Christmas Gift MISSES

K

KristinCB

Sweet Shoppe Designer
With the holiday approaching many of us will be doing shopping for our kids/family/friends.. I was thinking it might be a good idea to share some of those gifts from past years that were huge MISSES! Would be helpful for ideas on what we should maybe skip buying!
 
One year, my husband got me a polo shirt with the logo of his employer on it. He'd left shopping until the last minute, and only the company store was open. I wasn't impressed.
 
not a christmas gift but valentines one year my husband bought me shampoo and conditioner. Now I use special shampoo and conditioner because we have well water and it dries my hair badly so it was a nice thought I guess BUT not very romantic.

My mother for years went out on a gambling ship...she would get these free gifts like mugs, little fm radios (like walkmans), sun visors & t-shirts...just cheap gimicky stuff the ship would give out as prizes. She saved them all and would give them to her kids and grandkids for christmas.
 
My ex-mil was never a very good gift finder. One year she gave my ex-dh (her son) who wears only black and more of a biker/rocker look, a baby blue sweatsuit. Yeah, not his style at all. lol
 
My hubby is pretty good at gifts... he only gets me something with a cord is if I asked for it... of course, he could get me more jewelry.. :p

However for my son, misses is anything play food related... I adore his kitchen set and play food... and all the melissa and doug stuff I got him - but he is so not interested.... so I play with it... ;)

Oh - the worst gift I ever got had to be when my dh and I were dating and that first year his step mom gave us editable body paint... :o
 
For the kidlets, any time we have EVER bought the "it" electronic toy for the year, it's been a miss. I don't remember what it was called but we bought some thing that the kids could watch themselves on the tv screen and it was some sort of karaoke type thing. The clickster "computer" thing, even the leapster hasn't done it for them. They did like the digital cameras okay. But my kids do MUCH better with pretend play things...Megablocks, Mr. Potato Heads, puppets, tea sets, etc. We get taken every year we buy the electronic they're pushing.
 
Last year for my then-7 year old, the toy misses were the games for the Wii. He really doesn't get into the Wii the way I expected him to. We got 3 games for Christmas. The Lego Star Wars (episodes 4-6) he beat in about 7 days. The Club Penguin Game Day he played about a dozen times. And Boom Blox was played like 3 times. He hasn't played the Wii in months. I'm sure if he had a sibling his age he would like to play the Wii, but solo games don't interest him. So those were all duds.

Anyone have the Cars 2 Wii game? I think it's a racing one? He asked for it, and with our past Wii experience, I don't want to waste the money if it's not awesome.
 
I was just about to add that our Wii was a miss, too. We got it in August, and the kids were interested for about 3 weeks. My 8 year old got a few more games for his birthday in October, and they haven't even opened them. I think my 5 year old would love it if his dexterity was better, but both he and his brother would rather use the computer than play Wii.
 
The worst one I ever gave was to my DH. He said he wanted puzzles. So, I bought him a puzzle set (like 800+ pieces kind). Well, it turns out he should have specified that he wanted LOGIC puzzles. As in, a logic puzzle book to do when waiting around at the airport, at the dr. office, etc. He looked so confused with the puzzle I gave him! haha

As for the Wii - my daughter is 5.5 and loves MarioKart and Nickoleodeon Fit. They're age-appropriate and easy enough for her to do without getting frustrated.
 
My husband got me a really nice, expensive jewelry box one year, but it was too small to hold ALL of my jewelry (I have a lot of fun, inexpensive stuff) and too large to hold my really nice pieces. We exchanged it for something but I can't remember what. He also got me perfume and I exchanged that as well - I'm terribly picky about my perfume. Before I open any gift from him he always says, "Now if this isn't exactly what you want, you will NOT hurt my feelings if you exchange it for something else." :thumbup:
 
I think that one of the big misses comes from us crafty ladies. We get all sentimental and think, "Oh won't hubby love this pretty scrapbook to look at every day!" The chances are, while he might appreciate the gesture, most men don't stay up at night thinking about getting a scrapbook for Christmas. WE like it, but it doesn't mean THEY will. Just like my hubby loves duct tape, WD40, and hand tools, I sure wouldn't want him getting those for me!

That's just my 2 cents :)
 
We do alot of surprise exchanges in our family and I've come home with some seriously sucky gifts: a set of drill bits, some cleaning products, a pair of scissors... :blink: We do it more for the game than the gift - the gift has a 10 $ value and we can steal it while we play, etc.

Our first xmas together, DH was 18 and obviously, his mother went shopping for my gift and she got me vaseline lotion, some pharmacy shampoo and body wash.:blink: At least DH had gotten me a nice brooch and earrings.

My in-laws are very fonctionality oriented. One year, they got us some winter tires. My mil now sells Avon, so we get these huge goody bags full of Avon products. I swear, I could not buy soap and shampoo for 10 years and there still would be some Avon left! They also usually get tools for DH, but he likes that, so no complaints.
 
nanienamou said:
My mil now sells Avon, so we get these huge goody bags full of Avon products. I swear, I could not buy soap and shampoo for 10 years and there still would be some Avon left! They also usually get tools for DH, but he likes that, so no complaints.
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My ex-sil was selling this weird home interiors type of stuff for a couple of years and always talked her mom into buying all of us girls stuff from her 'business' then. It was like cheap junk, too, even though they didn't sell it for cheap.
 
My step-gma is the worst gifter, ever. She sells Avon, & think that everyone loves it. She gave my kids (last year 3-1-6mos) roll on bath/body paint, really!??! We've gotten everything from walkman type things, 'binoculars', clock radios, really stinky perfume/soap/bath sets, etc. My sister is a s/m and one year she received the ugliest Christmas sweater in size XXL (from said step-gma). Basically it's whatever she has left in the bottom of the barrel, she passes along.

Just because someone has a collection, (ie: I collect John Deere things) doesn't mean they want every knick-knack-patty-whack with the insignia on it. One year every.single.gift, literally, was 'themed'. dishes, misc containers, cookie jars, sweatshirt, you name it.

I think that anything with thought put into is goes over much better than a gift just for gift sake. I mean really, I'd rather have nothing under the tree, than a bunch of useless stuff that just put there just for the sake of everyone needs a gift to open.
 
Scrapbooking stuff!!! When I was a paper scrapper I used to get the most hideous paper packs and "kits-in-a-box"

Direct selling products. Unless I am a regular customer and you know what product i use.

One year DH got car seat covers from his mom. Which did not even match the interior of the car
 
apphotos said:
I think that anything with thought put into is goes over much better than a gift just for gift sake. I mean really, I'd rather have nothing under the tree, than a bunch of useless stuff that just put there just for the sake of everyone needs a gift to open.
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This. Gifts are not about buying something for everybody and be done with it. It's also not about buying stuff that *I* like, since the gift is for another person. It's about giving some thought to what the person likes and what they might want. If I don't know, I ask (but most of time I think I know, because I'm a chronic gift giver and I make a mental note about every little bit of information that is a potential gift). Since I'm financially pretty well off, I actually don't need any gifts (still appreciate if it's something that I see the person THOUGHT about). I love giving them, but I can do without them. Time spent with family/friends/etc. is much more precious to me, and it's not just words, I mean it.

The worst gifts I have received are candles, candle holders and home decoration items that totally clash with my taste. I have a box full of them and I truly play with the idea of thrashing them, gifts or not. I mean, there is only SO many kitschy candles one person can handle, right?
 
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nanienamou said:
We do alot of surprise exchanges in our family and I've come home with some seriously sucky gifts: a set of drill bits, some cleaning products, a pair of scissors... :blink: We do it more for the game than the gift - the gift has a 10 $ value and we can steal it while we play, etc.
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We do this too. One year I wound up with a case of toilet paper from my grandma, who thought it was a practical gift that anyone could use.

One year my husband bought me some thong underwear and put it in my Christmas stocking, unwrapped...and so there we are, me, baby Rachel, the hubby, MY MOM, and MY GRANDMA...and what do I pull out...they all cracked up because apparently my face went sort of red ;)
 
rach3975 said:
Our biggest fail was this Roborover robotic toy. He didn't work at all like he was supposed to, and my DS was so disappointed with him.
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Now that is something my teenager would like to *hack* and make it his own ... but not spending $80 on something he will remake into something else that will hopefully work ...
 
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