‘What’s the worst Christmas present you’ve ever had?’ – 22 magic-destroying disappointments

Like it or not, Christmas is just around the corner, which means it’s time to start thinking about the items you’ll be carefully choosing for your loved ones.

Or, more accurately, hastily purchasing from Amazon with two days to spare. Buying the perfect gift can be tricky, but help is at hand in figuring out what you should avoid. Over on the AskUK subreddit, user cloumorgan asked:

‘What’s the worst Christmas present you’ve ever had?’

And lots of people jumped in with the things they were given which crushed their festive dreams.

1.

‘Probably the second-hand jigsaw with a piece missing and a label saying 10p.

‘I wouldn’t have minded, seeing as I liked jigsaws and knew my grandparents were skint – until going round to my cousin’s and seeing the beautiful sets of watercolour paints and stuff they’d got from the grands.’
–DameKumquat

2.

‘One year I got 56 (!!!) pairs of socks, while my stepbrother got a new Xbox and my sister got a laptop.’
–burgeremoji

3.

‘My grandmother was an alcoholic. She once gave me a box she had put together for Christmas. It contained the following –

-one shoe
-a half pack of plasters
-a tube of KY jelly
-seven books about Princess Anne
-a packet of instant mash

‘That was probably the worst and weirdest gift ever.’
–Good-Gur-7742

4.

‘My Nan got me tights every year in a nasty diarrhoea shade called American Tan. Never wore any of them.’
–FuckedupUnicorn

5.

‘A hosepipe. I was really excited for this big present under the tree, I’d just bought my first house that year and there was loads of stuff that I’d dropped hints that I needed. A hosepipe was not one of them.’
–b_of_the_bang_

6.

‘Cheap plastic soldier that I left by the fire. I then went to pick it up and it melted on my hand and ended up in hospital with serious burn damage.’
–Inkblot7001

7.

‘My mum likes to always bring up my dad getting her pot pourri. Two decades on, long after their divorce, she still has that stuff on the windowsill in the spare room.’
–TheAdmirationTourny

8.

‘Pack of 3 blank VHS tapes and a packet of plain digestive biscuits from my Nan, she was away with the fairies at that point sadly but a memorable present to laugh about now she’s gone.’
–Implematic950

9.

‘My dad once put his electric razor in a box and taped it up, didn’t have the plastic insert or anything, just a loose razor rolling around in the box. I brought it up years later, he vehemently insisted it was brand new from Argos.’
–MysteriousTelephone

10.

‘We had a family friend ‘Uncle Ken’ who would buy the most random stuff for Christmas and birthdays. For example, once I received an onion, some out-of-date Oxo cubes, a light bulb and some pasta delivered in a Home Bargains plastic bag.

‘Thing is, we loved it – you never knew what the ‘Ken present’ would be and it was always fun to find out. Ken lived alone and didn’t have any family so we became the closest thing he had.

‘Fast forward to a few years ago and he sadly passed away with cancer. My parents stepped up and took care of him and his affairs in his final days and were surprised to learn upon his passing that he’d left his house to them.

‘We all miss Ken and his eccentric ‘Ken presents’ very much. It was always just appreciated that he thought about us.’
–AccordingYesterday38

11.

‘My great aunt always bought me sets of notecards and envelopes so that I could write and say thank you for the present (the notecards and envelopes). She was a character.’
–StephaneCam