worst x-mas present ever recieved

[pony89]

This isn’t exactly a bad gift, since I really did like the gifts themselves.

I was probably 11, a once a week lesson student (took the winters off) with no horse. At that time, we traveled out of state to spend the holidays with relatives, so my parents just brought a few small gifts and we opened the rest when we returned. We were at the grandparents, and I opened my gifts to find a hoof pick and a crop :eek: I was sure my dreams were coming true! My poor parents. I just knew what was going to be under my tree when we returned home, and I would not be convinced otherwise.

Another year, I had shown an interest in an airbrush. Under the tree, I found a small variety of airbrush paint, so I was pretty excited. When all of the presents were unwrapped, no airbrush. I dutifully and politely thanked my parents for the paint, said I was looking forward to using it, and said “it looks like this would work in an airbrush, too, maybe I can use my Christmas money for one of those.” My parents just looked at each other…oops! Looks like Santa left a couple presents hidden in the basement. That wasn’t a bad gift, either, but it was looking a little iffy for a few minutes there!

My DH is a gift giver extraordinaire. He steadfastly refuses to get me the dishes I have mentioned needing to fill out our china set as a gift (good DH!) He knows to save the household goods for those things that really light up my eyes, like my Little Green portable carpet cleaner from last year, or the new scientific calculator from the year before, or my Leatherman from my birthday. Love them!! Frankly, his coworkers can’t figure out how he gets away with it.

[TheOrangeOne]

Last year, I had left a pair of shoes in my mother’s car for a while. She boxed them up and gave them to me as a gift. My other two sisters got something small but thoughtful, and I got a pair of shoes that I already own. It was some kind of scheme to make my father pay her more alimony. I make a detailed list every year of crap I need for the horse. Heaven would be a stocking with adequan and gastrogard… :yes: Naturally I never get any of it because it would be “boring” so all the stuff I haven’t bought in anticipation of the holidays has to get purchased anyways right after everyone has spent money already. Not fun! I finally explained this year that they can consider a gift to the horse a gift to me. He does not enjoy wearing the clothes, I enjoy putting them on him. Like Willem indicated. Don’t not buy us no ugly-assed clothes. These are gifts for you!!!

[heatherny2]

My Dad, God rest his soul, one year gave me an epilady…need I say more:eek:

[erinwillow]

If this wasn’t an overt message. . I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS!! A few years ago my mother-in-law sent me prison style house slippers (like the kind you see on those cop tv shows)!! WTF???:lol: I totally threw them in the trash :lol:

[erinwillow]

[QUOTE=TheOrangeOne;3723096]
Last year, I had left a pair of shoes in my mother’s car for a while. She boxed them up and gave them to me as a gift. My other two sisters got something small but thoughtful, and I got a pair of shoes that I already own. It was some kind of scheme to make my father pay her more alimony. I make a detailed list every year of crap I need for the horse. Heaven would be a stocking with adequan and gastrogard… :yes: Naturally I never get any of it because it would be “boring” so all the stuff I haven’t bought in anticipation of the holidays has to get purchased anyways right after everyone has spent money already. Not fun! I finally explained this year that they can consider a gift to the horse a gift to me. He does not enjoy wearing the clothes, I enjoy putting them on him. Like Willem indicated. Don’t not buy us no ugly-assed clothes. These are gifts for you!!![/QUOTE]

OMG, too funny!!

[MunchkinsMom]

@heatherny2;3723141

My Dad, God rest his soul, one year gave me an epilady…need I say more:eek:

OK, glad I wasn’t sipping my soda when I read that one!

I might have you beat - my mother bought one of those bad boys for herself, and then gave it to me. And all she said was she didn’t really like it :eek: And I thought she loved me!

And then when I called to complain about it, she had the nerve to actually laugh.

But it did give us this new saying - whenever someone invites us to do something we really don’t want to do, we say “no thanks, I would rather stay home and Epilady my legs”.

[Gray_Horse_H_J]

My worst gift?

Work present exchange/grab bag last year. Limit was $25. I put in a $25 gift card to Starbucks - pretty much everyone at my office drinks coffee so I knew it would go over well. What did I get? A ceramic snowman butter dish. A teeny one. And it didn’t even come in a BOX. The lady just threw it in a gift bag. I was at my aunt’s on Christmas Eve, and what do I see sitting on the table? The SAME butter dish. I told her that was what I had gotten as a gift, and she laughed and said, “Seriously? I bought it for $3.99 at the dollar store.”

We also did an ornament exchange that year and, purely by coincidence, my ornament was from the same lady who’s gift I’d picked. Everyone put in nice, pretty ornaments, a lot of glass ones. I got a large plastic ornament with a face on it, when you turn it on it rolls it’s eyeballs around and sings. It’s f*&#@%g creepy looking. The pricetag on the box said $6.99 and was crossed out and replaced with $0.99. :rolleyes: Nice.

My worst horsey gift was probably the plethora of bad horse sweatshirts people gave me. What’s even worse is I WORE them as a kid.

[mkevent]

OMG-this was the funniest thread!!!
I’m not sure if it is funny or sad to admit this, but here goes… I had purchased some jewelry for my daughter and not wanting her to guess what it was from the size of the box, I decided to put it in a larger box. Well, to keep the small jewelry box from clanging around in the large box, I needed some kind of filler-no tissue paper to be found-hummmm need to get clever. I looked through the closet and found an ugly old sweater vest- this will work, I can hide the jewelry box inside the sweater vest, it will be a gag gift as well as the real gift. Of course, since I planned all this well in advance(perhaps a week before the holiday?) I had forgotten all about it. Christmas morning comes around, I’m watching everyone open their gifts-my daughter opens hers with a look of complete bewilderment. I look at the gift, think “what is my sweater vest doing in the presents and why would I have given it to my daughter?” It took a couple minutes to register because I had forgotten about my evil plan and when I remembered, I couldn’t stop laughing. Of course, my daughter didn’t get any of my reaction because she still hadn’t discovered the jewelry box yet. I guess the worst thing is that I was hysterically laughing at my own joke that I had forgotten about while everyone else thought I was just goofy. Maybe being senile makes keeping me amused a bit easier…

[Gray_Horse_H_J]

[QUOTE=Sonesta;3722978]
Completely on point, here is a GREAT video about men buying the wrong Christmas present:

http://bewareofthedoghouse.com/VideoPage.aspx[/QUOTE]

OH MY GOD!!! I watched this last night at my friend’s house, someone had emailed it to her. We laughed SO hard. I’m so glad you posted this, now I can watch it again!

:D:D:D:D:D

[DressageGeek_Ribbon]

I did something similar to my nephew, when he was about 15. He was at the age where a check was going to be the best present, and when I asked him about gifts, I said, “You’re really into the Lion King, right?” (the big movie at the time which we both disliked) And he played along with the joke and responded, “YES!”

My mother some weeks later found a very simple cardboard Lion King puzzle for my niece, then about 3. So I absconded with the box, carefully placed the check inside so it would be hidden unless you took everything out, wrapped it, and gave it to my nephew. When he unwrapped it, he just stared at it, and I said, very seriously, “Well, you told me you liked the Lion King, right??” He was dumbfounded.

I had to chase him down fifteen minutes later, when he handed it off to my neice, so that he could sift through the pieces and retrieve his check.

To this day, I find ways to hide a check in Barbie or similar toys. The more hideous and cheap the toy, the better.

[heatherny2]

[QUOTE=mkevent;3723276]
OMG-this was the funniest thread!!!
I’m not sure if it is funny or sad to admit this, but here goes… I had purchased some jewelry for my daughter and not wanting her to guess what it was from the size of the box, I decided to put it in a larger box. Well, to keep the small jewelry box from clanging around in the large box, I needed some kind of filler-no tissue paper to be found-hummmm need to get clever. I looked through the closet and found an ugly old sweater vest- this will work, I can hide the jewelry box inside the sweater vest, it will be a gag gift as well as the real gift. Of course, since I planned all this well in advance(perhaps a week before the holiday?) I had forgotten all about it. Christmas morning comes around, I’m watching everyone open their gifts-my daughter opens hers with a look of complete bewilderment. I look at the gift, think “what is my sweater vest doing in the presents and why would I have given it to my daughter?” It took a couple minutes to register because I had forgotten about my evil plan and when I remembered, I couldn’t stop laughing. Of course, my daughter didn’t get any of my reaction because she still hadn’t discovered the jewelry box yet. I guess the worst thing is that I was hysterically laughing at my own joke that I had forgotten about while everyone else thought I was just goofy. Maybe being senile makes keeping me amused a bit easier…[/QUOTE]

:lol::lol::lol:
Thank your for the good laugh I needed.

[heatherny2]

My hubby had to have his input into this. One year at his work, the “secret santa” gift exchange, some older woman had wrapped her kitchen cubbard, such as tuna cans, soup cans, rice boxes, etc, into a nice package…how nice…to keep it HR, she did not include any carrots or horse treats…imagine getting that for your gift…:winkgrin:

[2ndyrgal]

ah yes,

It was 1995. I was a poor starving nursing student teaching riding lessons to the unteachable and riding the unridable to make a buck. I had a group of dedicated, somewhat talented short stirrup kids and juniors, the first group would try the patience of Job, the second smarty pantsed enough to make a nun swear under her breath. They loved me, and to this day, I have no idea why. The mom’s got me much needed warm socks, cheap wine and gift cards to Krogers. The kids, who mostly rode long suffering quarter horses, decent jumpers all things considered, got me a much needed new pair of breeches. They were expensive, they were just my size. They were green. Not moss green, not hunter green. Green. Crayola Crayon Posse Kelly Green. Primary school finger paint green. I have had those suckers for 13 years this Christmas, and worn them in every possible hazardous situation from breaking out greenies to painting the barn doors and no luck, not a rip, tear, fuzzy or stain on them. They are, THE BREECHES THAT WILL NOT DIE! I’ve tried to kill them, I’ve left them laying around boarding barns in hopes they’ll disapear.
I’ll have them forever.
That and the hand painted toilet brush holder with an original painting of myself and my horse at the time jumping a hedge. Don’t even ask.

[hedmbl]

Mine was probably last year. I have my parents pretty well trained as far as gifts go. Anything for the horses = good. Anything extra frilly, fancy, girly= bad. My mom forgets from time to time…

I’ve been a tomboy pretty much my whole life and just have no interest in the things my mom and sister are so into. I have lots of style and dress nicely in mainly designer stuff since my mom is constantly buying me clothes and sending them to me but I’m not one to dress up of my own free will. Give me a nice pair of jeans, cute top and a burberry scarf anyday…simple, easy.

So last year my mom’s gift to me was a Dooney and Bourke purse. For something so expensive it sure was ugly! It looked like a 90 year old woman’s bag…seriously the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. Her reasoning was that it was so unattractive she just knew I would like it (ummm…thanks?. She actually said that!). It was sitting in my room this whole year until I finally dug it out and sold it on ebay for $450 (?!)…I was expecting maybe $50, had no reserve and started the bidding at $0.99.:lol:

It wasn’t so much that it was a bad gift but was more dissappointing that she clearly doesn’t know me at all! :lol: I think she never got over being horrified at my preference to horses and dirty barns. She still has small seizures when I come home from the barn wearing some of the $$$ designer clothes she buys me…I always tell her that I live at the barn and therefore all of my clothes will one day end up there too, but she doesn’t listen. I’m perfectly happy in Old Navy!

[mcm7780]

@caffeinated;3722814

So, back when this thread first started, someone mentioned razors and hotel shampoo.

What did I get last year?

Razors (with a whole box of refills!!!) and shampoo. Not quite hotel shampoo, but she (so’s mom) went out and bought giant sized containers of shampoo/conditioner based on what I’d brought with me on a previous visit, which was whatever little sample sized things my mom had put in my stocking the previous year (mom started this because once we grew up and moved away, we would always forget to pack SOMETHING when we came home for christmas, so now she puts toothbrushes, toothpaste, and travel sized-whatever-elses in the stockings).

Dude, we must be totally opposite! A few years ago you said you got a paper shredder, I had asked for one. You commented back that the year before you got a blender – the guy I started dating at Thanksgiving last year gave me a microwave a few weeks later. I had asked for it. I would be happy to get razors and shampoo. :lol::lol::lol::lol: So send me whatever you get and hate this year; I’ll probably love it!

[MsM]

I too have my share of tacky and downright ugly stuff that was given to me because it had a “horse” on it. (Horse in quotations because some of the representations are pretty questionable!):winkgrin:
I was a kid in the dark ages when there really werent many good horsey toys. Mom and I still walk down the toy aisles and moan “Why couldnt they have had these toy horses and riders back then?” I did get a number of cheap plastic horse figures - okay they were part of a cowboy and indians set but I didnt care! Other than that, I would get breakable figurines and would keep my mom busy glueing them back together as I gallopped their little legs off.
Still, it was horse stuff that I loved. Mom and dad accepted that but somehow thought I must really want dolls too… So I usually got a doll for Christmas too. And I usually ignored it. However, one year I got this big doll that would walk if you held its hand and moved the arm. It was nearly as big as me. Mom was so excited. I tried to pretend to like it, but I found it kind of creepy. I think I had watched too many Twilight Zone episodes. So I would leave it in some corner in the house so I didnt have to look at it. One night my mom finds it there and decides that I must be lonely without my doll. So she brings it to my room while Im asleep and places it at the foot of my bed facing me. I wake up and see that it has followed me to my room! :eek: I was very relieved when my brother broke it.
I had an “underwear aunt” growing up and another who always got gifts about three years too young for us. We did learn to be polite about such things. My Granny provided some interesting gifts. I can still hear her saying “you’re young, you can wear bright colors!” when she gave us some neon colored velour shirt. Mom and dad couldnt laugh too much because she got them the same. And when she took up crocheting she made some well made afgans. Unfortunately she would start with orange, then add a purple stripe, then neon green and finish with red fringe.:lol: Whatever bizzarre color yarn she would find on sale and when she ran out of one color, she would merrily continue in another until she tired of it so the afgans were all different sizes. I still have some that I chuckle over fondly.
Probably my best present came after I had gotten a horse when I was 17. My mom was famous for making rhymes on the tags of presents to hint at what was in it (and that were either horribly obvious or totally incomprehensible) I read a rhyme, really had no idea what it meant, and opened it to find a combination lock. Okay, whatever, on to the next present. When I had opened them all mom asked “Arent you going to follow the directions?” I read the rhyme again and realized that it started me out on the trail of a series of clues. These lead me to the basement where my dad had made me a wooden tack trunk for my new horse! I was thrilled even more when I opened it and discovered that my non-horsey parents had found and bought a used saddle for me! Not quite the pony-under-the-tree, but close enough.

BTW helped a co-worker today track down a mechanical ride on (bounce-on, really) horse for her daughter. I offered to find her the real thing, but no luck yet…

[LuvMyNSH]

[QUOTE=TheOrangeOne;3723096]
Last year, I had left a pair of shoes in my mother’s car for a while. She boxed them up and gave them to me as a gift. My other two sisters got something small but thoughtful, and I got a pair of shoes that I already own. [/QUOTE]

:lol: My Grandma was a champ at this. She would buy some cheap present for me and give it for my birthday, and then it would be re-wrapped for Xmas, and I’d see it again next birthday, and so on.

I’d like to say it’s the thought that counts but there was no thought behind it.

[hedmbl]

[QUOTE=MsM;3723492]
I was thrilled even more when I opened it and discovered that my non-horsey parents had found and bought a used saddle for me! Not quite the pony-under-the-tree, but close enough.

…[/QUOTE]

That’s awesome! Good parents!

Maybe we should start a spin off of GREAT horsey xmas gifts. I’ve had several…including horses under the tree!!

[Rancher]

Oh man. Last year I got this nasty horse sculpture from my mom who bought it at walmart. It was two horses galloping out of a wave…the kind that was painted by a little kid. She was SO excited to give it to me! My sister saw it before I got it and was like “Please don’t mom! Please don’t!!” My mom gave it to me and triumphantly said “And your sister said you wouldn’t like it!!”
I NEVER let on that I didn’t like it of course, but I never set it out either. Good thing she never comes over.

My neighbors went away for 6 months and got me to watch their house. They brought me back a ginormous plastic clock…but not just any clock! A HORSE (goofy looking one) leaps out and whinnies on the hour. She wanted me to hang it in my kitchen!! And she comes over all the time. So for MONTHS I had this thing hanging in my kitchen until I figured out that I could probably convince her that the kids wanted in their play room.

http://www.childrenswallclocks.co.uk/childrens-novelty-wall-clocks/kids-novelty-wall-clock-whinny-coo/prod_26.html

I have gotten so many other tacky horse ornaments and cloths. Everything from a tie dyed purply pink 2XL ( am an XS) shirt with a white horse on it, to a giant fugly western painting complete horses that are not anatomically correct and a gold frame.

I never say a word. The shirt is hanging in my closet with plastic still on to keep it ‘nice’ and the painting is hanging in the porch.

[Sithly]

[QUOTE=LuvMyNSH;3723534]
:lol: My Grandma was a champ at this. She would buy some cheap present for me and give it for my birthday, and then it would be re-wrapped for Xmas, and I’d see it again next birthday, and so on.

I’d like to say it’s the thought that counts but there was no thought behind it.[/QUOTE]

My MIL has an interesting variation on this theme. One year, she bought me one of these:

@mayhew;2053868

When I was a child my grandparents gave me a model horse which I’m sure was quite expensive, as it was leather and definitely a “decorative” item, not a toy. But this horse had the most horrendous expression on its face–eyes bulging, mouth open and baring down on some imaginary enemy, nostrils flared. It looked like an ancient representation of a war horse. I couldn’t keep it in my room at night I was so scared of it.

A nightmare in brown leather. Then the next year, she got me ANOTHER ONE. :eek:

Sadly, they both perished in a terrible accident.

The funny thing is, I was thrilled to get those hideous things rather than the half dozen Disney snow globes she got me the previous year. WTF? I hate Disney, and I hate knick-knacks. shrug I don’t even like “stuff” in general. Every year I get tons of scented candles that I have no use for (no, I take that back – I did use one on my worktable to heat my metal leatherworking tools).

But, I can’t really complain, as my MIL is a wonderful, giving, and generous person. She’s probably one of the nicest people on the planet.

The best thing she ever got me was a big box filled with useful stuff like kleenex, Q-tips, advil, etc. Very cool.