Bad Choices for Christmas Gifts for Adults and Children

Christmas is a time of giving and receiving, but not everything that is given as a Christmas gift has been well thought out, and similarly not everything that is received as a Christmas gift is appreciated.

Children are often easy to please when it comes to buying Christmas presents, but this is not true all of the time.

When you definitely know that a child wants a specific toy, book, movie or video game, then you know in advance that they are going to appreciate it as soon as they open the gift on Christmas Morning and see what it is.

That is of course unless they already opened a few presents and someone else bought them the same thing. Your very thoughtful gift then is thought of as "well why didn't they buy something I didn't have instead of something I already do", and although it's not your fault, it isn't seen that way, even though their parents tell them that they can take it back to the store and exchange it.

Even worse is the well meant gift of a book sent as a special gift to a child by an adult, but which the child takes one look at, and you just know that it will sit on the bookcase for eternity, and chances are the recipient will never even get past the first page.

Growing up I never had a lot of toys, most children just didn't years ago, but now you take a look at the gifts that children receive, and you wonder how they are going to find the time to play with them all.

I know that my daughters have been very spoiled over the years, and received videos/DVD's, video games, consoles, books, board games, other toys, just far more than they could ever use, and yet there is one thing that they rarely received - the gift of money.

Money is one of those gifts that we used to get while growing up with barely enough toys and books to keep us busy, and yet in these days where children ought to be encouraged to save money for the future, money is rarely given.

I am not sure why this is, but maybe it's because a gift speaks louder than cash, and some people are more embarrassed to give a child $10 in cash than to buy them a $10 gift.

One of the things that we always dreaded to receive growing up was clothes. There would always be the risk that Great Aunt Nelly (no not a real person) would knit you a hideous sweater, or that you would get underwear or socks. Well of course you needed those, but what you really needed for Christmas was so much more was TOYS and GAMES. You can't play with underwear and socks after all.

And then the worst gift of all - handkerchiefs. I mean - handkerchiefs! HANDKERCHIEFS! What would a small boy want with these anyhow. Nowadays of course handkerchiefs come in very handy as a Christmas gift, especially as I use them instead of blowing holes through the middle of a tissue (but that is another story), but when I was a small boy, well that was what your sleeves were for right!

When you reach adulthood you begin to appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into gift giving - or not, especially as now you have to do your own gift shopping.

There are those people who are really hard to buy for, and then there are those gifts that you received last year and didn't want, and you wonder who you can pass them on to this year, saving you the cost of buying something new, and of course reducing your store of accumulated unwanted gifts.

The process of re-gifting has been common for years, and in some ways it's a bit of an art form, since there is always someone that you have to buy for and don't want to spend a lot of money on, and then of course there is that stash of unwanted gifts that you want to find a home for.

The worst thing that you can do of course is to re-gift something to the person who gave it to you in the first place, or to someone who knows where it came from, so re-gifting is in fact quite a science if you are to do it craftily and to not get caught out.

And then of course in our modern society we have gifts that are more of an adult nature, the sort of secret gift that you might buy your boyfriend/girlfriend or spouse, but don't tell anyone about.

If you are going to do something like this, be sure that this isn't the only thing that you buy them for Christmas, since when their parents come to visit on Christmas Day and want to know what you gave their daughter for Christmas, you can't exactly explain it to her prudish mother, who would never understand, and you can't exactly just keep it a secret either and tell them that you can't say what it is.

Without a doubt this could turn out to be a very embarrassing moment indeed, so dear friends, if you are thinking of buying your other half something naughty to wear, or a special toy of some kind, please get them something else as well. That way, the only red face that will be seen at Christmas will be Santa's.

I have had a few bad gifts over the years, and I have known other people to have bad gifts as well, but how about you? I am sure that everyone has had an unwanted gift at some time or other. So come on, please leave a comment and let everyone know what bad Christmas gifts you have received.

Sources:

Personal experience

The Worst Gifts I Ever Received