People Reveal The Worst Gifts They’ve Ever Received, And Some Are Pretty Gross

Giving and receiving gifts makes people happy, even if the gift is so bad that it makes them wonder what the point was. This is especially true during the holiday season or when you have to go to a friend’s wedding followed by several birthdays in a row.

Giving gifts is an art that requires a careful balance between being thoughtful and being useful. If you choose the wrong gift, the person you’re giving it to might be upset and feel like you don’t care about them.

People on Reddit talked about the worst things they’ve ever gotten, which ranged from really weird to really gross. They weren’t expecting to find something that leaves them speechless in a way they didn’t expect.

The grammar and readability of the comments have been edited!

1. That’s Not My Wishlist!

u/P0werSurg3: My parents found the Amazon wishlist of someone with the same name as me, but NOT ME. They thought it had a lot of strange things on it, so they didn’t ask me or anyone else in the family if they had the right list. As a man aged 24, that’s how I got a body pillow for Mom for Christmas.

2. The Well-Loved Dog

u/everyone1hatesme: As a Christmas present, my mother-in-law gave my 1-year-old daughter the bed from her dead dog. She said it was for my daughter to take naps.

3. Gifts for the Pair

u/lunnrais: My mother-in-law sent my wife and me the same self-help book on how to deal with an abusive husband on the first holiday after my wedding.

This isn’t about getting a divorce or anything; it’s about how to live WITH a husband who is abusive. Not just to me or her. To each of us. There are two copies of the book.

4. Every year, crock pots

u/sevensevensixseven: For three years in a row, my ex-husband’s mother gave me the same crock pot.

Last year, she gave one to his new wife. There is no way this woman doesn’t have a lot of crockpots hidden somewhere in her house.

5. The Wild Present

u[deleted]: I got an alarm clock for Christmas the year after my mom died. Her husband said it was so I could “wake up in the morning and actually do something.” It’s still salty after eight years. But he’s dead now, so who really won?

6. It’s meant to be that way!

u/The_Brain_Fuckler: I got a very girly toy horse with a rubber Hulk Hogan figure stuck on it. It looked like a Christmas ornament with the loop cut off.

An old family friend gave it to me and kept telling me, “They’re supposed to look that way; that’s how they came from the store,” even though I didn’t say anything. Also, it’s pretty much the best present I’ve ever received.

7. Are You Afraid of Clowns?

u/mayonnaisejane: There are clowns. A new clown every year. I told my Dad that I don’t like clowns. They’re strange.

Every year for Christmas and my birthday, I got a new clown house, lamp, picture, or something else. I have a LOT of clowns.

Luckily, when I was in my mid-20s, my dad was able to distract him with cats. But it took him four awkward years to figure out that I liked cows. I also don’t like cows.

Good thing I never had a fear of clowns because I kept them all on my desk as a child. For me, they’re just background noise. I’m sure I could walk up to one in a dark alley and think, “Oh, it’s just one more clown.”

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8. A gift from my uncle

For my birthday, my uncle gave me an Xbox Live points card. I tried to redeem it but got the message “Card not activated.” It did this for two years before my mom told him about it.

9. Could that be a rock?

u/gennieb7: That rock was given to me by my aunt a few years ago. My friends and I all got gifts from her, and she told the big girls it was time to open their presents.

My cousins went first and got scarves. When I took the rock out of the box as my gift, I looked up to see if she would laugh.

She asked, “Isn’t it wonderful?” instead. “Yes, I love it,” I replied. It was from her yard the summer before, and she told me that she knew I would think it was so cool.

She gave me oak tops the next year because “some people know how to use them to whistle. I don’t know how to show you or explain it, but I’m sure you can figure it out.” She is a little strange. Both gifts were pretty bad.

10. One set of socks

u/justatypo: The first Christmas I spent with my now-wife’s family, her grandmother gave me a pair of socks.

In a pack of 10, you get one pair of sports socks. That was the best part. She bought a pack and wrapped one pair for me.

Of course, I wanted to show how thankful I was at the time, so as soon as I opened the package, I took off my old socks and put on the new ones. I believe my socks were already a little wet from the cold.

11. The Missing Packages

u/I_am_paperclip: When I got home from college, I had some extra money. For my own pleasure, I bought some new video games and had them sent to my house.

What was strange was that I only got half of the games. I sent the sellers an email to let them know I still hadn’t gotten my packages and was getting very upset.

So, Christmas morning came, and I was opening my gifts. The one from my older brothers was the last one I read.

I tore off the paper and opened the package. It had other items inside that were sent to our house with my name on them.

My brother had hidden half of my games from me until Christmas… The worst gift ever.

12. The Difference in Treatment

u/77jeep: For Christmas one year, my rich dad and his wife gave my brother a house and a new Escalade for his family. They also gave me a $200 Men’s Warehouse gift card.

They gave him $100,000 when he turned 40. They bought me dinner when I turned 40. They gave him two hundred thousand dollars as a “college fund” for his children.

His kids gave him money to spend on cars and other things when they dropped out of high school. Meanwhile, when my kids finished from high school with straight A’s, my dad and his wife told me I had to pay for their college.

My dad told me I wasn’t thankful when I asked why there was such a difference in how people were treated.

13. You Should Be Grateful!

u/morgueanna: My grandma sold Avon to pay for her QVC habit when I was a step-grandchild. I got fake Avon jewelry while the other six grandkids got real leather jackets, diamond jewelry, motocross lessons, and one year, a real motocross bike.

Too many things to list here are what led to me living with my grandparents two weeks before Christmas when I was sixteen.

It was fun to see everyone open their presents. One aunt then gave me a Walmart bag with socks in it. Someone else told me I should be thankful that the family took me in instead of leaving me on the street. That was my gift.

Plus my grandparents and seven cousins, uncles, and their spouses. That’s how they treated me when I couldn’t help it. I don’t talk to my family anymore, of course.

14. Some Strange Gifts

u/MizSanguine: My brother got a pocketknife in an old toilet paper roll that was wrapped up like candy. I started taking out my similar-looking one because I was excited.

Wearing underwear. Inside, there was only underwear. And once a sink tap. I knew my childhood was over at that point.

15. Chocolate that has hardened

u/SquatChick315: For Christmas, my aunt gave me chocolate that had gone bad. She loved giving away old gifts, but she always expected expensive, high-quality gifts for her kids’ birthdays and Christmas.

The chocolate had not only gone bad, but it was also clear that it had melted and then hardened again.

I went to her and said, “OMG!” when I saw it. “You have to try this chocolate; it’s so good!” in front of the whole family.

She was hesitant to eat the chocolate after seeing how it looked after she took it out of the package.

“It’s the best chocolate ever!” I told her with a smile. After that, I saw her slowly put it in her mouth and try to eat it.

Right after that, she quickly walked to the kitchen. Since then, almost nine years ago, I think I’ve only seen her once.

16. The Book

u/hickory-smoked: Jewelry’s poem collection, “A Night Without Armor,” was given to me by the wife of a friend. It’s not that I hate Jewel, but it was very clear what she saw on a clearance rack the day of my birthday and said, “Yes, this is an object.”

17. The Cool Ball

u/BloodChicken: A small light-up ball was the only thing I got for Christmas. It works if you or someone else puts your finger on the two metal tabs and hold hands. The ball will light up.

It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. Dad asked if he could try after I had used it with a few other people to figure out what it was and how it worked. I said yes.

He threw the ball so hard on the ground that it broke right away after I gave it to him. He said, “I thought it was a bouncy ball!”

18. That’s My Gameboy!

u/tall_where_it_counts: I mowed lawns for money when I was about 12 years old, and I saved for months to buy a Game Boy Advance.

I was crazy about this thing and played it for hours every day. My parents got my little brother a Game Boy Advance game with just the game cartridge for his birthday two months later. It wasn’t his Game Boy.

I didn’t like having to share my Game Boy with him, and when my parents saw how angry I looked, they told me to stop being so selfish.

I didn’t not want to share with my brother, but it wasn’t fair that they gave him a gift that he couldn’t use without taking my most-loved item. When I told them I was annoyed, they made me feel bad about it.

19. Taxidermy Gone Wrong

u/Tarsala3791: This is what I got: a taxidermied deer hoof with a candle holder stuck in the spot where the ankle should be. It’s just bad taxidermy, though, so it’s always leaving behind a fine white powder on the table.

20. I Was Excited

u/christinagleas: My grandmother put a long, thin box with my name on it under the Christmas tree about a week before the holiday when I was only seven years old.

For seven days, my little self couldn’t get enough of the thought of a play baby stroller that could be folded up and put in that box, ready to be filled with stuffed animals.

The next morning, when I opened the box, I saw that it was a vacuum cleaner. Not even a toy one. A real, important, little vacuum cleaner.

That was a good idea, according to my grandmother, because “I loved cleaning when I visited her house.” The reason for this is that you’re a hoarder and your house is gross, Granny.

21. A bag of cotton balls

u/Thewrongbakedpotato: I got a Ziploc bag with cotton balls inside it. With a Sharpie, you wrote “ghost poos” on the bag.

22. My Aunt Was a Re-Gifter

u/pixierambling: A bracelet and earrings I bought for my aunt a few months ago were tried to be given to me again. It was rude to hear, “Oh Pixie! “I got these ESPECIALLY for you!” she said in a sweet voice.

The funny thing is that she forgot we gave it to her, since my brother and I were the only ones in the family who remembered her birthday and did anything to celebrate it.

23. A gift for my brother

u/[deleted]: For Christmas, my brother gave me a hand-drawn turkey that he had made just minutes before. If he were five or something, this would have been fine. He had been 21 years old. I put it in a frame and gave it to him again the next year as a gift.

24. A box of cookies with peanut butter cups

u/[deleted]: My husband gave me a box of peanut butter cup cookies, but there were no peanuts on the package. He claimed not to know that I’m very allergic to peanuts.

While my husband rushed me to the hospital, I saw him laughing. I GOT MY ANIMAL BLAME! Following three days, my irate mother-in-law sent me a lot of angry texts.

My husband walked in with a red face and yelled, “WHAT DID YOU DO TO DAD’S CAR?” I quietly put dozens of air fresheners in it, which is the one smell he hates the most.

He was so sick that he couldn’t even sit in it. My angry husband asked what was wrong, and I gently told him it was his own fault. We now have a fight between our families, but I think my point was made very clear.

25. A pig made of foam

u/[deleted]: My stepmom has given me a toy pig for New Year’s every year since I was six years old. A pig, yes. Each and every year. It was always a surprise to me because she has mental health problems and I didn’t want to make her mad.

But my sister just couldn’t handle it this year.She says: “Are you seriously still clueless?”I say: “Clueless about what?”He: “Check the underside of the pig.” When I looked, my heart stopped.

A small note said, “Just because it’s funny!” It turned out that my stepmom thought it was a great joke to give the same weird gift every year. There was no hidden message or treasure; it was just a funny way of making me laugh that I never quite got.

It’s not unusual to get things out of the blue. To be honest, most of us have had the same experience as these Redditors. Some of us may have even saved some of those gifts to give to someone else later.

Some of the stories, though, showed how people pick out expensive gifts for their family member they like best while giving something useless to the person they don’t like. Have you ever had something similar happen?