plastic rose 'tree' that lit up and changed colour. It looked like a bramble plant and the rose was a blob. I kept it on my desk until the battery died.
 

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I had Christmas when I was a little kid, but when I was about nine, all holidays and birthdays were forbidden.

But when I was thirteen, and my brother was fifteen, I wanted to do something special for him on his birthday, because I was the only one who remembered, or knew.

For the six months beforehand, I'd saved the little circular hole punches you get from your office hole puncher. Squirreled them away in a little ziplock bag and hid it in the walls. Two weeks beforehand, I slipped a single match and the stub of a well-used candle into my sleeve. And two days beforehand, I got my hands on a cupcake and hid it in the very back of one of the refrigerators, right behind a bloody lamb's head (It was in a bag, at least. The cupcake.)

In the middle of the night on his birthday, I tiptoed across ten thousand square feet of building and found his room. Woke my brother up, tossed confetti on him and curled up on his bed, eating half a cupcake and whispering about all birthdays we'd one day have in the light.

I've never had a better birthday, or been closer to my sibling.

No present, but it didn't matter to him, or to me.

I still smile when I empty out my hole puncher, all these years later. And yes, it took us like an hour to clean all the confetti off his bed. :)

~ Anna
 
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kuwisdelu

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My husband gave me a cast-iron skillet as a stocking-stuffer surprise Christmas gift last year. My sister in law turned up her nose at it ("A skillet? For Christmas?"), but I love it. Different strokes.

How do you fit a cast iron skillet in a stocking?

And without taking the stocking down with it?
 

shakeysix

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The best student Christmas gift my husband ever received came from an eleven year old: five quarters taped into a hand made card that read "Have a beer on me, Mr. Smith." He laughed and laughed over that. I still have it in my desk at home--s6
 

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A huge oblong parcel, red wrapped in happy santas. Admittedly my brother-in law was twenty years old but I was very envious, certain this package all ready and waiting for him contained a last train set from his daddy or a hi-fi deck for college. It was a trouser press. Sad for him - from my perspective, but the family were very conventional so to them it was an extremely useful gift.
 

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No present, but it didn't matter to him, or to me.
It's the thought that counts, and you more than made up for it in spades. Thanks for sharing such a lovely memory.
 

rhymegirl

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Any more Best Christmas gifts? I think I have lots of "worst" here.

And thank you to everyone for your responses!
 

Deb Kinnard

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In adulthood? A beautiful gold Celtic cross pendant from a museum-type catalog. I coveted it but never told my husband. Gold wasn't $1700 per ounce then, but it was pricey enough, which is why I never mentioned it to him.

He knew anyway. It appeared in my stocking. Twenty years later (today), I'm still wearing it, I rarely take it off.
 

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I feel terrible for saying this but it was a gift from one of my Kindergarten students many years ago. It was a glass figurine of, what looked like, a cockroach. It even had antennae. It could have been a shrimp I suppose, but it was brown and REALLY looked like a roach. I have a really BAD fear of roaches, so for me it was the worse thing I could have every gotten. I opened the box and then because the child was watching me, I pretended it was amazing, closed the box, put it to the side and gave him a hug. I told him thank you so much and when all the kids left, it went in the garbage. I know it seems so mean, but a roach? Really? It couldn't have been a...a...frog? Or a dragonfly, or...or ANYTHING else??? *feels like a mean schmucky schmuck*

ETA: Oh, I just saw your post that you had enough bad ones. Can't think of best right now. Will have to think on that one.
 
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mrsmig

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How do you fit a cast iron skillet in a stocking?

And without taking the stocking down with it?

Little skillet, big stocking, heavy-duty hanger?

Full size Lodge skillet. :D

Since there's just the two of us, we go a little overboard on our Christmas stockings. The stockings are chock full and there are usually a couple of presents that get laid alongside them because they won't/can't fit. We don't have a place to hang our stockings so we put them on either end of the sofa.
 

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Ok

Probably my best Christmas present was from my husband. A music "box" in she shape of a theatre. It played (plays) the nutcracker suite and has four different rotating scenes with moving ballerinas, dancers and all kinds of figurines appearing at intervals after the curtains are mechanically drawn and re-opened.