I think it's more than safe to say that everyone loves to get gifts!!! And nothing makes a gift better than when you get something you really wanted (or maybe didn't even know you wanted). But other times, it can go all wrong and you end up getting the worst gift you ever got.
And recently, I stumbled upon a Reddit thread from seven years ago that dealt with the latter. In it, redditor u/sara_steve asked, "What's the worst gift you ever received?"
Thousands of people chimed in to share the most awful gifts they've ever gotten. Here are some of the top and best comments:
1. "A rubber Hulk Hogan figurine (it looked like it was a Christmas ornament with the loop snipped off) glued to a very girly toy horse. An elderly friend of the family gave it to me and wouldn't stop mentioning how 'they are supposed to look like that; that's how it came from the store,' even though I didn't voice any doubts. It's also kind of the best gift I ever got."
2. "My uncle gave me an Xbox Live points card for my birthday. When I went to redeem it, it said the card was not activated. This happened two years in a row until my mom told him about it."
3. "A ziplock bag filled with cotton balls with the words 'ghost poos' written on the bag in marker."
4. "Expired chocolate, on Christmas, from an aunt who was a chronic regifter, yet always expected expensive, top-notch gifts for her children on Christmas and their birthdays."
"Not only was the chocolate expired, but it was also evident that it had melted completely and resolidified. When I noticed, I went up to her and said, 'OMG, this chocolate is soooo good, you have to try it,' in front of the whole family. I watched her unwrap a piece of chocolate, and when she noticed how it looked, she was hesitant to eat it. When she looked at me, I just had a smile on my face and said, 'It's the best chocolate ever!' And then I watched her slowly bring it to her mouth and try to eat it. She quickly walked to the kitchen immediately afterward.
"I think I've only seen her once since that moment almost nine years ago."
5. "My brother got a pocket knife in a small cylinder package (an old toilet paper roll), wrapped like candy. Excited, I started unwrapping mine, which looked similar. It was underwear. And once, I got a bathroom faucet. That is when I knew childhood was over."
6. "My friend's wife gave me a copy of A Night Without Armor, the book of poetry by Jewel. Not that I actively dislike Jewel or anything, but it was so clearly something she saw on a discount gift rack the day of my birthday and said, 'Yes! This is an object.'"
7. "The only present I got for one Christmas was a little light-up ball. You put your finger on the two metal tabs (or you and someone else did while holding each other's hands), and the ball lights up. It wasn't awful, but it was underwhelming. After I had figured out what it was and how it worked, and trying it with a few people, my dad asked me if he could have a try, and so I said "Sure." I passed him the ball, and he immediately threw it on the ground, hard enough to break it. He then said, 'I thought it was a bouncy ball!'"
8. "A pine cone from a family member. It now gets passed between me and my friends as a gag gift."
9. "My mother gave me Pogs for my birthday around 2004 or so. I just smiled and said 'Thank you.' Man, it's funny how she picked up that I wanted them but just didn't act on it for about 10 years. It's the thought that counts."
10. "When I was about 12 years old, I mowed lawns to earn a bit of money for myself, and I spent many months saving up to buy a Game Boy Advance. I loved this thing, and I played it incessantly for hours every day. Two months later, on my little brother's birthday, they bought him a Game Boy Advance game — just the game cartridge. He didn't have a Game Boy."
"Needless to say, I was frustrated because this meant that I was forced to share my Game Boy with him, and when I was visibly salty about it, my parents told me to stop being selfish. It's not that I didn't want to share with my brother, but it was shitty that they bought him a gift that he couldn't use without borrowing my prized possession and that when I expressed my annoyance, they made me feel guilty about it."
11. "A taxidermy deer hoof with a candleholder stuck in where the ankle would be. Only it was bad taxidermy, so it's constantly shedding a fine white powder on the table."
12. "When I was a wee 7 years old, my grandmother placed a long, skinny box with my name on it under the Christmas tree about a week before the holiday. For the next seven days, my small self drooled over the idea of a play baby stroller folded up in that box, just waiting to be filled with various stuffed animals. On that magical morning, I ripped the box open, only to discover it was a VACUUM CLEANER. Not a toy one, either. A real-life serious, small vacuum cleaner."
"She claimed that she thought it was a great idea because I 'loved cleaning' when I visited her house.'
"That's because you're basically a hoarder and your house is disgusting, Granny."
13. "A partially used soap on a rope from my parents."
14. "My aunt tried to regift a bracelet and earrings I had bought for her a few months earlier to me. It was insulting to hear, 'Oh, Pixie! I got these ESPECIALLY for you!' in a saccharine voice. Funny part is that she forgot we even gave it to her — especially considering that my brother and I were the only people in the family who remembered her birthday and even bothered to do anything about it. Bitch."
15. "My mother-in-law gave my 1-year-old daughter her dead dog's bed as a Christmas present. She said it was for my daughter's naps."
16. "The Christmas after my mom died, I got an alarm clock as my present from her husband. He said it was so I 'might wake up in the morning now and actually contribute something.' Still salty eight years later. He's dead now, though, so who is the real winner?"
—u/[deleted]
17. "My brother gave me a hand turkey that he'd drawn minutes earlier for Christmas. This would have been OK if he was 5 or something...but he was 21 years old. I framed it and gifted it back to him the next year."
—u/[deleted]
18. And finally: "A gift card for Blockbuster...that I got this year."
You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.