Bad, Bizarre, or Baffling Gifts share your stories

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 10 year old dd was opening a gift from her grandparents. She slowly took out a piece of pink princess fabric. (she is the original tomboy) As she slowly turns it over she says thank you. Grandma speaks up and says "its extra fabric! I made your cousin a dress and this is what was left!" DD was great she said " Wow grandma that was so nice of you. Do you have a picture of the dress you made?" I was incredibly proud of dd for acting nicely. We laugh about it every year. She is sixteen now and will always shake a gift and if it is quiet she will make some comment about hoping that it is extra fabric! She is getting a used car for Christmas this year and we plan to wrap the keys in a box of fabric. (Grandma will not be there when it is opened)

Oh my gosh, how sweet. I'm amazed at your daughter's manners! I'm certain I would have been very very hurt by that.

This is the OP of this post...my dd is great. Unfortunately our family has had a lot of practice dealing with situations where it is very obvious that grandma favors the cousins. DH and I have been very honest with our kids and have bonded over it all. Now my kids know that if they act very polite mom and dad will do two things: create an inside joke that will make future visits funnier and reward them with a real gift once we leave. It took a long time for me to come to terms with either having no relationship with my parents or dealing with things like this using humor. Humor has helped.

OP of that post, I’m so sorry. If it helps, I can relate. We shared a beach house one year with the in-laws and and SIL and her young daughter. It was DD’s birthday and MIL gave ... one dress to DD and 3 dresses and a toy to the cousin because “they were on sale” or something. The fact that all the dresses were super-frilly didn’t change what happened. DD and I have bonded over this stuff, too.

In fact, I think this sort of thing (and other things) has contributed to DD’s amazing emotional intelligence, which has helped take her far in college and now in her first job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My grandfather lived in Asheville, NC, and every year he’s send us some Appalachian craft item that totally baffled us until we visited and saw one in action in his house. Napkin holders, ring holders, etc. I miss him.

Ha. Reminds me of a story my mom used to tell about her wedding. My parents got as a gift from some relative a large, flat stone. They were baffled but sent a nice note about the "lovely gift." The next they saw the relative, she said, "you had no idea what I gave you, did you." They admitted they didn't. She explained it was a bread warmer. You warm the stone in the oven and then put fresh-baked bread on it to keep it warm. Not that they would ever in a million years bake their own bread either, but it made a bit more sense!

[Anonymous]

One of DH's aunts is very creative and likes to make ceramics. Unfortunately none are to our taste. For our wedding she gave us a large, misshapen grey vase with tan amoeba-like things all over it. It was unspeakably ugly. My father, a doctor, compared it to some cells he'd been studying under a microscope. My sister said "holy shit what is that." Even my inlaws said "well, you could keep it in a cabinet somewhere ..."

We eventually threw it out. Luckily we live too far away for the aunt to visit us.

[Anonymous]

My young brother and I were looking forward to Easter morning for our baskets of candy. My dad was tasked with taking care of picking up baskets with candy/ toy. They were pre-made, so how hard is that? We both got an Easter lily and an orange. I cried.

[Anonymous]

DH’s Aunt gave me a book of handwritten poems she wrote about prisons/prisoners. She’s never been to prison, doesn’t work in a prison, and I have no special interest in prisons.

She’s different.

[Anonymous]

Mil have me a wire bending jig lol. Like I really need wire!. Wife received very expensive coin collection. Pretty clear what the witch thought of me. Lol ( it was mutual )

[Anonymous]

My mil once came to my house with a bag of expensive underwear and bras that her new husband had given her, telling me they were probably more my size than hers.
1/ not my taste
2/ way too big for me
3/ no way I was going to wear any sort of lingerie that her husband had bought for HER.

I can just imagine DH seeing me in the lingerie and me telling him that it was a gift from his step father to her mother...

I ended up giving the whole bag to a friend/colleague of mine. They fit her better and she’s happy to have expensive stuff she wouldn’t have bought herself. Plus she doesn’t know my mil nor her husband, which probably helps ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a high school teacher. One year, a senior was telling me that his mom really liked me at conferences, and had gotten me a Christmas gift that was "kind of extravagant, but you'll like it."

The last day of class before break began, his mom arrived in my classroom with two giant shopping bags full of Disney character plush toys, all new with tags. There was a big Cheshire Cat, the cat from Cinderella, the dogs from Lady and the Tramp, and all the princesses. They were the big ones, not minis.

I have no idea why she/they thought I was into Disney, but they spent quite a bit of money on these things, and I ended up lining them up along the window sills in the classroom.

I am not a Disney type person, I don't think. I am serious and wear dark colors. The student was an 18 year old hockey playing rugged type, and I doubt the gift was due to his input, but..who knows? It was one of the most lavish gifts I've ever gotten from a student, but...I still wonder why.

I have an 18 yr old "hockey playing rugged type" son. I can guess, as this kind of happens to me with him sometimes. Once, during class, you make some offhand comment about Disney, or stuffed animals, or princesses...something that you can't even remember but he took note of for some reason. He repeats it to Mom with way more emphasis and importance than it ever had for you, and you end up completely puzzled by gift. Because he's actually listening to you, but not quite hearing you.

So what you're saying is... he's being a man?

Hahaha, yes, I suppose so. In my case (DS) I think he's trying, and he's really pretty sweet. But just isn't quite there yet with the full on listening and translating it into gifts. After several years of reading DCUM, it seems many men are like that!

[Anonymous]

My MIL gave me super large lace panties. I tried to wear them for DH but they would just fall down. We laughed so hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP Maybe your sister found the brand name discontinued item at an outlet or a place like TJ Maxx, doesnt mean she didnt splurge.


I have thought about getting my MIL trash bags, as a gag gift. She has a regular size trash can, 13 gallon I think, but uses grocery store bags inside it instead of buying trash bags. Drives me bonkers.

Omg, my mother does that too with her trash. It's so messy and I cant understand it! I always mean to bring over some but always forget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH’s Aunt gave me a book of handwritten poems she wrote about prisons/prisoners. She’s never been to prison, doesn’t work in a prison, and I have no special interest in prisons.

She’s different.

This made me laugh! One year MIL gave me a book of poetry about farmers that were angry about the industrial revolution. She said she thought I’d appreciate the type of binding the book had. She’s also very different.

[Anonymous]

A long estranged relative that I'd never actually met mailed me EIGHT BANKER'S BOXES full of crap from the other side of the country (unwashed old clothes, dirty kitchenware, fortunately unused mousetraps, etc).

It turned out she'd pilfered most of it from the "estates" of various recently deceased friends and neighbors from the retirement community she lived in, and that this was to make up for the decades of holidays and birthdays she'd missed. After that, I never really heard much from her again.

[Anonymous]

At work one year we did secret Santa gifts at our holiday party - the kind where you pick the name of a person out of a hat. This was a smallish/ medium size office that had 3 principles. The socially awkward coworker in the office gave one of the principles a viagra paperweight. It was the most bizarre gift and such a strange choice of a gift for a boss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MIL bought my baby a bunch of dog toys at Petco and said "oh , they're chew toys, I figured he could use them for teething."

OMG. Just ... omg. Throw the whole MIL out and start over.

Well, I ended up giving that Sophie the Giraffe teething toy to my dog. The kid wanted nothing to do with it and it was expensive, so I figured at least the dog would get some use out of it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At work one year we did secret Santa gifts at our holiday party - the kind where you pick the name of a person out of a hat. This was a smallish/ medium size office that had 3 principles. The socially awkward coworker in the office gave one of the principles a viagra paperweight. It was the most bizarre gift and such a strange choice of a gift for a boss.

OMG that is hilarious! What was the reaction?

My strangest was an old aunt who was "cleaning out and giving away her junk." Everyone got something awful, and I was finally called up to get mine. I go up and she says "I hear you like tulips" and is holding a bag of bulbs. I'm so excited, maybe I'll get something I want! Then, she tosses me A BULB from the bag and says "here! enjoy!" WTF?