What's the silliest gift you've given or received?
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: What's the silliest gift you've given or received?

Wargod

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 01:05 am EditMoveDeleteIP
We have a thread for the best gift you've given and recieved, how about one for the silliest gifts we've gotten or recieved.

I was just reading my AOL news page, and one of the articles was about a survey done to see what the worst gifts people had recieved were. One woman got a toliet seat from her husband. His reason? He remembered her mentioning they needed a new one, it was Christmas Eve and he didn't know what to buy her.

The silliest I ever recieved was from my MIL the second year my hubby and I were together. It was a dress that was 4 sizes too small for me. The top half was red with hundreds of black polka dots, the bottom half black velvet. It had three bows, all red with black polka dots, one giant one in the back and one on each shoulder. Putting aside the fact that it was way too small for me, and that I never wear dresses, it just wasn't my style. Got to appreciate her for trying though, lol.

I've also given my fair shair of silly gifts. My poor grandmother received little ceramic, heart shaped, guady jewlry boxes every year for her birthday and Christmas from my sister and I for close to ten years. The fact that she never wore any jewlry never phased us at all. It did give us fits of giggles years later when we saw close to twenty little, ugly jewlry boxes lined up on a table at a yard sale, lol. There was the year I bought my sister make up..in all the wrong colors, the year I bought my bil a soup set (2 bowls, 2 spoons, and 2 cans of campbell's soup,) oh, and the year Dakota was 3 and I lost my mind and bought her a keyboard thinking she'd just love it. She did, all day and night, right up until I hid the batteries.

Eliz87

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 08:18 am EditMoveDeleteIP
My sister-in-law got us (and the rest of the family) a "Billy Bass" singing fish for Christmas one year. She and her boyfriend just thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Zules

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 08:24 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I have a friend who once gave me an "Old Age Survival Kit". He's about 20 years older than I am and we "regift" it to each other for birthdays, Hanukkah, house warming gifts, etc.

Mizinvanccouver

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 08:34 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Ok, this isn't the silliest gift but it is silly....

Yesterday at my office a courier came with a card. I opened it up and it had a flower with a butterfly on the front and inside the person had written Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! LOL The card was obviously just a plain card not Christmas. It cracked me up that they couriered it. It was from one of our consultants. I just thought might have been better not to send one at all; espcially to courier it! LOL

Kimmo

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 08:36 am EditMoveDeleteIP
5 years ago, my husband gave me a fax machine. A FAX MACHINE! Ugh. What a great big overpriced white elephant. I'm no entrepreneur, and I can use the fax machine at work if I need it! Blah. I had absolutely no use or desire for one, I was totally disgusted with it.

It was really clear he bought it for himself on a typical ill-advised spending spree via the now-banished Spiegel catalog, then tried justifying it by giving it to me as my "big" Christmas present. When I asked him if this was the case, he admitted that he bought it in July (gee, I'm so lucky I didn't get it for my birthday), then realized it was stupid and didn't know what to do with it, so he hid it until now.

"Why do you need a fax machine?"

"Now I don't have to go to Kinko's to send a fax!" He might have sent a fax once every 6 months.

He has very rarely gotten me anything I actually wanted, because he doesn't like hearing from *me* what I want (even though he asks me to write a list every year)-- He wants to "think it up himself".

He wants everyone to look at his presents and go "Wow, look at what he gave me," when really they're going, "Why did he give me this? It's not even something I would ever like, want, or use."

So, when people actually go, "Why did you get me this?" or, "Why did you have me make a list if you weren't going to use it?", he thinks they're being selfish and not in the spirit of Christmas. Nice Christmas spirit!

Resortgirl

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 08:42 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I have a rule about receiving gifts with electrical plugs. No can openers, electric mixers ect.... Since putting that rule into effect I haven't received anything "silly" for christmas. I did recieve a rake for my birthday once.....ARG!! It's amazing how easily those things break when cracked over a hard head!!! LOL! Just kidding!

Jagger

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 08:49 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Years ago I got my brother a blow up doll of a deer, it was a hunting joke gag gift. (don't ask why, you really don't want to know) That gift still shows up every few years at the annual x-mass party

Wargod

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 09:03 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I always joke with Darren about that, RG. If it has a plug, it's not a good gift, lol.

Our first Christmas together, he had gone shopping without a list. Came home, he was so proud of himself (he had reason.) And spent the next two weeks telling me he had found the best things. He kept handing me one package that he wanted me to feel to see if I could figure it out. I was clueless. Mom was over, and he gave it to her, she felt it, and said, "I know what this is." Then whispered to him and he said yup and they laughed. Christmas morning he gave me a different box first to open and bouncing in his seat, but I wouldn't touch it til I opened the one gift he'd teased me with. It was an etch a sketch, LOL. The little red kids toy with white knobs you turned to draw pictures. I looked at this thing for a few minutes before I just burst out laughing. Then he gave me the first box and it was a sword I'd been drooling over for a few months at the knife store. Every year now I get some silly little gift from him. Last year was clackers.

Karuuna

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 10:19 am EditMoveDeleteIP
My son (who is 9) asked for a football field for Christmas. No, not a game or something... the real deal.

So today some friends of mine are coming over with some kind of striping machine, and making the new sod in the backyard into a football field. No, it won't be 100 yards, more like 40, so we'll have to fudge a little on the yard lines. But I can't wait to see his little face when he goes out in the backyard tomorrow morning.

Resortgirl

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 10:22 am EditMoveDeleteIP
That is so cool Kar!! Lucky boy to have such a wonderful mom!!

Wargod

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 11:01 am EditMoveDeleteIP
LOL, Kar, that's a great gift!

Fruitbat

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 11:05 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Years ago on PBS I saw a documentary about using monkeys to help the handicapped. It showed a monkey making oatmeal and feeding it to a quadriplegic. The monkey was twitchy, jumpy, distracted and feeding him waaaaaaaay too fast! It was hysterical. When interviewed, the feeding "victim" tentatively said, he liked the monkey but the project needed work.

For years it has been a joke with my sons that I was going to get a monkey when I got senile. They figured it would be cheaper than a home. (bless their little pointed heads)

Last year my son gave me a stuffed monkey. He said the time was getting near.

Danzdol

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 11:36 am EditMoveDeleteIP
a couple of years ago my husband wrapped a jello box and put it under the tree with the rest of the gifts.

I act like a 5 year old when it comes to Christmas and gifts. I touch and shake everything. For the longest time I shook that jello box and swore that it was the pearl necklace I had wanted. Till this day, I still don't have my pearl necklace and he always laughs at what a big deal I made about the jello box.

It was the last box I opened too.....I was so bummed as he laughed and took a picture of my upset face.

That was mean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

everyone was in on it!!!!!!!!!!

Costacat

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 12:19 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
A few years back, when I had a lot less expendable cash but was going to visit family for the holidays, I did some silly gifts. I bought different Chia pet heads for the men in the family. And for the women, well, I bought the cheeziest San Diego tourist gifts I could find. Silly things like Sand In A Bottle. Fortunately, my family has a really whack sense of humor and they all thought it pretty hysterical.

We also have a blue pair of bikini panties that makes the rounds from holiday to holiday. When I was in Europe and came home a couple of years ago, a blue pair of panties was on the counter in my bathroom. I don't wear *panties* I wear thongs. I had thought that maybe one of the kids went thru a tote bag that the pet sitter had brought with her. But nope. No one has any idea how that blue bikini panties ended up in my home. So I wrapped them up and sent them to my mom's husband that year. They've gone back and forth a few times, and I think I still have custody.

Hmm... I guess you'd have to know my family. It's funnier when the person who is not suspecting opens it.

Hootyhoot

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 01:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I give my grandchildren whoopie cushions for their birthdays and for Christmas ... I just can't help myself! The grandchildren love them. Their parents hate them.

Cassie

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 01:37 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I got the whackiest, most tasteless gift ever years ago for a wedding present. (I hope this doesn't offend anyone.) I'm not religious so was *stunned* when I opened the gift to find a hologram type picture--you know the things that shift shape when you move, sort of like those cheap keyrings with Haiwiian hula dancers? Well, this one had two scenes of Jesus. One, he was praying in the Garden of Bethsemene and the other he was on the cross. This came from an aunt who usually had the best of taste, which only added to my perplexion. We were very young and as I was well brought up, felt obliged to hang it on the living-room wall the first time she visited us in our apartment. The whole evening I had to watch Jesus--on the cross, off the cross, on the cross, as I got up to freshen drinks or adjust the stereo--it was mesmerizing and horrible at the same time! To this day, the reason for that gift remains one of the great mysteries in my life.

Meme9

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 02:57 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Many, many, many years ago, I got a padded toliet seat. It wasn't something I wanted or needed or had any use for. Dh thought it was a great gift to give....I guess it was something he wanted, needed or had a use for. It was probably the worst gift I ever got.

Oh, but this year I got him a nose hair trimmer!!!!! But, it still isn't as bad as the rotten PADDED TOLIET SEAT!

Pamy

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 04:42 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
LOL I love all these stories!!

One year a friend of my mom's gave me 2 cans of pringles!!! To this day I don't know why, they were beautifully wrapped and she was totally serious!!

Texasdeb

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 05:47 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
After 8 Christmas's together, my sig. other & I decided to not buy for each other this yr. Our giving to each other the past 8 yrs has always been way more than either of us could afford (credit card companys love us). This yr we've decided we'll go out together in a week or so & each one will get something they really want & the other will use their card to purchase it. I'm going to look for a nice purse, outfit, or simple piece of jewelry. I don't know what he'll be looking for but I know we won't be buying all sorts of dif. kinds of gifts for each other just to make sure we get the other one something they want. Sorry, credit card company!

Naja

Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 11:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
My Granny always sends a whole box of really nice gifts for the whole family. 2 years ago in the box she sent there was a little strangely shaped gift, tagged to me. I opened it and it was a rubber chicken! I really figured she was losing her mind and I never mentioned it to her until a few months ago. It ends up that it was a chew toy for my dog and she had accidentally marked the tag with my name instead of my dog's name...LOL Oh did we get a good laugh from that one :)

Secretsmile

Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 06:20 am EditMoveDeleteIP
My husband asked my daughter to grab the box out of the basement and wrap it for him to give to me.

Imagine both his and my surprise when I opened a box of old child size tupperware cups I had stored years ago instead of the wooden jewelery box he had bought me.

LOL! My daughter insists she grabbed the right box but the proof was there in my hand Christmas morning.

Fruitbat

Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 06:29 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Karuuna! I hope you check in here to tell us your sons reaction to his football field. That is just too cool.

Juju2bigdog

Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 10:16 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Agreed, Fruitbat.

Karuuna

Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 11:22 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks, folks. DS was just amazed, I can't remember ever seeing his eyes so big. I tricked him into taking the dogs out this morning, and after he put them in their kennel, he started running back to the house, and then stopped and did a double take. Then he screamed, ran to the football lying in the middle of the newly painted field, and screamed again -- MOM, Santa brought me a football field!

After that, every once in a while, he looks at me and says "I can't believe I got a football field!" He's just too cute!

He did find a footprint in a bit of snow in the corner of the field, and now he's convinced we have Santa's footprint as well. He thinks we should call the newspapers out to photograph it. Luckily, so far I've been able to distract him from this plan.

I'll post a pic or two when I get them uploaded to my computer.

Merry Christmas!

Pamy

Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 11:22 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Naja..rotf!!!

Reader234

Thursday, December 25, 2003 - 01:51 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hootyhoot, I have to LOL, because I remember the year my mom gave whoopie cushions to my boys!! (and no I dont remember being amused then!!)

My sil's are notorious for not understanding children, this year DD 7 got a size 14 Old Navy shirt, one sil gave a gift to each of the kids, and dh, mine not there, the older boys stared - dd thinks we should mention this, because of course she knows "it got lost"! One sil sent checks, she is good at writing a check for $20 which dh never cashes, I told him since she stopped sending me a check (I'm the one that deposits them when MIL calls and complains btw!) I think we should save all her checks then cash them when it reaches a good amount ala Seinfeld (kidding of course!! I send her something from her favorite store with the gift reciept, I make sure the amount adds up to the checks she sends!!)

Karuuna, I LOVE THAT!! How very special!! (are you sure the local paper wouldnt love it?!!) We didnt have snow (go figure!) so I made sure and put out some glitter where the reindeers flew -

Gemma120in2002

Friday, December 26, 2003 - 04:04 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
My husband loved to go out into the back yard and hit golf balls every day after work. He lost so many golf balls in the back yard and in the corn field beside the lawn, that one year before Easter I went out and bought about 8 dozen plastic golf balls and several different colors of spray paint. I spray painted all the golf balls, and hot glued yarn loops onto each of the balls. I pulled several dead branches out of our brush pile and pushed them into the north lawn and the corn field, and I hung the golf balls from them. That Easter morning when our daughter went out for her Easter-egg hunt, there were all of these golf-ball trees he'd planted over the past summer! I told him that I didn't realize that he was actually planting golf balls and not losing them. The look on his face was priceless! LOL! He went in and got his golf club and started picking golf balls off the trees and losing them! LOL!

Pamy

Friday, December 26, 2003 - 04:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Kar, that is such a great gift!! Can't wait to see the pics!!

Gemma, too funny!!

Jbean

Monday, December 29, 2003 - 03:49 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
the white elephant gift i got this year was "RUDE-Y" the farting reindeer. i love inappropriate and sick humor, so it suits me well, i think it's hilarious!

Wargod

Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 12:46 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I got two silly gifts this year. The first from my MIL drove us insane for a week wondering what it was. The package was smallish, and felt soft (like a t-shirt) but it was heavy. Ended up being two packages of Betty Crocker cookie mix, lol. If she had known how many cookies I'd baked the last two weeks, she wouldn't have given it to me!

The second was from mom. And it was more my reaction to it than the gift itself that had the whole family laughing. I opened it up and found a cook book. Dead serious I looked at her and said, "Mom, I think you gave me sis's gift." She gave my sis the same cook book. I look over, and she's leafing through the pages excited about trying this lobster and crab stuffed something or other. They spent the rest of the afternoon giggling at me wondering what to do with a cook book, lol.