Bad Gifts

[tunatartare]

My cousin is the queen of bad gifts in the family. I am the pickiest person in the world when it comes to bath and shower stuff (Buttonz can attest to that) and I usually only use Victoria's Secret or Bath and Body Works stuff. This year I got her a gift set from Victoria's Secret because she told me that she liked their stuff. It was Very Sexy 2 and had the perfume, lotion, etc. on a tray. Well we exchanged gifts because her birthday is two weeks after mine, and she also decided to go the smelly stuff route for me. Except mine still had the Walgreen's sticker on it. A few days later I found the same exact set that she got me in Duane Reade for $5.99. Another year I got her a beautiful silver necklace from Fortunoff. The following year, we were hanging out in her room and I saw the necklace and said "I love that necklace it's so pretty" and she went "you can have it if you want it, I have no clue who gave it to me but I hate it." My mom still thinks that I should have taken it, especially since that year, I got a candle from Walgreens as my gift.

Another relative one year thought it would be a great idea to give EVERYONE in our family just one candle from the 99 cent store (didn't even cost a whole dollar) for our Hannukah/ New Year gifts. Well they were the tacky colored gel candles that had the fake roses and whatnot at the bottom of the candle. As soon as she left, everyone in the family decided to give their candles to me. Why in G-d's name did they think I wanted them?

One year in HS, one of my friends told me that she really wanted GAP perfume so I got her a bottle along with some lotion, shower gel, and made a nice gift set for her. She got me a set of these bath fizzy things that looked cheap, smelled horrible, and were just generally falling apart. Two weeks later, I saw the same exact set in Walgreens for 99 cents. (What is it with my gifts coming from that store?) Had I been smart, I would have just exchanged the bath fizzies and gotten myself a large bag of M&M's or something.

[mulattogyrl]

Originally posted by HeartbrAKA
This year my secret santa at work gave me an autographed picture of Ice Cube......lol...

What?! Oh my, just oh my.

[LXA SE285]

Crash and bump.

Anybody gotten crappy gifts this year? I got this at our office's Dirty Santa party the other day:

(Warning: salty language)

http://funnytshirts.savatoons.com/im...-grandkids.gif

[cinamin1]

I received two of the ugliest Christmas hand towels, I've ever seen (for the second year in a row...from the same co-worker).
The moment I saw how it was wrapped, I knew what it was. Then, she came by later that afternoon, beaming proudly like "oh, did you get my gift?" I replied, "oh yeah, I got it" :-/

[LXA SE285]

Holiday bump for one of the funniest threads on GC

[AnchorAlumna]

Dirty Santa, so you never know what you're going to get. BUT, you do have a chance to get rid of it.
I open the rather bedraggled bag and found....a dirty dishcloth. NOT EVEN CLEAN. It even smelled bad! The gifter laughed and said she thought it was a fine joke.
And of course, no getting rid of it. And I was the host for the party, dammit!!
Washed it with bleach and I'm still using it.
I think she's in a nursing home somewhere.

[carnation]

I HATE Dirty Santa!

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

Dirty Santa, so you never know what you're going to get. BUT, you do have a chance to get rid of it.
I open the rather bedraggled bag and found....a dirty dishcloth. NOT EVEN CLEAN. It even smelled bad! The gifter laughed and said she thought it was a fine joke.
And of course, no getting rid of it. And I was the host for the party, dammit!!
Washed it with bleach and I'm still using it.
I think she's in a nursing home somewhere.

Dirty Santa? Are there supposed to be awful gifts?

I've heard them called Yankee Swaps and White Elephants. Never Dirty Santa. I'd almost expect a horrible gift in a game with a name such as that.

But no matter what it's called, I end up with the worst gifts. There's always that person who doesn't take it seriously and buys something horrible, and I usually end up getting that gift. My history of gifts = pepper spray, an already-used Starbucks card, a Christmas ornament that someone made (i.e. ball dipped in glue and glitter), just to name a few.

I've also seen some other people receive some pretty bad gifts, like the woman who walked away with a bunny "puppet" that sweeps up dust bunnies.

Come on, people.

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

I've never heard it called that, but is that the deal where everyone takes a number and you pick gifts in order, or "steal" one from someone else? We do that with our alumnae group at our annual cookie exchange. There's an old/used Easy Bake Oven that's been making the rounds for the last few years.

I've heard it called a few different names, but that's the name that was used when I first played at a Suinday school party. And yes, that's the process usually used - draw a number from a hat and either pick a gift and unwrap, or "steal" a gift, with that person then doing the same.

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

Dirty Santa? Are there supposed to be awful gifts?

No - we usually set a $10 limit - but it's like Forrest's box of chocolates - you never know.
I usually pick something cool, but sometimes....one year I brought a giant box of cheap chocolates. The recipient was NOT happy and nobody else wanted it. The roll of bubble wrap was also not popular. I mean....who hates bubble wrap?!?

[naraht]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

I've heard it called a few different names, but that's the name that was used when I first played at a Suinday school party. And yes, that's the process usually used - draw a number from a hat and either pick a gift and unwrap, or "steal" a gift, with that person then doing the same.

We did that at a company christmas party a few fun caveats.
1) The person who picked first also got to go last when everyone else had gone.
2) Even though the recommended value was no more than $40, the manager added a bottle of wine worth about $500 to mix.
3) Each gift could only be stolen twice.

We had people keeping track of things on spreadsheets.

[Sciencewoman]

I've never heard it called that, but is that the deal where everyone takes a number and you pick gifts in order, or "steal" one from someone else? We do that with our alumnae group at our annual cookie exchange. There's an old/used Easy Bake Oven that's been making the rounds for the last few years.

[carnation]

I think there are several ways of doing it, but yes!

[Sciencewoman]

White Elephant is what it's called around here. They're generally supposed to be gag gifts or something OK but inexpensive or something ugly. The best you can hope for is a gift from the "OK but inexpensvie" category.

[Sciencewoman]

^^^ This is a great story!!!

[GreekOne]

After reading this thread, I had to post that yesterday my neighbor's son received a live parakeet, cage and all through a Secret Santa for his HS Hockey team. My neighbor and her son have no interest in taking on a bird. The question is...did the 16 yo kid put it in without his parents knowing? Did the parents tell him to take it to get rid of the bird? Should my neighbor try and "re-gift" a live animal? She is so angry!