The worst Christmas gift I ever got was the Christmas gift I never got. Some Christmases come and go and I never receive a present. ***shrugs*** Thats the worst.
Second worst is a soap and a sponge.
Back when I was around 9 or 10 years old (somewhere around that age), one of my mother's best friends (along with her husband and their three daughters) lived way out in the suburbs, and several times a year we'd go out there to visit for the whole day (since they lived so far out).
However one day, mother brought us kids there just to pick up Christmas presents that my Mother's friend had thoughtfully got for us. I had no idea that we were going to get presents from my Mother's friend untill we got there.
When I heard that they had a present for me, I was so incredibly excited. The fact that these wonderful people that I truly loved had a Christmas present for me thrilled me beyond words. I wondered what they got me. For a couple of minutes my mind raced with the images of the thousands upon thousands of fun toys I have seen advertised on television commercials the whole year round, especially this close to Christmas.
Instead, they handed me a package that contained a soap and a sponge. Something that I've NEVER seen advertised on tv. It was probably something they bought off a rack at their local drugstore or something like that (It certainly didnt come from a well known toy store like Toys R Us, thats for sure). The soap was shaped like a baseball, with baseball stitching carved onto it, and the sponge was yellow colored, and shaped like a old type catchers glove. In fact, it you could slip it on your hand just like a glove. I hated sports (then and now), including baseball. I found sports to be quite boring.
No, I dont think they were trying to send me a hint about my personal hygiene, since unlike other kids my own age, I bathed regularly. And I liked it.
BUT, at the time, I really cherished these people who gave me this gift (still do in fact), and as a result, I cherished the gift as well. In fact, I cherished it so much, that I wouldn't get around to using the gift for months. Instead, I would carefully open the hard plastic packaging it was in, just to take it out, and hold my gift, sort of play with it, and then just as carefully put it back inside it's plastic packaging in order to preserve it.
I finally did get around to using the gift in the bathtub, but that was only out of necessity. In preparation for taking a bath one day, I found that we had no more soap left over in our apartment, except for my soap and sponge gift. So I had to use that reluctantly. It was a few more baths before the baseball shaped soap finally was used up, and I still used the sponge glove but I wound up wearing that out and it had to be thrown out.
Again, at the time, I REALLY cherished that gift, and I REALLY cherished the people who gave it to me (still do), but today I look back on it, and I shake my head. Out of all things, out of all the toys in the world, to give to a little kid as a Christmas gift. A soap and a sponge.
I got sock clips from my uncle when I was like 8.
No kidding. They were a set of six red rings that you could push pairs of socks through so they’d stay neat in your drawer.
To make it worse, my big brother was at that stage where he felt obliged to pass on manners, etc. on to me and he actually scolded me for looking ingrateful.
Politics and crummy presents aside, that uncle is a very good man... but he’ll never see this, given his politics. ;^)