Well folks it’s getting to that time of year again…have you done your Christmas shopping? One of my favourite parts of Christmas is being able to spoil my special people…I’ve always loved giving gifts, and I especially enjoy putting a huge amount of thought into what I’m going to buy. Some people are easy to buy for, mainly due to the size of the hints they drop from around September onwards. Others are more difficult but I enjoy a challenge so it’s all good.
I was laughing with my friend earlier when we compared notes on our best and worst ever presents…my boy has got better in recent years. I still tease him about the Christmas he presented me with Season 2 of ‘Lost’ on DVD – I hadn’t seen season one, but he had and was desperate to see the second. Poetic justice was duly served when it took at least a couple more years before the big secret was revealed, and when it was nobody understood it, including him 🙂
As my friend and I were chatting, it occurred to me that some of the really shit presents I’ve received over the years probably contained more of a message than I’d realised at the time. I mean, not in quite the same league as waking up with a horse’s head in my bed, but when I reflect on the presents and who they came from, there was definitely some passive aggressive gifting going on, I was just a bit too naive to clock it at the time.
A couple of years ago I got a ‘tangle tease’ hairbrush as my ‘Secret Santa’ gift at work – for those of you who haven’t seen them, they’re guaranteed to basically brush out a birds nest, and this was before they were really popular so some cheeky knacker had clearly gone out of their way to go looking for one. I felt like conducting some kind of interrogation to find out who thought that was funny, but since I work in human resources and we’re supposed to be nice people I decided that might not be my best ever idea.
Then there was the Christmas when my ex mother-in-law bought everyone in the family Christmas jumpers to wear to her annual Christmas Eve dinner…now I adore Christmas jumpers, they never fail to make me smile, and there were some lovely ones. Happy snowmen, jolly reindeers, robins and crackers. Mine? Biggest fucking Christmas pudding jumper you’ve ever seen. Bitch! Mind you I did get my own back the following day when a bit of nifty thinking and a swift re-wrap meant I was able to present her with her very own pre-read hardback copy of ‘The Sociopath Next Door’…sadly I suspect she was too dim to make the connection but it made me feel a bit better.
I’d love to think that over the years I haven’t committed any absolute howlers myself – well, all except maybe the Jackie annual I gave my best friend when we were about eight years old. I might have accidentally filled in the quiz about Donny Osmond before I wrapped it up, but it was only in pencil, and once I’d rubbed out my answers you could hardly tell. I guess it’s always possible that someone somewhere may be harbouring a long-standing resentment over an ill-chosen gift, but I hope not!
I shall keep my fingers crossed this year that Santa remembers my fondness for handbag tokens…can’t go wrong with those, right? 🙂
I really hate Christmas swaps and secret Santas because I put a lot of time into thinking about the recipient. What would s/he like? What would be special for him/her? And you end up with a crap gift that has no thought into it. My mother-in-law, God bless her heart, when she was in the earlier stages of her dementia would buy everyone clothes that were like six sizes too small. I would look at the pajamas that were a girls’ size 12, while I was a woman’s size X-Large and say “Oh, Betty, these are perfect” and grimace as I put them in the Salvation Army bag. Now we visit her in the home and bring her candy and she tells us about her day at work. She’s so much happier now!!
Anyway, I have learned to just buy my own Christmas gift. I tell my husband, “I want this” and I buy it and wrap it and he gets to put the tag on it from him. I’d rather get what I want and have it than get something else. It’s a crap shoot that’s too expensive to miss.
Very good idea 🙂
My husband, who is beyond lovely, gave me a scale for my birthday a few years ago. I think he still has the mark on his forehead when I flung it at him. It is a fancy one that synchs with fitbit but still. A mistake he won’t make again!
Oh that’s sooo funny, bless him!
My Sweetie mostly gives me what he would want. He knows we need dishes, he buys the ones he likes, not the ones i like, and gives them to me as a gift, that sort of thing. After 30 years, i just laugh about it, it is what it is.
Well if it doesn’t worry you there’s no problem, right? I hope you’re cheeky enough to do the same tho! 🙂
I honestly cannot remember receiving any awful gifts (except one from my grandmother when I was ten)), but boy can I relate to those passive aggressive ones you mentioned. I do hope you have a wonderful, dear Christmas with all you hold dear. It’s a fun time of year mostly, isn’t it? 🙂
It is Djan…we’re getting our Christmas tree tomorrow, so exciting 🙂
Snort
Lost season 2
That’s classic – and a typical ‘boy’ thing I would guess – I’ve had some doozies too – won’t even get involved in the inlaw conversation but I think my FIL could use that book 🙂
It’s a real eye opener!