Monday, December 21, 2020

You Shouldn't Have; No, Really, You Shouldn't Have - Part III - December 21, 2009

In honor of National Regifting Day last week, we've been asking our fellow Yahoo!s to tell us about the best and worst gifts they ever received. While some of them (hand-knit sweaters, earrings) were pretty cool, others (the knockoff dolls and perfume) were not so much.

As we draw closer to the last-minute frenzy of the gift-buying and -giving seasons, we conclude our look at great and crappy presents with our final presents to you in the hopes that, as you shop, you stop and think before you take out your wallet.

Adam: Age 15. After a few years playing a hand-me-down guitar, my folks got me a brand new one. I just passed the 20-year mark of playing that same guitar. There's something very cool and special about giving someone a musical instrument when the time is right. My rule: never sell a musical instrument. Always give it away to someone who will play it.

Helene K.: For my 25th birthday (or maybe it was my 21st?), I got The Book of Penises from some "friends." I was very, very embarrassed when I opened it in the middle of a formal party and prayed that my mom wouldn't find it! So, yeah... that was the worst one.

The best gift was my first
bike.

Mike: My most memorable -- and therefore, the "best" -- gift I ever received was when I was 11 years old. 1983. The slingshot-type game Battleground: Crossbows and Catapults. I don't remember if there were actual rules to the game. My friend and I just loved to double/triple-wind up the rubber band on the crossbows and shoot that hockey puck-type disc at each other's castles. Or even better, we'd fire it up high with the catapult from the dining room to the family room. And it was just as much fun to build your castle as sturdy as you could so that it would take some serious rubber band windin' and crossbow/catapult flingin' to bring it down. My parents sure got their money's worth on that one, since I honestly think I played it far past the following Christmas. Dang, all this reminiscing makes me wanna play it again! Time to check eBay....

Liz: My best gift and worst gift are the same item. When I was a kid, some well-meaning family member always got me slipper socks, and I always hated them. As an adult, I now live in them and I hope to get slipper socks under the tree.

Heather: The best Christmas gift I've received in recent years was a counted cross-stitch Christmas tree skirt. It took my mother over a year to make, and it's an heirloom I intend on passing along to my own children someday. My brother will be the last to get one.

JoAnne: When I was in 4th grade, the class had a gift exchange. I ended up with the oddly-shaped box that everyone was curious about. I was so excited! I tore it open, and found I was the proud owner of a lime-green plastic tissue box cover. (That was the worst gift, in case you weren't sure.)

My mom knit Christmas stockings for my three sisters and me to hang. As is often the case with the youngest child, by the time she got to mine, she had run out of both the fuzzy yarn for
Santa's beard and the jingle bells. Sigh. The jingle bell issue was addressed later (possibly around the time of the lime green tissue box cover, come to think of it...), but wait, my parents weren't through with me yet. My stocking disappeared from their boxes of decorations. "It might have been in the box of junk I threw out when I was cleaning the garage." Although I was an adult by then, I was devastated, having reached the age when things family members made with love were incredibly dear. Many years later, as my parents, three sisters, three brothers-in-law, and their six kids opened their gifts, I opened mine. My stocking! My original stocking! I burst into tears of joy and ran from the room. As I fled down the hall, I heard someone say, "See? I told you she'd cry when she opened that." It was the best gift ever.

Jessica J: Apparently, when my mom was asked one Christmas what I wanted for Christmas, she told all my relatives, "Buy her some
dishtowels."

And that was all I got.

Dishtowels.

Twelve sets of dishtowels.

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