Oh my god. I hate when a holiday gift exchange goes bad.
Uh, yeah, not like I have examples from my real life or anything.
- Like when your grandmother gives you a Michael Jackson t-shirt — but it’s 1990 and you’re into Depeche Mode.
- Or when your coworker re-gifts a Lenox ornament from two years ago — and you know it, you thank her for the gift, and she acts all put out because you didn’t get her anything.
- When you give someone the Bobbi Brown Beauty book because it’s kind of helpful — but this person thinks you’re really saying, “You’re ugly.”
Ahhhh, the holidays.
Let’s not just limit this to December. What’s the worst gift you’ve ever received? What’s the worst gift you’ve given?
{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }
Ok, there was the time when my wife (yes my wife) went to the Supermarket the night before my birthday and bought me a windscreen guard to protect against the frost (maybe this is a UK thing). Only beaten by the time on Father’s Day when I got an ex display barbecue with half the parts missing……the culprit was the same as before. That’s 15 years of marriage for you!
Thinking about it I was once also given an “Adopt a Giraffe” gift. Which basically means that the giraffe got money and I got….a photo of a giraffe and a cuddly toy. I have no particular affinity with giraffes nor with cuddly toys……
Maybe its me?
My friend ,at age 15 and living with his parents, was given three cans of soup by his aunt. She complained to his parents that he hadn’t expressed suitable gratitude.
I once got potpourri for my Birthday. For my 16th Birthday. From my Dad. I guess I also got to drive the old family van around…
Mary Kay (Men’s) products from my wife . . . who sells Mary Kay. She shopped all the way to the spare bedroom closet for that gift. Perhaps she was trying to tell me I smelled. Or that I didn’t smell enough?
Then there was the time that I got home made soap, aftershave & lip balm from my sister. Perhaps she was also trying to tell me something.
Maybe I should take a hint?
I was once given a gold necklace — I only wear silver — with a really big HEART on it.
Like I would ever be caught dead wearing that. I mean, I was like 28.
Not five.
And I remember thinking, “Do you even know me? Do you even look at me??”
Ugh.
My mom bought me this enormous potted bowl for my birthday one year. It wasn’t useful as a bowl, because it had a huge (think, the size of your hand) badly-shaped, brightly-painted clay mermaid glued into it. Surrounded by big, thick, clay flowers – it was clearly made by an amateur, I swear you could still see finger marks in the clay, and the glaze was bubbly.
It wasn’t only useless as a bowl – handicrafts aren’t really meant to be used with your flatware – but it was uuuhhhhggglllly. And HUGE. I observed the one-year rule but without fail everybody who came by asked what it was, and where on EARTH I got it? (and WHY?)
My mom’s comment when I originally unwrapped it? “Now that you’re 18 it’s time that you started collecting nice things, dear.” She meant well, but wow… a huge potted mermaid bowl for an 18-year-old college student? (I’d asked for money to buy textbooks, but I guess the bowl was supposed to become a collector’s item…?)
A rhinestone tiara on my 13th birthday. Given to me by my single middle aged aunt. She wanted me to wear it to my school dance. God love her
My aunt got me a certificate that said that a donation of half a flock of chicks had been made in my honor for Hanukkah one year. My sister got the donation for the other half of the flock. Hey TheHRD – at least you got a cute picture out of it! All I got was a piece of paper…And no, I have no idea where the donation went to.
The worst gift I ever gave? I’m pretty sure I gave someone a coupon for a hug. Granted, I was 13 and had no money, but even then I recognized how lame that was.
My husband’s parents gave us a set of nasty but expensive pressed board nesting tables with hummingbirds painted on them as an anniversary present, which bless their hearts, they were under no obligation to observe, except I am trying to de-escalate the gift giving with them, as they have horrible taste and expect us to spend a lot of money on them for every possible gift-giving occasion.
We could not return the tables for cash and the only items available for exchange were equally tacky, so my husband finally had A Talk with them about present-giving and how we should handle it. His mother came down from her cross long enough to tell us that his two brothers had loved the tables (yeah, right) and why didn’t we and we are soo hard to shop for, which was the perfect opening for saying, Let’s just not exchange presents any more! We don’t need anything, you don’t need anything! Good!
Yeah. Right. Like that will work.
I didn’t actually receive this, my sister did. She collected Wizard of OZ ‘stuff’ when she was young. Well my our dad will get an idea and run with it forever, so when she was in college he got her wooden, 1ft tall, nutcrakers…all in the likeness of all the characters of Wizard of Oz. What the heck is she gonna do with that crap?
My mother-in-law always gave me tacky last minute gifts from the dollar-type stores. One time she called me the day before Christmas and asked what color my kitchen was, and I got a set of dish towels in some ridiculous pattern, but hey, they were the color of my kitchen (that she had been in dozens of times).
Well, that is one good thing about getting a divorce…..
My college boyfriend bought my tupperware for Christmas, I was 20 years old and he was trying to be practical, bless his heart. He said it went with the microwave he bought me for my birthday just the month prior….and can you believe I’m still friends with him after 20+ years….I still laugh at the thought of finding a place to put the microwave and tupperware in my tiny dorm room and my room-mate (who I’m also still friends with) laughing her a$$ off cause she got a gold / diamond necklace….urghhh!
It wasn’t me, but I was there to see the reaction when my mom gave my dad a padded toilet seat. Priceless.
Worst I received: A top hat that was knitted red, white and blue, with cut up pabst cans knitted in (thus giving solidity to the top hat) on my 6th birthday by the very “laid back” next door neighbors.
Worst I ever gave: Now mind you, I thought I was doing good here. A couple of years ago, I gave my then 4 yr old niece a puppet of the the Cleveland Indian’s beloved mascot Slider. She opened it and began shrieking and crying that it was a monster. I told her it’s not a monster, it’s Slider and it’s a puppet for her to play with. She threw it at me, ran to her room slammed her door, all the while yelling that “puppets are for boys”. My brother and his wife took it in stride, but my poor niece is slow to unwrap anything I give her.
I love my family, they’re good people…..but I forbid them to buy me presents for a while when I was in high school and college.
They had two old standbys – they’d either buy me a sweater so ugly that even Cliff Huxtable wouldn’t go near it, or they’d give me food as a present.
The worst food was Hickory Farms. Mostly because (a) in my humble opinion, HF tastes like moldy @ss, and (b) when you’re giving a kid in college Hickory Farms, you may as well have a parade with bright red flags, a loud siren and a huge banner saying “THIS IS A REGIFT!!!!!”
I have to say it: I am an awesome gift giver.
@Stephanie – I get those kinds of gifts all the time, too. Not always as hellaciously bad, but you just wonder, “You do know me, right? We’ve met before?”
Worst I ever got? Nothing. My (now-ex) girlfriend forgot. Two years in a row.
Worst I ever gave? Well I’m definitely guilty of the same thinking as whoever gave TheHRD that giraffe and “gave” someone a tiger one year (I thought I was being cute because she kept talking about how much she wanted a pet tiger – to her credit, she tried really hard to look enthused lol).
Possibly my favourite (in a good way) was when my sisters and I decided to say to hell with gifts and spent the money instead on junk food and on renting DVDs and Mario Galaxy and sat around for all of Christmas and boxing day playing videogames and eating like slobs. It was great.
I put myself through college by working in a convenience store – the graveyard shift, all holidays. That meant I saw lots of people streaming in on Xmas eve, looking for gifts. Yes, in a convenience store! Some would buy ‘special edition’ camouflage lighters shaped liked machine guns. One person tried to buy my wristwatch (didn’t happen!). This pushed me in the direction of existentialism
I’m not letting this one go. Ever.
Our first Christmas together, as a married couple (he’d proposed the previous Christmas, sort of setting the bar kinda high). We had no money and I was prepared for a handmade something or other. Instead on Christmas Eve, a big Victoria’s Secret box appears under our tree. I was elated. My young, seemingly conservative hubby had gone out of his comfort zone and out of our spending zone to surprise me with something steamy. Woohoo!
On Christmas morning, I opened the gift, slowly and with much anticipation (as only a dramatic, 6 weeks married 20 year old can do) and parted that scented tissue paper to see what lacy, racy concoction awaited. And it was…….
A blue, terrycloth robe. Size Large.
I spent the entire Christmas morning crying in the shower stall. (as only a dramtic, 6 weeks married, 20 year old can do).
I still have that robe though and wore it to the hospital to deliver our third child. I guess he was thinking ahead with the “large”.
Setting: Small startup Christmas Party at owner’s house
Pitch: Thanks for all of your hard work, I’ve gotten you each a special gift.
Close: We each got a little puzzle…mine was untangle the string from the wooden tee and golf ball thingy.
Awesome…thanks…
My Grandmother once gave me a pair of wedge sneakers for Christmas. They looked like Chucks on the top – red, lace-up and the wedge was made of rainbow colored rubber material. When I opened them, I knew it was a gift that she would have loved to have received (she had her own special “style”), so I was prepared to be gracious. However, my (now ex) husband couldn’t contain himself and began laughing hysterically. Needless to say – she was not amused. And I got a $10 bill for Christmas every year after that. Enough to buy a new pair of rainbow soled high heel sneakers I’m sure.
When I was 16, my mom bought me a yellow (and I mean YELLOW) outfit because she thought I needed to wear brighter colors since “young people shouldn’t wear black.” Head to toe yellow. Did I mention I was 16? I was SUPPOSED to wear morose colors (actually, I still do).
I wore it to school ONE day so as not to hurt Mom’s feelings (good daughter, despite my angst). And I wanted to die all day long.
The 2nd worst gift I’ve ever received was a psychotic snowman platter from my mother-in-law. Seriously, this HUGE ASS ceramic platter with incredibly psychotic looking snowmen in relief. I don’t know what she was thinking, as she’d never use such a thing and up til then she’d always given me awesome things like Barnes & Noble gift cards.
So we put it in the garage because neither of us could stand to look at it, and then my husband took it to work for a gift exchange. The cycle of heinous gift giving continues. There really should be a re-gift tracking website for this sort of thing.
Worst gift I have ever seen given was from my grandmother to my mother for Christmas about 20 years ago. It was a jar of pickles. YES, PICKLES!!! Not even fancy gourmet pickles. Just normal, from the grocery store pickles. When my mom opened it and with a horrified and inquisitive look on her face, my grandmother replied – “I know how much you like them.” Classic (or should I Vlasic). We still all laugh about it to this day.
I gave my aunt a set of bath towels. She put them on her list and was obviously happy to receive them, but I was like, “Really? You want towels?” Hey, whatever flips her skirt…
I had a girlfriend who was a hard core liberal and both she and her sister got a book by Sean Hannity from her uncle. She returned it to Barnes and Noble for credit and got something she actually wanted to read. I would’ve done the same; probably gotten Lady Chatterly’s lover or something equally scandalous.
Secret Santa when back when I was a loan collector:
Monday my secret Santa gave me the same candy I gave my secret gift receiver
Tuesday my secret Santa gave me the same cookie I gave my secret gift receiver
Wednesday I gave my secret gift receiver a roll of toilet paper
End of story
i was 16 and my mother gave me emily post’s etiquette book for christmas. she topped herself with my high school graduation gift – a bible.
I got potpourri once when I was 16— I tried smoking it to see if it got you high. It doesn’t.
Worst present I gave was a red teddy to my sister. I actually didn’t think at the time it was inappropriate (I got a great deal on it– and I must have been stoned or something). And she’s like “Um….ok…..uh…..um….thanks……I think?” Funny— and I’m not from Arkansas!
@Jennifer…see, now, one person’s trash, is another’s treasure. One of my fondest memories is of going shopping with my Aunt Jean, who surprised me and bought me a pair of those same high-heeled wedge sneakers, which, if I still had them I would wear today! I had begged my Mom for them, but they weren’t in the budget. What was really special is that my Aunt Jean had 4 daughters of her own, but she took time out with me, didn’t laugh at my “style” and I still remember how special I felt.
I forgot to mention that my sister got a 6 pack of Hanes underwear (size XL, she weighs 125 lbs.) from her Mother In Law last Christmas.
My in-laws gave me a silver ice bucket. And I know you’re thinking, how can that be so bad? First, it was tarnished BLACK, solid black. When I unwrapped it, neither of them batted an eye, they both smiled and my MIL said, “that will polish right up!” The tarnish was my first clue that they had not purchased this thing at the store but had found it during their recent move to a new house.
My second clue was the horrified expression on my husband’s face. It turns out the silver ice bucket had been a wedding present from his first marriage!!!!! After the divorce his parents took it because he didn’t want to keep it and his mom had always wanted a real silver ice bucket.
Then they stored it in the garage for five or so years, found it and decided to wrap it up and give it to me…his second wife…for Christmas…and act like they bought it for me because they know how much I wanted an ice bucket (NOT). Yay! Thanks you guys!!! Just what I wanted, a tarnished ice bucket from my husband’s wedding to his former wife – I’ll cherish it for the rest of my life.
It never came into our house and I gave it away before New Years.
class factotum- Is there anything worse than in-laws with (not only) bad taste but also bad manners? Blaming you for their failure to buy appropriate gifts, pitting siblings against each other. Jeez. Maybe they should take up drinking.
This is such a great topic – thanks, Laurie!
Worst ever gift was received during a holiday gift exchange at work – a guy gave me a chia pet that was a bald-headed man. You know where this is going…soak the seeds and he grew hair. Ack! He got a nice pen from me.
Ah Christmas. Mom, I love you dearly but your gift-giving….needs a little work. As the middle child of 3 boys with a total age span of 6 years (exactly as we were all born in November. M&D liked gettin busy in th Feb/March timframe…) So close in age, we often got similar (read:”equal”) Xmas gifts, etc. Christmas in our house had a certain policy. Under the tree was all the good stuff. STOCKINGS however held “supplies” as we came to refer to them. God bless her, but into our later teens, stockings were for such Christmas gift staples as: underwear, deodorant, I kid you not Aqua Velva aftershave, socks, hand lotion (useful to a kid of 14; he, he he…), Barbasol shaving cream, etc etc etc, The embarrassing list goes on and on. At some point my Mom wondered why I would just grab th stocking and take it up to my room without even looking inside for the “exciting gifts”!! I’d have preferred coal…. Love you Mom
Bad gifts? Probably a few, but WAAAYYY long ago. That’s when we need to look to gift cards to bail out our gift-giving butts. And thank God they’re in abundance today!
My wife’s eccentric aunt a notorious garage & yard sale shopper gave us a set of glasses for a wedding gift. The dead bugs in the bottoms of glasses were only slightly worse than the bird images on each glass.
My adult, married and gainfully employed stepchildren never fail to amaze me with their assinine half-gifts to their dad. For his 50th birthday, the four of them all pitched in and bought him a $5 water bladder from the dollar store.
For Christmas one year, his son and daughter-in-law gave us a gift together – a book of $1 off coupons from a movie theater in a town 45 miles away.
For another birthday, his daughter gave him a box of Boy Scout popcorn that was 2 years old. Apparently she woke up one morning and said, “Oh crap! It is my dad’s birthday. I need to get him something….what to do???” Then she looked in the back of her pantry and saw out of date popcorn.
I can’t wait to see what Christmas brings!
I was 41, and my dad gave me a wall calendar featuring photos of wolves (why? I can only guess it was because a couple of months before that Christmas I watched a documentary about wolves and mentioned I’d enjoyed it). But wait! There’s more! That was the year that I was about to take 12 months to drive around the country, to interview people who loved their jobs. All my stuff was already in storage. I wasn’t to have walls on which to hang that calendar until well past its expiration date.
I think, though, that the MIL XL panties present story wins hands down!
Ray Butler, I did suggest to my husband that we just get his parents a case of bourbon for Christmas. Because it would certainly not go to waste and it would be one less tacky piece of crap to clean out of their house when they die. I swear my husband is a changeling.
My in-laws have a hog farm. Every Christmas they butcher a few and all the kids get a big back of meat. One year they were mad at us. Our bag contained nothing but snouts and hooves.
AngryHRGuy – your post made me remember my parents’ similar attempts to keep things “equal” – only in my case, a) There were four of use with a total age span of 8 years between us b) there was a bigger age gap between me (the oldest) and any of the other three and c) I am the only boy. So my mom’s attempts to keep things “equal” between, for example, her 20 year old son and her 12, 14, and 16 year old daughters were pretty amusing. I have to love her for trying (and laugh) but the stuffed toys and picture frames (of the type that teenage girls put up in their lockers) were hard to know what to do with.
And Laurie, the worst part was all my husband’s sibs got homemade bacon!
Newly married (now some 30 years ago), I asked my mother for some cookware with the following specifications, “Not aluminum and not Teflon coated.” The first pot was was both. The next kitchen gift was a knife (not at all requested). The third time mom got it right, stainless steel as desired. As it was so long ago, I will (apparently not) ignore that it took years and three tries to get the requested pot right.
3 years ago, on the first night of Hanukkah, my wife (who was my girlfriend at the time) came home and handed me a gift bag and said Happy Hanukkah, where is my present. She is (admittedly) a big baby when it comes to presents. She HATES when I won’t tell her before hand what I got her or where I’ve hidden her gifts. So prior to that night I had been teasing her about her present. I insisted on opening my present first (to push her even further). My gift bag held 2 DVDs that weren’t even wrapped. They were movies I wanted but it was pretty obvious that it was last minute shopping. This overall wasn’t a bad gift as far as I was concerned but since that day my wife still talks about what a crappy gift she got me compared to her gift…..
an engagement ring.
Yep, I rocked it!!!
For our wedding, we registered for new dishes. The dishes we currently (and still have… sigh…) are chipped and missing several pieces because they are from my early 20′s and I was into colorful loud stuff so we thought our wedding would be a perfect opportunity to ask for new ones. My mother in law said – no worries – that will be my gift – the new dishes. That sounded great!
She did not get us the new dishes. She got us the UGLIEST set of serving bowls, etc to go along with our chipped, colorful dishes. A pitcher, a platter, a huge UGLY bowl. Thanks, Ma.
I put them in our crawl space -I hope they crawl away. My mom bought us new dishes for Christmas this year – we don’t get to open them for a few more weeks. I love my mom.
We also got an insane amount of picture frames for our wedding – I don’t think there are enough pictures in the world to fill up this many frames. They are keeping the serving pieces company in the crawl space. Wedding and baby registries are created for a reason – use them people!
I forgot – one other thing. My husband and I got married on my birthday last year.
I was pretty excited when my birthday and 1st anniversary rolled around this year. We agreed to keep it small because we were going to 2 major vacations shortly after that day. I thought I was being super thoughtful when I noticed him admiring a new wallet and I snuck back to the store and bought it.
I gave it to him the morning of my birthday and for me… he had… NOTHING. Not even a card. Then he suggested we go out for dinner at HIS favorite restaurant to make up for it. I said – only if you are going to sit there and watch me eat.
So basically I gave my husband a present for MY birthday. And he still doesn’t understand why that’s a sore spot with me. Again… sigh…
Oh! I forgot this one! Ten years ago, I was dating this guy who lived in Brussels. He mentioned he liked American whiskey and had indeed detoured on a business trip to drive through Kentucky and tour several distilleries.
I, not a drinker, did the research on fancy boutique single-malt Kentucky bourbon (or whatever the good stuff is that you couldn’t get in Europe). I went to four liquor stores in Miami before I found one that had the stuff I wanted. I carried the $50 bottle on the plane with me to see him. I think it was a hit.
Months later, for my birthday, he started dropping hints. Oh, he was getting me the coolest birthday present! He had already made the arrangements! I was going to like it sooooo much! It was sooo neat!
I couldn’t wait. What would be the equivalent of the fancy $50 bourbon?
My birthday arrived.
And so did the e-card.
We broke up shortly thereafter.
My husband got me diamond earrings our first Christmas together, which was one of many, many clues that he, unlike Brussels guy, was a keeper.
I’ve been lucky, and have gotten few BAD gifts: Mostly your garden variety ugly sweaters. But the problem for me was always that Dad mandated that ONE present was enough for kids. I prayed I be hit by a bus before I had to go back to school and compare with my friends who lots of presents from Mom and StepDad, Dad and Needy Girlfriend, and hundreds of grandparents.
I am a rotten gift giver, though. Guilty of Chia Heads, ugly pottery, outdated collectables and hideous clothes. Gift cards have mostly saved me, but they feel like I’m not even trying.
@JVikki Gift cards have mostly saved me, but they feel like I’m not even trying. I think a gift card is fine unless it’s your spouse. Then it feels kind of weird.
@Renae Shoot, that’s just a mess.
@Glen She’s a lucky girl!
@Spouse This is why I don’t ask for kitchen stuff. I’d rather go buy it myself.
@Suz That is hilarious.
@Ian Oh boy, equity is so overrated.
@Martha Wolves. Ha!
@Donlyn That is hysterical. This is why I have cats.
@hrMark Hahahaha. Gross.
@Rick Exactly.
@Angry That’s a sad story.
@Marsha That’s a very common office gift. I have given a few of them, myself, as a joke.
@Ray/Class I’m lucky. My inlaws give me great gifts.
@LowTotem OMG, that is just sad. Sad.
@Maren that is so hilarious. And sad. And hilarious. Ken was like, “What? The robe is practical.” Men.
@Peopleshark God bless Aunt Jean. Is she still with us? I had an aunt like that — they are priceless.
@MattyMat There is nothing you haven’t smoked. I’m sure of this.
@Lisa Ouch.
@Nelking I hate office-secret-santas. Did you see The Office, this week? Priceless.
@econopete Sean Hannity can #suckit. I hate that guy.
@Michelle Pickles? Crazy.
@Jennifer Hahahahahaha, stupid ex-husband. Oh no, wait, that wasn’t the point of the story. (I don’t care. It’s my blog. I’ll be snarky.
)
@H.Aria My friend ALo and I exchange ugly cat statues. I have a few for her, this year.
@Chris Moody My gramma says, “People with money are always the cheap ones.”
@Jeff Oh that’s just sad. Eyewitness to the pathetic side of humanity.
@Ian I hate your ex-girlfriend.
@Patrick I hate tubular meet. #fact #hickoryfarms
@Puf Ha, that poor kid. I hope you made it up to her.
@Robert Hilarious.
@Latina Hmmmmm… 20 is a little young for Tupperware.
@HRU Boo! Mother-in-law!
@Beth Atrocious. Tacky. Awesome.
@Mike Charity gifts are nice, in concept, but I don’t trust them. You’re right — seems sketchy.
@Fran I’ll wear that tiara.
@Renee Invest in pottery, Hummels, and Lladro statues. More priceless than gold.
@Stephanie Throw that ex in the pile of things that are useless — like the necklace! Ugh is right!
@Puter I sense a theme. Most definitely.
@Minion LOL, that is a redonk gift.
@Rosalind Weird and random. Soup. What the heck?
@TheHRD I’ve been with Ken for 12 years. The day he comes home with a windscreen thing is the day I send him back out the door.
Did I miss anyone? These are all so hilarious, by the way. You made my night. Happy Hanukkah!
I received exactly the same tie two years in a row for Christmas. And the guy who gave me both ties did not pay for any of them, since those were promotional items from his employer.
I had been dating this guy in highschool for about two years and he bought me an ID bracelet (seriously?) for Christmas and my name was spelled wrong. When I pointed it out to him he said the store made a mistake and he took me back to the store where he bought it with the receipt. When the sales person and I looked at the receipt, my name was spelled wrong in my boyfriends hand writing—not the sales persons.
I apparently GAVE the worst Christmas gift ever once. My old roommate’s boyfriend was on my list and it was understood that we’d be giving cheap doodads since we were all young and broke (ornaments, candy, books, etc.). After we ate our humble gruel and drank our cheap wine, we opened the gifts. My gift to “Otto” was a first edition of Tallulah Bankhead’s autobiography found for a song in a thrift store. (Keep in mind I was broke.) Since we had just discussed Ms. Bankhead and “Otto” was a smart and campy sort of fellow, I was sure he’d share my delight at this original find. Surely more interesting than some dumb candle, right?
He behaved like I had wrapped him up a turd and seemed insulted that I gave him a “used” book. The next time I saw him, he handed it to me without a word.
This wasn’t the first (or last) mean thing directed at me. I should add that after he broke up with my roommate (after cheating with the roommate’s BROTHER), he had the nerve to make a pass at me. What a pig.
I think I just overshared.
I’m a little late to the party, just saw this, but, thought I would share anyway. My fave was when we did that (ahem, stupid) exchange at work where you draw numbers and the people get to pick an opened gift or ‘take’ one from someone ahead of them. Well, I picked an unopened one and was like the 2nd to last person, so got stuck with it – it being a Life Savers Ornament from 2 YEARS EARLIER (the date was on it) and a pine scented candle. Seriously. The best part is, it was our VP that wrapped it up and had no shame in bringing it in. And, I hate the smell of pine. UGH.
I try not to look a gift horse in the mouth and am happy to get a gift, period. I think that’s because my birthday is on a holiday and gifts usually get glopped together. But I can tell you my best gift ever. I got a kitten one year, and yes, I know people aren’t supposed to give pets but it was from a guy I was dating at the time. He was an adorable little black cat who grew into a very handsome, very large (but not overweight) panther, more or less. His name was Warlock and he fit the description of the perfect familiar. He has long since stalked his way into the afterlife but his memory will always linger.
Worst gift received – from paternal Grandmother, you know, the one that you kind of forget is your grandma because you like your real Grandma better…I wonder why. Maybe it is the ridiculous beige and brown, cheap, paisley – yes, PAISLEY, sweatshirt that she got me when was 13. Really? I held it way up in front of my face and said, “oh, Grandma, thank you. It’s so nice.” Even my parents (terrific gift-givers, btw) were mortified. She’s gone now and I miss her, but I have in-laws to take the “crappiest gift-giver” place.