It can be low effort, passive-aggressive, insulting or derogatory towards your convictions.

  • Hellnikko ( Hellnikko@lemmy.ml ) 
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    il y a 2 ans

    I was given 30 quarters that had letters and numbers on each one in a black velvet pouch. If you put them in a certain order, it had a message. The quarters went in year order. The message was a Bible passage according to Matthew. It was when Judas was given 30 silver for betraying Jesus.

    The context, I told one of our friends that the gifter was trying to get with his wife while he was deployed. He denied and then made me feel like shit to insinuate such a thing. Turns out, it was true.

    I still have the quarters so I could give them back some day.

  • Gerudo ( Gerudo@lemm.ee ) 
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    il y a 2 ans

    Not me, but my wife.

    She receives an envelope from her grandmother, oh cool, money!
    She opened it and it was empty. Okay, no fuss she probably forgot to fill one when making all of them for the family. A week later, she told her grandma it was empty. Her grandma replied “No! There’s no way it was empty, your mistaken.” This is par for the course. She ignores my wife all the time and talks down to her.

    So an empty envelope is the worst I’ve seen.

  • My sister gifted me the third book of a fantasy trilogy series once.
    I never read or got the first two books.

    Also, when I was little, my grandma (who hated me with passion) bought me a pink bike just to piss me off, because she thought a boy wouldn’t ever like that color. I rode that bike until I was too tall to use it and every time she saw me enjoying that thing she was furious. :)

  • DJDarren ( DJDarren@thelemmy.club ) 
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    il y a 2 ans

    My gran once gave me a toilet brush. The base had penguins floating in blue liquid, but it was ultimately just a cheap toilet brush.

    I gave her a beautiful marble maze.

    I didn’t bother after that.

  • I had an aunt and uncle who, when I was a kid maybe 12, were not well off. They got my brother and I each this toyset that was like make pretend welding. It had a hand tool that, if I remember, let you weld with this soft plastic to make things with the parts in the kit.

    It also had a chamber near the nozzle that spun and contained something that made a bunch of sparks.

    Well… The thing kept zapping and burning me. Kinda hurt. So, being 12, I complained about it.

    And of course, I was an ingrate for not liking the toy they could afford instead of a Lego set or something. The worst of it was I got what my parents meant, my aunt and uncle were kind of ashamed. But it burned me.

    Hell I thought it was really cool, and even said so, but I couldn’t keep playing with it due to, you know, my hand being red and kinda cut up.

    Just bad times all around.

    And no, no one suggested put a glove on, and it did not come with one.

  • dfi ( dfi@lemmy.nz ) 
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    il y a 2 ans

    My mom’s boyfriend got me this huge present that just fit under the tree, the gift was pretty heavy. I racked my brain trying to figure out what it was, had no idea. Got to be honest i was a little hyped up to open this thing, even though my opinion of the boyfriend was average

    Christmas day I finally get to find out what it is. open the box and it was a Microwave; a second hand microwave. He had replaced his, wasn’t even a good microwave (5 minutes to boil a cup of water) Mom already had a microwave and i was 14 years old.

  • Call me Lenny/Leni ( shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee ) Banned
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    il y a 2 ans

    Someone sent me what they referred to as a self-help DVD that was just some motivational speaker type of person invalidating my issues. A virus in the DVD also temporarily destroyed my friend’s DVD player in the process of playing it.

  • Schlemmy ( Schlemmy@lemmy.ml ) 
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    il y a 2 ans

    Pizza baking sheets. They didn’t fit in my oven.

    A paella pan. I don’t like paella.

    A coffee grinder. It just doesn’t grind coffee beans to the right size.

    A random Italian cookbook. I have a chefs degree. I’m well down with basic Italian cooking.

    See, I cook every day. Twice. And on occasion I love to cook for friends but that also means I’m over poor quality cooking stuff. I’ll buy my own gear. Most people think they do me a favour but I just have useless stuff piling up over the years. I’m grateful to get gifts but last year I just told people right a way that if they want to give me cooking related gifts I would be equally happy with some special sort of salt of some fun ingredients to cook with. Those things don’t last as long but it would make for a much better gift for a food enthousiast.

    • tetris11 ( tetris11@lemmy.ml ) 
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      il y a 2 ans

      same. Don’t buy me electronics. I’m too much of a snob to use what you bought. Either stick to the Christmas wish list we all agreed on, or keep the receipt.

      • Mesa ( Mesa@programming.dev ) 
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        il y a 2 ans

        All the computer mice, headphones, and keyboards…

        The connector cable it comes with will spend 10,000x as much time in my hand than the item you intended to give me.

  • Truffle ( Truffle@lemmy.ml ) 
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    il y a 2 ans

    Too small clothes so I’d be excited to go on a diet and lose weight… as an already very sick underweight teen with an eating disorder who wasn’t a wize zero “but you’ll get there”

    Paulo Cohelo’s garbage books to “help me with my constant depression that keeps bringing everyone down and you like books, no?”

    Stuffed animal toy thay was first intended for a baby shower but the mom didn’t want it so “why should it go to waste if you can have it as a birthday present”

    Plastic surgery offering as a sweet sixteen present “so you can feel beautiful”

    Professional acne treatment (Accutane) as a birthday present because “Oh you poor thing need it”

    A used and stained old yellow blouse “because it will make you look happier” I hate yellow.

    And the list goes on lol. That was growing up and it is one of the many reasons why I am no contact with all of those people.

    Now as an independent adult in a stable loving relaionship surrounded by nice genuine friends, I actually get very thoughtful and beautiful gifts. Some expensive, some with no monetary cost.

  • My sister wanted me to be the Godfather to her children. She considered it a “gift.”

    I’m an atheist. I told her explicitly “Hey, you remember I’m an atheist, right?” Part of this whole Godfather business is making a promise to raise them religiously if their parent dies. I thought I was being considerate and kind by being honest that I did not want to be a Godfather because I could not in good conscience make such a promise.

    Nope, I’m the bad guy, not the person who knew I was atheist and decided to not respect that at all anyway by asking me to be a Godfather to begin with.

  • Not the gift itself, but the response.

    First of all, even before Christmas I said I’d prefer NO GIFTS at all. Regardless, my dad got me some inkjet HP printer. I thanked him for it, but asked him that we’d return it. I tried to be respectful, but regardless, he got mad at me and didn’t talk with me for like 2 days.

    Later he sent me the money for it and asked me to buy something for it and show him what it was. I do not know why I couldn’t just keep it as extra money, but oh well, it had to be spent on something.
    I got a refurbished ThinkPad for that. Pretty good device, by far beating value of HP inkjet. I even got it with a 2 year warranty (without extended) like with a new device, while only 1 year is required.

    • bobs_monkey ( bobs_monkey@lemm.ee ) 
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      il y a 2 ans

      My mom knows I’m always buying tools for work (electrician) and computer-related parts/devices. She still has trouble wrapping around the idea that I don’t want (as much as I sincerely do appreciate the gesture) anything in those arenas due to specificity of requirement, that and most things of that nature tend to be expensive. She still buys little random things from Home Depot, like last year she bought this wrist cuff thing with magnets on it. Great idea on paper, but not in the field. At this point she’s getting older so I kinda just humor her.