Painiacs

I love writer womans husband! My idea of revenge!! Lol
I got a fruitcake from my MIL when she came tovisit. When DH said she doesn't like fruitcake she looks at me and says " I thought ur kind liked fruit!". Found out later his family never met a Japanese person before!! Lol.

kellen46

My mother used to give my sons the strangest gifts...For my oldest son's tenth birthday she gave him a box of used makeup...obviously used makeup...she would send them copies of The Law Review Journal to which she had a subscription. One Christmas she asked me what sizes my very tall big teen boys wore...Yeah we could use some new clothes for school....I gave her all the sizes and wants. She sent one pair of worn out woman's canvas shoes in a size eight. Even I don't wear a size eight. I asked her what was her thinking on this and she said she said she thought they could share, so I handed each kid a shoe and said "bon apatite" We all had a good laugh on this one. Now Mom was not poor and her Sib's always got a spendy high class decor gift. My boys were her only grand children too. We came to expect she would send some basically used and unusable gift and always got a good laugh out of it. After a while they becan to look forward to grandma Kathy's gifts, we would open them right away and have a guessing game as to what she was thinking when she chose it. I would always get all her old Christmas cards from the previous year. Now she was not a big re cycler and would often throw out only slightly worn things in order to buy new. Some times she would send me her old clothes, she was very petite and a size two...I am most definitely not. Still it was good fabric. I once made a nice poncho for myself out of one of her old cast off coats. So I guess it all worked out...either we got clothes to upcycle, paper for the wood stove, or a good laugh. My very grown, now they are the grandpa, sons still get a laugh over those strange gifts...

QuilterMomma

Well, was the bra sexy? Was he wanting his "gift"?

Margie

I have a real problem with "regifting". I dont expect anyone to give me a gift and prefer they give to charity. However, I find it really rude to give something that is just awful. I have a friend who gave me a wedding candle...I have been married almost 49 years! I remember her daughter recieving it at her wedding shower, obviously she didnt want it and it had been stored. The ribbon was sort of smashed on one side and it looked sad...why give that to someone? Another time she gave me something covered with cat hair and looking pretty worn out too. Someone gave my daughter a bottle of wine and she found a little card written to the person from their minister lol. Both of these people are really well off...we do not expect gifts and truly do not need anything.

cassie69emt

I love to ask for things I can use especially the inexpensive things like pins, whisk,plastic turner ,you get the gist.My birthday is a couple of days away and when I was little my parents ,more like my mother,said we got you your present do you want it now on your birthday or do you want it on Christmas.My birthday is the only one that is closet to Christmas and I had five brothers and sisters ,they never got presents like that but for some reason my mother thought it was ok.I now have a son whose birthday is after Christmas and i go out of my way to make sure he birthday is as special as ones should be and is not celebrated with Christmas.She (my mother) tries to pull the same thing with our son and I make sure she doesn't.I even got a Christmas tree for my birthday one year but it wasn't like it was mine all alone it was actually the families. OK enough because it makes me furious just to think about this ,why can parents treat their children each differently ????We never get so much as a Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary or anything else from my parents but they go out of their way to tell my sibilings that .Needless to say I LOVE my husband more today then the day we got married and tell him if I EVER do anything like they have to me to smack me in the head.

gramma nancy

A bag of raw peanuts from a former work friend. I guess it would have been OK if there had been a cookbook or something with them, but it was just a bag of peanuts you couldn't even eat. Really bothered me cause I had a great idea for her gift, had spent months looking for it and sort of hoped she would put a little thought into mine.

chris_quilts

Probably the strangest gift was from ex-MIL. I was his 2nd wife and she sent me his 1st wife's wedding book (photo thing) that all their info entered in but no photos. I guess she thought we could use it and I would ignore or whatever the information page. I always sent her fruitcake for Christmas. My darling grandmother always gifted us with homemade fruitcake even though I am allergic to something in it or a the combination of somethings in it. I did regift those but to friends who liked homemade fruitcake.

quilt1950

I'm loving this topic. My daughter's MIL gave her the same diet book twice! Only one of them is overweight, and it's not my daughter!

ckcowl

i have to say i always learn new things from this board- but there is something i don't understand--and that is all the negativity about (re-gifting)
i really don' t understand why re-gifting is a bad thing- if you are not going to use something someone gives you is it somehow better for it to just be thrown away? or hidden on a closet shelf forever? why not give it to someone who will use it-or possibly pass it on again?
i used to get a little upset with my mom---i would buy her something i really thought she would love and could use---and she gave it back to me as my gift the next year (she had forgotten it originally came from me)
we have some gifts that have traveled all through the family over the years- sometimes it even gets used for awhile- then they will wrap it up and give it away again---
if you receive 4 toasters for your wedding is it wrong to give one to your brother moving into his first place?
the whole negative (sense) the people here tend to put on anything re-gifted simply puzzles me.

May in Jersey

Regifting isn't always a bad thing but it should not be something that has been used, broken or downright useless. An unopened bottle of wine is an excellent example of something I might regift, not my worn out old clothes or shoes. Of course, remember to remove the gift card you received with the gift.