It can be low effort, passive-aggressive, insulting or derogatory towards your convictions.

  • GraniteM@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    6 minutes ago

    My mom once gave me a cat litter scoop like this one

    in my Christmas stocking. This was not, to my knowledge, in the context of a conversation about needing to clean up after the cat more often, but for all I know it was her way of subtly trying to get the point across.

  • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    15 minutes ago

    My weird alcoholic grandma that my dad doesn’t really talk to got me a shaving kit when I was 10.

  • Sigilos@ttrpg.network
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    16 minutes ago

    My aunt only ever knew one thing about me, that I grew up liking Harry Potter. First I got all the books, split across two years. Then I got all the movies as they came out, up to the 5th one. After that I was apparently too old for her to know what I liked, I got a gift card to a gas station for 3 years in a row. I mean hey $20 in gas wasn’t a totally awful thing as a late teenager, so I guess it could have been worse.

  • Taniwha420@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    4 hours ago

    I knew my marriage didn’t have much left in it when for my birthday my wife gifted me a bag of candles that had been half eaten by the kids.

  • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    5 hours ago

    We had an optional secret santa in 5th grade, meaning no kid was forced to participate if they didn’t want to. It ran the month of December, you were supposed to give 1 gift a week. The first week I got nothing. The second week I got a single marble. The 3rd week I got a single pencil. The 4th and final week I got a tin of Royal Dansk Danish butter cookies. As a 5th grader, it was the biggest fucking letdown, especially when all the other kids were getting candy, toys, etc, every week.

  • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    5 hours ago

    my mother got me a desk light and then immediately stole it for her quilting because it was full spectrum white

    I got it back years later when the thing holding it up had gotten so loose you needed to duct tape it

  • qaz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    4 hours ago

    Store bought pudding, no clue what I was supposed to do with that.

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    7 hours ago

    I asked my Aunt for R.E.M. at the height of their popularity. She gave me an old REO speedwagon album that had none of their hits on them. All in all, that’s the worst, so i’ve done very well.

  • wuphysics87@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 hours ago

    A fruit roll up. Some time a few months before christmas, my sister and I were fighting over the last fruit roll up in the box. She got it initially, but I got it in the end. She put it in several boxes Matryoshka style, added weight making it seem heavier, wrapped it, and put it under the tree. Imagine my surprise, after going through several layers to find that fruit roll up. Worst. Christmas. Ever.

  • tetris11@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    7 hours ago

    The gift of world peace. It was granted to me in lieu of the PS2 I wanted by my fairy godmother. Needless to say I held my breath until she finally relented, and took it back. She gave me a PS2 and I close the curtains and put on headphones a lot when I’m at home.

  • SlippiHUD@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    8 hours ago

    This isnt technically a present, but my girlfriend stored a christmas present in the loft of the garage over my car. She accidentally dropped it while getting it down to give it to me and put a ski through my windshield.