I get it, I get it; it’s the thought that counts, and Christmas isn’t meant to be about presents anyway. But let’s be real here ― some thoughts are bad, and I didn’t spend hours hand-making a pudding just to be given “quality family time” (which is impossible to wrap, anyway).
So, I have to admit I got a certain schadenfreude in reading the terrible gifts people shared in r/AskReddit.
Recently, Reddit user u/Leading_War_5847 asked, What was the ‘...seriously?’ gift you opened this Christmas?” Here are some of our favourite replies:
1) “I keep getting kitchen appliances every year, despite making it very well known I don’t have a square inch of countertop space to spare in my kitchen.”
2) “I once got a beard trimmer only to discover that it had been used and put back in the box with curlies!”
3) “Whitening toothpaste. That’s all I got.”
4) ”A birdhouse made out of bird seed.
The premise of the gift is for the birds to eat themselves into homelessness?”
5) “I’m bald. I got shampoo...”
6) “First gift I opened said it was from my mum. There was a small jewelry box which I opened to find FOUR MOLARS.
My sister starts cracking up. They’re her wisdom teeth LMAO. Her husband even found something with my mum’s handwriting on it to make the tag believable.”
7) “My brother gave me a bright orange wallet. Because you like orange so much, he said while flashing the wallet I gave him a few years ago. It’s red. He’s colourblind.”
8) ”My mom gifted my eight-month-old an Elmo CD. We do not own a CD player.”
9) ”I got a REALLY nice whiskey set from the MIL. Four tumblers, 12 bullet ice cubes, a decanter, and a high priced bottle of whiskey.
I don’t drink...”
10) “My mother-in-law is very much a theme giver. My husband gets all things WVU because we’re alumni. My son gets everything saxophone-related because that is what he plays. My daughter gets gifts with cats because she likes cats. I have been dealing with breast cancer for the past year. My birthday and Mother’s Day gifts were breast cancer-related.
I told her to please not do that for Christmas. Well, she didn’t listen. She got me a breast cancer awareness shirt, a Christmas ornament (because nothing screams Christmas like cancer), and a tabletop snow man decorating a Christmas tree with breast cancer ribbons. I was polite and said thank you but inside I wanted to scream ‘are you kidding me!’. I’m not sure if it is all going to Goodwill or the trash.”
11) “A cheap bath set that I’m allergic to, but have gotten every year, twice a year, for 20 years.”
12) “I have a six-month-old daughter. My brother figured an age-appropriate gift would be a skateboard. Go figure.”
13) ”My sister got a book from my grandmother titled ‘Proper Etiquette.’
She proceeded to tell her in front of the whole family that ‘She’ll be more likely to make the boys stay after reading it!’
My sister just smiled and carried on.”
14) “My grandparents gave my parents a framed picture of a random little boy and nobody knows who it is.”
15) “I got put into a 10k run. Unbeknownst to me.”
16) “A personalised gift with my name misspelled.”
17) “I got a toaster three years in a row...from the same person.”
