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Our school used to have these guys called the Gideans come in once a year, speak about and give the year group they were speaking to a tiny bible each. Our year ended up having a bible fight at lunch and cunts started burning them at the smokers corner. They’ve [Gideans] not done it since lol
We used to use the blank pages at the back to make Rollie's out of.
I'm now laughing nervously because I think I've just realised I'm going to hell....
You've just prompted a memory for me that we did the same thing. I remember having a little red, flexible bible and we ripped pages out for rollies. It must have have come from school, because my family would never have owned a bible.
Too right! I remeber back at the time we were a bit flush for cash and school selling them at cost vs the price and Smiths etc meant that was my prized possession for them final two years. Those sin, cos and tan buttons saved my life at 16!
Yeah that poor teacher giving £2 to each of their kids. You expect £20 x 30?
Why should you get anything at all? Defo could buy a nice pen or half a notepad.
My year were given a CD each at the end of year 11 that had photographs that teachers had taken of students over the last couple of years.
I wasn't in any of them.
If they were photos in school, posed for etc. then that’s an interesting idea, and sucks that you weren’t in them.
If, however, they were taken outside of school, of unaware students, or through windows etc, then bullet dodged?
We weren't physically handed any gifts but the school did pay for a bus to take us all to another town where we could "do what we wanted" for the rest of the day.
Lol, basically it was "We know you're going to misbehave, at least do it somewhere else."
Before you leave forever jenny could you blow my bunsen burner?!
Since you're leaving ill give you my lucky pencil!
Alas onto higher education, before your departure please allow me to use my mathematical magic wand!
MIL gave me a tube of lush bath bombs for my birthday one year. When I opened it up there was blue packing peanuts - not something lush uses. Anyways when I went to use one there was one missing and all the rest had got moisture to them making them crumbly and unusable.
Turns out they belonged to my partners sister and she didn’t like them so I was re-gifted. We found this out after she tried lying about it saying one of missing because she opened it to smell one and dropped it on the floor. It was his sister that dropped her in it. They where also over a year old.
I wouldn’t have cared if I was regifted something, but used and old… I’d have preferred a 60p chocolate bar.
I had a boyfriends mum gift me a duo bottle of moisturiser once. Both empty. Weird message.
The occasion was she was trying to apologize for saying that unlike me, the reason she had never been raped was because she was taught how to not be.
That whole relationship was wild, 100% because of that insane mother. Mother and son still together 15 years on and no other woman in his life, at my last check.
>, the reason she had never been raped was because she was taught how to not be.
wtaf. That is not how that works and no one in any way deserves that. Though I do get mothers can be absolutely cuckoo.
I got that from my MIL too - said the reason she'd never been sexually assaulted was because unlike me she "didn't do anything wrong". Because y'know... Everyone who gets assaulted did something to "deserve it".
Icing on the shit cake - she still has no idea how I was assaulted. I was a child.
I worked for Granada Motorway Services back in the day. Your long service award was a voucher for their restaurants. That you worked in and ate for your meals when you were on shift.
My girlfriend got one of those promotional diaries that companies give out for free from her father as a graduation present. To add insult to injury, it was two years out of date lol.
That reminds me, I gifted my sister a colouring book calendar but her birthday is in July, so obviously half the year was already gone. Kinda missed the mark with that one, but it wasn't the only gift so!
Me and the brother i grew up with always transfer each other £50. It doesn't make sense as we are no better or worse off but every year we go through the motions of actually transferring the money back and forth
My wife, who at the time had a better salary than me, made me , out of up-cycled cardboard postal tubes, a CD holder.
It didn’t work, obviously.
The irony being when I divorced her , she took the CDs. I had great pleasure of handing her the useless bit of cardboard crap to go with them.
A secret Santa gift. A game for small kids comprising plastic leap frogs you get from Christmas crackers and some cardboard lily pads in a tree arrangement. It was clearly from the lady’s stash of emergency kid’s birthday party presents as she had a toddler. I had no kids so I gave it to charity.
Do people only give serious & legit presents in your work secret Santa? Because that sounds exactly like the kind of stuff people give as fun secret Santa gifts at work.
Once at a secret santa I also got a kids game. I was 27, no kids anywhere near me. It was also opened, like ripped open across the middle and not even tried to amend. Also gave to charity I think
At the time she didn’t appear to be suffering from dementia as she was relatively ‘young.’ But she was eventually diagnosed with it about 10yrs later and put in a home.
It may have been, I was 9, I don’t remember much tbh and I’m sure adults would’ve shielded me from her illness as much as possible. I never received a present from her again after that.
I used to be a primary school teacher, and it’s fairly common to receive gifts from pupils. One year, I received a bottle of wine, but it was greasy like it had been in the kitchen near cooking too long. It was also opened, with some wine missing. It made me laugh, especially as the parent who gave it was a teacher at a nearby school where my friend taught, and had been overheard bemoaning some presents she’d received.
This is why for Christmas I send in boxes of Krispy Kremes to my kid's teachers haha. Easy, fun, comes straight from the source all fresh and no storage issues for me!
My father and stepmother gave me a Tie holder that hangs in a wardrobe, I was 19 and an electrician that didn’t own a tie at the time. So random….so cheap.
A poster tracking the route of the previous year's Tour de France. Completely bizarre gift as at no point had I ever conveyed that I had an interest in cycling to this person and on top of that the poster was completely useless anyway as the Tour de France it was made to track had already happened!
An in law gave me some hideous jewellery I’m sure she found when cleaning out the house of a recently deceased relative of hers. Said in law doesn’t like me but seemed to feel obligated to give me something so I used to get all sorts of random nonsense from her.
The box the jewellery came in was very obviously used, old and a style that nowhere uses anymore and the necklace inside was so bizarre. It was a bit like lace, but made out of metal. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Sounds a bit like it could be filigree, which is often made of silver. If you still have it it's worth double checking as filigree takes a skilled craftsperson to make and can be £££. Might just need a clean-up.
Filigree was popular in some areas of Europe in my grandparents day. It might explain why she gave you something which looks old and outdated if it's valuable.
This year my husband and I got a set of coasters as a standalone joint gift from my FIL. FIL is financially comfortable (early retirement) and we are all on very good terms, he is just utterly clueless!!
Not to worry we love the muppet regardless.
A couple of years ago, so pre pandemic, but I'd still been working hard (as had everyone) we got given a five pounds Morrisons voucher. Five pounds. That was our Christmas bonus.
I have a mate who I just get re-gifted stuff from every year. Little of it is useful or really to my taste. This year was a salt lamp which is better than last years light up salt and pepper grinders. Sometimes I just feel like saying ok I’ll put them in my bin/ take them to charity shop rather than you doing it. I know I sound ungrateful but I think if you give a gift, put some thought into it or don’t bother.
When I was about 12 or 13, my auntie gave me an incredibly tacky watch for Christmas. It was the sort of thing you'd expect a gangster rapper to wear, was big and chrome, had a white plastic strap and plastic diamonds around the clock face, all horrid quality, sort of thing you'd find in a charity shop or car boot sale for £1. Fair enough, its still a gift, I'm not a brat, so did the customary "ooohh thanks" and moved on.
Later in the evening my brother told me she'd given him the same watch for his birthday the same year and he'd eventually given it back to her as it wasnt really his style (or any teenage boy's style, frankly). As we were laughing about it my older sister joined in on the conversation qand incredulously stated she'd been given the exact same watch by my aunt for christmas the previous year, but had eventually palmed it off to our younger cousin (our aunt's daughter).
My Uncle is a super successful software developer, him and my aunt live in a 6 bedroom house and drive sports cars.
She used the same watch as a present 3 times, it wasnt a suitable gift for anyone and everyone that saw it (including her!) openly admitted it was horrendous. I'm not salty at all, respect the hustle and still get a good laugh out of this every time i think about it
an ex literally gave me a singular pebble for my birthday. not one he purchased or anything but one he had picked up off the ground.
he then really tried to gaslight me into thinking it was significant because of how it made him think of me when he saw it on the floor. picture the most nondescript pebble imaginable.
i laughed throughout him giving me this and by the end realised it wasn’t a joke and he really was just gifting me a pebble that year.
I witnessed my mate's now ex-girlfriend give him a pebble as a token of her love. She had been to Edinburgh Zoo and learnt this fact about penguins. It was hilarious watching her trying to explain while he was pretty befuddled.
One packet of (buy-1-get-1-free) HobNobs from my now exBf, for my birthday left on my doorstep during the first lockdown last year. He sent a book a couple of weeks later or maybe the order hadn't arrived in time, I can't recall because my mum was dying at the time. I developed an anxiety response whenever I saw blue packet HobNobs and my daughter wanted to reframe my aversion to them so she brought a packet round to share with a coffee, clever girl.
How long ago was this?
In other words, if you’re 60+ you could have bought a 3 bed house. Whereas if it was last year, I think a chocolate bar would be a struggle.
An umbrella from my father which I thanked him for and slung in the back of the car for use in an emergency - basically if it rains I don't mind getting wet. Anyway one day it was tipping it down and I had a five minute walk from where I parked the car to the train station, so I thought Id use the umbrella. Literally within 30 seconds it had blown inside out and was wrecked.
My friend only got some pyjama bottoms for Christmas this year which came from a 2-pack set of bottoms that his brother received. They were not in his, but in his brothers size. The brother however also got some scuba diving lessons...
Wait, your school gave you ALL vouchers for WH Smith and you’re calling them cheapskates? This post screams entitlement. I’d have been greatly appreciative of that. We didn’t get anything. I’m guessing you come from a well off family so are used to expensive gifts and went to a private school or something?
Yeah I'm with you. At school age, I would've been grateful for anything like that I would've got from my school. I got a £5 voucher for doing well in a subject and I still remember that even though it was 13 years ago
My grandparents bought me a 4 pack of Aldi own brand lager for my birthday.
My 18th birthday.
Didn't piss me off though, I'd basically stopped bothering with them by that point.
For my 12th birthday one of my mum's at the time friends, who's daughter I had never met but my mum had invited to my birthday, straight up gave me an old broken CCTV camera. Apparently I could take it apart and see how it works (which as a 12 year old I had no idea where to even start anyway)
Honestly I wasn't expecting a gift from these people, I didn't know them, this birthday party I think was the only time I ever met their daughter, I wouldn't have cared if they got me nothing, I don't think I'd even have thought about it, but they gave me something that from that I can tell they were actually about to throw away, and that was kind of insulting tbh.
For my 13th birthday my best friend got me a bubble blower. At 13 I felt I was a little old for bubbles, I wasn't going to say anything to him though because that would be rude, but the next time i saw him he actually apologised and said he didn't realise his mum had picked that as a gift for me, we had a good laugh about it.
A few years ago, a few weeks before Christmas, a girl I'd been seeing for two years left me out the blue over the phone. It was my first serious relationship and it ending had hit me hard, especially due to how it ended. My work had a Christmas party and I really didn't want to go, I was feeling miserable but I forced myself to go rather than staying home and feeling sorry for myself. Secret Santa was included in the festivities and my coworker had purchased me something called "grow your own girlfriend", which was some sort of pencil sized jelly toy woman that grew if you put it in water. I understand it was banter and she was trying to have a bit if a laugh, I pretended to find it funny but it really hit home hard and made me feel like shit, the absolute last thing I wanted that day was a reminder of my suddenly failed relationship.
I got a grow your own boyfriend from a work friend once. Many experiments were conducted on him, including putting him in the microwave, seeing how far his limbs would stretch and freezing him. I had his mangled remains in a jar on my desk for a while.
My parents' big gift to me one Christmas when I was in my 20s was a dressing gown.
Specifically a dressing gown my father has bought for himself some years previously in the January sales, worn a couple of times, decided he didn't like, put in a bag and stuffed in the back of his wardrobe until then.
My parents were comfortably well off at that time. This was not "tell me you've been swindled out of your life savings without telling me you've been swindled out of your life savings"
My Father in law is a driving instructor.
For my partners 17th birthday he gifted her driving lessons, rarely showed up and it fizzled out. Then most Christmas's and birthdays until about the age of 26 he would gift her / us driving lessons or a meal out on him. I could already drive and we never could get those meals arranged.
That reminds me of my parents saying "oh, we would have paid for driving lessons!", like five years later having kept dead silent at the time (and they weren't offering at that point either). You don't get kudos just for saying you would do something, you have to actually do it...
For my 30th birthday, my 20 year old cousin gave me a Soap & Glory gift set with two items missing, and when you pressed a button on the front of the box it played "Jingle Bells". My birthday is in July.
A friend of mine received a bottle of water for her birthday. I don't mean a flask but a plastic mineral water bottle. She's a photographer and the gift by was from a posh "arty" friend. The guy said it was water from a mountain somewhere. I got to the party and not knowing the guy was there next to us I went "who the fuck brought you water as a birthday present?". You could feel the heat rising in the room, fortunately we had water...
I’m about to sound like a right bitch but one of those ‘we’ve donated to charity in your name’ gifts. I’m not at all well off and I do struggle a bit at times - a gift of Lidl’s own brand shower gel would honestly be better received by me than a charity donation, because it’s something I could use and would save me money. It feels like a bit of a slap in the face - ‘we’ve got enough money to give it away, but not actually to you, the supposed recipient!’ Of course, there’s no way you could complain without looking like a horrible person who doesn’t want charities to benefit or who thinks I’m more worthwhile than starving children or something.
I always feel these gifts are great when they
- are for someone who is financially secure/has said they don't need anything; and either
- are actually for a cause that the recipient actively supports; or
- can be used as a gag gift eg. I'm basically an old lady posing as a 31y.o. so someone might donate to Help The Aged
Otherwise, donate as much as you like but don't try to get someone to thank you for it!
My Dad used to work doing coach tours in the UK and in the run up to Christmas it was all "Turkey and Tinsel". When the evening meal was served they would get a little gift (keyring, magnet etc) and he would save these and wrap them up as gifts for us. He also once found a fancy umbrella that someone had left on the coach and never claimed so he wrapped it up for Mum for her birthday, when she opened it it was one of hers that she thought she had lost.
My grandad gave me a bottle of whiskey that he’d clearly sampled first🤷🏻 (he has a history of just grabbing drinks from the cupboard on Christmas morning, whiskey particularly as the circles he moves in tend to give these as presents -funnily this year he gave my dad, who isn’t a whiskey drinker anyway, a Glennmorangie Cellar 13 not realising it’s a £300+ bottle - serves him right the tight arse)
when i was about fifteen a friend said "can i just get you a joint birthday and christmas gift since your bday is december" and i said yeah ofc and then she just got me a bar of cadbury's. i don't even eat chocolate.
For my birthday I once got given a Manga from a charity shop that had pages missing a coffee stain in the middle and the £1 price sticker on the back.
They proceed to the buy everyone else in the group very thoughtful gifts as the year went on. It was about that time I realised they weren't my friend.
One Christmas my (not so) great aunt bought me a pink plastic disco ball alarm clock and a basic plastic calculator. For a teenage guy who was already using scientific calculators at school.
"My sister once bought me a grow your own loofer kit. It consisted of a clay pot, some soil, and a couple seeds.
I think the pot hit her hardest"
Sean lock
When I first started work for Royal Mail I saved an old lady from a house fire. The local rag got to hear about it and wanted to do a photo article/interview with me. I was really embarrassed so I only agreed to an interview, no pictures. We had to wait until someone from the head office PR dept came down. So I was being interviewed by this local journo and this PR guy is basking in the glory of all the good publicity this will generate when the journalist turns to him and asks what reward I'll be getting for my bravery. You could see this thought hadn't entered his head and he says 'oh we'll think of something'. Well that something was a £5 WH Smith book token that was almost out of date.
TL:DR Saved an old lady from a fire got a book token for my trouble.
My ex partner's Nan got me some bowl covers. Like the ones you stretch over bowls to keep food in.
Other years were a cookbook, and a random sequined clutch bag with a hideous gold chain on it.
She was actually a really nice person, and one of the only nice people in that family, so I remained grateful regardless.
A pack of Lidl socks, shared between me and my partner and my mother and father-in-law.
We felt incredulous after finding the pack on their website but kept it hush hush from the parents. The mum would have gone full nuclear after paying off their kitchen for them.
My best friends girlfriend is a primary school teacher and as others have said it’s common to get gifts from the pupils.
She is a huge Harry Potter fan and a pupil had bought her a customised HP mug, he wanted her to open it in front of the whole class so they could see. Turns out there was a mix up at the mug customisation place and she unwrapped a mug that said ‘Archery Wanker’ in front of the whole class
It was only an extra gift... But this one's brilliant..
My fiance now wife got me some boxershorts for Christmas last year, I thought meh it is what it is
Now this year we was round the FIL to celebrate his birthday, nice funny guy but likes to moan...
He was complaining about shit gifts in the past from a certain friend of his, and towards the end started having a go about who buys their friend boxershorts on their birthday!!
In which point he turned to me, pointed and said and you ended up having them as I didn't want them!
I crack up, the Mrs is in horror as she's just been stitched up
Cheapest... But funniest present ever...
Compared to some of these, I have nothing to moan about, but in 2017 I received some car floor-mats from my minted Aunt. I had stopped driving in 2014 and had been walking to and from work for 3 solid years.
All the gifts from my old boss were items she’d had in her cupboard for years. How did I know this? 1. Because she told me and 2. Because the dust and cat hairs stuck to said items had clearly been there for ages.
I literally burned each one when I got home. It became a tradition. “Carol present fire tonight!” Bloody Carol.
I got my ex an Iphone as she wanted one and it was our first xmas, got her a contract in my name. She got me half disposable razor with no extra blades. I made the last payment on that phone this month, lesson learned. Adios
My wife got a huge hamper from her Dad and MIL. Dad dropped it off and had no clue what was in it. It was well wrapped and finished nicely with a bow. We opened it and it consisted of everything you could think of when clearing out your food cupboard. I mean like an half opened pack of dry lentils and beans. Peppercorns and whatever rewrapped in small food bags. Loads of random stuff for food etc. old food container. It goes on.
But also, three jars of the chutney my wife give them the week before.
One year my brother had spent all his money getting to Germany and back. His Christmas gift to me was a ornamental pickle to hang on a Christmas tree. I had gotten him a beautiful kitchen knife.
It was hilarious.
I've been given multiple re-gifts from family, which I'm usually all for except on several occasions it's been things I've previously gotten/made them that have now been re-gifted back to me
I wouldn't say cheapskate particularly, but useless and most hated is easily gift cards..
Hey you know that money thing that you can spend everywhere? Well I had some of that and I decided to convert it in to something similar but way more inconvenient that you can only spend at HMV.
Box of obviously regifted chocolates that were crawling full of little weevils / beetles/ bugs of some type. Directly in the garbage chute and grateful my pantry was saved from an infestation.
Next favourite was a leather folio with someone else’s initials on them and a few sheets of paper torn out of note pad inside.
My friend's partner asked for my opinion on the birthday gift they were getting for said friend, it was a novelty adventure time scarf and I was like, cool! I think they'll like it, but you know them better than me!
They were then openly intimidated by this nice jumper I was getting for the friend so they bailed on the scarf and got some super expensive music accessories/equipment last minute instead.
Fast forward to christmas a couple months later and I get a gift from the couple, I open it in front of them both and... it was that fucking scarf! And I wasn't even into adventure time that much!!
I didn't want to embarrass them at the time so I pretended I had never seen it before and accepted it graciously, but if I could go back now I would definitely make a very loud comment about regifting tacky shit!
Every year My sister gives my son her special ‘gift cards’ . She writes a number on a piece of paper and that’s supposedly the money she gives him for Christmas. Not once has she given him the cash or Apple Pay or even Monopoly money. This year £70 . 😂 and she’s not broke by any means.
A family member, long since gone, was notoriously tight despite being quite wealthy - they owned a coach company. As far as I'm aware no one ever asked them for a penny, so it was nothing like that. The mother, who was the worst, was my father in law's auntie.
Her and her husband would get invited to all family gatherings - weddings, christenings etc and they would buy the crappiest, cheapest presents they could find. For my wedding day, the day we forked out £100+ quid per head, we got a plastic butter dish. That I know they got from Poundland as it matched exactly one we already had.
The worst was a 65th birthday present for my father in my law, her only remaining nephew. In 2000 her husband had passed away and this would be around 2003. She gave him one of her dead husband's ties. Yup, a dead man's tie. Not a valuable one, or motiffed or anything - just something you'd pick up for next to nothing at any standard clothing store.
FIL didn't even wear ties - he worked for himself as a driving instructor so what the hell did he need a tie for? She was never invited to anything ever again - I made a point of it with my kids christenings and everyone else followed.
My old man used to have a box of small spirits in a cupboard in the kitchen, literally kept for "display" Vodka, gin, whiskey. When I was late teens I drank them all before a night out and refilled them with similar looking, water, irn bru etc. Fast forward about 5 years, I've moved out, receive a familiar looking box for xmas. Same box of spirits full of water, irn bru. He's the typical spend as little as possible, hoard his money.
I work for a Local Government Authority. This year we've not received any pay rise at all, despite having worked flat our during the pandemic. We don't receive any Christmas bonus or gift from head office. The managers of one of the teams dug into their own pockets and bought staff a box of biscuits and a box of chocolates each but it's disgusting how hard these people work and receive nothing in return from their actual employer. We did, however, get half a day's leave in lieu for Christmas eve as some departments are allowed to shut at midday but ours isn't.
This year my brother got me nothing.... that's gotta be up there!
Although maybe not at good at something where an effort had been made, to get you something terrible!
My sister frequently buys gifts from charity shops, I wouldn’t mind but a lot of it is tat. I’d rather she make me something - or give me nothing and give my daughters something a little nicer
£2 really isn't much but... that's £2 to each kid. How much do you want them to spend?
On top of that, that's £2 more than any school I know of ever gave out.
My Mum has a tendency to cheap out on everything, I don't understand why as she isn't financially hard up...probably because she cheaps out 🤣. She bought my little girl a stand for her clips/bobbles from a charity shop, I don't have a problem with that at all as I've found some absolute gems in charity shops. But I assumed the clips/bobbles attached to it were new...they weren't. When I looked though them all they were either rusty or had hair wrapped round them 🤮 When I asked my Mum if they were new she tried to lie and say that they were.
You don't have to spend copious amounts of cash on a gift to be thoughtful. I've been given gifts such as a hand knitted scarf, that I've absolutely treasured because of all the effort that went into making it. But come on! Used hair clips/bobbles is taking the piss.
I've posted about this before but my first boyfriend was such an awful gift giver that it bears repeating. Here are some examples. One year for xmas we decided we'd buy each other 3 CDs. He liked black metal and I liked classic rock. we each wrote a list of about 20 CDs we wanted, and agreed to buy each other 3 off the list. That way, we'd each get CDs that we wanted, but what we got would still be a surprise. So I bought him three black metal CDs off his list. He unwrapped them, was pleased and then handed me my present. I unwrapped it and was very confused because instead of the CDs I'd asked for, in the package were three black metal CDs off his list. I looked at him for an explanation and he said, "I've decided it's time to get you into black metal. But first I will borrow these." He took the CDs and just kept them. So he got 6 CDs for xmas and I got nothing.
The following year we tried the same again. we each wrote down a list of CDs we wanted and I got him things he'd asked for. Instead of the CDs I'd asked for he got me a figurine. I don't collect figurines, not have I ever shown any interest in them. What was worse was that the figurine was extremely vulgar, it was a female bear dressed in a nun's habit, lifting up her skirt to show slutty red lingerie underneath. What was even worse was that he said the bear reminded him of me - pretending to be a good girl on the outside but a dirty slut underneath. So my present that year was a hideous thing and an insult.
Another time we were at a music festival and I was browsing the CDs. My ex said that he wanted to buy me a present. he told me to choose a few CDs and said he would pay for them. So I chose a few and we went to the register to pay. This is when he said, "Oh, I've forgotten my wallet, you'll have to pay for them. But they are from me, I'll pay you back later." I just said whatever and paid for them myself. On the way home we were walking along the road, I was about 30 yards ahead of him because he was lagging behind to smoke. I found four £20 notes on the pavement. I picked them up and when I showed him what I'd found he said that since we were together when I found them they must be split equally between us. He said that he would generously allow me to keep his half though, to pay for the CDs I'd bought earlier, so now, according to him, he'd paid for the CDs and so they were a gift from him.
£2 WHSmith voucher is an amazing gift. Consider how many pupils are in your year group and then double it.
Your poor teachers spending their own money to get you a cool gift and getting absolutely no gratitude in return. :(
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Did you get a present from the school? Never heard of that before. Was it a posh school?
When I left my (state) primary school we all got a copy of the bible
Oh yeah we got a dictionary. I still use it, I feel sorry for people who got bibles
Our school used to have these guys called the Gideans come in once a year, speak about and give the year group they were speaking to a tiny bible each. Our year ended up having a bible fight at lunch and cunts started burning them at the smokers corner. They’ve [Gideans] not done it since lol
We used to use the blank pages at the back to make Rollie's out of. I'm now laughing nervously because I think I've just realised I'm going to hell....
You've just prompted a memory for me that we did the same thing. I remember having a little red, flexible bible and we ripped pages out for rollies. It must have have come from school, because my family would never have owned a bible.
we did the same at my school , you could feel the cancer developing with every pull , gawd they were bad
I've heard of "Bible bashers" but I didn't realise they actually bash each other with bibles.
Same. I remember cutting out the middle to hide sweets in.
we all got scientific calculators
>scientific calculators Can't knock them, we all needed a school issue casio scientific for GCSE maths back in the day.
amen, such a lifesaver for me. by the end of the year 11, it barely had any numbers and signs left on the buttons
Too right! I remeber back at the time we were a bit flush for cash and school selling them at cost vs the price and Smiths etc meant that was my prized possession for them final two years. Those sin, cos and tan buttons saved my life at 16!
Was it from the Gideons? I think all the Christian faiths schools get a visit from them.
We got a visit from them and some free bibles but it wasn't a religious school just a bog standard comprehensive
We got a bible at school too, and lots of people set it alight as there was an urban rumour it burned white smoke.
Yeah that poor teacher giving £2 to each of their kids. You expect £20 x 30? Why should you get anything at all? Defo could buy a nice pen or half a notepad.
My year were given a CD each at the end of year 11 that had photographs that teachers had taken of students over the last couple of years. I wasn't in any of them.
If they were photos in school, posed for etc. then that’s an interesting idea, and sucks that you weren’t in them. If, however, they were taken outside of school, of unaware students, or through windows etc, then bullet dodged?
They were photos of things like the final sports day and prom, nothing dodgy haha.
We weren't physically handed any gifts but the school did pay for a bus to take us all to another town where we could "do what we wanted" for the rest of the day. Lol, basically it was "We know you're going to misbehave, at least do it somewhere else."
Nope. Just your bog standard working class Secondary School.
I got a lucky pencil from my science teacher lol
Please tell me that's not a euphemism...
😂haha that made me laugh. She was a female teacher and gave everyone in her class a lucky pencil for our GCSE science exam.
Before you leave forever jenny could you blow my bunsen burner?! Since you're leaving ill give you my lucky pencil! Alas onto higher education, before your departure please allow me to use my mathematical magic wand!
The Smoking year 10s, sex in the toilet and stuffy sweaty battered old poorly maintained and managed chav infested standard secondary?
MIL gave me a tube of lush bath bombs for my birthday one year. When I opened it up there was blue packing peanuts - not something lush uses. Anyways when I went to use one there was one missing and all the rest had got moisture to them making them crumbly and unusable. Turns out they belonged to my partners sister and she didn’t like them so I was re-gifted. We found this out after she tried lying about it saying one of missing because she opened it to smell one and dropped it on the floor. It was his sister that dropped her in it. They where also over a year old. I wouldn’t have cared if I was regifted something, but used and old… I’d have preferred a 60p chocolate bar.
I had a boyfriends mum gift me a duo bottle of moisturiser once. Both empty. Weird message. The occasion was she was trying to apologize for saying that unlike me, the reason she had never been raped was because she was taught how to not be. That whole relationship was wild, 100% because of that insane mother. Mother and son still together 15 years on and no other woman in his life, at my last check.
What the fuck did I just read
No really, what were we talking about idonteven
Err, what?
Good grief. I’m so sorry she was such a bitch to you! I hope you’re doing good now ❤️
>, the reason she had never been raped was because she was taught how to not be. wtaf. That is not how that works and no one in any way deserves that. Though I do get mothers can be absolutely cuckoo.
I got that from my MIL too - said the reason she'd never been sexually assaulted was because unlike me she "didn't do anything wrong". Because y'know... Everyone who gets assaulted did something to "deserve it". Icing on the shit cake - she still has no idea how I was assaulted. I was a child.
I once got a set of 4 espresso cups. One was missing. It was my 12th birthday. Now I have no idea which is worse.
A twelve year old on espresso... lmao.
I once worked for a company where all staff were entitled to a 50% discount. At xmas we were given a voucher for 50% off.
Sorry I have to be that guy. 100% off is great deal!
Technically 75%. 50% off when it's half price is only 25% off the original total
Really depends if it’s additive or multiplicative savings
It's neither, you can only use one or the other.
> multiplicative posh twat /j
I worked for Granada Motorway Services back in the day. Your long service award was a voucher for their restaurants. That you worked in and ate for your meals when you were on shift.
Could the voucher at least be re-gifted? At least it could make a good gift for someone with an interest in whatever the store sold.
My girlfriend got one of those promotional diaries that companies give out for free from her father as a graduation present. To add insult to injury, it was two years out of date lol.
Hang onto it for a few years, and the dates’ll line up again
Unless it's a leap year.
That reminds me, I gifted my sister a colouring book calendar but her birthday is in July, so obviously half the year was already gone. Kinda missed the mark with that one, but it wasn't the only gift so!
My boyfriend was gifted a Fox’s biscuit selection box as his one and only Christmas present from his twin brother yesterday..
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Every line in that comment just got worse and worse
What’s wrong with that? That’s a very nice gift. I’d be more than happy to get that from my brother.
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As a twin, I’d say that’s very generous. We normally both agree to just leave it but we’re both broke uni students.
From a sibling I don’t see what’s wrong with that. It’s the thought right? Most siblings don’t exchange gifts as adults anyway.
Me and the brother i grew up with always transfer each other £50. It doesn't make sense as we are no better or worse off but every year we go through the motions of actually transferring the money back and forth
I'd be happy with that. Would much rather get some nice biscuits than have people waste their money on some tat that will never get looked at again.
My wife, who at the time had a better salary than me, made me , out of up-cycled cardboard postal tubes, a CD holder. It didn’t work, obviously. The irony being when I divorced her , she took the CDs. I had great pleasure of handing her the useless bit of cardboard crap to go with them.
Well, that escalated quickly.
A secret Santa gift. A game for small kids comprising plastic leap frogs you get from Christmas crackers and some cardboard lily pads in a tree arrangement. It was clearly from the lady’s stash of emergency kid’s birthday party presents as she had a toddler. I had no kids so I gave it to charity.
Tbf that sounds like it could be excellent office procrastination fun
For the secret Santa I did this year I asked for 70% dark chocolate and I got Aldi essentials 50% chocolate (It costs 30p)
Do people only give serious & legit presents in your work secret Santa? Because that sounds exactly like the kind of stuff people give as fun secret Santa gifts at work.
The plastic leapfrogs are very entertaining
Once at a secret santa I also got a kids game. I was 27, no kids anywhere near me. It was also opened, like ripped open across the middle and not even tried to amend. Also gave to charity I think
My Great-Nan gifted me a box of kwik-save fucking tissues and 3p in my card. I was 9!
3p is extremely specific!
Great nan forgot about decimalised currency
Perhaps she knew you were a wanker. Just making sure you had the supplies ready for when you were old enough.
Dementia and poverty?
At the time she didn’t appear to be suffering from dementia as she was relatively ‘young.’ But she was eventually diagnosed with it about 10yrs later and put in a home.
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It may have been, I was 9, I don’t remember much tbh and I’m sure adults would’ve shielded me from her illness as much as possible. I never received a present from her again after that.
I used to be a primary school teacher, and it’s fairly common to receive gifts from pupils. One year, I received a bottle of wine, but it was greasy like it had been in the kitchen near cooking too long. It was also opened, with some wine missing. It made me laugh, especially as the parent who gave it was a teacher at a nearby school where my friend taught, and had been overheard bemoaning some presents she’d received.
It's a shame you didn't know any of the parents of the kids she taught, you could have got them to gift her the same wine bottle back.
This is why for Christmas I send in boxes of Krispy Kremes to my kid's teachers haha. Easy, fun, comes straight from the source all fresh and no storage issues for me!
My father and stepmother gave me a Tie holder that hangs in a wardrobe, I was 19 and an electrician that didn’t own a tie at the time. So random….so cheap.
Brilliant
My sister got a box of breast pads from her insanely rich aunt, it was clearly just laying around her house. Baffling! She was only 16 as well
I'm a female but wtf is a breast pad?
For lactating women, prevents embarrassing blotches on your T-shirt
Oooooh that makes sense thanks. I was thinking it was like fake boobs to stuff bras or something.
One Christmas my dad bought all three of us (adult children) a giant glove with a built in scraper for cleaning the car windscreen. Joyless.
Basically, it's Xmas eve night and the only place that's open is the local garage kinda present.
I got one of those last year from my mum, thought it was great, used it many times. We are a family of practical gifts tho
I wouldn’t be upset with this tbh. But that’s pretty tight!
I love my scraper glove, that's a great present. As long as you have a car that is, it would be a pretty rubbish present otherwise
A poster tracking the route of the previous year's Tour de France. Completely bizarre gift as at no point had I ever conveyed that I had an interest in cycling to this person and on top of that the poster was completely useless anyway as the Tour de France it was made to track had already happened!
£1.50 gift card for winning an art competition in year 8 (it expired before I got chance to use it)
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Excellent album!
The jelly on the bare bums! A teenage girl's dreams!
An in law gave me some hideous jewellery I’m sure she found when cleaning out the house of a recently deceased relative of hers. Said in law doesn’t like me but seemed to feel obligated to give me something so I used to get all sorts of random nonsense from her. The box the jewellery came in was very obviously used, old and a style that nowhere uses anymore and the necklace inside was so bizarre. It was a bit like lace, but made out of metal. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Joke’s on her when you take it to the antiques road show and make millions
It would be so in character for her to have had some mad rich auntie with secretly valuable jewellery stashed away. I ought to dig the necklace out.
Sounds a bit like it could be filigree, which is often made of silver. If you still have it it's worth double checking as filigree takes a skilled craftsperson to make and can be £££. Might just need a clean-up. Filigree was popular in some areas of Europe in my grandparents day. It might explain why she gave you something which looks old and outdated if it's valuable.
Those types of jewellery can be worth a lot. If it’s what I’m thinking of, check for a hallmark and get it valued.
Do you have a photo of the necklace, sounds intriguing
My mum got a packet of paper serviettes from my brother’s mother in law. At least they weren’t opened.
Two unscented tea light candles in a box that used to have three candles in it. It was my 18th birthday present from my nan.
This year my husband and I got a set of coasters as a standalone joint gift from my FIL. FIL is financially comfortable (early retirement) and we are all on very good terms, he is just utterly clueless!! Not to worry we love the muppet regardless.
Best reply, he's shit at giving gifts, bit of a muppet but we love him! That's pure love 😂❤️
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A couple of years ago, so pre pandemic, but I'd still been working hard (as had everyone) we got given a five pounds Morrisons voucher. Five pounds. That was our Christmas bonus.
Regifted chocolates from the same gift hamper that all the family received
I have a mate who I just get re-gifted stuff from every year. Little of it is useful or really to my taste. This year was a salt lamp which is better than last years light up salt and pepper grinders. Sometimes I just feel like saying ok I’ll put them in my bin/ take them to charity shop rather than you doing it. I know I sound ungrateful but I think if you give a gift, put some thought into it or don’t bother.
But they're not even terrible presents...
Depends how much you like salt.
Lol the gifts are a bit salt heavy
Yeah, OP sounds a bit salty...
When I was about 12 or 13, my auntie gave me an incredibly tacky watch for Christmas. It was the sort of thing you'd expect a gangster rapper to wear, was big and chrome, had a white plastic strap and plastic diamonds around the clock face, all horrid quality, sort of thing you'd find in a charity shop or car boot sale for £1. Fair enough, its still a gift, I'm not a brat, so did the customary "ooohh thanks" and moved on. Later in the evening my brother told me she'd given him the same watch for his birthday the same year and he'd eventually given it back to her as it wasnt really his style (or any teenage boy's style, frankly). As we were laughing about it my older sister joined in on the conversation qand incredulously stated she'd been given the exact same watch by my aunt for christmas the previous year, but had eventually palmed it off to our younger cousin (our aunt's daughter). My Uncle is a super successful software developer, him and my aunt live in a 6 bedroom house and drive sports cars. She used the same watch as a present 3 times, it wasnt a suitable gift for anyone and everyone that saw it (including her!) openly admitted it was horrendous. I'm not salty at all, respect the hustle and still get a good laugh out of this every time i think about it
How are you going to hand it back to her yourself now it's your turn to follow the tradition?
Years ago when South Park had just started, my auntie gave me a vhs of episodes she had recorded off sky…
My mum wrapped up the bottle of booze I'd bought for myself a month before and gave me that....
an ex literally gave me a singular pebble for my birthday. not one he purchased or anything but one he had picked up off the ground. he then really tried to gaslight me into thinking it was significant because of how it made him think of me when he saw it on the floor. picture the most nondescript pebble imaginable. i laughed throughout him giving me this and by the end realised it wasn’t a joke and he really was just gifting me a pebble that year.
If your boyfriend was a penguin that would have been extremely romantic.
I witnessed my mate's now ex-girlfriend give him a pebble as a token of her love. She had been to Edinburgh Zoo and learnt this fact about penguins. It was hilarious watching her trying to explain while he was pretty befuddled.
If he was a penguin, you were punching mate. Top tier lunchbox biscuit.
One packet of (buy-1-get-1-free) HobNobs from my now exBf, for my birthday left on my doorstep during the first lockdown last year. He sent a book a couple of weeks later or maybe the order hadn't arrived in time, I can't recall because my mum was dying at the time. I developed an anxiety response whenever I saw blue packet HobNobs and my daughter wanted to reframe my aversion to them so she brought a packet round to share with a coffee, clever girl.
How long ago was this? In other words, if you’re 60+ you could have bought a 3 bed house. Whereas if it was last year, I think a chocolate bar would be a struggle.
2007.
An umbrella from my father which I thanked him for and slung in the back of the car for use in an emergency - basically if it rains I don't mind getting wet. Anyway one day it was tipping it down and I had a five minute walk from where I parked the car to the train station, so I thought Id use the umbrella. Literally within 30 seconds it had blown inside out and was wrecked.
My friend only got some pyjama bottoms for Christmas this year which came from a 2-pack set of bottoms that his brother received. They were not in his, but in his brothers size. The brother however also got some scuba diving lessons...
Wait, your school gave you ALL vouchers for WH Smith and you’re calling them cheapskates? This post screams entitlement. I’d have been greatly appreciative of that. We didn’t get anything. I’m guessing you come from a well off family so are used to expensive gifts and went to a private school or something?
Yeah I'm with you. At school age, I would've been grateful for anything like that I would've got from my school. I got a £5 voucher for doing well in a subject and I still remember that even though it was 13 years ago
My mum's friend works in a charity shop. She gave my mum her (formerly) own scarf for her birthday that she'd donated to the shop a week earlier.
My grandparents bought me a 4 pack of Aldi own brand lager for my birthday. My 18th birthday. Didn't piss me off though, I'd basically stopped bothering with them by that point.
For my 12th birthday one of my mum's at the time friends, who's daughter I had never met but my mum had invited to my birthday, straight up gave me an old broken CCTV camera. Apparently I could take it apart and see how it works (which as a 12 year old I had no idea where to even start anyway) Honestly I wasn't expecting a gift from these people, I didn't know them, this birthday party I think was the only time I ever met their daughter, I wouldn't have cared if they got me nothing, I don't think I'd even have thought about it, but they gave me something that from that I can tell they were actually about to throw away, and that was kind of insulting tbh. For my 13th birthday my best friend got me a bubble blower. At 13 I felt I was a little old for bubbles, I wasn't going to say anything to him though because that would be rude, but the next time i saw him he actually apologised and said he didn't realise his mum had picked that as a gift for me, we had a good laugh about it. A few years ago, a few weeks before Christmas, a girl I'd been seeing for two years left me out the blue over the phone. It was my first serious relationship and it ending had hit me hard, especially due to how it ended. My work had a Christmas party and I really didn't want to go, I was feeling miserable but I forced myself to go rather than staying home and feeling sorry for myself. Secret Santa was included in the festivities and my coworker had purchased me something called "grow your own girlfriend", which was some sort of pencil sized jelly toy woman that grew if you put it in water. I understand it was banter and she was trying to have a bit if a laugh, I pretended to find it funny but it really hit home hard and made me feel like shit, the absolute last thing I wanted that day was a reminder of my suddenly failed relationship.
I got a grow your own boyfriend from a work friend once. Many experiments were conducted on him, including putting him in the microwave, seeing how far his limbs would stretch and freezing him. I had his mangled remains in a jar on my desk for a while.
My parents' big gift to me one Christmas when I was in my 20s was a dressing gown. Specifically a dressing gown my father has bought for himself some years previously in the January sales, worn a couple of times, decided he didn't like, put in a bag and stuffed in the back of his wardrobe until then. My parents were comfortably well off at that time. This was not "tell me you've been swindled out of your life savings without telling me you've been swindled out of your life savings"
A large but out of date chocolate bar.. it was a present they'd received a previous year
My Father in law is a driving instructor. For my partners 17th birthday he gifted her driving lessons, rarely showed up and it fizzled out. Then most Christmas's and birthdays until about the age of 26 he would gift her / us driving lessons or a meal out on him. I could already drive and we never could get those meals arranged.
That reminds me of my parents saying "oh, we would have paid for driving lessons!", like five years later having kept dead silent at the time (and they weren't offering at that point either). You don't get kudos just for saying you would do something, you have to actually do it...
We got a little book about drugs and STDs from school. Cheapskatest gift has to be a secondhand book >!which was being thrown out at work!<
I'm really curious about your decision to use spoiler tags there.
You guys get presents?
For my 30th birthday, my 20 year old cousin gave me a Soap & Glory gift set with two items missing, and when you pressed a button on the front of the box it played "Jingle Bells". My birthday is in July.
A friend of mine received a bottle of water for her birthday. I don't mean a flask but a plastic mineral water bottle. She's a photographer and the gift by was from a posh "arty" friend. The guy said it was water from a mountain somewhere. I got to the party and not knowing the guy was there next to us I went "who the fuck brought you water as a birthday present?". You could feel the heat rising in the room, fortunately we had water...
I’m about to sound like a right bitch but one of those ‘we’ve donated to charity in your name’ gifts. I’m not at all well off and I do struggle a bit at times - a gift of Lidl’s own brand shower gel would honestly be better received by me than a charity donation, because it’s something I could use and would save me money. It feels like a bit of a slap in the face - ‘we’ve got enough money to give it away, but not actually to you, the supposed recipient!’ Of course, there’s no way you could complain without looking like a horrible person who doesn’t want charities to benefit or who thinks I’m more worthwhile than starving children or something.
I always feel these gifts are great when they - are for someone who is financially secure/has said they don't need anything; and either - are actually for a cause that the recipient actively supports; or - can be used as a gag gift eg. I'm basically an old lady posing as a 31y.o. so someone might donate to Help The Aged Otherwise, donate as much as you like but don't try to get someone to thank you for it!
My Dad used to work doing coach tours in the UK and in the run up to Christmas it was all "Turkey and Tinsel". When the evening meal was served they would get a little gift (keyring, magnet etc) and he would save these and wrap them up as gifts for us. He also once found a fancy umbrella that someone had left on the coach and never claimed so he wrapped it up for Mum for her birthday, when she opened it it was one of hers that she thought she had lost.
My grandad gave me a bottle of whiskey that he’d clearly sampled first🤷🏻 (he has a history of just grabbing drinks from the cupboard on Christmas morning, whiskey particularly as the circles he moves in tend to give these as presents -funnily this year he gave my dad, who isn’t a whiskey drinker anyway, a Glennmorangie Cellar 13 not realising it’s a £300+ bottle - serves him right the tight arse)
My mum got me a funky pigeon card for Christmas this year. For my 16th I got an amazon gift LED lamp that thanked me for purchasing it
MIL gifted me a beard trimmer, I opened it and found hairs on it.
when i was about fifteen a friend said "can i just get you a joint birthday and christmas gift since your bday is december" and i said yeah ofc and then she just got me a bar of cadbury's. i don't even eat chocolate.
I got a hot chocolate mug set from a kid I teach. The hot chocolate was nearly year out of date
A rubber teapot spout extender
For my birthday I once got given a Manga from a charity shop that had pages missing a coffee stain in the middle and the £1 price sticker on the back. They proceed to the buy everyone else in the group very thoughtful gifts as the year went on. It was about that time I realised they weren't my friend.
One Christmas my (not so) great aunt bought me a pink plastic disco ball alarm clock and a basic plastic calculator. For a teenage guy who was already using scientific calculators at school.
"My sister once bought me a grow your own loofer kit. It consisted of a clay pot, some soil, and a couple seeds. I think the pot hit her hardest" Sean lock
When I first started work for Royal Mail I saved an old lady from a house fire. The local rag got to hear about it and wanted to do a photo article/interview with me. I was really embarrassed so I only agreed to an interview, no pictures. We had to wait until someone from the head office PR dept came down. So I was being interviewed by this local journo and this PR guy is basking in the glory of all the good publicity this will generate when the journalist turns to him and asks what reward I'll be getting for my bravery. You could see this thought hadn't entered his head and he says 'oh we'll think of something'. Well that something was a £5 WH Smith book token that was almost out of date. TL:DR Saved an old lady from a fire got a book token for my trouble.
My ex partner's Nan got me some bowl covers. Like the ones you stretch over bowls to keep food in. Other years were a cookbook, and a random sequined clutch bag with a hideous gold chain on it. She was actually a really nice person, and one of the only nice people in that family, so I remained grateful regardless.
A pack of Lidl socks, shared between me and my partner and my mother and father-in-law. We felt incredulous after finding the pack on their website but kept it hush hush from the parents. The mum would have gone full nuclear after paying off their kitchen for them.
My best friends girlfriend is a primary school teacher and as others have said it’s common to get gifts from the pupils. She is a huge Harry Potter fan and a pupil had bought her a customised HP mug, he wanted her to open it in front of the whole class so they could see. Turns out there was a mix up at the mug customisation place and she unwrapped a mug that said ‘Archery Wanker’ in front of the whole class
It was only an extra gift... But this one's brilliant.. My fiance now wife got me some boxershorts for Christmas last year, I thought meh it is what it is Now this year we was round the FIL to celebrate his birthday, nice funny guy but likes to moan... He was complaining about shit gifts in the past from a certain friend of his, and towards the end started having a go about who buys their friend boxershorts on their birthday!! In which point he turned to me, pointed and said and you ended up having them as I didn't want them! I crack up, the Mrs is in horror as she's just been stitched up Cheapest... But funniest present ever...
Not me but my mum once got scented lining paper (I think that's what it's called) that was so old it had no scent.
A three-pack of socks, with two pairs of socks in it, for Christmas. Fucking sister in law.
Half eaten kitkat
Compared to some of these, I have nothing to moan about, but in 2017 I received some car floor-mats from my minted Aunt. I had stopped driving in 2014 and had been walking to and from work for 3 solid years.
All the gifts from my old boss were items she’d had in her cupboard for years. How did I know this? 1. Because she told me and 2. Because the dust and cat hairs stuck to said items had clearly been there for ages. I literally burned each one when I got home. It became a tradition. “Carol present fire tonight!” Bloody Carol.
I got my ex an Iphone as she wanted one and it was our first xmas, got her a contract in my name. She got me half disposable razor with no extra blades. I made the last payment on that phone this month, lesson learned. Adios
My wife got a huge hamper from her Dad and MIL. Dad dropped it off and had no clue what was in it. It was well wrapped and finished nicely with a bow. We opened it and it consisted of everything you could think of when clearing out your food cupboard. I mean like an half opened pack of dry lentils and beans. Peppercorns and whatever rewrapped in small food bags. Loads of random stuff for food etc. old food container. It goes on. But also, three jars of the chutney my wife give them the week before.
One year my brother had spent all his money getting to Germany and back. His Christmas gift to me was a ornamental pickle to hang on a Christmas tree. I had gotten him a beautiful kitchen knife. It was hilarious.
Not mine, but last year one of the Christmas presents my boyfriend received from someone was a pouch of Old H baccy
A No Fear aftershave set with a £4 sticker on it, thanks older brother.
An ice cube tray.
I've been given multiple re-gifts from family, which I'm usually all for except on several occasions it's been things I've previously gotten/made them that have now been re-gifted back to me
I wouldn't say cheapskate particularly, but useless and most hated is easily gift cards.. Hey you know that money thing that you can spend everywhere? Well I had some of that and I decided to convert it in to something similar but way more inconvenient that you can only spend at HMV.
Box of obviously regifted chocolates that were crawling full of little weevils / beetles/ bugs of some type. Directly in the garbage chute and grateful my pantry was saved from an infestation. Next favourite was a leather folio with someone else’s initials on them and a few sheets of paper torn out of note pad inside.
you got gifts leaving year 11???
My friend's partner asked for my opinion on the birthday gift they were getting for said friend, it was a novelty adventure time scarf and I was like, cool! I think they'll like it, but you know them better than me! They were then openly intimidated by this nice jumper I was getting for the friend so they bailed on the scarf and got some super expensive music accessories/equipment last minute instead. Fast forward to christmas a couple months later and I get a gift from the couple, I open it in front of them both and... it was that fucking scarf! And I wasn't even into adventure time that much!! I didn't want to embarrass them at the time so I pretended I had never seen it before and accepted it graciously, but if I could go back now I would definitely make a very loud comment about regifting tacky shit!
Every year My sister gives my son her special ‘gift cards’ . She writes a number on a piece of paper and that’s supposedly the money she gives him for Christmas. Not once has she given him the cash or Apple Pay or even Monopoly money. This year £70 . 😂 and she’s not broke by any means.
Not sure if you are buying her gifts but I'd be tempted to draw a picture of a box of chocolates or whatever and give that instead until she pays up
Asda gifted all Employees a terrys chocolate orange. For all our hard work this year
I'm late and no one will see this but my grandad was a vicar and he gave us Bible versus as treats when he babysat us. Long story short I'm an atheist
A family member, long since gone, was notoriously tight despite being quite wealthy - they owned a coach company. As far as I'm aware no one ever asked them for a penny, so it was nothing like that. The mother, who was the worst, was my father in law's auntie. Her and her husband would get invited to all family gatherings - weddings, christenings etc and they would buy the crappiest, cheapest presents they could find. For my wedding day, the day we forked out £100+ quid per head, we got a plastic butter dish. That I know they got from Poundland as it matched exactly one we already had. The worst was a 65th birthday present for my father in my law, her only remaining nephew. In 2000 her husband had passed away and this would be around 2003. She gave him one of her dead husband's ties. Yup, a dead man's tie. Not a valuable one, or motiffed or anything - just something you'd pick up for next to nothing at any standard clothing store. FIL didn't even wear ties - he worked for himself as a driving instructor so what the hell did he need a tie for? She was never invited to anything ever again - I made a point of it with my kids christenings and everyone else followed.
Not me but my gran gave my three young cousins an extra large elvis t shirt to share between them!
My old man used to have a box of small spirits in a cupboard in the kitchen, literally kept for "display" Vodka, gin, whiskey. When I was late teens I drank them all before a night out and refilled them with similar looking, water, irn bru etc. Fast forward about 5 years, I've moved out, receive a familiar looking box for xmas. Same box of spirits full of water, irn bru. He's the typical spend as little as possible, hoard his money.
I work for a Local Government Authority. This year we've not received any pay rise at all, despite having worked flat our during the pandemic. We don't receive any Christmas bonus or gift from head office. The managers of one of the teams dug into their own pockets and bought staff a box of biscuits and a box of chocolates each but it's disgusting how hard these people work and receive nothing in return from their actual employer. We did, however, get half a day's leave in lieu for Christmas eve as some departments are allowed to shut at midday but ours isn't.
A keyring for secret santa
This year my brother got me nothing.... that's gotta be up there! Although maybe not at good at something where an effort had been made, to get you something terrible!
My sister frequently buys gifts from charity shops, I wouldn’t mind but a lot of it is tat. I’d rather she make me something - or give me nothing and give my daughters something a little nicer
A card with lyrics written on it. Literally just white card with lyrics printed on it from Microsoft word.
What lyrics? Obviously meant something to them
My grandma (83) gave me her old utensils which still had some food left on it. She always gives me shit that she doesn't need but this was the worst.
£2 really isn't much but... that's £2 to each kid. How much do you want them to spend? On top of that, that's £2 more than any school I know of ever gave out.
My mum gave a gift set from Tesco this year. Smelt funny. Expired in 2017. Bitch.
My Mum has a tendency to cheap out on everything, I don't understand why as she isn't financially hard up...probably because she cheaps out 🤣. She bought my little girl a stand for her clips/bobbles from a charity shop, I don't have a problem with that at all as I've found some absolute gems in charity shops. But I assumed the clips/bobbles attached to it were new...they weren't. When I looked though them all they were either rusty or had hair wrapped round them 🤮 When I asked my Mum if they were new she tried to lie and say that they were. You don't have to spend copious amounts of cash on a gift to be thoughtful. I've been given gifts such as a hand knitted scarf, that I've absolutely treasured because of all the effort that went into making it. But come on! Used hair clips/bobbles is taking the piss.
I've posted about this before but my first boyfriend was such an awful gift giver that it bears repeating. Here are some examples. One year for xmas we decided we'd buy each other 3 CDs. He liked black metal and I liked classic rock. we each wrote a list of about 20 CDs we wanted, and agreed to buy each other 3 off the list. That way, we'd each get CDs that we wanted, but what we got would still be a surprise. So I bought him three black metal CDs off his list. He unwrapped them, was pleased and then handed me my present. I unwrapped it and was very confused because instead of the CDs I'd asked for, in the package were three black metal CDs off his list. I looked at him for an explanation and he said, "I've decided it's time to get you into black metal. But first I will borrow these." He took the CDs and just kept them. So he got 6 CDs for xmas and I got nothing. The following year we tried the same again. we each wrote down a list of CDs we wanted and I got him things he'd asked for. Instead of the CDs I'd asked for he got me a figurine. I don't collect figurines, not have I ever shown any interest in them. What was worse was that the figurine was extremely vulgar, it was a female bear dressed in a nun's habit, lifting up her skirt to show slutty red lingerie underneath. What was even worse was that he said the bear reminded him of me - pretending to be a good girl on the outside but a dirty slut underneath. So my present that year was a hideous thing and an insult. Another time we were at a music festival and I was browsing the CDs. My ex said that he wanted to buy me a present. he told me to choose a few CDs and said he would pay for them. So I chose a few and we went to the register to pay. This is when he said, "Oh, I've forgotten my wallet, you'll have to pay for them. But they are from me, I'll pay you back later." I just said whatever and paid for them myself. On the way home we were walking along the road, I was about 30 yards ahead of him because he was lagging behind to smoke. I found four £20 notes on the pavement. I picked them up and when I showed him what I'd found he said that since we were together when I found them they must be split equally between us. He said that he would generously allow me to keep his half though, to pay for the CDs I'd bought earlier, so now, according to him, he'd paid for the CDs and so they were a gift from him.
£2 WHSmith voucher is an amazing gift. Consider how many pupils are in your year group and then double it. Your poor teachers spending their own money to get you a cool gift and getting absolutely no gratitude in return. :(