Hey Dory....

For my 10th birthday, I really wanted a fish. They got me a fishbowl, those decorative rocks and fish food. But no fish. They said i could just imagine there was a fish lmfao. krobus-stinky

I kinda shrugged it off. 

My dad once got me a boombox that could only be used in his room/stored in his room. That I also couldn't use without his permission. So basically he bought himself a boombox. Aurelius1212

My Dad remarried, adopted her kids, and moved to another state. He was normally a very good gift giver... but one year he decided to buy a very expensive set of tools for me for Christmas because I was 18 and going off into the world. Except that it was a gift for both myself and my brother to share so it had to stay in that other state with my 8 year old brother.

I kinda shrugged it off. I assume it had something to do with my Stepmom wanting things to be fair since the tools were so expensive.

Must've sucked to be an 8 year old who got a bunch of tools to share that he was probably never allowed to touch when all he really wanted was a Pokémon game or something. I've never asked my brother about that, gonna have to see if he remembers. RagnarLothbrook

"make a point."

It wasn't so much the gift, it was the circumstances. I had some friends who were secretly trying to raise money to help me take care of my dying dad. They'd told a mutual friend of theirs about it, a very wealthy woman who was an attorney. So, on my birthday, she thought it would be appropriate to send me a woven bag as a gift, with a card in it detailing how I needed to not be a beggar, I needed to pull myself up by my bootstraps, I needed to stop asking people like her who were well off for money (I hadn't, my friends had asked her to contribute to a fund they were making), and how I could eventually be a decent person and not such a poor.

I received the gift during my birthday party, and had a complete meltdown that ended up with sending everyone home. She knew I'd grown up homeless, she knew I'd struggled and was finally doing well enough to rent a house on my own, and I had a really good job. She just wanted to "make a point." maybesbabies

They don't know me. 

Every year I get a gift basket from my dad and step mom. It includes coffee from the clearance section of ross, a bottle of wine, and lots of other clearance stuff from Ross. I don't drink, I can't drink coffee. I sound ungrateful, but I'd rather just get a card. They don't know me. Murrmaidthefurrmaid

Domino.

My brother ALWAYS brings this up every Christmas, but back when I was going through grades 1-4 (US) back in the 90's, we would do a class gift exchange. It was one of those setups where everyone buys one present to put into a pile at the center of the room, then numbers are drawn and each kid gets the present that corresponds to the number they drew, so it was completely random what present you ended up with. Somehow I ended up getting a box of dominoes every. damn. year. When I got the box of dominoes in fourth grade, I burst out crying. I still don't really know how to play dominoes. CharredSteak05

the list goes on and on.....

My grandma was the queen of bad gifts. Because she would just give you whatever she had, or something she had found at the store but completely related to her and not to the person receiving the gift... I got a few used ( by her ) nightgowns, books in English when I couldn't understand English well yet as a kid, books to learn German when I was not learning German in any shape or form at school and already had to learn English and Italian for school.

Brand Pens ( like the ones you get in hotels) old makeup, old used bags or shoes she had found at the flea market, a tourist book about a city I had never been at... the list goes on and on... she was great though. Not a good person per se, but She made up for all the mistakes in her life by being a great grandma. onecomment-atatime

Orange....

Orange flavored tic-tacs. The only thing is they weren't orange anymore, my aunt had sucked on them all to get the orange flavoring off and put them back in the container. They were just a clump of stuck together white tic-tacs. It was very confusing for 6 year old me. skibikehike

Talk to Harry. 

When I was little I was super into reading and my grandparents would always give me books way below my reading level. Like I'd be reading Harry Potter and they'd give me me those books they give you in school to teach you how to read. I'd always be excited about book shaped gifts but then really disappointed when I opened it. Martian_Pudding

For Sale.

My ex mother in law gave me a mason jar with the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies in it. Which was fine, until my ex sister in law (who had Down syndrome) chimes in "we got it at a garage sale". Who knows how old the ingredients were. ladymeowskers

Sad Holiday. 

My adopted mother kept track of how much money she spent raising me, and one Christmas (years after I had moved out) sent me a card with "I'm taking $500 off your debt to me for Christmas." hobbitdude13