I’ll preface this by saying I was only about 8 when I gave this gift. After my parents got divorced, my Mom took in some foster daughters. She was a full-time student and worker and she thought it would be win-win. The foster sister could look after me and my sisters while my Mom was at school or work. This was in the…

When I turned 16, my parents said I was now “allowed to smoke”. They celebrated with a carton of Marlboro for my gift. 

I went to a coworker’s bridal shower; I was around 23 at the time and completely clueless about these things. At the shower were me, 2 or 3 of her other friends/coworkers, and her very prim 50 something boss.

Back in the 60s/early 70s when smoking was still common that is what we routinely got my grandparents because it was an affordable gift. Amazingly neither died of lung cancer or emphysema. They did quit in their 60s and lived a few decades more.

I can only hope that the Space Force’s motto becomes “May the Force be with you” because if it doesn’t, someone dropped the ball.

A lot of these stories have made me laugh out loud. I haven’t laughed a lot this year, so I consider this thread to be very positive. None of these posts are mean spirited.

Well she sounds mature 🙄. The baby manners book was inspired haha.

Excellent! My godmother is a 3-pack-a-day smoker and also a huge right-wing asshat. One year I was guilted into getting her a gift, so I got her a carton of pall malls and no one was particularly thrilled and I've not been compelled to get her anything since. 

That’s not a bad gift; that’s a nice gift at a bad time.

A high school friend had a cat he was very fond of. This cat was his baby. First day back after Christmas break, I surprised him with a “fancy” (for a 14 year old) collar studded with fake gems and new name tag, and a fleecy cat pillow.

Hell yeah. In my first job, there was a secret Santa gift exchange - one woman on my assembly line got a gift-wrapped bag of dog shit.

This was an especially bad gift for so many reasons.

My poor dad was the victim of my terrible taste, unawareness of time periods, and eager enthusiasm at least twice.

I worked at the corporate office of a fairly large company at the time. For our holiday party, which included our partners, we chose names in order to participate in the “White Elephant” gift exchange. I happened to choose someone I thought was pretty fun and funny. For her gift, I gave her a beautifully wrapped,…

Once upon a time, my best friend (a guy, completely platonic) got married. Then I got a real, grown up job. These unrelated events found me trying to catch up to years of generous gift giving from a guy who had a real grown up job for a lot longer. (He got me my first vibrator, which I know seems to make it seem not…

FWIW I would have loved to get a present like that. What's more, that took guts to give it to him publicly. Respect.

(Last time this was done heaps of people posted about shitty gifts they’d received, not that they’d given, which is interesting too but not the same thing. Read the header, this is about personal embarrassment today, people!)

I’m not proud, but this is anonymous so...

My uncle and I have the same birthday. So we always get each other small gifts. When I was in college and had no money, I saw a 3 liter of store brand Dr Pepper called “Dr. Thunder” . We all laughed when he unwrapped it.

What do you get the woman who has everything? My grandmother used to smoke a lot, so for Christmas one year I got her a carton of Kent 100s.  My parents were not pleased.