best/worst christmas present

[solgroupie]

no matter what your faith or preference is during the holidays...what was the best and worst gift you ever received?

my best...i think it had to be a dollhouse i got when i was a kid. it was wooden, white, with red trim. it had electric lights, carpet and the kind of furniture you can collect and keep for years. a lot of people were at our house that christmas eve - friends of my parents, teenaged friends of my sister. i eventually had to go to bed, which sucked. i could hear them having a blast downstairs. later, i learned they were all playing with my dollhouse. it was still an awesome present i treasured.

worst gift: several years ago my parents gave me some luggage. nice pieces and they've come in handy, but that was the most boring present i ever got.

[Satchmo]

Best: My djembe. God, I love that thing.

Worst: when I was about six or seven, my cousin Matt got me a half-used bag of cat food. That's right, folks: A. Half. Used. Cat. Food. Bag. It made me cry. I have no idea what he was thinking, and it's kinda funny now when I kook back on it, but it's still hard to beat.

[Continuing Legend]

I used to love getting big LEGO sets for Hanukkah. My relatives seem to be under the impression that I have outgrown it, or something. (I haven't, of course, although there's really not a lot of room in my room for any more LEGOs, so maybe it's for the best).

I can't really remember any presents that were particularly bad. Luckily people usually play it safe and just give me money, so I don't really end up with anything I don't want.

[The Mad Plumber]

Being an adult, it strikes me as awful to call anything I've gotten for free as being "bad", but admittedly, being a spoiled kid, there were Christmas gifts that were lame and sometimes the general feeling of not getting enough. It makes me feel bad.

Well, I think my favorite gift was the Nintendo Entertainment System. I envied all my friends who had Nintendos while my parents insisted that the family Apple IIe was adequate. However, it wouldn't be long before the Super Nintendo would be introduced and the Nintendo would get discontinued. Furthermore, we failed to practice proper maintenance and the original Nintendo I got was replaced with a new one.

I always love Legos as a gift. They're my favorite toy. Even now, as an adult, give me a Lego set and I'm good. The iPod was also a pretty handy gift, since I was too cheap to bother buying one myself.

Clothes were always a lame gift. Maybe my parents should have made me go to school in my underwear, then I'd appreciate clothing as a gift better.

[Mod City]

Dec 10, 2009 18:58:04 GMT -5 Satchmo said:

Worst: when I was about six or seven, my cousin Matt got me a half-used bag of cat food. That's right, folks: A. Half. Used. Cat. Food. Bag. It made me cry. I have no idea what he was thinking, and it's kinda funny now when I kook back on it, but it's still hard to beat.

God, that would make me cry, too, but it made me laugh out loud when I read it. I think you win, so far

Dec 10, 2009 19:06:12 GMT -5 Continuing Legend said:

I used to love getting big LEGO sets for Hanukkah.

I have to agree. The old LEGO Space sets were my favorite - the ones from the early 80s. Like Starfleet Voyager and Galaxy Explorer. I loved those things and spent entire weeks doing nothing but building with them. A wonderfully creative toy. I wonder how many pieces ended up in that deep shag carpet in the living room?

You know, since I know nobody is going to get my any LEGO sets for Christmas, I may have to get myself one.

I'm going to cheat here and say I can't think of the worst Christmas gift I ever got. Sweaters, socks and like were always kind of lame, but I got used to them as I got older.

[callipygias]

Dec 10, 2009 19:20:50 GMT -5 The Mad Plumber said:

Being an adult, it strikes me as awful to call anything I've gotten for free as being "bad",

What about veiled insults? Those are free.

[doctorz]

I was a kid so long ago that it's hard for me to remember anything that spectacular. Christmases at my house were a minefield of emotional trauma. I remember my parents had ridiculous expectations of my brother and my reactions to the gifts they gave so I learned very quickly to overreact to anything given so Dad especially wouldn't spiral into his sulking morose drinking behavior. I've now recognized that it wasn't my fault but I still have very conflicted emotions about the holiday and gifts because of it. Now that we have that out of the way:

Best Christmas Present: It was a couple of weeks before Christmas but I still consider my marriage to my wife the best Christmas present I ever got.

Worst Christmas Present: My 13th Christmas was nothing but cheap ill fitting clothes. I couldn't hide my disappointment due to raging hormones and the knowledge that a childhood Christmas was gone forever. They were terrible Christmas presents because I knew that my parents had done their best and I wasn't happy about it and didn't hide the fact. I knew even then that being 13 didn't excuse my behavior. I did learn a lesson from that. I made damn sure after that I fell in love with every present received even if I didn't really like it or knew what to do with it. I also began that new year with a life long habit of writing thank you notes for kindness rendered. Respecting and recognizing the feelings of others and the efforts they make for you on your behalf is a major step on the road to adulthood. I took that step after that disasterous Christmas of 1964.

[mummifiedstalin]

Best: when I was 8 or 9, my parents got me that huge G.I.Joe aircraft carrier. It was 7.5 feet long, and completely filled up my bedroom. Granted, it didn't have any real sentimental value, but I always associate that present with the sheer glee of childhood avarice or just having your wildest wish fulfilled.

Worst: a box of microwave popcorn. My wife's stepmother's extended family is on the poor end of poor. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the quality of the gift. What bugs me is that, even though they had nothing, they felt compelled to get something for me when we were dating even though, 1, they'd never met me before, 2, they didn't know if I'd actually come to their house, 3, my wife and I had only been dating for a short while. Given the fact that they didn't have ANY money to spare, what makes this the worst Christmas gift I've ever gotten was that nothing I've ever received before or since has ever made me feel as small and petty as I did accepting that box of popcorn. There's no way to be gracious or thankful enough when people show that much generosity. It was all heart, and it was the worst gift I ever got because it made every other Christmas gift I'd ever gotten seem small by comparison.

(Oddly enough, I actually got another box of microwave popcorn the next year from my wife's stepdad. Totally different extended family, and this time from people who had plenty to spare. So while I was very gracious, I just didn't get it. Turns out there was a Blockbuster gift card inside, and they just wanted to see how I'd react to getting a box of microwave popcorn. They didn't know anything about the other gift...they're just vicious like that.)

[(busdrivertohell)]

Ehh.. my best gift for Generic December Holiday was a Vancouver Canucks jacket when I was 12. I slept in that thing, because I was so stoked.

Worst? I don't know. I'm from the rez. I spent most of my childhood playing with cardboard boxes and toys brought by mission groups to our little 3rd world country. I guess barbies, because even as a child, I was a tomboy.

[mccloud]

My father bought me a nice drawing table when I was 17. I still use it.

Bad presents? Can't think of any. The only "bad" was the way family behaved, but that was all year 'round.

[tokiyoke]

My mother has a cousin who is notorious for re-gifting and giving people things she has lying around the house. Although I can't recall ever getting anything all that bad from her, my sister got on different years a used emery board and a comb with broken teeth.

[inlovewithcrow]

My ex's grandmother gave me, when I was 30 or so, an old lady shirt that she'd worn and not laundered, and there was makeup spread on it. She was a millionaire at the time, and yet I would have been happy with nothing from her.. I suppose that was the worst, but I turned it into a scarecrow, so I ended up enjoying the insult I'd given it.

I never much liked getting money, I have to say. I'd rather get a book I'd already read, that showed at least that the person had noticed who I was.

The best present I got from my folks was this working little gas/service station when I was seven or eight. However, I liked it so much, running the little lift particularly, my mother took it away from me after six weeks or so. I believe she thought it was turning me into a lesbian. (If only it were that easy.) I wept for its loss.

So the best present has a sad ending and the worst a fun ending. Ain't life ironic.

[Bix Dugan]

Best when young: Probably a Hot Wheels set, or maybe an H.O. train set.

Best when older: a 35mm camera from my Dad. Got a lot of use out of that camera.


Worst: the yearly fruitloaf (yuck!) from my old realtor.

[Continuing Legend]

Dec 14, 2009 12:50:20 GMT -5 inlovewithcrow said:

The best present I got from my folks was this working little gas/service station when I was seven or eight. However, I liked it so much, running the little lift particularly, my mother took it away from me after six weeks or so. I believe she thought it was turning me into a lesbian. (If only it were that easy.) I wept for its loss.

Speaking of lesbians...

So, I wear a lot of men's clothing. I don't want to be a man, and I don't think of myself as a crossdresser or anything, I just don't like skirts or dresses and I find men's clothes to be a lot more comfortable. When it comes to formal occasions, I wear a suit. I'm not trying to make any statements about gender or sexuality. I just look good in a suit.

Now, my grandma knows me. She knows what I wear. And yet, she is still under the impression that if she buys me enough girly pink crap, I will wear it.

And she offers to take me clothes shopping ALL THE TIME, but every time we actually do, we end up fighting because I want to buy men's shirts. I don't mean to sound unappreciative, but you're the one that offered to take me shopping, presumably so I could pick out what I wanted..?

[doctorz]

Dec 13, 2009 13:50:46 GMT -5 tokiyoke said:

My mother has a cousin who is notorious for re-gifting.

I heard that is pretty common in Japan. Some people store unopened gifts they have received in closets for occasions of manditory gift giving. I have never been able to confirm this rumor and I've forgotten where I heard it. Can you confirm this rumor?