Not quite as bad: Jimmy Kimmel tells parents to let their kids open one Xmas present a few weeks early and video it, but make it a gag gift. YouTube Challenge - I Gave My Kids a Terrible Present - YouTube
Would I do this to my kids (if I had any)? Hell, no. And I do feel sorry for the kids that were truly hurt, like the little girl who got an onion. But there is some funny stuff there, the funniest being at the very end.
Last night was our flight’s holiday party, w/ a Yankee Swap; everyone was told to bring a $25 gift. I brought one for me and one for an airman who just skated back to town an hour before the party so he wouldn’t be left out. It was going along great, some funny gifts, some just alcohol, some stolen back. Then mine was stolen and I got to pick again. I grabbed a bag that felt light thinking it would be a gift card.
It was a pregnancy test and a wire hanger.
I know the bag wasn’t meant for me and that the bulk of people at the shop don’t know our struggles or our loss. Now my husband is so ashamed someone in that group who call themselves a family thought it would be appropriate to put that in the gifts that would be opened in front of families, not just other airmen. One Sgt let his teenage daughter participate, what if she’d gotten that bag?
One problem with mean gifts, even if the person who gets it is an asshole who deserves it and the person giving it has no problem doing so. It can make all the other people at the party uncomfortable or embarrassed or perhaps even mad. Thats not fair to them when its supposed to be fun party. Its like go to someone’s house for a party and couple starts fighting.
I am so, so sorry - I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around this. Honestly. I’m speechless.
:eek: Who the fuck does that?!!
There are no words…
I’m lucky I haven’t witnessed any actual “mean” gifts. The only one I can think of was when we did our “swap/steal anonymous presents” at an office I worked at a few years ago and the Managers each ended up with “adult novelty” gifts. I don’t know how they managed to orchestrate it so the bosses got those packages or if it was just a funny coincidence but laughs were had by all, thankfully.
Absolutely - when everyone saw what the gift was every conversation came to a stop w/ a gasp. About a third of the party were married couples and/or families w/ kids. Everybody was stunned; suffice to say we left and I understand the party broke up completely not long after. That gift-giver ruined what was until then a very fun evening for everyone there.
Had this been a party at work w/ only co-workers who are their fellow airmen, this gag could have been pulled off w/ nothing past rolled eyes and a juvenile “Har-Har”. The military’s full of gallows humor and I get that. I’ve heard ‘funny’ remarks at the Arlington burial of a beloved Sgt; but there are far better places for certain gags than others.
Jeez. Did anyone fess up? That is terrible.
The SO and I go to a family Yankee Swap or whatever (no one calls it by name, it’s just the time we open gifts) and the presents are effectively anonymous. We always joke that we are going to bring a sex toy or something so we can see the old people open it, but we would never actually do it. Fuck.
The worst present I ever got was some postage stamps from my frugal aunt…I don’t even mail out like that so idk why she thought that would make a good present.
No, that was mean. You guys should have just called her out on it.
A few minutes ago I got a call and apology from a 19 year old airman driving home for Christmas who’s genuinely sorry and promises he never meant to hurt anyone. I believe him, he was horrified to learn he’d made that gag in front of several couples who have fertility issues. Turns out he tried to call & apologize last night but DH left his phone turned off. Probably for the best, I was still too humiliated to be kind.
Wow. I’m having trouble imagining any circumstances under which this would actually be funny, and I usually have a pretty good imagination. I’m glad he had the balls to apologize, though. Betcha he sticks to gift cards for the next twenty years.
I haven’t yet had the good fortune of attending one, but my parents regularly went to white elephant exchanges where people competed to come up with the worst gifts. They ended up with a pink ceramic high heeled shoe one year. With a swan’s neck and head coming out of the toe, and the toe box covered in white feathers. It was fantastically hideous. It lived on a shelf in our dining room until the next year when it went right back to the same party.
Another vote for these horrible things. Your Christmas gift to somebody you care about is raising their hopes and then dashing them against the rocks? You have to be completely lacking in empathy to do that to somebody and not think it’s a horrible thing.
If she’s not coming clean even with ample opportunity, maybe she should steal a different brand of TP.
Well, that’s something, I guess. I’m torn here - no, 19 year old guys aren’t known for their sensitivity and tact, but damn - who does that? Hopefully this was a life lesson for him, and I’m sorry that you had the experience at all, Nawth Chucka.
It’s all about timing. As a Christmas gift, that’s just poor timing. As a baby shower gift, it’s comedy gold.
Would it really have made a difference if the teenager got it as opposed to anyone else? It’s a grab bag so it’s not like the guy was making some comment on her sexuality.
A bunch of these sound more like bad or clueless presents, as opposed to mean ones. And I don’t think disguising presents is bad at all.
I do the disguise things from time to time, simply so that nosy folks won’t figure out what their present is. It’s not a matter of making one gift seem like a different one – it’s doing things like adding a pill bottle full of thumbtacks so it makes a strange noise when you shake it, or adding something heavy in the box, or putting a small present in a big box. It’s not mean, it just makes it hard to guess.
I was talking to a friend yesterday whose wife used to carefully unwrap her presents, see what was inside, and wrap them back up. So one year, he sealed her present inside of a tin can (he had a friend that worked in a canning facility). There was absolutely no way for her to open it and reseal it. On Christmas morning, he gave it to her with a can opener.