I do not like to give or recieve gifts on annual occasions. Never have.
Grrr. My husband and son just got their birthday presents from my in-laws. Nicholas’s birthday was July 2nd, Hubby’s was last Sunday. They didn’t get phone calls or anything on the day of, either. How much friggen effort does it take to remember to send your own child’s birthday card or to at least call? And they wonder why we don’t want to spend time with them.
I remember one Christmas, my husband’s mother gave him a bunch of clothes, nice things, I’d guess about $200-300 dollars worth. She got me a toaster. Not even a nice toaster, one of those cheap two slot ones. I know it shouldn’t matter how much she spent, but that was just a slap in the face. The next Christmas she bought me towels. What is up with giving the wife something for the whole house and the husband something just for him? Now, my parents give my husband towels, ect. as a gag gift.
My B-day is December 25th, so it isn’t
good from the start.
I was the child in my family that was
neglected until something went wrong,
then it was ALWAYS my fault. My sister
was the golden, perfect child. If I did
anything good, it was easy and my sister
could do it better. I was nothing in my
family.
On Christmas, my sister would always get
something really great, and I would get a
horribly cheap version of the same item.
One year she got Basque boots, I got
cheap vinyl. Another year, she got a huge
doll, I got a baby one. The last year
we did Xmas/B-day at home, she got a
fur and suede vest, I got a nylon one.
I still hate December 25th. Usually spend
it walking around New York City by myself.
Christmas gift count? I haven’t worn makeup in about 15 years. Even when I DID, I didn’t wear lipstick or nail polish. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.
So, for Christmas one year, my sister in law gave (one each my sister and myself) a floral tin filled with:
3 colors of lipstick and matching nailpolish.
some other assorted makeup.
I said thanks, left it in my room for years, finally gave it to some one else who would enjoy it.
I once got a half-used pencil from the kitchen pencil holder from my sister (she was only 6, so I understand, but it’s still funny…it was wrapped!)
my girlfriends sister is a little odd (pronounced self-centered, not in a bad way…it’s just that no-one else really matters). For my girlfriends birthday (valentines day) her family and I were gathered around to watch her open her presents when her sister runs off to her room for a few minutes. We can hear change being spilled into a container. She comes back down and gives her sister her ‘present’. It was a new tupperware container with $20 in loose change (she had unrolled it in her room) and one of those Lifesaver book with 6 rolls of different flavours. I should mention that each of them gets one of those in their stocking every Christmas. Her sister was 23 at the time…
Okay, this one is Christmas…hey everyone is doing it…I had a friend whose parents seemed to like his sister better. One Christmas he got brand new socks, she got a brand new 250CC motor scooter among other things.
Even the bad presents that I received I have liked. I may have never used them but I liked the thought. Some of those sounded like they never had a thought given to them… or in VB’s case too much.
Valerieblaise said, " For my 25th birthday, my father gave me a porcelain doll… and was dressed in a bridal gown and veil. It also looked vaguely evil."
That is too funny. My parents have never pressured me to give them grandchildren because they know I won’t. I would go out to the local firing range and ask to hang it on a target for some target practice. OOOO, better yet douse it in pig’s blood and put a label of somekind around its neck that says “Carrie” and send it back to your dad. I like that idea. A bloody doll that is destined to kill her mother and set fire to the school she is in. hehehehehe I think I would do the latter. Of course, when you do that you will have to be willing to never get a present from him again.
HUGS!
Sqrl
My 16th birthday both sucked and blew. My boyfriend gave me this beige plastic flower under a dome mounted on cardboard. It was horrific, it was the kind of thing you pick up at the checkout for your weird Aunt who’s coming to Christmas dinner. I can still feel the smile freezing on my face when he showed it to me and trying not to cry. BTW that year for his birthday I had given him a very expensive watch and a pair of Nike Air Jordans. My mom gave me an ice cream maker. Hello? Have you ever met me? For my birthday dinner that night, my grandmother ( who lived for that shit) made eggplant, which I hate, and before serving it said ‘Well I guess we’d better get this over with’
Why I’m not in a bell tower right now is anybody’s guess.
My condolences- I was born on the 26th. Many times my parents were “too busy” to either get a gift or do some kind of birthday thing on my birthday. I’m not too fond of Christmas either. Let me know if you want a walking partner, and maybe I’ll join you. Chinatown is always open.
My 16th birthday both sucked and blew. My boyfriend gave me this beige plastic flower under a dome mounted on cardboard. It was horrific, it was the kind of thing you pick up at the checkout for your weird Aunt who’s coming to Christmas dinner. I can still feel the smile freezing on my face when he showed it to me and trying not to cry. BTW that year for his birthday I had given him a very expensive watch and a pair of Nike Air Jordans. My mom gave me an ice cream maker. Hello? Have you ever met me? For my birthday dinner that night, my grandmother ( who lived for that shit) made eggplant, which I hate, and before serving it said ‘Well I guess we’d better get this over with’
Why I’m not in a bell tower right now is anybody’s guess.
My condolences- I was born on the 26th. Many times my parents were “too busy” to either get a gift or do some kind of birthday thing on my birthday. I’m not too fond of Christmas either. Let me know if you want a walking partner, and maybe I’ll join you. Chinatown is always open. **
[/QUOTE]
Thanks Wonko. I’ll keep you in mind. Maybe we can
go somewhere good and have a real B-day dinner!
To Annie and Wonko, my ex was born on the 26th and loved Christmas and one of our best friends was born on the 25th and absolutely hated it. I bet Terry (the Christmas baby) would go walking with you in Chinatown but Shawn would be at home being the mama’s boy that he is not that there is anything wrong with that.
HUGS!
Sqrl
One Christmas my aunt gave me a T-shirt with “Roanoke Rapids” written on it. (It’s a city in North Carolina.) There was no way I could wear it in public, and no way I could exchange it. But that’s not the worst part. Because of the Southern dialect in this area, “Roanoke Rapids” is typically pronounced “Roano Krapids”. Just the thing a nine-year-old wants to be associated with at school.
The stupidest gift I ever got was an Elmo doll and book. The giver? My boyfriend. His reasoning? I like Elmo, so why not give me one…
I was 25 years old.
He’s my husband now. I will never let him live it down.
And I still have the damn thing.
I just had my birthday on Friday.
I got a cold.
That kind of sucked.
My grandmother, a well-meaning woman, gave me a shower cap for Christmas when I was 18. She knew I didn’t use them, and I guess she thought it might be because I didn’t have one. It was substantial blue plastic with 1" wide white plastic lace trim and a blue plastic ribbon worked in and out of the lace and tied in a jaunty bow where the “front” of this oh-so-attractive headgear was apparently meant to be. Oh, the horror!
I tried to be nice, but I think she knew I didn’t like it.
Then, there was the time that they went to New Zealand on holiday and for a souvenier they brought me a square sheepskin throw-pillow cover (sans pillow, of course!) with a toy poodle’s head right in the middle of it. The poodle has pink glass eyes that glowed evilly when the light hit it just right. It was so appalling (the dog’s eyes were literally horrifying), that I couldn’t stop laughing. I laughed so hard, she finally said if I didn’t like it, she would take it and use it herself. I was so relieved that I wouldn’t have to take and put it somewhere in my living space and pretend to like it that I felt euphoric! The truly awful part was later when I accidentally found it again in the guest bedroom when I was looking for something else, and I saw the price tag: $60. I couldn’t believe she thought I would like that thing $60 worth. I couldn’t believe she thought it was worth $60 under any circumstances whatsoever.
I won’t even go into some of the other gifts my sister and I have received over the years.
Looking back on it now though, I feel really bad for laughing so much. I think it probably hurt her feelings. I really love my grandma, and I know she means well, but man . . . it’s like Lnix said “Hello? Have you ever met me?”
I defy anyone to beat a sheepskin pillow with a Satanic poodle’s head on it.
Yep, you guessed it… two years straight of silk dress shirts.
Oooh, guilt…I did this to my husband one year at Christmas. His family had asked me for gift suggestions. I told them that he needed dress shirts (a recent promotion meant he was going to work in a suit rather than chef’s whites.) It didn’t occur to me to actually say to them, “now, make sure you talk amongst yourselves so you don’t all do the same thing.” Of course, come Christmas, he recieved nothing but dress shirts.
The following year I bought him a bunch of small gifts (cds, books, etc.) and wrapped them all up individually in…you guessed it…shirt boxes. He wasn’t nearly as amused as I thought he would be.
My story…my mom is a great cook and was known for the wonderful cakes she made for all occasions. On my 14th birthday I guess she was really busy, so after dinner we sat down, not to the homemade creation I was expecting, but a Sara Lee. It was still partially frozen.
A figurine that I hate, and would love to throw aginst a brick wall. I have to keep it(hidden away). I wanted to say "I noticed you have three of the same one scattered around the house, would you like a forth for another room.
A girl that my mother babysat, bought everyone a present from some church sale before xmas. She was about four at the time. I was in high school. I unwrap the present to find a hand knitted scarf and hat. The scarf was three foot long and the hat fit only an infant. Nice thought, but no way.
I gave my father a list of ideas for xmas, he asked. Xmas I get handed a twenty and told “Here go get this.” The next week I get asked how I liked the present. My response “I didn’t get one, I bought groceries with the money.” I had the item I was told to buy brought to my house the next day.
Well, I’m a December child too, so as a kid I got used to getting the birthday/Xmas present combo from friends & relatives. (Did they ever get something twice as nice??? NO!!!) BUT my mom’s bday is the 26th & she’d had that done to her, so my 'rents never failed to keep the two separate in the immediate family.
Worst presents…my g’ma sent me two wire hangers wrapped in yarn. Every year. For years on end. This was her gift to a small-to-middling child who never wore anything but jeans & tshirts. (Actually, as far as I’ve ever heard, she sent the same thing to ALL of her grandchildren.) Of course, this woman was so cheap that she saved PAPER cups from fast food places. STAINED paper cups. Supposedly she’d washed them…I haven’t the foggiest how that would work.
Funny part is, I still have 'em. And wish I had more. Now that I’m grownup and have clothes that won’t stay on regular hangers, those suckers are great. Just not very child-appropriate.
Best ‘worse present’ story I’ve heard: One friend’s parents forgot her 20th birthday. (So did everyone else, apparently.) Late that evening, her dad figured out why she was wandering around depressed and gave her a birthday present. It was the waffle iron he’d given his wife for mother’s day a month or so before - the one she’d thrown across the room at him upon opening it. That family put the FUN in dysfunctional, lemme tell ya.
Recent story: One of my spice, who is Jewish, was given a ‘St Francis’ statue for the backyard by a bro/sis in law. Fortunately, the friend to whom we give all of the tacky yard statuettes received from these people is Catholic & St.F. is a family patron or somesuch.
The last girlfriend I had rarely left her house. One day, while checking her P.O. box, she walked next door to a gift shop and picked-up my BD present.
Two padded clothes hangers.
One had a red bow, one was purple. (“One for me and one for you!!”)
wheeeee.
…and she lost my card. sorry.
Fast forward to my current sweetie, who, after telling her about my previous BD, surprised me one day (in the middle of March, seven months before my real BD) with a birthday party, complete with real gifts, party hats & cake…obviously, the presents (which I still have) meant less than the thought, which was priceless.
…I still have the hangers too…what the hell, they work.
No - wire - hangers - EVER!!!
Wow, what a crap gift. You can get those for free at the drycleaner. I’ve got more than I need. The previous owners of this house even left some.
Yeeeeech! (to quote Daffy Duck)