The naffest of Christmas gifts!

My bachelor brother gave DH a naff cook's apron printed with the torso of a skimpily clad beauty. DH was very impressed but it triggered my inferiority complex so I disappeared it.

When I was about 11, so around 1970, my Grandma ( who live with us) bought my mum a pair of kitchen scissors for Christmas. To say she was displeased with the present is an understatement!
Forever after in my family any naff presents received on any occasion were and still are described as being 'kitchen scissors presents'!

I think I might dread the home made gift (excluding grandchildren of course whose talent is second only to Michelangelo and Monet combined.)
No, the knitted item or vase/jug or other craft piece which has clearly been a labour of love (well I think it has ) but in a bilious colour scheme, or nasty nylon wool or daubed with paint to look like a spider in a fit. Crinoline lady loo roll cosies - remember them?
Well-meant, but just because you CAN make something doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD.

RosieandherMaw

Flippinheck

Sense of humour failure, RosiandherMaw?

I don't think so.
Mocking others whom you don't know has nothing to do with "humour" unless you also subscribe to locker room banter.

Isn’t that exactly what you are doing? Aren’t you mocking others in your post? That’s how I read it anyway.

Blossoming

The naffest Christmas gift I ever received was a huge fake pony skin handbag. It was. Incredibly ugly and the clasp was designed to rip the fingers off anyone attempting to open it.

I'm really glad it was fake though..

It's not so much the naff gift, but the why that gets me. I received a cheap sewing kit in a pencil case type container from someone very close to me,
who knows that I have every sewing device needed to man including my own, personal sewing kit that goes on all holidays etc with me. Just grab anything less than £2 and it'll do? Now that is just insulting. I'd rather you gave £2 to charity in my name!

Flippinheck

RosieandherMaw

Flippinheck

Sense of humour failure, RosiandherMaw?

I don't think so.
Mocking others whom you don't know has nothing to do with "humour" unless you also subscribe to locker room banter.

Isn’t that exactly what you are doing? Aren’t you mocking others in your post? That’s how I read it anyway.

Only taking my lead from others, it seems I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t….

GrandmasueUK

I got the most beautifully boxed, and inside wrapped in fabulous tissue paper a gorgeous expensive silk scarf from SisIL2. How did I know it was expensive? Because we had bought it for her birthday present several months before! Thank goodness I love it, although I was tempted to send it back for her next birthday 🎊

😂what goes around comes around.

I think I am guilty of the naff homemade presents… scarves and necklaces I never saw people wear🤭!!
You’re right, RosieandherMaw🤣!

Must find a pattern for the loo roll cosies… or maybe not…

I gave my sister in law an expensive necklace and matching earrings in a box with satin lining. The next Christmas she gave me the earrings as a present! Both she and my brother have very well paid jobs and live in a 5 bedroom house. They then gave me a tin of biscuits from all of them (brother, SIL, 2 children). They expected me to buy them a present each! So I gave them the same tin of biscuits the following Christmas and put a sticker on the best before date 😜

Jeez, get a grip.

This is absolutely true. Back in 1974 I had a black wrap round lurex top which I wore with a black maxi skirt. I wasn’t keen on the top so I put into the local jumble sale.
My Great Aunt was a regular at jumble sales ( don’t know why, she just loved them).
Forward to Christmas Day 1974. All the family gathered for Christmas dinner, including said Great Aunt. Presents handed out and suddenly my sister and me were in absolute fits of laughter. Her present from GA was the top I had put in the jumble sale weeks earlier…….you couldn’t make it up 😂

i dread my sil sending me either chocolates (expesive kind) or flowers, i have never liked flowers, would rather have a plant and prefer some milk tray or quality street. i have known her for 40 years and never once has she given me a gift that i like or could use.

When I was about seven I yearned for some white fluffy ear muffs. My mother must have told her sister what I would like, but when I opened them they were the most horrible cheapest item you could imagine. A piece of wire covered in awful nylon material. I was so disappointed and although my mum didn’t say I could tell she was furious. My aunt was a very wealthy women but unbelievably mean when it came to presents, especially as we had so little by comparison. She never changed!

Just wondering why everyone doesn't say "Let's not buy presents this year, except for the children. We could give the money to charity and/or buy a goat or a cow for a family in Africa and be labelled a White Saviour"!

The last amaryllis I had grew very tall with several flower heads, and was so top-heavy that it fell over and scattered soil (or whatever it was growing in) all over everywhere. Big mess.

First Christmas after starting work in early 60s I was given a TweenyTwink home perm from the office manager. Seemed to be at least 65, hair all curled up round the edge, must have had her curlers in every night. My DM said I'd have to use it or the manager would be offended. Just waited until I woukd be on holiday, told her I was going to use the perm. Came back telling her hair had gone straight, must have been all the seawater with being at the beach so
often. I left before the next Christmas.

Allira

Just wondering why everyone doesn't say "Let's not buy presents this year, except for the children. We could give the money to charity and/or buy a goat or a cow for a family in Africa and be labelled a White Saviour"!

My son said this, and we were all so grateful!

Grandma70s

Allira

Just wondering why everyone doesn't say "Let's not buy presents this year, except for the children. We could give the money to charity and/or buy a goat or a cow for a family in Africa and be labelled a White Saviour"!

My son said this, and we were all so grateful!

A SisIL did this many years ago and decided no more presents for children either. The problem was that hers were older teenagers by then and my youngest was two and I'd given presents to all the family as long as I can remember, spending my pocket money before I started earning!

When my children were students, we put a £5 limit on each present (except from DH and me of course).
One family I know gave a similar price limit but also had to be from a charity shop.

I had the very opposite one birthday from an older, very American friend. It had been passed on to her and was given to me with the words: "it was too big for me so I thought it would fit you." Leaving aside the fact that it was grey, which gives me a somewhat unlovely corpselikè complexion, and of a style that has never been fashionable, it was probably size 26-28. This lady is a similar size to me around 14/16 but a different shape. We could have worn it at the same time and still had room for someone else. I was amazed that a charity shop accepted it.
Possibly the worst Christmas present l have had was from DH last Christmas. I had given him several suggestions as l have learnt from experience that "surprises" are not always welcome. It doesn't help that my birthday is just before Christmas. However, what l was actually given was a crystal figurine of a Disney princess - Cinderella. Now, I have a collection of vintage Royal Worcester figurines but this was nothing like any of them and I don't like Disney anyway. However, even this pales into insignificance when compared with a present my grandmother received from my grandfather many years ago. She was presented with the mesh inside of a chip pan for deep frying because he loved homemade chips. He was not popular with her that year.

Oh, and I like amaryllis plants

Many years ago, I was going out with quite a nice young man ( I thought!) However his present of red scratchy lacy underwear was an immediate turn off. Firstly the fact that he actually thought I would wear such horrible things, as he already knew that I had sensitive skin, and was careful about what materials I wore, and secondly that he thought I was even remotely likely to let him see me dressed in the dratted things. I handed them back to him and suggested that he might like to go and find someone who would want them, but he obviously knew very little about me if he thought that it was me!

Last year, my husband of 42 years gave me what he called an investment piece he’d bought at the Royal Academy. It was a chunk pink glazed pottery stuck with pink ostrich feathers. I burst into tears, I hate pink and why had he given me something he liked . To say Christmas was frosty summed up the day. The gift now resides in the garage in its box. This year I have asked for and will get the most expensive iron I could choose.
Strangely I don’t ever iron anything! He has to use a laundry service.