During a chat today, a co-worker and I were talking about this. I remembered that when my sister and I were younger…probably around ages 9 or 10, we received underwear from the family of a man who worked for my step-dad. It was really odd. Thank goodness the package had been thrown under the tree with the other gifts. We opened it on Christmas morning along with everything else. At least we didn’t open them in front of the man!:roflhard:
I look forward to hearing about y’all’s “odd” stuff.
The only odd one I can think of is the vacuum cleaner DH bought me about 2 years ago… we have all hard wood floors. Don’t know what he was thinkin’ on that day!
My mother in law has always been a weird duck, and one Christmas she gave me a box of baking soda. Don’t ask me why? :shrug:I know Christmas isn’t all about the gifts, but that Christmas had to be the worst besides the baking soda she bought me a toy rocket, and some pajamas that clearly would never fit me in this lifetime.
I had a boyfriend who gave me a stone elephant and a lint brush for Christmas one month later on my birthday I got an alarm clock the best thing he gave me was some perfume he got on a cruise he went on with his parents but he made it a point to tell me he got it “dirt cheap” so that took a little bit of fun out it but the funny thing is 7 years later I still have all of it and use it almost every day!
I once got a box of 6 diskettes from my aunt. But my sister got a package of regular ol’ blue ink pens, so I think I got the better gift.
I don’t ever wear lipstick, don’t like the way it feels on my lips, and rarely wear nail polish. And yet on one of our first Christmases my now hubby bought me not one but two lipstick with matching nail polish sets and a Hershey bar 
One year my husband gave me a balance beam scale, you know like the ones in the Dr’s office. That was it, a scale. He’s now my EXhusband.:tap:
My GF received an air-refreshener for the toilet (cost about $2)…the gift is from her co-worker…everybody should budget $20 each in her department … her co-worker got a kenny G cd’s
This thread makes me giggle. I’ll add my oddest gift–an electric stick.
Well, that’s what it looked like.:shrug: It was supposed to be a small accent lamp but it was really just a large darkly stained wooden dowel with a night light bulb dipped in silicon to kinda make it look like a candle flame stuck on one end. It was wired for electricity but I was too afraid to plug it in and turn it on–afraid my house would go up in flames. My boss gave me that one year. I’d rather have a ham or something!:teehee:
My extended family is so big that we do a Chinese Auction type swap where every adult brings a gift that’s at least $20 and not more than $30, and everyone under 18 does a Secret Santa. We have some people who cheap out, though–like a set of (cheap) picture frames one year and one of those singing fish on a plaque another year, and once someone brought an [B]ostrich egg[/B]. Who on earth would want that?!!
I had some guy’s parents I was dating in college get me a little girl’s hairbrush set and a pocket calculator. It was weird. I think more than anything they had no idea of who I was even after dating their kid for four years.
My brother one time got a grim reaper doll from a coworker! :roflhard:
My husbands gradmother is on a budget…Anyway one year she gave us a bible clock. It was plastic, designed to look like an open book you’d put on a table, it had a verse on the open page and cheesy looking fake flower laying across the open page. In the bottom R hand corner was a tiny cheap looking digital display. It was so cheap and ugly looking. She must have gotten it from Finger Hut. So we kept it in a box in the closet. Then I had a brilliant idea. I gave it to my father in law one Christmas (it was his mom after all who sent it) Now it gets passed around each Christmas. Along with a 20 y/o Chia Pet and a condom in the stockings that has got to be 25 years old.
Okay, so now you wonder about the condom. When my husbanded turned 16 his uncle put a condom in his stocking as a joke. A classic oranged wrapped Trojan. But it got stuck in the toe and he didn’t even find it for like 5 years. Then when he did his uncle was like “oh yeah, I gave you that a long time ago.” So now it shows up in someones stocking each year. Especially if you just got married, or are pregnant. Only the adults pass it around, we are waiting for the kids to get old enough. They do sometimes get the Chia pet though. We have a good time at Christmas in my husbands family.
The last four years, I have received identical pairs of kitchen scissors from my DH’s step-sister. I think she must have gone to a “big box” store and bought them out and just sends one each year until she runs out! One of my co-workers said I should line them up, date them, take a picture and make that our Christmas card!! Everyone would get a laugh because they all know how crazy she is anyway!!
I’ve always been overweight, and when I was about 9 or 10 my grandmother, who lived with us, bought me a stairmaster. Not a real stairmaster, just like a little cheap one that she probably ordered from a catalog. In retrospect I realize that she was probably just worried about my health and wanted me to exercise, and now that she’s no longer with us I wish I had acted differently, but when all you want for Christmas is the Barbie bride doll and you get a stairmaster, you’re bound to get upset. hehe. I cried and my mom yelled at my grandma (who was the most wonderful person I’ve ever known, btw) and told her to send it back. I don’t remember if she got me anything to replace it, but that still stands out as one of the oddest gifts I’ve ever gotten.
Also, last year my aunt got me one of those roll-up pianos that you see on tv. I play piano, I have a piano, so I’m not sure what she was thinking. She said she thought I could carry it with me and play in restaurants. Um. Okay then. hehe. I know it’s the thought that counts, but that one is still in the box in my closet. It doesnt’ work that well anyway. hehe.
I’ve been enjoying this thread. 
This is a great thread. I honestly can’t think of any odd gifts I’ve been given. But I sure am enjoying all of your stories. :teehee:
When we were young my grandfather used to give us the freebie gifts you got from time magazine subscriptions, for christmas. My brothers got a lot of alarm clocks, sports balls, I remember getting tupperware one year ( I was probably 8 or 9) Wish I could say he was an old man who meant well, but really he was just a cheap, mean old man, oh well!
Pet rock.
I got a chia herb garden. I don’t cook and my plants all die.
I also got a brew your own beer kit from my grandma. Though I love beer I am very lazy and would rather just go buy some than go through all the trouble of MAKING it:roflhard:
My brother got one of those last year. That was probably the worst beer I have ever tasted!!! And it stunk up the room he was brewing it in!
We had a secret santa exchange at my school where I taught, you were supposed to give a little something (like a card, or a piece of candy) each week in Dec. and then a bigger present ($20-25) at the end when you reveal yourself. I got nothing the whole time and then on the last day my santa handed me an unwrapped little box. It said “fabulous egg” (you know, like a Fabrege egg?) and it was a crappy ceramic egg that probably cost $1.99. My friend and co-teacher thought it was the most hilarious thing he had ever seen. I was so mad because I had really gone all out for my person. That was the last xmas exchange I signed up for…inner city public school teachers are nuts!