Holidays
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
The worst gift you've ever received?
We all have at least one family member who is terrible at giving gifts. For an upcoming article, we want the know: what was your all-time worst holiday gift?
Re: The worst gift you've ever received?
Dh and I got a small keepsake box with a pic of us on the front. I know it was a nice thought, but I'm still really not sure what to do with it.
My mother-in-law loves to give me weird socks every year for Christmas.
We also got a cross for a wedding gift that was made of clothes pins.
DH's great-aunt is a nun. I've received quite a number of prayer books and religious thingies.
Don't have the heart to tell her I'm not Catholic...
One of my SILs makes her gifts every year, one year she gave everyone these tiny circles with beads on them. None of us know what they are for or even what to do with them.
Then another year, she tried to make sugar ornaments, but all they did was crumble apart as soon as you touched them.
That might be all she can afford??
Yeah, nuns live a life of poverty. Or at least they are supposed to. She most likely doesn't have money to buy much in the way of secular gifts.
When I was about 12 my grandma and grandpa gave me a small Avon music figurine. You are thinking - not such a bad gift, but....they gave my 14 year old brother a TV. I knew he was the favorite, but that was rough as a kid.
The TV is long since gone, my mom kept the music box. It is currently on a shelf in her living room as a reminder of the "discrepancy" and she and I manage to laugh about it 20+ years later. And, it reminds us to be "fair" in our gift giving to others.
I understand nuns live simply and do not have a lot of money, but she couldn't have afforded a $5 (or less) pair of socks? At least those would have been useful. I would have told her after 2 of those gifts to donate the money she would spend on gifts for us to charity.
My DH gave me a book of 10 car wash passes.
I just got a new car, so it was a thoughtful, useful gift, but I had a long list of girly things I would have rather had (purses, perfume, spa gift card) that were less than he spent on those passes. I was actually really diappointed but didn't have the heart to tell him. Lets hope he sticks to my list for Christmas this year.
My sister gave me a shirt that says "COCKS" in big letters across the front. She was living in SC and said she knew how much I liked funny shirts... har har har sis.
This is the same sister that when I was first dating DH and he came out to their house with us for Christmas wrapped a bag of coffee that they had been given a week earlier by a coworker as a gift for him
My MIL gave me 3 different but very similar bright red tablecloths for Christmas 2 years ago.
For my bridal shower MIL gave me 4 towel sets. Two sets were electric blue and two sets were hot pink. Ummmm...I registered for white towels...
MIL has also given me very country themed rooster stuff for my kitchen...however, my kitchen is yellow and red with a 1950s Fiesta Ware and vintage cookbook theme...not a rooster in sight...
It's still awkward though because you can't throw it away or donate it without feeling really guilty
I have to admit that gifts from my ILs are rather brutal and I always feel guilty about disliking them. DH's family is very big on watching people open gifts. I hate it at the best of times, but it is especially hard when you have to fake joy or when you're trying to figure out what the heck something is.
Last year was tough. I got something called a "copper spinner". It was this rather ugly, distresssed copper spiral thing with a bunch of multi-coloured beads in it. (I saw a display of them at a mall several months later and learned that they are a wind chime. Who knew?) I also got a combination scissor/knife thing with a small cutting board attached to one of the blades. Really hard to explain. It kind of looked like hedge clippers, but with square blades.
I think it was my MIL's way of telling me I should cook. DH does all the cooking - which she knows - so I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with those. (She often gives me odd cooking gadgets, which immediately get passed on to her son.)
I am not Catholic, not trying to push catholicism here. I think that maybe a nun living a life of poverty would give gifts that focus on the "reason for the season." She is giving faith based gifts, not secular gifts. I'm not trying to state any personal beliefs here, I'm just saying that to me this makes sense because she is a nun.
they were probably wine charms.
One year my aunt gave me a used pedicure set. I tried to 'forget' it at my grandma's house, but a week later it showed up in the mail. Ew.
DD: 6-24-11
EDD: 9-20-14