Have we ever had a thread like this, being gifts you got the embarrassed you? My mom once gave me a girdle! I was in my early 20s, not overweight. I don’t know what possessed her. This was before Spanxx, way before. Then she also gave me and my then-sister-in-law Epiladys (leg hair removers). That wasn’t so bad, but still too personal. I am sure I have mortified some family member at some point as well. Anyone else?
All I can say is Thank goodness for gift cards. Christmas shopping is so much easier now. And yes, that’s what my nephews and nieces ask for.
Amen on the gift cards! And Amazon wish lists. I am grateful to family members who actually say what they want, since they know they’re getting a gift no matter what. It makes shopping less stressful.
Not Christmas but eons ago when I got married my mother loved to give me sexy nighties. Very embarrassing for a twenty some year old in front of her great aunts.
Sorry. I have to go against the crowd. I hate gift cards. So characterless. This thread is great. It will help me avoid buying an embarrassing gift.
For my nieces and nephews, I generally do a gift card + a smaller gift that I think they might like. The smaller gift provides the “character,” while the gift card lets them get something they would actually like.
One time quite a few years ago, I gave a wallet to a nephew (my husband’s sister’s son) in a family that had a tradition of putting money in gifts of that type, while my family did not. That’s probably my main goof.
I can’t imagine being embarrassed by a gift, but something odd might be hilarious. I’m assuming you aren’t opening it up in front of the gift giver.
My embarrassing gift scenario was as the giver. My grandparents had moved to assisted living, didn’t have much money, and had a tiny tree. They used to love Christmas many years earlier, and made a huge deal out of it, to the point that they would even wrap up household items like toilet paper for each other, so they had more presents to open.
I had a trip to San Francisco, and spent the day shopping for them, getting small personalized items to make up a large gift basket. Gourmet food, Christmas ornaments, train and cat items that they’d like. Then instead of putting them in a basket, I wrapped them up individually and shipped them in a large box, for them to open at Christmas.
Instead of opening them at Christmas, they waited till I visited a week later, and opened them in front of me. I don’t know what they were expecting, but I didn’t make a lot of money, and I had spent a good deal for this and plenty of effort. They’d open one…silence…“Oh look, cheese”. Silence. “Crackers”. Silence. “An ornament”. What had they thought these packages were? It was so embarrassing, kind of scarred me from doing something like that again!
Yes, embarrassing/offensive gifts. Back in the day when panty hose were worn to work with business suits and pants rarely seen, my mother would gift me with Control Top hose. I have always been on the thin side. I finally asked if she felt I was overweight. No, but my sister was and she bought us the same gifts. @LBowie, I can so relate!
The other favorite gift was underpants which would be opened in front of the extended family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins including male cousins. This was when I was in high school. What was she thinking???
I thought one of my kids loved opening anything. I learned that opening a practice workbook of “fun” arithmetic problems was not a good Christmas morning experience.
I have a very weird gift story! My family met a lovely family at a vacation resort about five years ago and we have all stayed in touch through Facebook. Shortly after my daughter started college, the woman told me she had a graduation gift to send her. I was very surprised but offered her my daughter’s school address. Well, my daughter called me a week later and told me she received a tiny violin in a case, with a note stating that it had been bought for this woman’s daughter at the age of three, was never used, and perhaps my daughter would enjoy it! Now, my daughter is a viola player but the violin/viola confusion is common. But I thought even someone who knows very little about musical is nstruments would réal se that an adult and a toddler wouldn’t use the same size instrument, especially a violin!
The thing is, she clearly meant well and it was so sweet of her to want to send it. But it was so strange!
When I was around 15 or 16, I had a strange Christmas. Every gift I opened was pajamas. Both sets of grandparents, both sets of aunts and uncles. (Luckily, none were present.) We didn’t have much money, and I always looked forward to any special gift from these relatives, which was usually a sweater or shirt. They were also all from out of state stores we didn’t have locally.
The worst part was that one aunt and uncle sent me a see-through, baby doll style negligee. It was really beautiful, pale lavender, and really see-through! My mom, dad, and I kept looking back and forth at each other like what in the world??? We settled on hoping it was a mistake and meant for someone else. I was a prude, so was horrified by that gift.
When I was about 12 my brother-in-law gave me a hard rock record album. I was mortified that I got “druggie music” and it had a bad word on it. I was very sheltered and backward (I was into pop music or country). I hid that album and would not play it for years. I was so embarrassed. Of course about three years later I loved the album!
Another Christmas my sister got a gold tray with a mirror base from her husband. The tray had little naked cupids all facing the center of the tray like they were peeing into it. He husband was so proud of the gift! She gave him a look we will all remember forever. Every year it was “Which package has the naked cupids in it?” She either returned it or hid it away because we never saw it again!
@busdriver11 I think your gift was thoughtful and lovely. Strange how people react.
This brings back an embarrassing gift Memory. H’s grandparents were visiting from Florida and it was an extended family large Xmas gathering. We had been married a couple of years. Open up my gift from the grandparents and it was sheer sexy teddy bear lingerie. They start shrieking “we want to make sure you guys are working on having babies”…probably because they were just horrified that I had a demanding career and “abandoned” my H every week on business travel. They just didn’t understand because they were traditional stay at home wives
When I was young, my mom bought a ton of gifts for us kids and also bought gifts for the grandparents, great grandparents, whoever was going to be at our home on Christmas morning. She usually wrapped all these gifts at the same time, in the same paper, and seldom put tags on them. When I was about 10, I opened a box that she had said was for me, but it was a full slip, way too big for me. Obviously, she had forgotten which box was whose. I don’t know if I was more embarrassed because it was an undergarment or because I knew it was not meant for me but I didn’t want to be impolite and not be grateful for it!
Growing up, everyone opened gifts at the same time, so the giver had to pay attention if they wanted to see their gift opened by the recipient. When I had my kids and everyone started coming to my home for Christmas, I made them go around the room opening one at a time so everyone could see and ooh and aah appropriately. It also drug it out longer so what took weeks of planning and shopping wasn’t over in a flash of paper and bows. I also make sure I put tags on all of them! 
@psychmomma @Onward @coralbrook , I see we have a sexy nightie theme going on …
All thoughout my childhood, my grandma gave my brother and me pajamas for Christmas. It was such a tradition that we opened her package on Christmas Eve and put on the pajamas for a special picture.
When I was 11, instead of pajamas, my package contained a sexy nightie in an awful pinkish-salmon color. I have never been so astonished and confused. No Christmas Eve picture that year!!
One year, I bought my daughter an assortment of underwear as a stocking stuffer. One pair featured hot air balloons on the front. Unbeknownst by me until the gift was opened, the back featured the following: “Enjoy the ride”. She was college-aged and we shared a good laugh.
Someone in my office got me crotchless underwear as a holiday secret santa gift! 
^^I want to like that because it is truly mortifying, but don’t want to send the wrong message.
My mother always gave her daughters, including me, our favorite underwear as a Christmas present. And I really appreciated that gift as a very poor young adult. The first year we had a sister-in-law, we got no underwear. 
But Mother gave us that present privately later, saying she just didn’t see giving underwear to new daughter-in-law in a family setting Christmas morning.
I have always wondered if someone told that santa how inappropriate it was. I sure didn’t.