h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Aunts in my family tend to be good for presents one will never use.

This christmas I received a wool hat and gloves from one aunt, and a cerise pink jumper from another, which still had an Asda label on it. All of these items will be given to the charity shop I volunteer in over the next few days.

The other thing I always seem to get is Bath and Shower products. Now I like nice Bath stuff, but I have a small toybox full in my bathroom already and I really don't need any more.

mini

My parents got a whole ham from my uncle. They are... um... overwhelmed.

I wouldn't mind a whole ham - but then there are four of us plus family over xmas, and we eat a lot of ham.

I wouldn't regift as I'd end up giving the same present back to the same person. Only amazon has saved me sending the same book to the same person a couple of years apart...

I'm very rigorous about clutter though (my other half clutters enough for two) - if it is neither useful nor aesthetic, then it will disappear somewhere...

sprout

When I was about 18 and my younger sister was hence 15 we both received an identical black leather concertina-style briefcase from our parents.

It was hideous - both of us opened the present and looked at each other and mutually frowned. naturally we did the polite thing and thanked them for it.

A few months later I decided to be honest and told my Dad that neither of us liked it - he looked mortally offended and my sister did the Judas and did not support me.

Somehow I kept it.

More than 20 years later I still use it and it is phenomenally useful and very well made. Thanks Dad

Maybe I got it a bit too 'early'.

As I live a long way away from most of my family, charity shop donations are a pretty safe way to go.

This Christmas was actually a very good one, because people only sent us small things that could be posted. Admittedly the woollen hat was so big that it comes down over my nose but most people bought us practical gifts (even though it meant we got four scarves between us this year).

My mum did her usual thing of trying to buy us nice things that we wouldn't get ourselves. That's actually her stated mission at Christmas, despite my request that if we didn't get things like that, it's because we don't like them or want them in the first place.

Orcus, can I have your sister's briefcase?

I've no idea what she did with it sadly.

A friend of mine calls the Holidays "Giftmas", with good reason. However, I stopped getting gifts for most people a decade ago, as I can't afford them. A box of candy, maybe, but no sweaters, toiletries, of tschotskis. Call me Grinch.

When my husband and I used to scramble around buying gifts we couldn't afford for people who already had more than we did, we'd end up very stressed out, and probably the stuff just ended up in charity shops. Then, we got my husband an airline ticket to go home for the holiday, we thought it would make his family happy. Turns out, not so much, as they complained we hadn't "got them anything" for Christmas.

I buy gifts for the little kids; I take very careful note of the toys they play with, and get something like that.

I wonder if the whole unwanted gifts thing dates right back to the Nativity?
Do you think maybe Mary and Joseph may have just THOUGHT 'Oh no, not Myrrh gain!!!!!'

Personally I cans see the use of gold and frankenstein, but Myrrh?

Perhaps they regifted it to a shepherd later, after the King had left?

I can see the point of Myrrh...shepherds have sheep, sheep are...er, pungent, and Myrrh is a scent base for perfumes. See? Worth it's weight...

i sincerely hope that those of you who have received unwanted presents
do not receive any more

Just remembered another one - my daughter bought me a present from her last trip to London.

It came in a Harrods bag (ooooh, goody!)
It was tea (yay, me like tea!)
Loose leaf (Ah. Hmmmmm.)

I don't own a teapot. She probably didn't realise, so the thought was very sweet.

Any of my Norn Irn posse with a teapot want some posh tea?

Sure, loose leaves always make nice, stronger tea!

But do you have a cafetiere? If so you could make it in that...

No cafetiere neither - I never drink coffee, and Dai has just invested in an expensive Lady Gaggia espresso doo-dah

The tea is yours!

There are small one-cup infusers available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_infuser


~jwf~

I actually got a tea infuser, a stainless basket with a handle that rest on the rim of the cup, for Christmas this year. I have a couple of other tea infusers (as well as a tea pot with an infuser built in), but I drink so much tea I can never have enough of them.

It's not so much that I receive unwanted gifts (though I have been trying for years now to limit it to the kids, the rest of the family won't hear it), as that I receive a fair number of things I can't really use and feel bad about giving away. My MIL always gets me clothes, in colors or styles I'd never wear, or in the wrong size. This year she actually got me a gorgeous fleece pullover, but it's way too small.

I also got an assortment of seasoning blends from an aunt who knows I like to cook, but they're loaded with whey and cheese, and she also knows I can't eat dairy. I'll give them to my dad.

International students can be responsible for some very interesting gifts. Sometimes, you just have to be diplomatic.

This is what I got for Christmas once, from a Philippine student. I will have to describe the object, because I have no idea what to call it.

It was a wood-and-glass case. It had a sort of baroque-looking clock in. On top of the clock was a disturbingly realistic brass crucifix. To operate the clock, it was necessary to plug the cord running from the box to an electrical outlet. Doing so revealed the piece de resistance:

A row of multi-coloured Christmas lights lining the case, illuminating the ensemble in a festive way.

Needless to say, I thanked my student kindly.

I suppose you might regift such an objet d'art to a practitioner of candomble, but I never knew one.

Psychocandy, I use my spare tea infuser as a dip-basket to retrieve small items from hot deep-frying. Works very well.

B

Dmitri, the only place to get rid of such a thing would be a market stall in Malta. I don't think I've seen anything quite like the statue of St Sebastian being martyred. He was full of arrows, each of which was illuminated and flashed on and off.

Oh, no......it must be a global taste problem...