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Weigh In - What is the worst gift you ever received?

11/20/2009 - By Teja Anderson

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Living In Media hit the streets to find out what you folks felt were the worst gifts ever received....

Living in Media / livinginmedia.com hit the streets to find out what you folks felt were the worst gifts you ever received. So if you don’t want to be known as a bad present giver, read on to find out what not to give your loved ones.

Hands down for kids and teens was clothing; especially socks! It turns out that socks are the lamest gift you can get from any family member or friend. No matter how fancy or colorful or how nicely wrapped, socks are not acceptable and will only elicit eye rolling. Bad wedding gifts were mentioned quite a few times both for their lack of effort and their stinginess. The guideline is usually to give a gift of equal value to the amount the bride and groom are spending on your wedding meal. So one wine glass - unless it’s made of solid lead crystal - is probably not going to cut it. Also, even though in these economic times re-gifting often makes sense, it’s probably a good idea to examine the item carefully before you wrap it back up to check for wear, breakage or worst of all an engraving to the original recipient(s).

For you fellas, when you want to impress a woman dictionaries and battery chargers are out, as well as Disney-themed cards and accessories. And ladies, although you may like getting lingerie, men do not, nor are they enthralled with cooking appliances. Lingerie is also not appropriate when given by a student to a teacher. Even more inappropriate is giving a bottle of alcohol as a gift to a minor!

Mother-in-laws were the source of the most disliked gifts amongst adults - which makes you wonder if they actually are that clueless or might perhaps be giving bad gifts on purpose! However, most of you were too afraid of them or of hurting your spouse’s feelings to let us quote you.

But truly the worst gift we heard about was the one from a spouse who gifted his wife with a bathroom scale shortly after she had given birth to their child!

 

	My parents gave me an umbrella once, which was a pretty lame gift. -Kelly Chen
	A pre-paid cell phone. I never learned how to use it and I didn’t need it! -Fred Leonardis
	I got a muumuu from a Thrift Shop…that was pretty awful. -Linda Sims
	A fondue pot! - Richard Sendell
	A got a pair of socks from my Grandmother for my birthday. -Morgan Bohnert
	I got a shotgun, that was before he was my ex…it was for skeet shooting. -Joanne Doe
	Once on Halloween I got a toothbrush, toothpaste and an apple instead of candy…who wants that? -Phil Paxia
	I got socks once; not really a gift… -Rupa Nadkar
(No picture)	An ex sent me dead roses a week after I broke up with him… -Zoë Lund
	A T-shirt with profanity on it that I would never wear, and also from my sister-in-law a pair of leopard g-string underwear that I would also never wear. -George Poosikian
	Clothes and socks are the worst! -Jesuheidi Ortiz
	Probably a gift card to a book store, that would be the worst thing I ever got. -Nick Halper
	My girlfriend’s husband gave her a half empty bottle of perfume with the "tester" sticker still on it! That is the worst gift ever. -Kim Pierson
	A red, gray and black scarf for Christmas… -Armand Osmanovic
(No picture)	I got a bathroom scale as a gift from my husband - not long after I had our baby. -Diane Bolsch
	The fiberglass raccoons! We still have them and we try to get rid of them every year at the White Elephant Party. It worked a few times but now everyone is on to the size of the box. -Kathryn & Mike Plosica
	I got one Christmas pillow once, not even a matching set. Oh, every year my friend Debbie brings me four pounds of yummy Christmas cookies when she knows I am trying to lose weight! -Candi Teutonico
	For our wedding we got a picture of an immature pineapple plant with a grasshopper. It was magenta with a teal matting in a gold frame… -Jennifer & Frank Guida
	Orange socks from my husband! -Janie Sheprow
	My brother-in-law gave me a Tweety Bird watch for Christmas when I was 34! Obviously a re-gift. -Megan Possinger
	My mother gave us a turkey gravy boat, a turkey platter and turkey salt and pepper shakers; when you poured the gravy it looked like the turkey was throwing up! -Kelly & Tim Lang
	That vase, the ugly grape vase that the realtor left us as a housewarming gift… -Rand & Gary Peppas
	A High School Musical birthday card from my husband last year…that was pretty bad. -Barbara Maguire
	A puzzle, two puzzles actually, that I got this year for Christmas…. -Michael Tringola
	A bra from my mother- in-law that was like 100 sizes too small. -Beth Insabella
	I hate candy and I got a Butterfinger® from my Uncle. -Elaina Mezzasalme
	A wedding gift from my wife’s best friend, it was a platter or something, but when you turned it over it was engraved to someone else. -Robert Fegan
	I got a curling iron from my mother once and I have naturally curly hair! -Kerry O’Brien
(No picture)	The worst gift had to be for my wedding. A couple - two people who came to the wedding - gave us one single wine glass! -Mitchell Parker
	My Mother-in-law gave me a salad spinner one year, an asparagus cooker another year and energy efficient light bulbs last year! -Amy Going
	A fern for having a baby from my husband. -Mary Loizou
	My mom threatened to get my sister and I nose jobs for Christmas one year when we were teenagers. -Homeira Walter
	The ugliest teapot ever; it was made out of these ceramic coils in the shape of a face. I wrapped it up and gave it back to the person who gave it to me the next year. -Anita Macaluso
	When I was still dating my husband before we got married he once got me a rechargeable battery charger. That and a really itchy pair of pants and an itchy sweater. -Cleo Poosikian
	When I was a teacher I had a student who gave me a very sexy negligee. That was really horrible and embarrassing! -Christine Cala
	I got underwear one year from my father. They weren’t even real underwear - they were more like bloomers! -Karen Toran
	I got socks one time for my birthday and they didn’t even fit. They were like way too small... -Hayley Winchel
	I got a handbook to all the "Worst Case Scenarios of Parenting." Can you imagine any parent wanting that? -Dorene Penny
	I got a dictionary from a boyfriend once for my birthday. -Elaina Loizou
	I got the ugliest pair of black furry slippers once from my parents! -Charlene Ruocco
(No picture)	When I was 18 my boss gave me a bottle of Dewar’s White Label. Who gives an underage teenager a bottle of scotch? My friends and I drank it, of course and got really sick. -Joe Vagnone

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