Agreed, and wholeheartedly. Whoever came up with the idea for those stupid things deserves to be force-fed every last one ever sold.
The large economy bottle of Midol? 
(for the foreman)
I was thinking a nice big bottle of Summer’s Eve.
I’ve been thinking and I honestly can’t think of any especially mean gifts I’ve received or witnessed.
The closest I can think of was similar to the stereotypical “Man gives wife cleaning supplies” scenario. One Christmas, my mother unwrapped the biggest present under the tree to find that Dad had gotten her a new laundry basket. (There may or may not have been a coconut in it; my family’s strange.) It took a minute for her to notice the diamond bracelet fastened to one of the handles and even longer for Dad to convince here it was real.
I’ll agree with those who say that white elephant, Yankee swap, dirty Santa (or whatever) exchanges can be a lot of fun if everyone’s in the right mood and that steeling gifts can make it a lot more fun. In the most recent exchange I went to, there were mostly normal gifts, with enough weird gifts to make things interesting and lots of stealing. Several times, gifts were stolen out of mercy, to let someone who didn’t like what they’d opened have another chance. For example, a friend with nut allergies opened two separate gifts that contained foods he couldn’t eat; on each occasion, someone who actually liked the food in question stole it within a few rounds and the guy with the allergy got to open a new gift.
I don’t think so - an iPod box with something crappy in it would be mean.
Ooh, that does not bode well for their marriage, if she doesn’t understand why he wouldn’t enjoy that.
A swift kick in the ass with a steel-toed boot?
Or just the bag.
My Uncle’s presentation of an engagement ring. Totally evil.
A large piece of office equipment had fallen on her arms and broken both of them, so she was in casts from wrist to elbow.
He wraps up a big box of laundry detergent as her “Christmas Gift” and shoves the ring down inside of it. She’s expecting the ring, can’t wait to see it, and so thoughtlessly plunges her hands down into the soap powder. Anybody who’s ever been in a cast can tell you the horrid hell of itching she suffered over the next three weeks.
He still tells the story, laughing hysterically all the while.
She married him anyway. I don’t know why anyone ever marries the men in my family, but they’ve all found at least one sucker each, and some as many as three.
Of course it’s ridiculous. It’s a response to the notion this person would take TP because she can’t be arsed to stop on the way home. The point, taken to the extreme, was she wasn’t coming clean about it even when there’s ample opportunity.
This one isn’t mean, but it is kind of thoughtless. Airman’s aunt generously sends something from Harry and David every year. We got ours today. I eagerly opened the box, unwrapped the shiny silvery bubble wrap, lifted the “Congratulations!” note and saw a tin of Moose Crunch. For those of you who have never heard of this, it’s candied popcorn with chocolate and sometimes macadamia nuts. Just for shits and grins, I checked the label to see how many points it’ll cost me to have a single serving. It will cost me six points, which is about what I eat for lunch. But the tin is nice, so I call dibs on that. 
The thoughtless part is that Airman’s aunt knows I’m losing weight. :smack:
Oh wow. From the OP, I assumed this woman had just been stealing rolls of TP, but now you say she’d been stealing The TP (as in, there was none left for the next person). Which is at least an order of magnitude worse, and I have no sympathy for her.
I’m with you, King. These are some of the most fucked up, passive aggressive actions I’ve ever read. Horrible. Karma is a bitch, and I certainly hope these “pranksters” get theirs at some point.
I just feel if you’re going to give a present, do it right. If you feel the need to be a dick about it, just don’t bother. Yankee swaps and white elephants excluded, of course.
Mild jokes, like putting a cool gift in an odd box, are probably the threshold of what I’d consider to be acceptable.
It really is true; some folks use a season meant to encourage goodwill and love for your fellow human beings as an opportunity to show how clever and dickish one can be. FAIL.
A good friend of mine tells me that she had asked for a pair of ice skates one year when she was about 12, and on the day was given a package the right size and weight, and opened it to find…two reams of printer paper.
I’ve met her parents and it could well be they were just being clueless rather than outright mean, but who knows?
This wasn’t intended to be mean, but it felt that way at the time. Back in the olden days - the 60s, to narrow it down, I wanted a record player and a bunch of Beatles albums. Record albums are hard to disguise, so I knew I was getting some. Simon and Garfunkel. 
Bear in mind that at the time, I’d never heard of them, and they most certainly weren’t in the same league as the Fab Four!
And there was another package for me - with a handle!! I just knew it was my record player.
Nope. It was a suitcase. I confess, I was a brat about that - started crying and everything. My mom got all upset and gave me the receipt and told me I could just take it back, at which point I felt like a mega-spoiled bitch. She really wasn’t being mean - she thought it was something I’d like and could use.
As it happened, it was - I bought 2 more matching pieces and used that luggage for years. I still feel bad about my reaction more than 40 years later…
Cheap skates.
Ya know it’s a wonder more parents don’t give their teenage progeny luggage. I mean if there’s ever a time a parent or parents would wish their kid would run away from home it would have to be durin’ the teen years.
Isn’t it a bit ridiculous to let your boss know you’re stealing and then expect them to do nothing? I’m not really sure why it’s odd to have it docked if you’re taking it. If she were buying it herself like a normal person, she’d be paying for it.
Cheap skates.
[/QUOTE]
::rimshot::
This wouldn’t have been so mean if certain parties hadn’t been present:
In college, my fraternity did an annual joke secret Santa exchange, where everyone drew names, then bought something for their drawn name that would be humorous.
As luck would have it, I drew the name of one of my good friends and just days before, he and his girlfriend found out she was pregnant (definitely not expected, if you know what I mean.) As his gift, I bought him a watch that the face opened up to reveal a condom. I wrapped up the watch with a note saying, “Now you’ll always have time to wrap it properly first.”
He would have taken it as funny ribbing, except, for some reason, his girlfriend was present at the exchange (because of the nature of the exchange, GFs and spouses were not usually present during the actual event but could come for the party afterward.) She was mortified and he got a bit pissed.
I don’t know if this qualifies as mean since it was part of ongoing prank war between two guys, but one of them got a solid win for himself when, amidst other gifts, he gave friend a $100 gift card for a restaurant.
Except, all he’d done was take one of the cards off the rack and write $100 on it, so when recipient tried to use it they told him, uh sorry there’s no money on this.
If it hadn’t been part of an ongoing war (and if the parties involved couldn’t afford the $100 dinner without the card) it’d be mean but as it is I just find it hilarious.
My dad gave me a classical music CD one year when I was about 12 and my reaction was, “Here, Dad, I think this is yours, somebody must have put the wrong tag on the present.”
No, he’d gotten it for me. I was in a phase of being obsessed with Pachelbel’s Canon and he had gotten a CD of it for me (with assorted other songs). I just didn’t bother to look at what was on the CD. I felt really bad. As it turned out, it was a fantastic present and I’ve listened to that CD hundreds of times over the years.
Then there was the time we were opening stockings at my grandparents’ house and my brother and I were feeling a couple of small squishy packages and wondering what they could be. My dad said, “SOCKS!” in a really sarcastic voice.
Guess what it was? :smack: