hedmbl and munchkinsmom…I have to say as well as I can remember that photo looks a whole lot like the creeptastic horse statue made out of a real dead horse we had! I think ours was a bit darker in color…like a chocolate brown and it’s face was a bit more stretched looking as if the hide shrunk a lot after it was on the statuette…made the horse look like he had constipation…so we had a colicy dead horse statue. The dog wanted to chew it and the cat kept rubbing against it and purring. 
I reread this whole thread… and apparently, DressageGeek gets the worst presents and is very passive-aggressive in her gifting :lol: .
my boyfriend would like to inform everyone that the terrifying leather horses are still in production… along with NUMEROUS other species. his father used to sell them and he distinctly remembered a camel… which does indeed have the creepy huge black eyes, and appears it can’t stand on its own?
personally, for payback i’d go with the hippo. but there are oodles of options :lol:
Well, you’re half right! I have not gotten the worst presents, many here can top me! but I AM passive aggressive when it comes to evil sisters in law…passive to their face, and aggressive otherwise!
[QUOTE=amastrike;3726916]
I reread this whole thread… and apparently, DressageGeek gets the worst presents and is very passive-aggressive in her gifting :lol: .[/QUOTE]
Passive aggressiveness is underrated.
:lol:
[QUOTE=DressageGeek “Ribbon Ho”;3727197]
Well, you’re half right! I have not gotten the worst presents, many here can top me! but I AM passive aggressive when it comes to evil sisters in law…passive to their face, and aggressive otherwise![/QUOTE]
Well, you get consistently bad gifts, as opposed to one-shot horrors.
Well, I though BlueEyedSorrel might mention her sister’s present to her last year, but apparently she’s feeling to nauseated to want to be reminded of it. Her sister worked (at the time) for J-Lo fashions in NYC. BES sent a list, with horsey and non horsey items, as their family does. Wide price range. Her sister decides, instead, to buy BES a blouse from J-Lo, because she gets a fabulous discount. Forget that BES is past the teenybopper stage, which is apparently J-Lo fashions’ target audience. Forget that either BES is in lab (where she does not want to wear a shimmery daringly cut blouse) or do clinical rotations in the hospital (ditto). Forget that BES let her sister know that there was nothing in the J-Lo fashion line she would ever remotely consider wearing, dead or alive.
I counseled BES to give her sister a brand new book on cancer researchers that BES had found donated to the department’s coffee room, with a sweet note that said, “I realized you wanted to give me the J-Lo blouse so that you can share with me the kind of work you do, which is so very important to you, and I loved that sentiment so much I found a book for you about cancer research, which is so very important to me.” Alas, BES is too nice, and gave her sister a giftcard instead, to a legitimate store at which her sister would shop.
Never fear. I have already made suggestions for this year.
We’re okay because her sister does not read COTH. However, if someone crossposts this on the NYC fashionista BBs, then we’re sunk.
Not really. I am just cursed with an incredible memory, and some of those bad gifts really stick out. And they make much better stories than the good gifts.
Also…it seems every December there’s another grant deadline, so this time of year I end up spending a lot of time in lab with many time points where there’s not much you can do in between…but post on COTH!
One year many years ago I received some earrings made out of 1 1/2" pieces of barb wire with one barb in them, gold colored.
The box has a card saying the wire is from an old fence in our county now over 100 years old.:lol:
This isn’t really a bad gift (unless you’re new to my family’s Christmas and have no idea WTF is going on!). We play the Present Game…gag gifts.
One year someone found this ugly glass canister-looking thing with a bird face. It had a beak and everything. Apparantley it originally came with candy in it? Maybe Jelly Beans? Not sure. Well, my older cousin got it in the Present Game, and was very perplexed. We all were, actually. He finally concluded that it looked like something a truck driver might use if he didn’t feel like stopping for a bathroom break…uh-huh, my family has an odd sense of humor. It was then named Trucker’s Friend.
Well Trucker’s Friend has resurfaced every Christmas for the last 16 years. Whoever ends up with it puts it back in the Present Game the next year. And they always wrap it in a box that isn’t too obvious looking, so no one knows it’s Trucker’s Friend. It’s usually altered in some way - my mom got it last year, and this year she’s putting it in the Game with a little paper hula skirt on it. :lol: I think we’re an odd bunch.
A bad gift I once got (I think I’ve contributed to this thread about 4 times now) was from my mom’s husband’s mom. She got me a sweater, fine. In a women’s size XL. I wear a small.
Too cool!! I would love those. I danced for a while and have a lingering affection for leg warmers. Maybe I should sew leather patches on the ones in my drawer that I just can’t bear to toss or give to Goodwill. Then I can wear them with my breeches! I wonder what my BM would say if I showed up with ballet pink thigh-high legwarmers overtop my breeches…
My mom gave me a plastic hoofpick last year. Um, thanks? A few years ago she gave everyone a battery operated toothbrush. The $5.99 kind, not the good kind.
Did it come with a tetanus booster? :lol:
[QUOTE=EponaRoan;3727752]
Did it come with a tetanus booster? :lol:[/QUOTE]
Good idea.
I wonder who would wear something like that anyway, even spray painted gold.:rolleyes:
The best thing I ever did to thwart bad gifts is to clearly state, “No carousel thingies” I restore carousels and when people see a carousel ornament, pillow, t shirt, ANYthing, they would buy it for me.
Well, as you might guess, none of these things even come close to the art of real carousels, they look weird & demented, some even have Asian eyes! So I just say to people, “I have the real thing and have no use for fake carousel stuff.” It worked well. (except that ugly rocking horse)
Good Lord,gold spray painted barbed wire earrings Bluey? They sound…errmmm…original? :winkgrin: :lol:
TikiSoo…you restore carousel horses? Way cool! I’m fascinated by the restoration process on those…we have some really nice carousel related things here in CT. Up until not too long ago Bristol, CT had the New England Carousel Museum…they restored the figures and had a small museum area to see some older ones and you could also tour where they were in the process of restoration. When I lived in that area I used to visit at least twice a month and spend forever just watching them restore the horses. And then we have the lovely old but restored working carousel at Lake Compounce…I think it’s one of the oldest still working ones. The lead horse is an Illian’s Stander. (Did I spell that right?) Gorgeous!
Ok, for the unbelievers, here is proof::winkgrin:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a298/Robintoo/Horses2-20-07798.jpg?t=1229350122
Carousel horses?
There are so many figurines with them, even some of those christmas ornaments out there, you would have been snowed under with them if you had not had the presence of mind to stop gift givers on their tracks on that one.:lol:
snork They’re dangly earrings too? So they can stab you repeatedly in the neck??? :lol: :lol: :lol:
Bluey…those are defintely original! 
[QUOTE=TikiSoo;3727921]
The best thing I ever did to thwart bad gifts is to clearly state, “No carousel thingies” I restore carousels and when people see a carousel ornament, pillow, t shirt, ANYthing, they would buy it for me.
Well, as you might guess, none of these things even come close to the art of real carousels, they look weird & demented, some even have Asian eyes! So I just say to people, “I have the real thing and have no use for fake carousel stuff.” It worked well. (except that ugly rocking horse)[/QUOTE]
I’m dying here…we live outside the “Carousel Capital of the World” and because I love horses + the carousels = 101 creative gifts in carousel form.
I made it worse on myself this year by starting work on a series pf paintings featuring…gasp…carousel horses. Can’t wait to see what I get :eek:
[QUOTE=DressageGeek “Ribbon Ho”;3727226]
Well, I though BlueEyedSorrel might mention her sister’s present to her last year, but apparently she’s feeling to nauseated to want to be reminded of it.[/QUOTE]
Well, on the previous page of this thread (pg 19 I believe–so many bad gifts!), I did mention my sister’s nausea inducing worst ever xmas gift request: money to pay for her “this is a statement about us as a couple and who we are” wedding. Because it’s not enough that I buy a bridesmaid’s dress (which I’ll probably never wear again), pay for a plane ticket, take time off from lab and buy a wedding gift.
Seriously, the next OT day I’m asking COTHers how to handle reconciling with Bridezilla, err my sister, while retaining my own dignity and self respect. I must do this if only because the wedding is in 10 months and the tension between us breaks my mother’s heart. Really, the whole story of the wedding will be great entertainment for COTHdom, and maybe I’ll get some sage advice…or at least commiseration from other sisters of the bride.
BES
