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Television producer Matthew Weiner recently shared his holiday gift horror stories with the Times, relating a sad/funny discovery made by his brother while exchanging a Day-Glo orange sweater given to him by their parents; it turned out they spent $1.00 on the item. Which still doesn’t sound as bad as the gift Weiner got: “a crimson suede Nascar jacket covered with sewn-on patches with emblems of Skoal chewing tobacco and Drakkar Noir cologne. On the back was a huge Budweiser insignia.”
On Christmas Eve the Times opened up a thread for online readers to share some of the worst gifts they’ve received. A man from Massachusetts got “a tire from my then fiancé. I gave her an engagement ring as my gift. We never married. Not because of the tire per se, but you'd have to say it was a bad omen. I hated that tire.” Michael from Brooklyn got “rehab - from my parents.” Some of the other standouts:
- “A dozen No. 2 pencils and a cup.”
- “I received a Bob Marley shirt two years back. I HATED, and still HATE it to this day. Just thinking about it irks me. I wondered what I could have done this person to give me such a shirt.”
- “My sister and brother-in-law gave my husband and I eatable body paints at a family gathering.She said it was because I was an artist.”
- “A garage door opener from my new fiancé on our first Christmas together. I gave him The Joy of Sex.”
- “A toilet seat! No lie..It had pink country style designs on it, but still!!”
- “A bag of pennies.”
- “Every present my mother has ever given me.”
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I am sure that crimson suede Nascar jacket could sell for a sweet amount on eBay. Nascar nation is big!
And my worst Christmas gift, in retrospect, seems to be a Milli Vanilli CD.
as a simpsons fan, i wanted the simpsons movie dvd. all i got was a burned copy. i guess i'll be buying the dvd myself.
i get socks and shitty ties every year. i never wear ties!
I got a Starbucks gift card. Would have been brilliant, but we don't drink coffee and hate Starbucks. We are trading it with someone for an interesting vintage New Jersey license plate.
Basically any gift card is a bad gift, even more so if you don't patronize the establishment it is for. Finding someone to trade it with or "regifting" is the best thing to do with it, since these gift card exchange websites take a cut and the things are basically non-returnable. You would be better off giving cash instead - even a bag of pennies!
a kazoo. i'll never use it.
I could provide many entries under the "worst gift" category. The latest would be a walkie-talkie i received from a boyfriend. Considering I live alone in an apt. bldg., my gift is a stellar entry.
i got a reebok step from my ex because i had put on weight after chemo ended. thanks.
I too received a set of pencils, but that was years ago.
Yesterday, I got some sort of hygienic product called "Bidet in a Bottle" from my mother, which I opened in front of my girlfriend's family. It was intended to be a joke, but still...akward!
I got a book titled "The Most Evil People in the World" and another titled "Best Lawyer jokes" on the same Christmas Day. I immediately left them in my building's lobby for taking.
Oh and I also got two cookbooks the Christmas after from two different people. One was "How to cook Italian food", which I got from an Italian friend who does not know how to cook at all. I suspect that was a re-gift.
For years now, my uncle (slash godfather) has resorted to stuffing my greeting cards with confetti. A card arrives from him, I get excited because it feels lumpy through the envelope, and it turns out to be goddamn confetti. For the record, a metallic snowflake does NOT convert to dollars.
I've been a vegetarian for ~20 years and my entire family knows. It was a big deal when I defected from the only-meat-eating southern family. My grandparents up until a few years ago gave me 5-10 dollar gift certificates to-of all places-McDonalds. They always ended up being thrown or given away.
I got a Starbucks gift card yesterday and was quite happy about it. :) Mmmmm, peppermint mocha!
This crew need to chillax and stop bitching about people buying you presents. It's rough to give McDonald's gift certificates to a vegetarian, admittedly, but grandparents are generally pretty out of touch, and you wouldn't be getting anything awesome in the $5-10 range, anyway. You could always give them to a homeless person.
What about starting a "best presents" list? It might make a pleasant pallet cleanser between race-baiting posts.
msk:
Next Starbucks gift card I am given, I'll give it to the biggest, smelliest homeless person I can find. That way it is good karma all around!
msk:
Next Starbucks gift card I am given, I'll give it to the biggest, smelliest homeless person I can find. That way it is good karma all around!
you people are greedy. presents are stupid.
Every year my Mom gets me pajamas, which I don't wear, so I have a closet full of pajamas in boxes. This year my pajamas came with slippers, not one, not two, but three slippers!
the Bob Marley t-shirt comment reminded me that I once got a Bob Marley scented candle as a present. It came in a tin can and smelled awful. I tried to look grateful when my friend gave it to me, but I'm afraid my disgust might have shone through.
The worst gift I have ever received is one from a friend of more than ten-years, who should know better. It was a used, and I mean used in every sense of the word, book on Roses. Acoompanied with a set of pink Barbie doll garden tools (that was a re-gifted gag gift), how do I know this, because he announced it to me upon gifting it, and a basket which he told me was not really part of my Christmas gift at all, and which he took back. How's that for a gift from the heart?