I have a challenge for you. What is the worst gift crime you are aware of?
Maybe you have received a dreadfully inappropriate gift from someone? Maybe you are the culprit and gave someone an awful present? The best example will win a £100 wish list of products from Gift Wink (details below).
I’ll give you a couple of examples I am aware of. I know of someone who was given a bottle of vodka and a set of power tools for their birthday. The combination of alcohol and power tools sounds bad enough, but what if I told you they were 14 years old at the time? The child was unimpressed. The rest of the family, however, spoke about it for years afterwards.
As for me, well, I confess that I was guilty of committing a staggering gift crime when Mrs Adams reached a significant birthday a few years ago. We lived near a gliding club at the time and she repeatedly told me she never wanted to go gliding.
Naturally I felt she simply needed a little persuasion and so I bought her a flight experience for her birthday. The gift received an incredibly poor reception and I ended up going on the flight instead.
In my defence, Mrs Adams says I usually choose very good gifts. On this occasion, however, I got it a bit wrong. Well, worse than that, very wrong.
Help is at hand from the recently-launched Gift Wink website. Here’s how it works. You set up a ‘birthday alert’ for friends and family from birth until their late teens. Gift Wink will email you ahead of the birthday and suggest a number of presents, all of which have been carefully selected by the Gift Wink team. You can also build and share wish lists, which can be very useful when buying for children who drop hints as their big day nears.
Gifts come from a number of suppliers including Not on the High Street, The White Company and Hamleys. You are, therefore, assured a certain quality.
To celebrate the launch of Gift Wink, it has set up the #GiftCrimes campaign. Running from today, 12 September 2016 until 25 September, 2016, you are invited to leave a comment below outlining the worst gift crime you are aware of.
You must also follow this link and set up a ‘wish list’ of products on the Gift Wink website. I have done it myself. It’s very simple and takes just a minute to complete. The Gift Wink team will chose a winner, who will receive their wish list up to the value of £100.
Oh, one last thing. Glider flights, power tools and spirits are not available from the Gift Wink website!
Very best of luck to all who enter the giveaway. I look forward to reading your stories. I am sure you are all aware of some absolute classics.
47 thoughts on “#GiftCrimes: What’s your funniest story?”
For my wife’s 30th birthday, I bought her an ironing board. There were valid reasons why I did this, but they were unclear to my wife at the time and her reaction was as many would expect.
Had me in hysterics Simon. Sure you had your reasons, but they do need an explanation!
I’ve been a true gift crime victim. When I was at university, my girlfriend got me a naff battery-powered toothbrush for Valentine’s Day. I didn’t think I had bad breath, but still took it pretty personally!
Hey Tom, she was only thinking of your dental health. Maybe.
The worst gift I have ever received was probably a dance mat for a playstation, My Mum didnt realise I needed a playstation for it!
Now that made me laugh. Sort of thing I can imagine someone from, the older generation doing.
My mil has bought some pretty terrible gifts, for my son instead of a egg at easter she bought him some slippers. These slipper were the most hideous things I have ever seen. They were some home made felt creation and were just awful and 3 sizes too big!
I of course thanked her for them and then proceeded to send them to the charity store where i do wonder if they were ever bought!
Three sizes too big? Classic!
I’ve got a corker for you! An ex fiance of mine (emphasis on the ex) was a really bad gift giver. Bearing in mind I was in my early 20s when we were together, he bought me gifts like a towelling bath robe, which I thought was odd. But the worst one ever, was one Christmas when he decided to buy me a grooming kit of a feminine nature called “Jenna’s hot trimmer” created by the “specialist actress” Jenna Jameson! I was so upset by this and he really didn’t get it. It even had stencils for that area,
I hope my pain provides a laugh for you all. I can actually laugh about it now 🙂
Anyway, sounds like it was a present for himself. I can see why you were unimpressed. I am unimpressed for you.
I have made the wishlist also under lucy higgins
Thank you for the update Lucy. Sure the Gift Wink guys will note this.
The worst gift I received was probably a photo frame from my Nan, they were really awful and gold and tacky looking! Of course I said they were wonderful so she bought me another one the year after as I ‘loved’ it so much! Made a wishlist, Love all the items, what a great site
Glad you like the site, even if the photo frame was on the mark! Best of luck.
When I was 15 my mum bought me a knitting set for Christmas! Had no idea how to use it and had to thank her as if I genuinely liked it. I’m 24 now and still laugh at this.
But did you learn to use it? This could have been character building!
One Christmas, my Dad somehow came to the conclusion that the ideal gift for my Mum was a set of fog lights for their car. He wrapped it and kept it for her to open last because it was her ‘big’ present, and the poor guy was actually excited to see her reaction. He honestly believed she would be thrilled with such a thoughtful, useful gift. She cried, but it wasn’t tears of joy or gratitude. That was more than twenty years ago, and she still brings it up.
Wow, just wow. Words quite genuinely fail me.
One Christmas myself and my children went to visit an old aunty with a Christmas present. She then told her son, in front of us, to get down an ornament from the shelf in her lounge, she promptl;y wrapped it up and gave it to us. She passed away many years ago and we still laugh about it to this day and I often warn my children that I will do the same. God bless Aunty May, we loved her.
My birthday is on Boxing Day and I often get joint presents, in itself a gift crime. One Christmas around my 18th birthday my mum excitedly told me that my gran had spent ‘quite a lot’ of money on my present. Having spent a long time seriously hinting about a cool personalised number plate for my A reg Fiesta, I couldn’t wait. Imagine how gutted, and how hard I had to act, when I opened a cosy pair of PJs from Marks…
A few years back, my husband topped that with a draught excluder – a nice leather sausage dog one- but still…
The biggest gift crime I’m aware of is one of my own. For our secret Santa exchange at work last year, we all went out for dinner and drinks. The time came for the gifts to be dished out from the crate, and I was so excited to see my colleague open hers as I knew it would be funny. We all began opening our presents and I carefully watched out of the corner of my eye to see her reaction in preparation to take full credit for my hilarious gift. That did not happen… She opened her joke present of ‘stress balls’ a rubber ballbag to squeeze in times of stress. She turned to our boss and said “This was you wasn’t it, because I’ve been stressed?” And my boss denied all knowledge. (Little did I know, while I had been on maternity leave she had been signed off work with some sort of stress related problem) so as you can tell, it didn’t go down too well.
Then she noticed a scratch card in the wrapping and began to scratch it with a coin. She said she hadn’t won. Another colleague had a look and she had in fact won. £50,000!!!!! She told her to keep quiet but before she knew it our manager had noticed and began screaming out “OH MY GOD!!!” And everybody at the table noticed something was happening and was watching and taking a closer look. People at the bar and at other tables turned around to see what was going on. And then our boss noticed something. It was a fake scratch card. It stated on the back to take a pot to your local leprechaun to receive your gold and told her straight away. At this point nobody knew they were from me and I kept quiet. She was really pissed off. Her dreams were instantly made followed by being instantly crushed and she was mad. I did own up, and apologise, thinking she would find my gifts funny. Everybody found it hilarious apart from me, the giver and her, the receiver. Let’s hope I don’t get her again this year!!
My brother who isn’t the best gift buyer totally surpassed himself a few years back as a result of being too disorganised/cheap to buy gift tags for his presents. As a result I was hit with a M&S magnolia gift set (shower gel, hand cream, body lotion and candle) that even my gran wouldn’t thank you for and my sister in law (intended recipient of afore mentioned crap gift) got my present … albeit a Psychic Sally book and Now CD. Needless to say she was chuffed at getting something she might actually read and listen to and probably laughing quietly that I got such a naff pressie. I should point out that sister in law was not the present buying brother’s wife and we all hated her, my other brother is in the process of divorcing her as I write this. 🙂 Oh I so hope she reads this post and recognises herself.
The worst present I ever received has got to be a mop from my then boyfriend for my 18th birthday!!
A mop for your eighteenth birthday? I note you said he was your “then” boyfriend. Wonder why?
My worst gift was the first Christmas me and my now hubby were together. His mum bought me a fluffy baby pink mohair jumper which was 3 sizes too small!! WTF!!
Nice. Then again, pictures or it didn’t happen.
Some gross plastic kitchen canisters – they were unbelievable
Nice. Then again, they could have been reused as flotation aids maybe?
I once received socks for Valentines day, clearly a last minute desperation purchase from a petrol station somewhere. Her justification was ‘well they have got footballs on them’. It didn’t last long after that…
I can understand why things came to an end!
My nan bought me a shiny, poo brown top that made me sweat as it was a nasty polyester type of material. If she didn’t see me wearing it she got upset, so occasionally I sucked it up and put it on. The same Christmas she bought my mum a dish drainer, the only time I have ever been jealous of a dish drainer!
Nice. Do you have any pictures of this top?
I bought my sister a bath set for Christmas one year and she forgot I gave it to her and then re gifted it to me for my Birthday in June. I was not happy to say the least especially when she kept hinting she wanted that particular set for Christmas
Now that is a faux pas of epic proportions. A definite gift crime.
It was a house brick door stop, covered in orange nylon knitting, designed to look like a sofa.
Sadly I don’t have a picture
A pair of legging that were really long and baggy
Twice I have received towels as a present, not that towels are not useful and needed but as a child aged 8 I was hoping for some dolls rather then a towel from my aunt and uncle and then for our first Christmas my partner brought me a bright yellow towel.
Question is, do you still have the bright yellow towel??
For my 21st birthday my aunt got me a plastic key saying happy 21st. At first I thought it was keys to a new car how wrong was i lol.
I’m sorry, but this made me lauch. Your aunt clearly has a sense of humour.
My husband gave me a bottle of Daddies sauce for Xmas once… along with a tshirt. I mean I like sauce but really…the tshirt didn’t make up for it! #GiftCrimes
Wow, just wow. This is definitely a gift crime of epic proportions.
Mine was a banana holder from my mum! Needless to say I was uncertain unwrapping it … Uncertain to what it actually was when it was unwrapped.
So we’re my school mates when I attempted to use it, you can just imagine the comments …
It had a short life span.
Oh good grief, yes, that is an off present and one likely to attract stares.
I recieved a ‘Touch Of Frost’ mug from a friend through secret Santa for Christmas. I still don’t know who gifted it #GiftCrimes
Question is, do you want to know who gifted it?
Hi everyone,
thank you very much for your hilarious #GiftCrimes, we thoroughly enjoyed reading them! The winner of the £100 wishlist is Mary Duncan; congratulations Mary!
We’re always running competitions on our Facebook page, so don’t be disappointed if you haven’t won this one, there will be plenty of other opportunities for you to win wishlists or gorgeous toys!
Enjoy your week!