What's the worst present you've ever received?
What's the worst present you've ever received?
It can be low effort, passive-aggressive, insulting or derogatory towards your convictions.
My mom's boyfriend got me this huge present that just fit under the tree, the gift was pretty heavy. I racked my brain trying to figure out what it was, had no idea. Got to be honest i was a little hyped up to open this thing, even though my opinion of the boyfriend was average
Christmas day I finally get to find out what it is. open the box and it was a Microwave; a second hand microwave. He had replaced his, wasn't even a good microwave (5 minutes to boil a cup of water) Mom already had a microwave and i was 14 years old.
A tri-fold wallet. It was a good wallet, and I appreciated the gesture. It's just that I HATE tri-fold wallets.
A broken propeller toy wrapped in a ripped up plastic grocery bag.
Rum flavoured spirit drink.. Twice.
A box of Mario fruit snacks when I was a kid.
About 20 years ago
I went to my family Christmas with my then-partner. I got a Grinch onesie from my family
We then attended my partner's family Christmas where basically the entire living room was stuffed with presents for the kids (my partner and their siblings). My then-partner complained about how the siblings all got more $$ worth of presents. I pointed out that I got a pair of pjs for Christmas. The reply: "it's not about the dollar amount, it's just they got more than me" (paraphrased)
I hated that present. A fucking onesie? It was such a disappointing present, and for a long time I used it as an example for questions just like this
I kept it and wore it. Eventually I lost the bitterness and started to cherish it even. Which is why I still wear it regularly this time of year! It's quite warm.. plus, it has pockets!
Grinch tax:
That's a cool onesie
Not me, but my wife.
She receives an envelope from her grandmother, oh cool, money!
She opened it and it was empty. Okay, no fuss she probably forgot to fill one when making all of them for the family. A week later, she told her grandma it was empty. Her grandma replied "No! There's no way it was empty, your mistaken." This is par for the course. She ignores my wife all the time and talks down to her.So an empty envelope is the worst I've seen.
Reminds me that my aunt gave me 100$ in a box but claimed I threw it out…
Mug from Hotspot, probably. It's actually pretty great though.
I had an aunt and uncle who, when I was a kid maybe 12, were not well off. They got my brother and I each this toyset that was like make pretend welding. It had a hand tool that, if I remember, let you weld with this soft plastic to make things with the parts in the kit.
It also had a chamber near the nozzle that spun and contained something that made a bunch of sparks.
Well... The thing kept zapping and burning me. Kinda hurt. So, being 12, I complained about it.
And of course, I was an ingrate for not liking the toy they could afford instead of a Lego set or something. The worst of it was I got what my parents meant, my aunt and uncle were kind of ashamed. But it burned me.
Hell I thought it was really cool, and even said so, but I couldn't keep playing with it due to, you know, my hand being red and kinda cut up.
Just bad times all around.
And no, no one suggested put a glove on, and it did not come with one.
I was deployed and got a box from my home unit that was basically just trash. I think it was supposed to be funny, but it was just a lot of scrap paper thrown into a box. Nothing written on them that was for me. Nothing to signal anything. Just a big box of trash that could have been nothing more than the recycling bin upended into it.
That was pretty heartbreaking.
Did you ever talk about it with them? Definitely sounds like an inconsiderate joke. Flabbergasting that they managed to follow through enough to get it posted to you.
When I was 7, my grandmother bought a Power Wheel ride-on Jeep for my cousin, and got a little die-cast Jeep for me. At the same family Christmas party. I think my other cousins also got cool shit, while my sister got something small/cheap like I did. Can't remember what exactly, the only details I recall clearly are my cousin's Power Wheel and the gift that I got.
I think grandma and my dad (her son) were feuding at the time or something, and I guess she wanted to be petty by giving us shitty gifts compared to our cousins. It was one of the first times I realized how shitty people in my own family could be.
This was 30 years ago and I still get pissed off thinking of it, even though my dad and grandmother eventually made up, and she passed away almost 20 years ago.
Someone sent me what they referred to as a self-help DVD that was just some motivational speaker type of person invalidating my issues. A virus in the DVD also temporarily destroyed my friend's DVD player in the process of playing it.
Oh fuck i have a long history of this...
My parents got me a cheap set of tools, pliers, screw drivers, level and a wood burner with no wood to burn at 10. My brother got a gameboy SP and Pokémon.
Two years later I got an electric shaver and Cologne. I didn't start growing facial hair until 17 and didn't have enough to need more than one pass with a razor until 26. Still have the Cologne, it's not awful but it's also not a smell that works for me.
14 I got a store made cake and $20. I can't eat the cake, the frosting makes my face hurt and that's been a problem since I was 5 so they know I can't eat the cake.
Basically, I didn't get a present for me until I met my wife at 30.
damn, that sounds like you were part of a case study in your childhood. Is there a difference with how your brother turned out and yourself? Interested to know if you picked up skills like DIY and stuff while your brother isn't capable of those things.
I received a framed picture of my parents, from my parents. They said it was because I didn't have a picture of them hung up in my house.
Did you hang it up?
That's kind of hilarious. 😆
Sounds really fucked up of me, but I once had a girlfriend gift me a painting she made for me. I could tell she really tried, took her time, spent money on it, and she chose a subject matter I really liked, but it was absolutely terrible. One of the worst paintings I've ever seen.
It put me in such a dilemma because she even framed it and was expecting me to hang it up at my place but I couldn't bear to hang it and see it 'decorating' my place. I thanked her a lot when she gave it to me but I would've preferred she had gotten me nothing instead.
Did you hang it?
No, I broke up with her about a month or so later and threw it away.
At the call center I worked at, our Christmas bonus was a dress shirt with the company logo on it.
My wife wears it when she dyes her hair.
My mother-in-law gave me a booked called The Etiquette Edge which essentially explained how to be polite
This is so funny to me! My wife recently got mad at me for comments I made on our anniversary. When I explained what I meant, she was totally fine. Communication is hard sometimes.
Yeah I'd agree with that, but this is different. She was trying to help with what she saw as my ignorance about how much more positively people respond when you follow certain social rules.
She's a northern German woman who used to run a car dealership. I listen to punk rock. We get along but the things we value in life are pretty disparate.
I was given 30 quarters that had letters and numbers on each one in a black velvet pouch. If you put them in a certain order, it had a message. The quarters went in year order. The message was a Bible passage according to Matthew. It was when Judas was given 30 silver for betraying Jesus.
The context, I told one of our friends that the gifter was trying to get with his wife while he was deployed. He denied and then made me feel like shit to insinuate such a thing. Turns out, it was true.
I still have the quarters so I could give them back some day.
Wasn't Judas the one who did the denying? So by referencing this isn't the gifter calling himself Judas and not you?
No, it was Peter who denied Jesus three times. Judas gave Jesus up to the Roman government by kissing him to show them who Jesus was.
People keep giving me steak house gift cards.
I'm a vegetarian. I can only eat a roll there.
I’m vegan and the number of people who can’t figure out “no animal products” is astounding. I’m so tired of “no eggs? No dairy?” like yes bitch, I don’t fuck with animals.
People act like it’s rocket science.
People act like it’s rocket science.
There's always going to be a question as to where you draw the line. For example, is it okay to eat figs, even though they're pollinated by wasps that end up in them? Is it okay to eat plants grown using animal products as fertilizer? Is it okay to eat cultured meat that is many generations removed from a living animal, such that none of the material present now was part of the living animal? How about things in the animal kingdom, but outside the chordates? The ones you'd need a microscope to see? Is honey okay to eat?
There's also the issue that other people that call themselves vegan will disagree with you on what all counts.
I'm vegan, and my agency gave me a gift card to Zaxby's, and it wasn't even loaded
Are you full vegan or just vegetarian?
If it's for Ouback Steakhouse, you could always have a Bloomin Onion if you're okay with eggs and milk.
But otherwise, yeah, not much else on the menu for ya.
Vegetarian but I may as well be vegan since my stomach can't handle eggs or much dairy.
Don't forget salad. Outback is largely one of the worst if you're vegetarian unfortunately. Most steakhouses at least have a few vegetable sides and can make a meal out of them.
Perhaps that's why, to annoy you.
My Dad once gifted me a bazinga shirt. I don't watch the big bang theory.
Years ago my father in law gave me a Costco sized flat of Nanaimo bars. Like just wrapped it and that was that. I was so bummed as I thought it was a big coffee table book. I ended up cutting them all in half and freezing them, so we had treats through the year. My husband and I still joke about it. As we passed them in Costco last week he suggested I return the favour.
Top three would be my weird Christmas 'bonuses' from a previous employer. In order of weirdness: some fake notes (representing the companies record profits that year), a single bike pedal, and finally a spanner which had been spray painted orange.
one of my buddies got a mtn dew. thats it
another got a playstation gift card, which would have been good but he didnt have a playstation
Not the gift itself, but the response.
First of all, even before Christmas I said I'd prefer NO GIFTS at all. Regardless, my dad got me some inkjet HP printer. I thanked him for it, but asked him that we'd return it. I tried to be respectful, but regardless, he got mad at me and didn't talk with me for like 2 days.
Later he sent me the money for it and asked me to buy something for it and show him what it was. I do not know why I couldn't just keep it as extra money, but oh well, it had to be spent on something.
I got a refurbished ThinkPad for that. Pretty good device, by far beating value of HP inkjet. I even got it with a 2 year warranty (without extended) like with a new device, while only 1 year is required.My mom knows I'm always buying tools for work (electrician) and computer-related parts/devices. She still has trouble wrapping around the idea that I don't want (as much as I sincerely do appreciate the gesture) anything in those arenas due to specificity of requirement, that and most things of that nature tend to be expensive. She still buys little random things from Home Depot, like last year she bought this wrist cuff thing with magnets on it. Great idea on paper, but not in the field. At this point she's getting older so I kinda just humor her.
I once got a picture of a really cool present from my dad, which he said was in the mail. Never got the present.
Maybe it got "porch pirated". I thought I was immune from that until my things started disappearing.
I've always been a computer/theatre nerd. When I was a teen my parents bought me a bike. I did not express nor have any interest in a bike, but I'm sure my mom felt I needed to go outside more and spend less time on the computer. A week or two later while upset at me about something else she complained that I haven't even used my new bike yet.
That sounds a bit petty from you, at least from my POV.
No matter how nerdy you are, going outside is healtht, both physically and mentally. They got you a nice gift, IMO.
They got me something I had no interest in and were upset I wasn't using it. Ever hear the phrase "it's the thought that counts"? It demonstrated zero thought into what I would actually be interested in.
It's like buying a teen a set of knitting needles and being surprised that they didn't start knitting with them.
So I’m a trans guy and as a kid I was very obviously masculine, stereotypical tomboy. One of my aunts that married into the family gave me, maybe around age 5-7, a toy makeup kit. To this day I don’t know wtf she was thinking, because it wasn’t like she never met or saw me. Was it thoughtless or passive aggressive? Who can say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My gran once gave me a toilet brush. The base had penguins floating in blue liquid, but it was ultimately just a cheap toilet brush.
I gave her a beautiful marble maze.
I didn’t bother after that.
My mate’s little sister was sad and bemused one Christmas when their parents bought her a (single) Pom-pom. Why would you not buy a pair?
They bought her a pom
Yeah - I’d always thought it would be called a Pom but just before posting I checked Wikipedia and apparently we’re both wrong. I know what you mean, though.
Why would you not buy a pair?
How rich are you!?
Fair point.
My sister wanted me to be the Godfather to her children. She considered it a "gift."
I'm an atheist. I told her explicitly "Hey, you remember I'm an atheist, right?" Part of this whole Godfather business is making a promise to raise them religiously if their parent dies. I thought I was being considerate and kind by being honest that I did not want to be a Godfather because I could not in good conscience make such a promise.
Nope, I'm the bad guy, not the person who knew I was atheist and decided to not respect that at all anyway by asking me to be a Godfather to begin with.
God parents are supposed to care for the children, if the parents die. I think you shouldn’t overthink it. If you’re willing to fill that role, then raise the kids however you think is best. Accept the role gracefully as it is an honor and your sister is showing she loves and trusts you. Leave it at that.
As atheists, we have to acknowledge that most of the world isn’t yet on our level of thinking, but also that we don’t really have similar “concepts” for religious traditions that serve certain societal needs. God parents do serve a societal function. As an atheist, I can acknowledge that, accept that role, and play the part for those I love.
Was that their expectation of you, or just a common religious interpretation?
I know plenty of people who use the term and have no care for the religious history of it.
She's religious, that was the expectation.
Even that aside, what kind of gift is "You'll have to take care of my kids if I die."?
You could just call yourself a Sparent.
My mother got me Rogaine for my birthday last year. Pretty rude and uncalled for I felt but now I've stopped cutting it and have the longest hair I've ever had so I guess she hit a nerve with that one
XXL pajamas. I'm a medium bordering on small so I was swimming in them.
I think I also got a video game for a console I didn't have but the gesture was nice.
In middle school, there was this one super unpopular girl that gifted me acne medication for Christmas.... Unprompted. We weren't even friends and yes, I had acne problems like most teens did.
I never bullied anyone in my life before and since, but I did that year.... This was why she was so unpopular. The year after, she called 1 of the 2 only black kids the N word, got her ass kicked and either removed or expelled from school.
I have no idea why anyone would go around picking fights, especially with no friends to begin with. Before anyone asks, no, no mental health issues.
Edit: I also wasnt "popular" and had very little friends too. I mean, it wasnt right either way to turn bully either but I was young
One of the harshest lessons I've ever had to learn, especially as someone who struggled socially growing up, is that some people don't have any friends for a good reason
Even negative attention is better than no attention for some. Good chance she had a pretty bad home life, poor girl.
Maybe but none of us saw it, even my friend who eventually became her friend later on and into adulthood.... I met her mom at least twice and she was always nice and seemed very attentive, concerned about her daughter.
We also grew up very affluent. They were too.
I think I only ever received one good present.
My grandmother bought me a dark green, polyester, turtle-neck shirt; when I was 12. I never even tried it on.
Nothing
I think the "worst" thing I ever got was a VR headset. It wasn't a bad present per say and I really liked it at the time but unfortunately the VR space died pretty fast and it was completely useless soon after I got it.
Edit: it was a headset where you put your phone inside, I should have said that first
Arkham Shadow just came out on VR and people are saying it rivals other games like HL: Alyx in terms of scope and quality.
I'm watching a playthrough right now and it's blowing my mind how awesome it looks to actually be Batman
That's great. The headset I was talking about was one where you put your phone inside. I should have said that first :(