Ping
Making a mountain out of a molehill.
Oh for crying out loud!
Thanks the giver and be happy that they love you!
I hope this guy’s wife never asks him if she looks fat.
Shut up and “re-gift.”
Gift giving in the extended family - I could write the book on this. Most recently, I wanted to give a homemade Christmas stocking to my niece as a baby shower gift. I have learned through the years to check with my sister in law before giving anyone in her family a gift. I can choose to be offended by that requirement or I can work with it. I asked her. She asked my niece. I called her a week later. She said yes. So I put the little soon to be born great niece’s name on it and gave it to my niece.
I remember the worst present ever as a child. I was in I think 7th grade. My father had been out of work for almost a year because of honorable reasons but that’s another story and I received a pair of red pants. That’s it. I never wore them. Another time my husband had just been laid off and I was pregnant with our second child. He took my present, some warm foot socks, and stuffed each one in a roll of toilet paper and wrapped them separately. He thought it would be funny. I cried.
I wasn’t very gracious either time. I know that each time the gift was given with love and the giver was hurt by my rejection. Little regrets.
That may be what they do in the big city, but out here in the sticks we say “Thank You” to avoid any hurt feelings, then we go out on the porch and laugh our tushies off at the ridiculousness of the gift. And lemme tell ya, nothing warms up a 17 degree night like a good laugh on the porch!
Oh' Horse manure.
Within my family my mother is famous for sending the absolute worst gifts.
She a great mom, but just can't seem to figure out I no longer wear the same size shirt when I was 14 years old when I am now 48.
I'm suppose to confront her because I tell her a white lie when I call and thank you for the shirt?
See if you can return them or exchange them for something you really want.
Yes, Mr. Tallman, it is the thought that counts. A gift-giver is never under any obligation to give something that the receiver wants. Your examples of bad gifts merely illustrate the absurdity of your arguments.
Remind me to never give you a gift. I’d rather sell you something, with a “no returns or exchanges” sign prominently posted.
What a bunch of nonsense.
Intentionally hurting the feelings of people who have given you gifts because of some kind of stupid self-imposed restriction on making white lies is not a moral thing to do, IMHO.
If, down the line, someone keeps asking about a gift and doesn’t get the hint the first couple of times you (truthfully) say: “I haven’t used it yet”, then, perhaps, they deserve to have it explained that the gift isn’t really right... but, at the time of gift giving, being gracious and saying “thank you” IS the right thing to do.
Smile... say thank you... pitch on the next trash day.
I love it ;0)
The author could simply try to remember what Christmas is really all about if it offends him that much. He should be thankful that he even has the ability to receive gifts, or that he has people who love/like him enough to give him one.
A gift is that — a gift. And if getting a good one is that big of a deal to the author, how about having a spirit of forgiveness when it doesn’t happen?
I thought the last article was humorous. This is just sad.
I love it too!
I’ve long ago given up on the idea that the gifts I receive are things that I really can use or want, though occasionally I’m pleasantly surprised. As has been pointed out earlier, that’s not the purpose of gift giving, and it’s really “the thought that counts.” (Though sometimes I do mutter under my breath, in the immortal words of Archie Bunker, “I wish you had thought of something else.”)
I have a friend (though I think of her more as a persistently longtime acquaintance), who I swear must go out of her way to find the tackiest gifts, albeit unintentionally.
She’s got plenty of money, more than she’ll ever use, and yet she usually gives me Christmas presents culled from the Dollar Store or the irregulars bin at the local discount warehouse. One year I got the ugliest clock imaginable, which consisted of a China-made metal sculpture of a nude woman about to serve a volleyball or something. When I unwrapped the package, I couldn’t help but blurt out, “Well, it’s interesting.”
She replied, “Funny, I gave the identical clock to another friend of mine and she said the exact same thing.” The gift-giver still was clueless.
Re-gifting is an art form