Ow. Can’t beat that. Even the Christmas where my sister, who was 20 years older than, took my presents out of the boxes and filled them charcoal. You know, so I’d think Santa thought i was bad and everything. Yeah, she gave me my stuff, but everyone laughed at my shock and eventual tears when I opened the presents on Xmas morning.
I’m amazed I didn’t grow up to be a serial killer.
Silverware. Even though my mother knew I had a perfectly functional set she felt compelled to buy me a new set. And the bad part is that my old set is better quality than the new set.
I used to work for a Sikh. The guy was pretty much an entitled jerk. Company funds often went to donations to his ashram.
At one point, he decided that the ashram was too far to go home to every night, so he stayed with the VP and his wife. Apparently, he took over their house. He’d lay on the couch every night watching waht he wanted to watch on the TV, disregarding his hosts’ wishes. And of course he ate their food.
When Winter Solstice came around (he didn’t believe in Christmas, and thought no one should celebrate it), he got a gift for the VP’s wife. It was a vegetarian cookbook. “Now maybe she’ll get the hint”, he said.
I wasn’t there. Eventually he stopped staying there, though.
I did have this fantasy of all of his stuff out on the street, and the VP’s wife saying “Now maybe he’ll get the hint!” But she was pretty meek, so I doubt that happened.
One year my sister and I each got a box of those mini soaps and shampoos and conditioners and lotions and stuff they give you at hotels.
Although in fairness I’ve given some pretty lame presents myself, like the Spaghetti-On-A-Fork Suspended In Air sculpture I gave to my dad one year. He kept it in is office for years, then we sold it at a flea market. Pretty crappy; I give much better presents now.
When I was becoming better friends with another friend’s sis, I said something like, “Man, you sure like Kermit, don’t you” in reaction to the seemingly thousands of Kermit- and other frog-like… things adorning her room. She said, “I said once that I liked frogs. And everyone, since that day, has given me some kind of frog for every holiday.”
And then she fed the pet frog on the kitchen table.
Seriously, beware of becoming a collector! Or, at least beware of telling people. Don’t get me wrong, I still sort of dig Hello Kitty. But, for me, the fun was about 10 years ago, before she had made her big comeback, when I would scout “junk” stores and get totally excited to find a Hello Kitty item. One that was actually from the time period that I first fell in love with her. Fast forward…I’m 41, now. If you find an HK item that is SO AMAZINGLY unique or you found it in a “junk” store or whatever, bring it on! A calendar is also useful or even ordinary kitchen items that I will actually use! Don’t just storm the dollar aisle at Target and buy me everything that they have. Yes, I’ll think it’s cute, but it will get put in the storage box under my bed. The one that contains all of the cute, but non-functional HK items. Hey, I wear the socks and jammies. I use the bowl, plate and silverware when my niece comes over. Pens are fine. Things I can USE. Just don’t use it as an “easy out” gift. Whew…didn’t know I had all of that in there. Anyway, the most fun part of being a collector is…COLLECTING! Don’t take it all away from us!
My mom put a set of steak knives in my Christmas stocking last year. I’m still mocking her about it. “You stuck me in a room with Grandma and gave me weapons?!” :eek:
Not a Christmas story - but I used to tour in high school and college with a singing group. Each night we toured, we would stay in local people’s homes. One tour, my name was left off the list.
So every. single. town. as they would gather the local families around and everyone would get paired off - they would have to announce that they had one extra girl and could anyone please help?
Talk about feeling like the lone pound puppy.
you think someone would have thought to start phoning this information ahead.
I hope you’re close. Because it made me resent my own sister well into my teens. I thought it was mean and only done to make me feel bad, keeping in mind she was freaking married with children and I was still a minor that believed in Santa Claus. Sure, I oculd laugh about it when I got older…but it was a mean (albeit kind of funny in a twisted way) thing to do.
Too many threads here lately have made me divulge things about myself and my way of thinking. This is one of them because I can say that that incident was one of the first where I figured “My own sister hates me. She wishes I was never born.”. My sister died a DECADE AGO. and I try to think kindly of her, but I really believe she would have thrown me off a cliff if she could get away with it. I don’t want to think that, and its probably not true, but honestly even after all of this time it hurts.