Disappointing Christmas Presents.

Years ago, I asked for a firescreen I had seen online. I even sent a link to my husband, showing him the sort of thing I wanted, and suggestions as to where he could get one.

When I saw a rectangular present under the tree, I was sure that it had a firescreen inside. It turned out to be a flatbed scanner. Imagine my delight.

I don’t have any expectations so I’m never really disappointed. I do sometimes receive things I wouldn’t give house room to, so I wait a decent length of time then donate them to the charity store.

There's not much Im disappointed with re Christmas gifts. Very occasionally if it's something I cannot use or something I'm allergic to, I just put it into the charity shop. It really does not happen often.

It was the iron!!

I favour the Martin Lewis (money saving expert) call to ban unnecessary Christmas presents. In our family, we buy for children but are dropping buying for adults. Adult children / grandchild get treated by us as and when we want, and hopefully fairly, but not to schedule.

Some of the family like to give lots of ...ummmm... silly presents. I, on the otherhand, like to give one nice present. I spend a long time choosing each one and remember their comments, throught the year, about what they'd like. The thing is that I get an enourmous kick out of seeing them open their presents, the look of 'oh wow' and the 'I wanted one of these' comments are the best gift ever. It makes me smile and my heart swell.

Many years ago I was seeing a nice young man and invited him to Christmas lunch with me and my son. He put about half a dozen presents for me under the tree, all nicely wrapped and of different shapes and sizes. What a disappointment it was to find they were all bags of different sweets. Not even a decent box of chocolates amongst them. I put on a brave face and thanked him but ditched him a few days later.

I had a boyfriend who gave me a box of Black Magic for Christmas as 'it's your birthday on January 5th'. Fir my birthday I got a fancy box of Cafbury's Dairy Milk. He didn't last long.

A friend of mine got me a foot muff thing, in the shape of a duck.................

I know it sounds ungrateful, but I hate receiving gadgets as gifts. I'm not a technology person and never harbour any desire for the latest phone, camera, tablet etc.

I like 'girly' things. Perfume, flowers, jewellery (appreciate this one is hard for another person to gauge), art.

My bloke is Inspector Gadget. One year, I took matters into my own hands and sent him a link for a piece of jewellery I wanted.

DH bought me an iPad case. I could forgive the fact it was for an iPad, not an iPad Air and therefore too big, but it was pink with butterflies all over. I hate the colour pink and have a fear of butterflies! We’ve only been married for 37 years so maybe he hasn’t realised.

I asked my SinL for a bottle of Obsession perfume. She loves shopping, so I envisaged no problem - it’s only available in one bottle now and no other options in the range. Only trouble is she’s bought me Obsession for Men!

I’m with Martin Lewis here!
Stopped buying for adults-both in the family and friends-with agreement of course.
Transfer cash to DDs so they can use to buy gifts for DGC-works a treat!

We too have stopped buying for adults and just concentrate on the four DGD's.

I knew the romance was dead when ex bought me a Food Processor one Christmas.

Same here with ML, a lot of money was being wasted.
Now AC and partners, with wish-lists, do a secret Santa. I give them each a present from their lists. They club together and give to me something nice, once an iPad, another an object I hankered after, this year an armchair.
I give towards my several grandchildrens’ yearly sports subscriptions.
Money has been spent on wanted items, no disappointments and less hassle these days.

I’ve never rated household gadgets as Christmas presents. Phones or iPads, yes but irons, food processors etc? No way!
Then this year, my AC asked if we’d like to buy or contribute towards household items that they couldn’t afford themselves. I pointed out that a household item wasn’t exactly a Christmas gift. One DD said that, if Christmas presents are supposed to make you happy, that would make her very happy and for a long time past Christmas too.

Not this year but I've had a Bread maker I didn't want DH did, innumerable notebooks and diaries, I don't write one especially the last few years, Covid again today!!!!!.
A fancy comb for long hair I have short and a hairbrush that wouldn't touch my unruly mop. To top it all this year I got a book that DH wants to read.
I am going to suggest secret Santa next year for adults or no presents at all and give the GC money as no suggestions as to what they like ever come our way. I'm not sure they know what we have given them . They do live at the other end of the country and we rarely see them especially with all the lockdowns etc.

We all prepare wish lists in October. By Christmas most of us have forgotten what we put on our lists and people do deviate, but only when they know someone wants something or would want what they intended to give them if they knew about it. So presents opened on Christmas day bring delight and are wanted.

This year DD went off list and gave me a beautiful book, published in 1903 and with wonderful illustrations, because she saw it in a book shop when buying something else and knew I would love it treasure it. And she was right.

That sounds like a really lovely present, Monica. It’s heartwarming when people manage to find something that so perfectly fits with your tastes.

I remember a while ago asking a family member for the latest series of Spooks on DVD. I knew that she didn’t like having to think about presents, so was as specific as that. Series 6, DVD, go to HMV - that sort of thing. I got a book instead. Not about Spooks, but one on witchcraft ?.

My brother once gave me a beautifully wrapped roll of black bin bags! To be fair, we were involved in opposing the siting of a huge rubbish dump next to the village (we won) . It was his idea of a jokey gift!

I seldom get any presents as there is nothing I really want so tell them to keep their money. I was surprised to receive a new frying pan, new oven gloves and 3 new sharp kitchen knives from one of my sons who is living with me at present.

Years ago, when the DC were young, I really wanted a Joyce Grenfell LP - I took the DC into the shop and told them how much I'd like it - same with DH....
On C'mas Day, there was an unmistakable LP-shaped present for me I opened it - and found the soundtrack to Yentl...? They all beamed and said that they knew that I liked Barbra Streisand....!! ?

This year I had a bundle from a friend, a box of tea (which has been opened and the sell by date scratched out) a blouse and poncho (from a charity shop) and a book on using soft pastels (which I gave up years ago because of breathing problems). I'm not disappointed because I know what she's like.

I have enough socks to start a sock stall in the local market.