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Sure there are men that are good gift-givers. For Kelly Osbourne's recent birthday, her fiance, model Luke Worrall, replaced her engagement diamond with ... a bigger diamond (nice!). But (sorry guys) for the most part, men have earned the rep for struggling in the gift-giving department for good reason. We get that gift giving is a minefield for guys, so here we present a couple of true gift-giving horror stories for your empathy/edification.
Size Anxiety
Even something as innocuous as a sweater can be a disaster present ... especially if it's the wrong size. (We have a house full of clothes, fellas! Look at the tag, why don't you?!) Just ask Jason, 32, who, upon seeing the look of horror on the face of his girlfriend when he gave her a size L top, quickly told her he thought she needed the larger size because she was "well-endowed."
"The recovery was so funny, I couldn't stay upset," the remaining anonymous girlfriend said.
A Rose by Any Other Name ...
Flowers are a standard for men in gift giving. It's a present that can be shopped for remotely, and there aren't many girls out there that don't appreciate a huge bouquet. Aside from being a nice spruce-up for your cube or apartment, they're a great way to show off how much healthier and smooch-filled your relationship is than your friends' and co-workers'.
So you might think you can't mess things up when it comes to flowers, but think again: When Cathi, 30, was a sophomore in college, her boyfriend of seven months lived back in her hometown.
She had regaled her sorority sisters with stories about her man, but they hadn't gotten a chance to meet him yet. When her birthday rolled around, flowers were delivered to the door of the sorority house, and all the sisters gathered around. "The card read, 'Happy Birthday to a great friend,'" Cathi recalls. It turns out; her boyfriend didn't have a credit card and asked his mom to send the flowers for him. "He had asked her to send the flowers, but the card was all her," Cathi says. "She was still in denial about him having a girlfriend, and it was completely mortifying. All my sorority sisters thought I had fabricated this boyfriend! Needless to say, we got in a pretty big fight about it."
The Gift That Keeps On ...
Five years ago, I was casually dating a guy named Jimmy. We hadn't been dating very long when the holidays rolled around, so we were in that awkward, 'do you or don't you' place with gifts. My solution was to stuff the king of all stockings for him. He was an avid college football fan-despite no longer living in Alabama, he traveled every weekend to Auburn's home and away games. So I bought an Auburn stocking and filled it with team paraphernalia, from socks to pencils, and then topped it off with his favorite candy. One day, while we were on the phone making dinner plans, Jimmy informed me that he was at the mall buying his mother's Christmas gift: Beautiful by Estée Lauder. (Sweet guy, buying perfume for his mom. Right? Read on.)
Our Christmas date arrived, and the stocking was a big hit. Then, Jimmy presented me with a small box. Inside the box was a make-up bag emblazoned with 'Estée Lauder', and inside it were miniature bottles of perfume: Beautiful, Pleasures, Intuition ... you get the drift? For you non-shoppers out there, it was a gift with purchase! As in, he bought a gift for his mom, and gave me the free holiday promotional item. Hello! Estée Lauder invented the gift with purchase. (True story!)
They may say that it's the thought that counts, but remember: You actually have to think for that adage to apply.
Tell Us: What's the worst gift you've ever gotten? Have you ever given a crappy gift?
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Monday 21 December
By Tess
That's nothing. My cheap-skate husband always wants me to buy retarded gifts for our kids like: oil for our daughters 4-wheeler-- what 14yo wants to open up a case of oil for christmas :( Or a battery for our other daughters 4-wheeler. Come on--she's 8yo. She wants toys and games. He needs a reality check and think wwaayy back to when he was a kid. I'm sure he didn't get a repair patch for his flat bike tire. Merry Christmas Y'all
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Monday 21 December
By baybeegrl424
In college, I gave my boyfriend of 8 months one of those iPod arm bands he could wear while he was working out. And it wasn't a cheap one. I actually went into the Apple store to buy it. Well he kept procrastinating and putting off giving me a gift, telling me that he was "working on it" and how great it was going to be. One day, we were talking about gifts and he mentioned it was hard to shop for me because I didn't eat candy and I told him that I ate sugar free candy. A couple of days later we went to dinner, and he sent me ahead of him to his apartment because he had to "get something." I kind of figured it was my gift so I thought I would make it easy on him bringing it into the apartment unnoticed by hiding in the bathroom until he was done. A few minutes later he hands me a silver medal basket (a cheapie from Walmart) with sugar free candy and 3 bottles of Perrier water. So all that time he said he was working on my gift and it was going to be awesome, he was lying. He had nothing and didn't go and buy anything until I said I liked sugarfree candy. And then he didn't even have the gift basket put together! He had bought all of that stuff at Walmart that day and sent me ahead into his apartment so he could sneak it in and put it together right then! Needless to say, after that day, and him standing me up at my own birthday party, I'm no longer with that gem of a guy, even though he has been so nice as to offer to cheat on his wife with me. What a winner huh?
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Monday 21 December
By dale
The worst present I ever got was from a co-worker that I also thought was a friend. She gave me one pillowcase for Xmas. Turned out she had received the whole set for her birthday then split everyting up to re-gift. By the way I had got her a very nice bottle of perfume.
The second worst was from my Ex-husband who returned from a trip with a bottle of Joy (Yes the most expensive perfume in the world.Unfortunately I never bought it for myself as it had always smelled like freshly mown grass on me) He also bought me a handbag that my Grannie would love. But I guess he did try...
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Monday 21 December
By nocnocluv
My Boyfriend gave me a twilight Tshirt size small frommHot Topic. would of been cool if I was a tween... I'm 45 years old..
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Monday 21 December
By ...
The worst gift ever was one that my sister got from her mother in law. Her mother in law gave her a soap dispenser that looked like a toilet and when you waked by it said "don't forget to wash your hands". Better yet when you did use it, it made flushing noises. She told my sister it was "perfect" for her because she was so "obsessive" about hand washing. Nice.
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Monday 21 December
By Art
During my first three years of marriage, I always bought my wife a piece of jewelry. She always returned it. On Christmas in our fourth year I bought her a chair for the living room. Believe it or not she was thrilled. Since then and for 30 years afterwards, we each bought ourselves our own gifts, wrapped them and sign the other's name on the tag. We always get what we want.
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Monday 21 December
By Krystal
Some of these gifts are FUNNY.no offense.
One year my mom gave me a 'pocket calendar',
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Monday 21 December
By Draven
you guys got off easy! one year at my old job we were doing the whole secret santa thing. we had to write down 3 gift ideas. well this girl took it upon herself to buy me a TARANTULA complete with a littlle aquarium thingy and a bag of crickets. just cause i had a plastic spider on my desk didn't mean i wanted a real one! i had that spider for a few months though until it died. ever since then, i've always been weary of secret santa gifts.
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Monday 21 December
By Thomas
The worst present that I ever got was when I was 17 years old. My 16 year old girlfriend got a new hair style and presented it to me as my birthday present. :(
Almost 40 years have gone by, and I still tell the story, but I laugh about it now. :D
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Monday 21 December
By ellen elledge
well, my husband and i dont exchange gifts at Christmas but he does give me a little money to buy for the kids and grandkids. this year he took the money back the day after giving it to me. he threw a big yelling cursing fit and wanted it back. as it turns out, he was wrong about thinking i was going to buy a trampoline for our house (something not everyone could enjoy) but dont think he has apologized. i was so upset, i took down our tree. i wont ever forget how belittled he made me feel.
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Tuesday 22 December
By rhonda
For my 35th birthday, my husband let my children choose my gifts. My 10 year old thought a Swifter mop would be perfect and my 5 year old liked those toilet bowl cleaners with the disposable cleaner. My husband actually bought them. To top it off, my kids wanted me to show them how the gifts worked so I ended up mopping and cleaning the toilet on my birthday.
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Monday 21 December
By Reesagirl
One day, my fiancee called me on the phone all excited. He says "I got you a present today while I was out" I was so happy because he thought of me while shopping and picked up something just to say "I was thinking of you". The four hours I had left at work was torture and I rushed home. Laid out on the floor was a coffee maker set for when you go camping. (I don't drink coffee and I don't camp often). I was so disappointed. I tried to hide it, but he must have figured it out because the next day he took me on a shopping trip. We've been together for 13 years now, and he still isn't good about picking out most presents, but his heart is in the right place.
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Monday 21 December
By Janice Hendrickson
My mother-in-law was always giving "used" gifts, but the worst one year was the quilted bathrobe that had once belonged to her sister's dead step mother-in-law. She was about 5 feet tall and I'm five feet 10!!! I promptly threw it away.
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Monday 21 December
By San Diegan
My step-mother-in-law is super cheap. A few years ago, I will never forget, she gave me a gift set of Charlie perfume. Anyone remember the cheesy commercials from the 70's? Care to reminesce? lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sn8H42FZcI BTW, my father-in-law is very wealthy, but leaves the gift buying to his wife. My husband and I still laugh about it. It took everything in me to be gracious. My father-in-law was noticeably embarassed but no one said anything. Poor lady, she has been the butt of many jokes since.
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Monday 21 December
By norma
one year my then husband gave me are you ready for this an ironing board cover, can you beat that.
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Monday 21 December
By Shannon
Worst present was for my 10th Anniversary...my husband bought me a card and inside it had a stick of gum. Not a pack, a stick out of his pack. This year he made up for it though. He gave me a Valentine's card and I felt of it and said "You did NOT give me another stick of gum???" He just smiled. I opened the card and on the back he had written "I know I did the gum thing before, but I thought this time you could chew it to keep your ears from popping on our flight to Paris, France for our 20th anniversary and your birthday" To say the least I freaked out! What a man. :)
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Monday 21 December
By Elizabeth
I was my first Christmas overseas and away from my family. My boyfriend at the time invited me over to spend it with his family. I knew Australian Christmas was lax compared to celebrations in The States, especially my family which goes all out with the 14 foot tree and an insane number of presents for everyone. But I wanted to make this Christmas special and get something really nice for my boyfriend, especially since no one ever seemed to buy him anything nice. I put a lot of thought into his gift and more money than I should have. I also spent weeks cooking all sorts of goodies for his family since they were kind enough to have me over. His family was wonderful, they did the best they could with the situation. The boyfriend on the other hand picked two astronomy books that were like $7 total. I didn't really care that they were cheap or that I never talked about astronomy ever. The worst part was I lived in a city where you never see any stars and I had no way to get out of the city. I tried to make it better by saying we should go out and use the book together but he just kind of ignored me. Needless to say the relationship didn't last much longer.
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Monday 21 December
By mcgilla
A few years ago on Valentine's Day , my daughter's boyfriend gave her a broken vacuum. It was actually marked on the box that it was a return. When she pointed this out, he brought it back to the store and never gave her a gift again. Last month he bought her a surprise engagement ring. She didn't accept it, but the bill for the ring came in the mail, addressed to her ! He had used her credit card!
Monday 21 December
By nandy
A college boyfriend went on a cruise with his family over Christmas and gave me a bottle of perfume when he came back. I think it must have been a joke gift or a real bargain from the duty-free shop. I tried wearing it but everyone said it smelled awful. I kept it around on my dressing table until we broke up, then got rid of it.
When I was dating my ex-husband, our first Valentine's Day rolled around but even though he had to go out of town, he said he had something special for me. I waited ...flowers, candy, even a phone call would have been appreciated. When he returned and came by to get the gift I had gotten for him, he asked if I liked "it."
"Liked what?" I asked.
"The gift I got for you," he said.
"I didn't get anything, " I replied slightly annoyed.
Without telling me what the gift was supposed to have been, he said, "I gave Tony (his best friend) the money to get it for you."
Yeah, right, sure. Most presents I received throughout our years together weren't much better than that...ugly jewelry bought on a shopgirl's suggestion who I later found out was hired by my husband as a nude model...sexy underwear that was too uncomfortable to wear.
I finally took his mother's suggestion after about ten years. Bought myself my gift and said, "Thank you dear. See what you bought for me?" It was always the right size and color...never had to be returned. Too bad he couldn't settle down and be a husband in other ways, too.
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Monday 21 December
By Peachymomo
When I was 15 I moved out of my Mom's house because I didn't get along with her boyfriend and her anymore and moved in with my Grandma. I had been asking my Mom for my Super Nintendo and games back (my Grandmother bought it for me a few years back) but she kept saying no. That year for Christmas My Mom and her boyfriend show up with a big present and a little present for me. The little present was an nsync CD (gross) I didn't even have a CD player. The big present was, you guessed it, MY Super Nintendo system. They felt it was the perfect gift for me. Thank goodness walmart let me exchange the CD. Grandma let me use the money to get my ears pierced for the 2nd time.
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