What is the strangest gift you have ever received...

Mine was moldy jelly :(

Trish

Well, this season, so far, I was given a redwood tree sapling by a client with his logo on the plastic container.

Kathy, that qualified as my best afternoon laugh!

Well just think Kathy that in a few hundred years you will have a nice tree. :)

Anthony

Some icky fruitcake that stunk up the whole house! Went straight in the garbage.

Well maybe this isn't the strangest gift but certainly the funniest....my dear husband bought me orange satin hot pants one year :eek: :rolleyes:

Suzie, that's better than the visor wallet that Mark got me one year. I still won't let him forget that one!

Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking when they buy a gift. If he bought those trees (he bought 100 of them - I know because I am the bookkeeper! - at $8.00 each including mailing) for his clients and business contacts, what will they think. Do you think I am really going to water it and then find a 1 gallon container, replant it and then in three months replant it in the ground? A Giant redwood tree?

Last year a financial planner sent Frank and I a ornamental tree that was all theses berry thingys in a cone of foam from the Crate and Barrel catalog. He's Jewish and so are we. I cannot fathom what we are supposed to do with it. It's the kind you might group as a centerpiece, but a solitary one looks funny by itself.

Oprah had show on recently about people who save the gifts they don't like and recycle them the next year to other friends - general feeling was it was tacky and cheap - I have a friend who does this - I have told her I ever get one my gifts back that's the end of exchanging with her - we got a small painting one year (looked like paint by numbers... of animals...I couldn't tell the horse from the cat) from a neighbor who really considered herself an artist (unlike the real McCoy Arlene) She is now deceased so it went to Goodwill -

One year my brother gave me this enormous framed Georgia O'Keefe print. It was this huge purple flower thing, very contemporary looking. This was at a time when we were living in a small condo, without a single spot on a wall anywhere to put such a monstrosity. Not to mention that our condo was decorated in a very traditional country-French/antique style (as is our home today), so that it would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

I paid him back -- I sent him homemade peach jam. Might have been moldy. ;)

As a thank you gesture for my hosting a meeting, the president of the group gave me a small wrapped gift which I later opened. It was a can of Russell Stover hard candies which had been opened and half eaten! Frankly, I was quite insulted and obviously, haven't forgotten it! (The lady? could buy and sell most of us!)

The worst gift I have ever received was when I was a teen. We had a family gathering where the kids exchanged gifts. My idiotic aunt and uncle gave me... (are you ready)

A MANICURE SET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk about being mad.

Anthony

For our first Christmas together my husband (just boyfriend at the time) gave me jumper cables and a roadside safety kit! He will NEVER live that one down. <img border="0" alt="[c]" title="" src="graemlins/c.gif" />

Oh wait...I forgot one...this has to take the cake. This was a number of years ago...I had recently had a couple of surgeries and had accordingly gained some weight due to my inability to exercise. It was really bugging me at the time, and I was feeling very self-concious. My husband gave me...(drum roll)...exercise clothes! I coulda killed him.

Anthony from the number of guys I see at my nail place getting manicures and pedicures your aunt and uncle may have been ahead of the times - Joanna

I once received a collander. Alan recently received a faucet.

Unfortunately, I was the giver. When I was much younger, I decided that it would be nice to give Diana something for Christmas that she would truly enjoy. Another drum roll please......

So I bought her a quadraphonic lear jet stereo system for OUR car! Then to top it off, just to make sure that nobody stole this wonderful gift, I had them install a super duper alarm system in our car.

Now here is what was priceless. The car that I installed this $1000 stereo and alarm system in....

A Green 1973 Chevy Vega Station Wagon with a 3-speed manual transmission worth about $700 tops!!! :eek:

I still remember that morning at my parents house, when I managed to surprise her by having it installed and waiting for her in the garage on Christmas morning. I took her by the hand, opened the door to the car, turned up the music, and tears started streaming down her face and we're not talking about tears of joy here. I think the next words which came from my mom explained the situation the best. "Donnie, what in the world were you thinkin'?"

Hey, I was young!!! What can I say?

For Christmas one year my mother gave me a doormat. That alone made it odd but the weirdest part was that it was emblazoned with a religious symbol of a faith to which I do not belong. The room got very quiet when I opened up that particular little number. I could never bring myself to wipe my feet on what to many people is a sacred symbol so I kept it in the garage for a year and brought it out whenever she came over, then I quietly recycled it. Even the kids, who were teenagers at the time, knew not to say anything at the time but later commented that they thought it was a tad strange.

Don that is a great one. Joanna, maybe you are right and I might would appreciate it more now, but then I was annoyed to say the least. oh well..


Anthony

Well you were a teenager, Anthony - come on!!!

Seems that the most with $$$ give the cheapest gifts - such is life but I'll never understand it -

Oh man love this! Thanks for the chuckle today.. I needed it bad.......

oh Marna Lou.. thanks to you for this one too..

LOL.. about Re- gifting.. I have a box up where all the "holiday" cute stuff lie.. containing "strange" things given to Al and I from over the years..
I couldn't give that stuff to anyone.. but it appeared the other night and my step daughter and I just had a great laugh.. in one box:
A huge manger scene, unopened from Costco and I mean HUGE..that reminds me of MarnaLous' doormat..this was given to us, by my mothers boyfriend at the time.. HELLO- Jewish..and mom always wore the hugest star of David.. ( Snoop dog would probably buy that from me).. it just still cracks me up..
a "tape" about the life of Einstein?
A cd/ and attached cookbook about jazz and cooking Parisian style ( although we both looked at each other and said hey.. we should play that..
if anyone loves Einstein would be happy to gift that to ya..

Claudia, if I ever receive a tape about the life of Einstein from you, I am now going to know it was a regift!!

Marsha, your door mat story reminded me of a memory that I must of repressed all these years. When I was about 13, my mother bought me a rattan throw rug.

Claudia, we aim to please!!!

Sorry, I have a THEORY about excepting any gifts that have to do with Einstein. They must come from RELATIVES! (Sorry, it's the best that I can do in the morning)

Claudia: Loved the manger story -

A former boyfriend gave me a fire extinguisher one year for Chrismtas. (luckily, still unused) That may be one of the reasons he is my FORMER boyfriend!!!

A FIre Extinguisher?
Hmmm - I'll bet there is more to that story that you are not telling us! <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" />

I think I may have posted this here last year, but I once bought my mother a bottle of Deodorant for Hanukah!
She took it well! <img border="0" alt="[c]" title="" src="graemlins/c.gif" />

OK, OK - to make a long story short. My father was hopitalized with a heart attack when I was only 10. I had very little money as he was our sole bread winner. But I scraped together whatever I could to get my mom something. I had no idea what. So I went to the local drugstore where I knew she shopped, and looked around until I saw something that I knew she bought. Thus the deodorant. I had no idea at that time what it was used for. OOPS.
But remember - it's the THOUGHT that counts!

I love ( loved ) that story.. I recall you told us about that before Gil.
Beth.. a fire extingusher ? Perhaps he was telling you "You're Hot!"..maybe should have kept him

Gil, I think that's totally sweet. It's really amazing that at that age you saw to her having a present on Hanukah during what had to be a difficult time in the family. I think most 10-year-old boys would have gotten their moms a GI Joe or a comic book or something like that.

When Betty had her 40th birthday I bought her some very expensive "anti-wrinkle" cream. She has never forgotten that!!!
David

David: Obviously she forgave you and you're still married - her skin looks good to me!!!

That was 34 years ago and she still is beautiful -even if she doesn't use excessive powder asd paint!!
(She has never forgiven me!!!

David.

David, that is funny! I guess a bath scale is probably not a very good idea either! LOL

Wow Anthony! You lucky guy!!! :ohmy: :(

Trish

This is going to be the Year of the Strangest Gifts. I got a hatbox from a friend. A cardboard hatbox with a bottle of wine photo motif. I opened the box thinking it contained a gift inside - it did - another hat box with the same photo on it. A total of three hat boxes. And the same day I gave my hairdresser a box of biscotti and an extra tip, he gave me an African Wood Carved oblisk thing I don't know what to do with. Too bad I don't have any parties where we're playing the White Elephant Game this Christmas.

Kathy, I've seen the hatboxes at Tuesday Morning and a couple of other places. Supposed to use them in your home decor. Sounds like the oblisk may have come from Cost Plus World Market. If not too big, you could save as a MUSH gag gift?

The hatboxes are okay for storage, but, I don't think they are quite the display material. The carving, well, Frank is making a run to Council House Thrift Store. It'll be interesting to see how they value it as a charitible donation.

Got an original painting from a good friend who actually is an artist. When we knew he was coming to stay with us we hung up his painting where he could see it when he walked into our house. Later that night he said he appreciated that we had hung up his art work but suggested it might look better if we hung it right side up. I thought it looked ok. oh well