Best/worst Birthday/ Christmas present ever received (lighthearted)

My sister once bought me a turkey baster for my birthday.(One of those plastic tubes with a rubber bulb on the end) She saw my face as I opened it and nervously gabbled how wonderful they are and how to use it. ?

Best present: I was 13 and my mom bought me the most outrageous bright pink fun fur coat.

It was amazing and a total surprise.
I saw it in Beatties in Wolverhampton (RIP) and absolutely fell in love with it. It was £40 which must have been a fortune then.
I wore it throughout the 80s and it got loads of attention.

My mom was a brilliant present buyer (as am I, if I do say so myself).
When my mom died I realized that no-one would buy me such fantastic presents again, so I buy my own!

I can't mention the worst one as the buyer might be on here! All I will say is that I returned it to M&S for the princely sum of 20 pence!

Vickysponge are you sure that you gabbled and not gobbled?

FannyCornforth

Vickysponge are you sure that you gabbled and not gobbled?

Hahaaaaa- I prefer gobbled ?

I should clarify SHE gabbled/ gobbled not me! I was sitting in stunned silence!

Worst present? I think a pair of green tights !
I can remember one year that my dad had been working away so was unable to do his Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning, he went and fetched mum's present from the car - a large box. When she opened it, she was devastated to see that it was a new vacuum cleaner! His reply was "well you needed one" - after he had used the notor out of the old one to repair the spin dryer !!

A very good friend of mine had a MIL who really didn't like her at all.

She bought my friend a Snowman shaped kitchen timer for her birthday (only the one present).

My friend's birthday is in June.

Said lady is no longer her MIL!
(To the pleasure of all involved, I should imagine.)

DH bought me red felt slippers in our early years and once a hoe made Christmas cracker filled with OXO cubes. after an intense period of rehabilitation he now buys lovely Christmas presents. One Christmas after a bad year health wise it was a gorgeous sapphire eternity ring- made me cry and I'm a tough nut to crack.

I have had loads of rubbish presents, in fact I dread birthdays and Christmas and having to look pleased to receive them. (I sound awful, but honestly I enthuse how lovely they are etc so not to offend). Worst I think was a maternity top when I was not pregnant! Second worst was a padded lumberjack shirt (???)

Teetime your DH sounds lovely.
Even the stock cube cracker has a certain charm!

I always remember getting an interesting shaped parcel from one of my grandma's on my birthday when I was about 7 or 8, opening it with anticipation I found a load of scraps of material, off cuts I presume from things she was making. Even at that age I knew that sewing wasn't my forte, in fact I hated needlework and continued to do so right through school life and beyond. I did think at the time "what am I going to do with this lot". There were also a couple of crisp green one pound notes in my birthday card so it wasn't all bad I think she wanted to give me something to open on the day other than a birthday card with money.

Hooty I feel your pain.
It's the lack of thought isn't it.

When I was a teenager. A second hand petticoat from an 'aunt'. The cause was not poverty.

I am not sure what offended me most, the fact that she thought it was an acceptable present, or the fact that she thought I wouldn't notice.

My MIL used to buy me packs of white M&S pants. Not once, but regularly on birthdays and Christmas. She would say you could never have enough pants.
She would put a cheque in an envelope for me too (very nice)
but I always exchanged the pants as her idea of what I would wear and mine was poles apart.

Worst Christmas present was from my parents when I was around 13/14 years old - a home perm kit!!

Best Anniversary gift had little monetary value but very thoughtful - it was our first wedding anniversary and money was very tight, DH arrived home with a bouquet made up of the same type of flowers I had carried at our wedding.

A chap I used to know well divorced and remarried, and for their first Christmas together, they had his kids and ex-wife there for the gift-giving. Gifts for the children, chosen by new wife, were generous. Her gift to him was thoughtful and expensive.

The new wife’s gift from her husband was a ring-sized box wrapped extravagantly with tissue and bows. Her eyes lit up as she slowly unwrapped it in front of the gathered family. At last she opened the box expecting something lovely. Inside was a cheap spectacles chain. How she kept it together, I’ll never know.

Boots, DH bought me for Christmas, I have slim calves and these just flapped around them, he’d unwittingly bought them from Evans, oops! they were returned.
Best was a Winnie the Pooh watch, I’d previously had one for years, but it broke, how he sourced the new one is still a mystery as they were hard to find.

In our house when growing up, practical presents became known as ‘kitchen scissor presents’, after the Christmas present of said scissors from my Grandma ( who lived with us) to my mum.
To say that my mum was displeased is an understatement. The atmosphere between the two was awful- a row was raging and I can still clearly hear my Grandma telling my mum that she needed a decent pair, and mum sharply retorting ‘Yes, but not for Christmas!’.
This story I probably should have told my husband before my ‘kitchen scissors’ episode!

Worst.... DH on a pre Christmas Caribbean cruise which encompassed my birthday too. A present was produced with the ominous words “you will thank me later” and grinned. I opened it up to find a set of bathroom scales. “I know you are always bothered about putting weight on “. The scales are rotting gently somewhere at the bottom of the Caribbean sea.

Weighing scales Cfaz as a present- can’t see a positive spin on that at all so I would’ve done the same with them!

My late H was the world’s worst present giver, so bad that for many years he just gave me a cheque, nice but not, if you see what I mean.
One of the last he gave me ,after hearing me say I needed a new purse was a polyurethane one from a cheap shop with 2 £20 notes in it.
We had no shortage of money.

Loads!
As students, OH gave me for our first Christmas Robert Carrier Cooking Cards, we'd never heard of half the ingredients, let alone could afford them.
For my 50th he gave me a Terry's chocolate orange, something I loathe! I think our daughter said something because for my 60th I got a DSLR camera.
One Christmas we couldn't decide what to give each other so we turned it round, we each bought our own present, wrapped it up and on Christmas morning the surprise was what we were giving, not receiving.
For his 70th I gave him a flight in a Tiger Moth but he had a real thing about exposure and I hadn't realised they were open cockpit planes. He girded his loins and went up, came down utterly buzzing, as the grandchildren say.

Worst present a set of saucepans!
Best a bluepoint Persian kitten

Worst birthday present was a plastic plant pot covered in sea shells from my sister in law. She also bought me a bottle of red wine one Christmas which was the worst I have ever tasted !
Best Christmas present ever was waking up late one Boxing Day to find that my dear old Mum had done all my ironing ( a good 2 weeks worth!)