50 Of The Most Disappointing And Outright Cruel Christmas Presents Ever Received, As Shared By People Online

Fa la la la la, la la la la

Give the kids some burnt broccoli

Fa la la…wait what???

Christmas is right around the frozen riverbend, and most of us have been racking our brains for ideas of what to get our beloved people and pets. It’s gotta be something they’ll enjoy, something they might use, or something that won’t make them cry upon unwrapping.

It doesn’t seem like too much to ask, and people with a semblance of empathy and soul should be able to give a gift that won’t leave a trace of trauma. However, many have not been so lucky, memories of horrid Christmas presents continuing to haunt them each and every year since. Thanks to r/AskReddit, today we are bringing you a list even the Grinch would be appalled at.

You guessed it, we’re talking about the worst Christmas gifts people have ever received. Make sure to upvote your favorites and share your own experiences in the comments below. And if you’re craving some more horrid gift stories, here’s one, but if you’d like something nice for a change, here’s an article full of sweetness. Now let’s deck into it!

More info: Reddit

#1

When I was eight or nine, my grandma gave me a Christmas ornament. It was a little stuffed cherub with pink cheeks and yarn hair.

I cried because I had saved up my allowance to buy it for her the year before.

Image source: DogtownPD, Andy Cat

#2

My husbands step mother gave me, a 36 year old at the time, a kindergarten size back pack and when I opened it she said, “I actually bought that for ——- (a child) a few years ago and she hated it so I threw it in a closet and I saw it and thought you’d like it. None of us did, we all think it’s ugly.”

That same year they gave my 3 kids gifts totaling all together $15 with the clearance stickers on them while her biological granddaughter opened a $300 unicorn. Which they made sure we knew cost $300, and then they pointed out to everyone our clearance stickers and what great deals they were (they weren’t), and then they made my kids leave the room so the grand daughter could take pics alone with her unicorn.

It was the last Christmas we visited them. lol

Image source: anon

#3

So one year, my mil asked (read:demanded) that I knit a scarf for her for Christmas. She was very specific on colors and style and called several times during December to check on the status of it She opened it on Christmas day and was absolutely delighted with it and immediately put it on. Then she started to hand out her presents. Tons of stuff to the kids, my husband, her husband, her other son, and her other DIL. Nothing for me. Then I heard ‘OMG, I FORGOT PRESENTS FOR YOU!’ and I turned around and found her talking to my cat.

She brought the cat presents later. No, I did not get anything.

Image source: Froggyloofa

#4

A set of miniature butter knives with ceramic fruit and vegetables as the handles.
From an aunt who said that
I was “So hard to shop for”

I was 7

Image source: vodkaenthusiast89, ebay

#5

I am a single guy.

I think I’m a horrible gift giver. My sisters and brother tell me what my nieces and nephews want.

But in the end all I do is just make a contribution in their college savings accounts. $500 for birthday and $500 for Christmas for each of them. My hope is that they will appreciate it when they get older.

I love them all very much and I would do anything for them.

Image source: jor4288

#6

A diet book. I was 15. Thanks grandma, that became an eating disorder!

Image source: TanichcaF, LollyKnit

#7

A $100 bill. I was dating and living with an ex at the time. For Christmas he wanted a very fancy and very specific looking button up shirt. I spent a month making him the shirt and making sure it was perfect. I also made us a nice Christmas dinner with some fun drinks. Christmas morning rolls around and I give him his shirt, he tries it on and loves it! Yay! He then gets a panicked look and his face, reaches in his pocket, pulls a $100 out of his wallet, and says “Um….here ya go. My friends are coming over today so…you have somewhere to be, right?” Basically he was paying me to leave. But the bright side was, I knew right then and there how he actually felt about me. He was dumped before for the new year.

Image source: MissAnthropy612

#8

A book entitled, “How to Help Kids Cope with Divorce”, given to me by my husband (at the time) on Christmas morning, in front of our kids….

…Who we hadn’t yet told about the impending divorce, yet.

Oh, yes, and there was that one time he bought me “The Proper Care and Feeding of Husband’s.”

Image source: 8MCM1, cottonbro studio

#9

When the tamagotchi craze was in full swing my siblings and I asked for one.

My sisters both got one, and I got a jacket because mine was torn up and small.

When I asked my dad why I didn’t get one and if Santa thought I did something bad that year. He told me I was too old for Santa and needed to learn life isn’t fair.

I was 8.
My sisters were 7 and 5.

From that point forward I only ever received clothing.

Image source: dariusz2k, COSMOH LOVE

#10

My step family was a giant group of total a******s. My step sisters got designer clothes and jewelry, shoes etc. Actual toys. They got mounds of gifts. My brother and I literally got a bag of switches and/or coal. Like that joke about bad kids? What sucks so much is that my step dad loved hitting us with switches when we were in trouble. We’d have to go pick out one ourselves too. And how we’d be considered the bad kids is beyond me. They were the ones who were terrible. One of my step sisters broke my arm twice just being a sadistic psycho. Cut off my eyelashes while I slept. Among other f****d up things over the years. God I was so glad when my mom finally left him and his piece of s**t family. I was 9 when we left. And 2 when they married. So this went on for 7 years of my youngest ages. Oh yeah, I guess one year the grandma gave me a coloring book. (No colors) With my switches.

Edit for those who don’t know. Switches are basically long, thin, limbs of a bush or young tree with the leaves stripped off. Not a branch or limb, bit the very thin ones that are bendy. They hurt like a MF and split your skin open sometimes.

Image source: coffee-jnky

#11

I’m 2 years older than my sister. When she was 5 we walked up to the tree a couple weeks before Christmas and found a huge box with her name on it. I was pissssed. I would cry and she would brag about it every night.

Then Christmas came and she opened the huge box. It was a large reading lamp. She couldn’t stop crying, I couldn’t stop laughing.

Best Christmas ever. Wait what was the question?

Image source: vgavaldo, Denise Chan

#12

A goose. Like, a real life full sized female goose. It was fun tho, I named her Rufina

Image source: salsamexa, XIBEI JIA

#13

Nothing. My parents are Muslim and Christmas was f*****g miserable every year. I’d go back to school after winter break and hear about all the cool stuff my classmates got while I got nothing. Imagine what that does to a kid over the years.

Now as a parent, I spoil my son every Christmas. I don’t believe in religion but every kid deserves Christmas.

F**k you mom and dad. You were s****y parents. Rant over

Image source: Cuss-Mustard, Thgusstavo Santana

#14

Titanic DVD, pirated copy, already seen it before twice, didn’t have a case, just had Titanic written in marker pen, it didn’t belong to the person who gifted it, the DVD was SCRATCHED AND DIDN’T EVEN PLAY!

Image source: toKenblaKKman, cottonbro studio

#15

The year I gave my ex husband a Tag Heuer watch he gave me a $19.99 Walmart blender. We already had 3 blenders.

Image source: tealgrayone, Andrea Niosi

#16

Not one I got, one I didn’t get. My mom crocheted my two sisters tablecloths and gave it to them in front of me. I just stood there, trying not to cry.

Image source: psu777

#17

When I was 12 I bought myself a kindle. Me and my sister spent an entire summer working for our grandpa and stepdad to save up for them, each of us spending about 200$. My mom got all 3 of my brothers a kindle for Christmas and I got some Clothes from old navy.

I was livid and when I talked to my mom about it she told me that my sister and I had been excluding our brothers from hanging out while we played videogames and it was unfair. She never apologized or saw anything wrong with what she did, and I honestly still haven’t forgiven her almost a decade later.

Image source: BlueButterflies139

#18

When my dad was young he was hell-bent on becoming a drummer. He would make full drum kits out of my grandmother’s pots and pans and whatever he could find. Very detailed setups. After months and months of building drum sets and drumming on anything, he could find he woke up Christmas morning…to acoustic guitar and guitar lessons.

He told me he took a few lessons and would always end up flipping the guitar over in the class with the other students and just play it like bongos.

Image source: Swarhammer, Kari Shea

#19

A case of Slim-Fast. Was I overweight? Yes, but my (not so) passive aggressive ex sister-in-law was a b***h. She fairly soon after was talking about weight loss items and specifically told my then-wife and I we should never use products like Slim-Fast as they will poison you. I can’t decide if she was trying to kill me or was just a stupid a*****e.

Image source: IdahoPatMan, Clean Wal-Mart

#20

A bottle of allergy medication from Costco. The med I took had recently gone from prescription to OTC & my mom thought it would be great to get me a year’s supply. I was in my 20’s & by that point you’re not supposed to care as much anymore, but I had worked dozens of hours of overtime at my s****y factory job to buy my mom a custom made birthstone ring for Christmas that year. My sister got beautiful leather boots, my brother got an XBox. I cried all the way home.

Image source: Zorgsmom

#21

A used cookbook, graciously given to me by the same people that gave my little sister a full snowboarding set, snowboard and all that other stuff you use when you snowboard

Image source: Oddballs

#22

Eons ago I worked for a company owned by the richest man in Minnesota. One year, all of us peons (and there were a couple thousand of us) got a copy of his book; it was al about how he became the richest man in Minnesota.

Cheap bastard.

Image source: Eroe777

#23

My dad, his first christmas divorced and living alone, first time ever shopping for us clearly lmao because my mom did all the shopping before, got me a nose hair trimmer…

I was 12.

And definitely did not understand why I got that gift.

Image source: ThisSorrowfulLife

#24

Temporary glittery metallic tattoo kit made for an 8-year-old girl (butterflies and phrases like “GIRLS RULE!”) when I was 15… I am male too.

Image source: kentamari

#25

I flat out got a lump of coal when I was 11 or 12. I was such a handful s**t head kid man. I deserved that lump of coal.

Image source: junk-trunk, Joey Harris

#26

A ceramic jar for holding dog treats when I was 15 when we had JUST given him away. Miss u Rascal

Image source: sulfuricZoologist

#27

My very first period.

This wouldn’t have been so bad if I had been told to expect it beforehand, but no. I cried and said I was dying in front of my entire family. Grandparents, cousins, everyone. Of course they laughed at me, but I am still mortified 25 years after the fact.

Image source: NeedsMoreTuba

#28

My mom bought me one of those 3D posters that were all the rage on the 90s. I am blind in one eye.

Image source: Starringbecca

#29

My dad played a running prank on me for years where he would either wrap up a toy he dug out of my room I forgot about, or he would do something like fill a small box with rocks and put it with the other presents. Without fail every year I would beg and plead to open a single present early of my choosing, and EVERY time I got the joke box. The rocks sounded like legos which I loved so I opened that one. One year he put one of my forgotten toys right out front begging for attention, bamboozled again. Another year he nestled it towards the very back like he was hiding a real present, he got me again. Without fail he got in my head somehow to guide me towards that present.

Image source: Guyintheorangeshirt

#30

The information that my parents were getting a divorce when I was 12.

The Christmas spirit in me died that day.

Image source: Poschta

#31

A bottle of raccoon urine. Not joking. A completely sealed, brand new bottle of raccoon urine.

Image source: omfgbrb, hoosiertrappersupply

#32

Sensory toys. Very degrading. It’s like my mom didn’t know what I would like, so instead of asking any of my siblings, she took my autism and just picked out a random bundle of sensory toys on Craigslist. I haven’t used sensory toys since I was 10. I just wish she would put more thought into it, yknow? It would have been better if she didn’t get me anything at all.

Image source: ThatOfABeaver

#33

My step sister and I both received a box inside was a roll on Avon deodorant and one of them rainbow lollipops . Meanwhile my mother and her girlfriend were exchanging $1000 gifts

The boxes they put our “presents” in cost more then the deodorant and lollipop seeing they got our presents from the cupboard 😑

My mums girlfriend was a Avon sales lady , the lollipop from a show bag 😂

Image source: Acrobatic_Alarm2243

#34

I hate soap bags. I get at least one every year. I have never once worn through a soap bag.

One year i came home for Christmas.

made the dinner. 11 courses/sides etc.

Got up at 6am to start making it.

Presents opening at 9.00 am my parents get me a posh leather soap bag. I hate it. In side is a mediocre bottle of after shave that i will feel compelled to keep but will never use.

I kick off cos tired stressed drunk, bit of a d**k

I rant about the no thought present.

Joining us for Christmas is my aunt. Recently divorced, son committed suicide.

I open her present next.

A s****y soap bag and a really cheap bottle of aftershave

And Thats how i ruined Christmas

Image source: BuzzAllWin, Vlada Karpovich

#35

This was actually a recent one. Been with my girlfriend for like 2-3 years now. Her family considers me a part of their family, but my girlfriend’s mom, and aunt, are probably the most hypocritical and bat s**t insane people you could ever meet. Aunt believes that if you use a gps you are a b***h that doesn’t deserve to live in that state (she proceeded to get everyone lost when she was driving us around on vacation. She lives in Florida for 27 years by that time). The mom is a manipulative narcissist, that actually said to my girlfriend and a mutual friend of ours that the only reason she has my girlfriend around is because she is the person that she uses to let her anger out on, (I.e. yells about nonsensical c**p, pushes her, or makes her feel like she is worth nothing 24/7).

For Christmas, I went over to my girlfriend’s home to celebrate with them before celebrating with my girlfriend t my house. Got a present from the aunt who sent something over. I received, a single rubber duck, that had the bottom torn out, a note was stuffed in the opening, and on that note, was the sentence, “If you are reading this, you killed the birdie!”, and a painted rock that was just painted black with the words “best buds” on it.

The mom was the worst one though, I got a nutcracker. I didn’t fully understand it at the time. But I finally got it when my girlfriend’s dad took me aside and said in a hushed tone, “I’m sorry for the gift, but Tray has given that to [eldest daughters] boyfriends as a threat.”

That’s right, I got a broken rubber duck that blamed me for killing it, a painted rock, and a threat that if I did ANYTHING to hurt my girlfriend (more than what the mom already does), that her mother will use the NUTCRACKER.

Image source: TheOriginalH1h

#36

I was six years old and I really really wanted an electric train set. I was like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” harping on about his BB gun that he wanted. The big day arrives and there’s a large box that looked pretty close to electric train set size but my parents would dictate in which order the presents were opened and of course it was saved for last.

I don’t remember the other gifts, but I do remember the big electric train set sized box. I’ll give you a hint. It wasn’t an electric train set. It was a box filled with sweaters and socks. No joke. Just what a six year old boy wants. Sweaters and socks. Worst part was that the person giving me this wanted to see me model the sweaters and my parents forced me to. Yes, because a six year old boy with his heart set on an electric train set really wants to be disappointed and have to model sweaters he didn’t want in the first place.

Image source: eddyathome

#37

Butt plugs from my stepfather

Image source: tootmyownflute

#38

A size 3xl dark pink sweater from my sister. I wore xl and was very vocal about hating the color pink. But my sister had just lost like 80 pounds. Probably about the sweater for herself before she lost weight then never wore it. So she took it out of her closet and gave it to me.

My sister is 25 years older than me and I was in my twenties at the time. This wasn’t just youthful ignorance

Image source: girlwhoweighted

#39

Worst was from my grandparents. Me, my brother and dad all got a used book each from a charity shop. Like the cover was bent and pages yellowed. My brother and dad have barely read any books in their lives and mine was some adult drama romance novel (I was about 12 at the time) that nobody has ever heard of by some author nobody knows. To top it off these grandparents were ridiculously wealthy, my granddad was making almost 2 million a year, and their other grandchild got a ps3, which had just came out, and big stack of games to go with it plus other toys and some clothes.

Image source: CozRichards

#40

The Christmas after my grandmother passed away, my aunt gave us all the various and sundry junk that she cleaned out of my gma’s house as presents, but signed the tags with my gma’s name. So I got a rusty broken bell ornament from my dead gma that year

Image source: rookmako0523

#41

So with the ex wife, I made a effort with gifts. Got her the second gen iPod one Christmas, then because she got big into hiking, I picked out an expensive GPS with an SOS. What would I get? Lame a*s excuses. “Christmas is really for the kids.” Or my favorite, “Well, we buy stuff throughout the year, so that is our gift.”

Image source: Fanabala3

#42

Last year my dad promised me a whole bunch of steaks at Christmas whenever i bought a deep freezer to store them in. I bought a deep freezer immediately, then in April of this year he gave me the steaks, which were packaged in March of 2018, the only taste left was freezer burn

Image source: Legion_707

#43

When I was 10 years old money was rather tight for my family. So my parents bought a hammer and nails for my 5 siblings and i and told us to get creative and build something. That was a really sad Christmas. That was also all any of us got. A hammer and nails.

Image source: Sethrich98, Anne Nygård

#44

I received a pair of used earrings that had obviously been purchased at a second hand store. They had a sewing needle in th box with it. He tried to tell me he got them from an artisan street vender. One earring had green growth on it. Totally vile.

Image source: holyfoxymoxie

#45

My ex wife bought me snowshoes for Christmas the last year we were together, after multiple discussions about the fact that I was not interested in going snowshoeing with her and her friends.

Image source: ArianaGlans