# What's the weirdest gift you've GIVEN? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 13, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139 "2010-08-13T11:38:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/21 "2010-08-14T02:47:28Z")
A monkey in a spaceship. One of my young cousins-in-law donated the space ship. I bought the monkey at the dollar store. My brother had jokingly requested that as a Christmas present a few months before Christmas. So that’s what he got! (I also got him a “real” gift). He asked for his napkin to be folded in the shape of a dolphin at Christmas dinner last year. I made a fairly passable fish/dophin-y napkin fold in about 20 minutes. I don’t know why I do these things for him. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/22 "2010-08-14T04:43:07Z")
A small bell on a string. I gave it to a couple that had a small child, and told them that my gift would improve their sex life. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/23 "2010-08-14T05:23:57Z")
I once gave my Dad a box with the ‘ingredients’ and a recipe for road kill cat stew. (We ate road kill deer for years when we lived in a small town, when I saw the plushie cat I knew I had to get it for Dad). [That cat](http://www.nuttynuts.net/shop/meanie1cat.JPG) goes with him everywhere in his truck. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/24 "2010-08-14T05:45:08Z")
The g/f who gave me the anvil? Once I gave her a pair of [Army surplus snowshoes](http://www.nexternal.com/armynavy/images/Military-Snowshoes.gif) (in L.A.). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/25 "2010-08-14T11:17:16Z")
A combination music box/kalidescope. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/26 "2010-08-14T17:44:25Z")
One Christmas I gave a 40ish female friend a huge, real, ostrich egg. No particular reason- I was just in an impulsive, wacko mood. . ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/27 "2010-08-14T17:52:27Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > > [@MTCicero](#): > > > > Assuming you’d count as gifts the prizes that I used to give out to school aged kids whilst playing various games after school (I used to be a daycare worker), I’d say these: > > > > [ul] > > [li]A box of off brand Brillo-type pads[/li][li]A large jar of minced garlic[/li][li]A Clay Aiken CD\*[/li][li]A Dolly Parton CD\*[/li][li]A frozen shrimp cocktail party platter[/li][li]A large ham[/li][li]A jug of prune juice[/li][/ul] > > > > \*Remember: These were six- to twelve-year-old kids we’re talking about. > > I would be so pissed if one of my teachers gave me a jug of prune juice for a prize. Like, really, really pissed. I assume I’d say something like, “What the hell is this shit? Where are my Ninja Turtle action figures?” Well, in fairness, the kids knew what they were playing for up front. And the “prizes” weren’t prizes for the kids so much as they were items that the other workers and I found humor in (e.g., “I wonder what their parents were thinking when they told them they’d won a jar of minced garlic?”, followed by much pothead (but pot-free) style laughter). Yes, truly, the school age groups under the tutelage of myself and a couple other (male as well) coworkers were the rockingest in the entire (church-based) daycare. ---
**Author:** ![Lottie\_D\_Urberville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@Lottie\_D\_Urberville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lottie_D_Urberville)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/28 "2010-08-14T22:13:50Z")
I gave my brother a brick last Xmas,…although, to be fair, that was only to disguise the fact that I got him a gift card. Do you know how strange they look at you at the Home Depot when you buy a single brick? ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/29 "2010-08-14T23:33:15Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > When I was in 8th grade, I gave a friend of mine a bottle of rain for her birthday. **I don’t remember now what inspired that gift** , but I do remember she was a bit confused when she unwrapped it at her party. I lost touch with her after that year, when I went to a different high school than she did. > > 15 years later, I go to grad school in another state and, surprise, this old friend is also in my program. I ran into her in the hallway one day, and in our first catch-up conversation, she mentioned she still has the bottle of rain I gave her. I thought that was pretty neat. 🙂 Was it [this song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXFUr0sEgMI), perhaps? Cool story, by the way. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/30 "2010-08-15T04:33:01Z")
When my daughter came home for Christmas break from college every year, I would get her room ready and buy her a little gift and put it on her bedside table - “welcome home, Peanut”. I would go to Real Deals (dollar store) and I bought her: a remarkably badly painted china clown head (Welcome To Your Worst Nightmare); a teeny plaster plant stand composed of two plaster chickens holding up the plant stand with their wings (Cluck You); and a resin mother chimpanzee with baby chimp. We called this last one “Hairy Pink Monkey Titty” as said chimp’s torso did, indeed, sport bright pink titties, no doubt hand painted in some sweatshop in China. The last year, she graduated with a degree in anthropology, so she got a build-your-own-human-skeleton kit and a copy of “Stiff” by Mary Roach. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/31 "2010-08-16T01:45:28Z")
I gave my son a can of [Anti Monkey Butt Powder.](http://www.antimonkeybutt.com/) for Xmas once. ---
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/32 "2010-08-16T02:29:09Z")
For Christmas one year, I think it was 2000 or 2001, I gave my twentysomething brother a pink Easy-Bake Oven. My defense: He specifically asked for it. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/33 "2010-08-16T03:03:39Z")
A signet ring and sealing wax. In my defense, it was 1969 and it didn’t seem all that weird at the time. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/34 "2010-08-16T03:45:37Z")
My husband give his best friend a wedding present of a roll of duct tape, wrapped in… a roll of duct tape. Silly men. I gave the bride a real, if boring, present. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/35 "2010-08-16T04:46:15Z")
I’ve given custom chosen fortune cookies, a notebook made from [poop](http://www.poopoopaper.com/), and [voodoo](http://www.voodoodoll.com.au/catalog/index.php) dolls… ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/36 "2010-08-16T06:28:33Z")
Oh gawd, I’d forgotten until I read this thread. For reasons I couldn’t articulate even at the time, let alone now, in my mid-teens I gave my father a foam tyre inflation kit, something like [this](http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/241450936/Tire_Inflator_Foam.html). I mean, I was a dumb and clueless kid but that was a new low even for me. No friggin’ idea why I thought that was a reasonable [birthday | christmas] gift for him. I suppose it made a bit of a change from the succession of\*\* Erik von Daniken \*\*and \*\*Alvin Toffler \*\*books I gave him, that I thought were the height of intellectual sophistication at the time. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/37 "2010-08-16T12:43:21Z")
I also gave my high school girlfriend a necklace, which was wrapped in a slightly larger boc, which was wrapped in a slightly larger box… repeat until very large box… ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/38 "2010-08-16T12:56:16Z")
For years my standard wedding gift was a set of pink plastic flamingos and a [stool sample.](http://genuinestools.com/) A niece had caught onto this and included a plea for no plastic flamingos with wedding invitation. I gave her the stool sample and a [devil duck](http://www.mcphee.com/shop/products/Devil-Duckie.html)shower curtain. On a side note, I always included one of the better items off their gift registry list too. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/39 "2010-08-16T13:02:34Z")
I once boxed up and mailed a plush squirrel with walnuts used as packing material. ---
**Author:** ![Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139/40 "2010-08-16T15:15:36Z")
I once gave a boss of mine a dominatrix Barbie (I’d fashioned the costume she wore, complete with a tiny whip, myself) riding a vaguely seal shaped yam. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-weirdest-gift-youve-given/550139.md?page=3)