Your worst present ever.

My MIL was very house proud her house was immaculate. When we got engaged our present was a blue 1960s hoover that was still in perfect working order. She had decided to buy a new one she had seen advertised on tv. It wasn’t the worst present ever received but it was a conversation piece.

Chocolatelovinggran

Wow Dickens - that's a great story. My worst birthday gift was a live lobster in a box - to cook....
Needless to say that wasn't going to happen ( quite apart from whether I felt that I could, how would the children feel?!)
I released it back to the sea, very very carefully.

My worst birthday gift was a live lobster in a box - to cook....

I cannot imagine how anyone can give that as a gift to someone unless they know them extremely well - it's so specific!

Did it have, erm, instructions on the outside of the box?

Ghastly!

A hideous green scarf that. had been worn as it reeked of old perfume and had a faded line alone one edge from where it had been fold up and left for some time.
OH commented that it might have come from a charity shop and whilst I don't have a problem with recycling I would have been more accepting had it been clean.
I have since washed it and it now smells clean and fresh but of course it still has the fading and is quite spoilt by that.

My Step MIL once bought us a tea cosy for Christmas. It wasn't even a nice one. At the time we were in our early 20s and it was the 1980s and tea cosies werent really ''a thing' then. It might have been better if she had made it herself but she hadn't as she didnt knit. Also she wasn't short of money at the time. I wrote a much briefer thank you note than usual Funny though, now I am nearer the same age as she was back then I possibly wouldn't"t mind so much being given a tea cosy now

A near miss was DH buying a scrapyard car bonnet as a 40th birthday present because mine was dented when a pheasant hit the car. It wasn’t even the same colour!
Thankfully he asked my mother’s opinion and whatever she said stopped him!

Toetoe Would you have been happier if he'd just handed over the money there and then? Did you expect another gift as well? I have found men to be very simple creatures - you have to make things completely clear.

A used bar of coal tar soap and a facecloth from my MIL for Christmas (she never hesitated to show how much she disliked me, hypocritical devout church goer).
I had soap and a flannel for 3 consecutive Christmas’ until DH summed up the courage to tell her to not bother!
Her behaviour, not only to me, was awful. She put me off Christianity for life; never had a good word to say for anyone.

My mother's posh friend who bought me a cheap and ragged raffia set for a wedding present and even worse but not to me, a relative who worked in a charity shop and gifted her relative a pair of second hand men's underpants which lead to a family estrangement! Oh! And my best friend at the time who gave me some broken baby grows when my child was born and asked if I felt a failure as a women not being able to give birth naturally. And people wonder why I avoid certain people.

1st Christmas with my new husband, he asked what I'd like for Christmas, I replied , some money to spend in the sales , Christmas day arrived , family all excitingly opening their gifts , coloured paper everywhere , I watched and waited for my Christmas presant from my husband, nothing was given to me , daughter asked him , where is mum's gift , I asked, did you get me a gift , he said , you wanted money for the sales , I'll give it to you when the sales start , I honestly thought it a joke , I received nothing , not a bar of chocolate, not a thing . And to make it worse he never gave me money when the sales started either .

He later became my EX !

Wow Dickens - that's a great story. My worst birthday gift was a live lobster in a box - to cook....
Needless to say that wasn't going to happen ( quite apart from whether I felt that I could, how would the children feel?!)
I released it back to the sea, very very carefully.

I've remembered an even worse one than the iron.

When I was about 15, I asked for some 'with its outside. You know the sort -knee length, maybe white or black patent. I got ankle length, brown leather, lace ups.

When I first met my partner he gave me a small tin full of what looked like little nails for my birthday. The tin had a picture of a car embossed on it. I was a bit nonplussed to say the least. All he said was, you'll be pleased with that one day.

Twenty five years later he'd been looking on the 'net and said we were going off to a shop in the east end of London. The shop was a jewellery shop which also offered cash for various types of metal. The nails were by now in a bag - they were weighed and then after a little discussion which I didn't listen to (I was looking at the jewellery), the assistant handed over £14,000 to my partner, which he then gave to me. "Happy Birthday" he said... the nails were Platinum cathodes removed from a ship he'd been decommissioning in Sweden and which the owners said he could have as a reward for his hard work - he'd just waited all those years for the right price for the metal!

I was going through divorce and saved as much as I could at the time for nice Christmas presents. I wanted to give gifts that were personal and well thought out to friends who had supported me.
One friend gave me a fringed shawl which was obviously well used and bobbled. It was clean and beautifully wrapped but the fact that it was second hand really upset me.
I spent money I couldn’t really afford on her gift which was carefully picked. She had no money worries at all but considered second hand was good enough for me.
I never wore the shawl it literally meant nothing to me and I distanced myself from this shallow person I thought was a friend.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DH, should really know to stay clear of clothes. He bought me a lovely bottle green corderoy jump suit last year. The problem with any jump suit is going to the loo, but in winter, when one is wearing multiple layers.......... Thankfully the weak point in the garment is the zip. I had to send the first one back because the zip was broken when i got it and now the zip has gone on the replacement after only having it three months and , no, I did nothing to assist it.

An acid lemon coloured nylon shortie nightie with black lace trim from DH shortly after we married. (A good deal of re-education took place as a result of that one!). It was mysteriously “lost” down the back of the hot water tank in the airing cupboard of one of our Army quarters!

Worst from DM was an expensive leather briefcase style school bag when I was about 12 and longing for something pretty and girly.

Worst from DH was a much too tight nightie and a hamper which looked gorgeous until I began to open the items. There was a laundry brush and oven cleaner and other various of similar ilk.
My presents have misfired too so just as guilty. It's fun to laugh about it.
He loved hardware shops.

My lovely DH bought me a fancy iron!!

The ex-husband of someone I used to know bought her a Slendertone Slimming Belt!!
‘Nuff said?

Your presents made me laugh. I think the worst I ever heard not for me. DH asked someone what she got for Christmas and the reply was a stainless steel exhaust and left the the room. All went quiet we didn't know if to laugh or cry for her.

I d seen a lovely bag on the market stall and threw a few hints out to my EX when my birthday came he gave me a medium sized box and I was literally seeing the bag lying in it in tissue paper when I opened the box there was a bottle of bubble bath

One windscreen wiper for my side of the car .

Mine was a pale lilac anorak. I last wore an anorak when I was a child and lilac is far removed from colours that suit me.
It would definitely have suited the person who bought it though!

One year my husband gave me a “useful” Christmas gift…namely a wooden spatula wrapped in a page of a magazine…as he didn’t have any festive wrapping paper….!

I wasn’t impressed…so he gave up buying me any more gifts after that.

That was 50+ years ago…yet we are still together!