I accidentally switched presents with a friend, gave her the very special gift meant for my mom. It was such an embarrassment, but had to tell friend it was a mistake.

Technicolor, I also received a gift by mistake, and I felt so bad because it was meant for my DIL's very elderly grandmother. My DS brought the presents to us, and he grabbed that one by mistake. It was full of good paperback books (we must of had the same tastes!) and other little things. I wrote my DIL a check a few days later when I found out, so she could replace the things for her grandmother.

This Christmas I'm making up for a funny gift I gave a few years ago. We celebrate with my DIL's family. Her father is a big OSU fan and I thought I'd bought an OSU Tervis Tumbler. But when he opened the gift, it was a TT for a local high school that he has no affiliation with. LOL.

A couple of weeks ago I saw him and he brought his TT (he lives out of town) and we laughed about it. So I bought him a new one w/traveling lid for Christmas. Sure to make him laugh!

My ex's grandmother was starting to show signs of dementia. She always gave many gifts to everyone in the family, but the year that she gave us girls deli salads (that had expired 3 months prior) and the guys feminine deodorant spray ... well, we knew she had slipped over the edge.
:-/

My stepson gave me a T-shirt that said "Help! Police!". When I opened the box I had tears streaming down my face, I was laughing so hard. We had a bunch of guests over at that time and no one knew what was going on.

This was a very old inside joke-many years before I had gone outside to make sure our cars were locked up. SS was hiding in the bushes and jumped out to scare me. Legend has it that I fell to the ground screaming 'HELP! Police!'. (the reality is that I saw the kid before he jumped out, and I yelled BOO at him and scared him, but no amount of protest by me will change the legend, so I just go with it).

Sunny, that's hilarious! The looks on your faces had to be priceless!

Pesky, wish I could have seen you in the bushes!

Last year I kind of embarrassed myself, but in a funny way. We were doing Dirty Santa and I was one of the first to open my gift. It was a Chia Pet. I have always wanted one! I have no idea why. But I told everyone they had best leave my Chia ALONE. They did. lol

This year for Dirty Santa I bought the recipient "Onion Goggles." :)

My MIL is infamous for her bad gifts. Max received a personalized coffee mug with a name on it. Trouble was, the name on his mug was 'Don'. There was the umbrellas with her banks name on it, the single towel for two people. Of course, she is the Queen of regifting. I gave her new kitchen towels to match her new kitchen after we updated it. The next Christmas, we got them back. Well, not all of them. She split them up between her family. She gives random free candy she collects from bowls at restaurants, hair salons and drug stores around Halloween.

Her budget for gifts is $5.00 maximum. Guess that is how she ended up with so much money.

OMG, Oakley, Onion Goggles are actually on my wish list this year! I can't cut onions without getting sharp stabbing pains in my eyes. It's terrible! I'm hoping that the goggles will help. Now that I think about it, though, some swimming goggles would probably work just fine, but DD's probably already bought me the onion goggles(LOL).

Funny story I've told here on GW already. When I was 16 y/o I really wanted a Yardley Slicker dollie, which was a set of 7 or 8 really cool lipsticks packaged in something that resembled a double-decker bus from London. I was beyond happy on Christmas morning when I got it. Christmas afternoon my 3 y/o sister, Lisa, snuck into my room and ate everyone of them but the blue sheer gloss. I was heartbroken! The next Christmas when she was 4 y/o, Lisa got into my brand new chemistry set (stored on a high shelf in my closet; I swear that kid was part ape!) and drank the bottle of tannic acid. My parents were beside themselves, thinking they had to rush her to the hospital. A quick call to either Poison Control or our family doctor reassured them, though, that what she drank was equivalent to just a strong cup of tea. It's a wonder Lisa survived to adulthood, as she did so many crazy things like that over the years! But, today she's a semi-normal (LOL) wife and mother of 3 teens.
Lynn

lynn, did that set include white lipstick? I remember it being all the rage when I was in 7th grade, paired with blue eyeshadow. I haven't seen it since, maybe it will never come back in style!

When I was a college student living at home, my mother asked me to wrap and hide the gift she got Dad. Of, course Dad did the same. I told DB and DS what to expect and the 3 of us couldn't wait to watch them open each other's gifts. The bought each other small TVs for their bedroom. Mom caught on first; she kept watching to see Dad's reaction while glancing down at her gift and thought "Gee, they're the same size. I wonder?". Thelook on her face was so funny and the fact that Dad was oblivious was typical!

Oh, I loved Yardley! I felt so cool, especially after I got a Twiggy haircut. LOL. And Yardley is still in business.

I did something awful when I was a kid. Thankfully my big brother had a great sense of humor. We were given $5.00 to buy each other a gift. Back then that was a lot of money. He wanted a Beach Boy's album.

I was at the store and this was when other groups (non-famous) would sing songs of popular bands and their albums sold for a buck. I bought him one where they sang all Beach Boys. Which left me $4.00. :)

All day Johnny laughed and said, "I can't believe you did that!" My bad.

great stories above !!

on christmas morning one year, we were distributing gifts with the kids, and towards the end, DH was looking behind the tree, and through whatever was left, and he got a panic stricken look on his face when he realized that he had forgotten to pick up my 3 gifts that he had dropped off at the gift wrapping station at the mall a few days earlier. so I had to pick up my gifts at the mall on december 26 amidst the boxing day crowd. he felt really bad so I had to tell him it was ok.

from that moment on, I told him to not shop for me, I've been buying my own gifts ever since. This year I/he got me a really nice necklace from Neiman's.

My brother's gifts have become infamous in our family. He doesn't bother to help in the selection so it's left to his wife who is notoriously cheap. Over the years she has given my Mother sample bottles of Avon products that have been opened and are partially empty; clothing that she's picked up at yard sales that would never fit my Mom - and then she volunteers to take it back home with her for her own use; a football video 'supposedly' signed by a NFL player but addressed to her son.

My brother works for a large supermarket chain and he often gave my Dad items that were displayed on the end caps at one of his stores. These are usually special items that the store doesn't carry - china, cookware, dolls etc. and if you spend so much you can buy a different item each week until you complete your collection. My brother has given my parents a skillet missing it's lid, a model of the Santa Maria, assorted pieces of dinnerware. But my favorite was the year my brother received a Varsity jacket with the store name embroidered across the chest and gave it to Dad - it was too large for my brother but it was humongous on my Dad.

We finally convinced him that it wasn't necessary to give to my childre. He usually gave them things he picked up at golf outings - balls and tees with advertising on them and Ban-lon golf shirts. Once he gave them a subscription to Highlight magazine and they were in middle school.

Oh my gosh these are so funny...and awful!

We'd just moved in to our new house and DH was pushing to get another dog, but I wanted to wait till spring, to give us time to get thru the holidays and settle in. He wouldn't stop so I went to the Humane Society and bought an adoption certificate for him, to be redeemed after Christmas. I came home that night (Christmas Eve) and told my son what I'd done. I told him to keep it a secret and he sat there grinning. I was so tickled that he was so excited.

Well, I found out why he was so tickled. An hour later DH walks thru the door-with a yellow lab puppy. DS knew about the puppy and was gleeful that DH and I were on the same page. We used the certificate to buy pet supplies instead.

Oh my gosh, the Christmas From Hell. This was in the late 1990's. I used to hang out a lot with a good friend and her husband, "Jane" and "John". I was living in Minneapolis and didn't have time off work to go home to Wisconsin for Christmas so Jane and John invited me to Christmas Eve dinner at Jane's mom's house. I knew Jane's mom a little, kind of like a good acquaintance type thing. Jane's brother was also going to be there. So far so good, but then it turns out that I didn't understand the entire plan -- Jane and John had to be elsewhere, so it was just ME with Jane's mom and brother. OK, I'm a rather shy introvert but am up for anything. The dinner was going great until Jane's brother started describing his recent surgery (GROSS-OUT ALERT!) while we were eating. He'd recently had a growth inside the flesh of his tongue and had to have part of his tongue removed. He's describing this in great detail while we ate dinner. I'm getting the heeby-jeebies just typing this! Anyway, of all things, we were eating PORK CHOPS for dinner (and a very elegant dinner it was) and I nearly was sick. I will never again knowingly eat a pork chop.

So the next day we were to spend at Jane's Dad's house (the dad and mom were divorced and Dad was remarried) with Jane and John and other assorted relatives of Jane's. All went well until Jane's brother arrived and gave me a present from his mom. I opened it in front of everyone, of course. It was so bizarre....it was some handmade greeting cards that Jane's mom had made with photos that she'd taken. Basically, Jane's bitter mom was using me to open this gift in front of the dad and his new wife to show everyone the mom's hand-made photo cards. Awkward doesn't even begin to describe it. It still strikes me as a perfect example of manipulation and passive aggression and ...just ICK.

Then Jane and John made a big deal of me opening the small gifts in the Christmas stocking they gave to me. No biggie just silly little stuff, until I got to a tiny soft package at the very bottom. So we're all sitting there in this extremely nice home, the fire is blazing, everything is beautiful....and I open the gift and find it's a teeny tiny pair of Tweety Bird thong panties. Again, just bizarre....and then Jane's CREEPY step-brother makes the suggestion that I model them for everyone. An entire psychology textbook could be written about that family. I haven't seen Jane in about 10 years....

Some day I'd like to find a hypnotist that can put me "under" and I'll give them a list of memories I want to forget and they can do their magic so that I wake up with no recollection of certain events. That Christmas would be first on my list of things to forget.

My mother, sister and I used to go get our live trees together. I am a real nut about having one that will touch the ceiling and I made sure to get a nice tall one that year. In fact, the one I got was perfect in every way.

I dropped sis and mom at mom's house and my sister had her husband remove her tree and my mothers from my van. A month went by before I put up the tree on Christmas Eve. It was nowhere near as tall as I remembered. In fact, it was barely 5' tall and even worse, there was a gigantic section with no branches. Since a whole month had gone by I never connected the dots, but I was disgusted with myself for picking out such a horrid tree.

The next day at my sister's, I saw her nice, tall, perfect tree and complimented her on it. She said she was thrilled and surprised when she put the tree up, because she thought she had purchased a very short one, intending to put it up on a box (don't ask). All of a sudden I finally realized what had happened and I also remembered how she had chosen one with a very bad side, saying that she puts her tree in the corner so she didn't care about the hole.

After that, I did my tree shopping alone, lol.

My husband and I were both full-time college students when we were first married. Money was incredibly tight. We used all our $ to buy materials and handmade every Xmas gift for family and friends. Someone had given us a $25 dollar gift certificate to Sears, so we each had 12.50$ from that to spend. Hubs got me two gallons oops paint for $5.00 each (the loveliest pale buttery cream satin paint) and I found a super discounted ergonomic heavy duty craftsman snowshovel with a bright red blade and handle, and haggled the price down to $12.99, it was so Christmas-y and cheery! I put a huge red bow on the handle.

Christmas morning we were so proud of how we had managed. I loved my paint. I sat on the front porch rail with cocoa while he shoveled the heavy snow off of our walk and told me what a great shovel it was. We walked to the corner convenience store to shovel out a friend's stuck car, and then helped a stranger shovel out his pickup truck.

Hubby leaned the shovel beside the man's truck and we walked inside to get a free cup of coffee. We walked out, coffee in hand, in time to see the guy throw hubby's shovel in the back of his pickup truck and drive away. I can't even describe how upset we both were.

You know, we still don't have a nice shovel, it just occurred to me that it might be a nice present to buy him a great red shovel as part of his Christmas this year ( 20 years later). We both look back on that time a little fondly, even though it was hard, because we are proud of how resourceful and creative and disciplined we were then. I think he might like the reminder that I remember. So that's my happy ending.

Great story Kiki!

This is a little off topic, or on topic but not MY story - for Kiki and others. I don't know if anyone here listens to The Vinyl Cafe from CBC on NPR? It's a wonderful Canadian show and is not widely distributed in the US, but you can listen online. They have a cult following here in the PNW because our Seattle NPR station carries their show. I loved this last episode, where the story is about a family making homemade gifts. There are other stories and music (always great) before he gets to the presents story near the end.
Here is a link to the itunes site. It's free. The episode I'm talking about is December 16. If you like it, be sure to check out the rest of the episodes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vinyl Cafe - Making presents

Many, many years ago when my brother and I were teens, he was dating a girl who would become his future wife. On his first Christmas with her, he was asked to come to her house on Christmas day. Her Mom was so pleased to offer my brother a gift on their first meeting, as was my brother to receive one. When he opened it, he didn't know how to respond to the gift of a LINT BRUSH!! When he came home, he told us how shocked he was when he opened her gift, just what any 18 year old would want. We thought it was hilarious.

Olychick - love Vinyl Cafe and Stuart McLean! I love the Dave & Morley stories, they're especially great for long roadtrips. His voice is almost hypnotic, I can listen for hours.

I have to ask, have you ever heard a Christmas story on the program about a Christmas Parade and the guy (?? not sure it was a Dave story) was trying to impress a girl, and made an elaborate papier-maché float... and then it started to rain..?? I've only heard it once, on Christmas Day a few years ago. I remember sitting in the car in my PIL driveway waiting for the story to end. It was hilarious. But, I've never heard it since, and I cannot find any information about it.... I've googled everything I can think of... nothing. I'm starting to think I imagined it... but hubby heard it too... :)

Patty_cakes, the lint brush reminded me of the gift -- the one gift -- my ex-sister-in-law gave me for Christmas one year: A clothes shaver. It's not that she was hurting for money, but she chose to wrap and present to me a flippin' $5 clothes shaver. I'll never know whether she was thought that was something I would truly appreciate, or if she was trying to tell me I always looked "pilled." Ah well.

rilie, Vinyl Cafe just recorded their Christmas show in Seattle last weekend and will be heard the weekend after Christmas. It was a wonderful evening, funny, funny stories! Don't know if you have seen this link; you can get details about each show...maybe you can find the one about the parade and float. I especially love the story about going through the car wash locked out of his neighbors' new car, hanging onto the windshield wipers, I think.
(sorry for the hijack here).

Here is a link that might be useful: Vinyl Cafe previous shows

I made the worse mistake a loving aunt can make. Our large family always gathered on Christmas Eve at our parents' house to exchange gifts.

One year, I purchased days of the week panties for my 12 year old niece. I had hung them on a rope using clothes pins and threaded the line through an empty gift wrap tube which I wrapped in pretty paper. Clever wrapping idea except that having such a large audience interested in what could be in that package and pulling underwear out embarrassed her to tears. She ran out of the house and down the street. It took her father, my brother, a very long time to talk her into coming back in.

She is now 25, that gift of days of the week panties is still discussed every Christmas Eve.

ML

I'm laughing at the lint brush and clothes shaver stories because I give my college kids and their friends lint brushes as gifts, and out of my small gifts it's one of the most popular things I've given.

I can see where it would be an awkward gift in patty-cakes and SunnyCottage's situations, though.

..........then there was the year my brother in law helped make the mashed potatoes and instead of adding milk he grabbed my gallon jug of Fred's Sipping Eggnog and spiked the mashed potatoes..........

Oly chic, enjoyed vinyl cafe, thanks : )

I have one that is more strange than funny, but appropriate for a decorating forum. Many years ago, just before Christmas, my BIL and his wife remodeled their kitchen, using apples as a theme--dark red and forest green colors.

My MIL called and told me that for Christmas she and FIL were buying BIL/SIL new dishes, to match their new kitchen. She described the dishes as having apples painted on them, with a dark green edge band. Then she said, "And we'd like to get you new dishes, too."

I was thrilled, because I'd been thinking of buying a new set of dishes to replace our old odds-and-ends, but hadn't wanted to spend the money. I told my MIL this, and thanked her, and mentioned that either a cream color, or a light sage green would look good in my kitchen.

MIL: "No, we're getting you the same dishes, with apples on them, because that's what FIL likes."

Me: "But, we don't have anything with apples on it in our kitchen, and really, nothing red or forest green." (The kitchen had no theme--it was neutral with cream and tan, and some light blue-green vintage pottery.)

MIL: "Well, that's what we're getting you, and I'm sure they'll be just fine."

Me: "Um, OK, thank you. That's really nice of you."

On Christmas I opened the package, thanked the in-laws again, then used the hated apple dishes for about a year and a half. One day when the in-laws showed up for family dinner, I put out my brand new cream and sage dishes, that I'd finally bought for myself, without saying a word. Neither of them ever mentioned my new dishes.

I love my FIL and my late MIL, and that was so out of character for them, it still puzzles me.

BTW, I packed away the apple dishes, until just recently, when my DD needed dishes for her new place. She was happy to see the familiar pattern, especially since the dishes came from her grandparents. :)

Jen, after meeting the Mother, we all realized she was what we called a little 'dingy', but a very nice person who more than likely didn't see a thing wrong with a lint brush as a gift. My SIL and brother still laugh about it!