Scary Bad Gift Stories Edition

Author

Patrick Kucharson
October 31, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

 

Happy Halloween!

Your 1-minute-a-week shortcut to
always having awesome gift ideas well in advance.

In addition to the newsletter, check out our
gift-giving playbooks and gift guides 🎁📕.

 

My attempt to make you smile
before getting to today’s gift ideas

 

Hi gift-givers! Normally, I inspire your gift-brainstorming by sharing the stories of the greatest gifts ever given…but today I’m treating you with some ghoulishly wonderful fun.

Gather around the fire, campers. It’s time to tell stories of the most blood-curdlingly bad gifts that will forever haunt the BGC subscribers who submitted them.

2023 Edition

Thanks to all the subscribers who dusted off the cobwebs of the gifts they’ve likely tried to forget. Don’t worry - I kept your submissions anonymous just in case your in-laws also subscribe.

 

One-ish more thing(s)
before today’s gift ideas

t i

For gifts that won’t appear on future editions of BGC’s Scary Bad Gift Stories, get my list of the most THOUGHTFUL 1-2 Better Gift Coach gift ideas for those on your holiday gift list.

For those who are seeking a jolt to their holiday gift brainstorming, here are two ways to get yourself a copy:

  1. Refer 2 new subscribers (share your unique link found in the “Share Better Gift Coach” section with your friends/family and it’ll track new subscribers that you’ve referred)

  2. Purchase it here

 

Estimated read time: 3 minutes & 14 seconds

 

Gift idea time! Here are stories of a
bad gifts that’ll make you cringe

 

Thanks to all the subscribers who shared stories of the worst gifts they’ve ever received or witnessed! I sprinkled in some advice on how us well-intentioned gift-givers can avoid unknowingly giving gifts that potentially make the same mistakes. Enjoy!

 

A silver-toned duck-shaped soup tureen, for our wedding.

Quack. Enough said. Be safe - give wedding gifts that are found on a registry or money.

My mother-in-law gave me snowman toilet paper. If you mention any kind of trinket that you like she will buy a thousand different versions of said trinket. For a while we liked snowmen around the holidays. I got towels, plates, ornaments, figurines, table clothes, you name it. The toilet paper was too much. We put the kabosh on those gifts. She has moved on to garden gnomes and other garden figurines. All of which I have run out of yard placement for.

Once my sister-in-law gave me a Christmas ornament still sporting its $1 price sticker. She told me that she got it at a gas station. It was pretty plain that my sister-in-law hadn't put any effort at all into that gift. I do think of her when I hang it on the tree, but…

If you’re going to give a bad gift, don’t give one that someone might feel obligated to keep and display so it basically serves as a constant reminder of your poor attempt.

My worst gift ever was from my ex husband’s parents many years ago. They gave me a bright pink DIY box of tools. All very petite and pretty useless for the large extension I was building with my perfectly useful and full size Dewalt tools. I had to open it at a big Christmas family gathering and express thanks. I got many sarcastic comments from his father who did not believe women could/should do DIY! Needless to say they were quickly donated to my local charity shop.

Please take time to consider the preferences of your gift-recipients. Not everyone is a Barbie girl in a Barbie world.

My friend got her daughter plants because SHE loves plants. Her daughter doesn't have any (should clue you in) and has four kids and doesn't want to spend time taking care of them. The plants died and her mom was mad about it.

Follow the golden rule or gift-giving - give gifts that they want to receive over gifts that you want to give.

My boyfriend gave me a gold bracelet for Valentine's Day. He was so proud of himself because he found it on the street and told me how awesome it was because he didn't even have to buy it. This same boyfriend gave me a gag gift of birth control pills (candies) and then, after laughing at himself, took it back and said he was going to eat them so that I wouldn't gain any weight.

 

Making this gift happen

 

  • HA! Just joking. Please don’t make any of these gifts happen.

For making much better gifts happen, consider BGC’s playbook for confident gift-giving that saves you time & stress: 4-Step Playbook for Giving Better Gifts in a Busy World. Interested, but not sure? Here’s a free preview of the playbook.

 

Spread some love! Share this gift idea

 

Forward this email to:

  • Someone with a sense of humor

  • Possibly your in-laws…

PLUS win a reward for introducing new subscribers to your favorite 1-minute-a-week shortcut to always having awesome gift ideas well in advance.

 

Inspire others!
Share the stories of your best gifts

 

Please reply to this email ~ or ~ click the button below if you have stories of awesome gifts that you can share with the community that fall under the below topics:

  • Last-minute gift ideas

  • Any memorable gift you’ve received or given

 

Vote on the worst gift

e others!

 

My attempt to send
you off with a smile

 

 

Cheers to gifts that don’t haunt,
Patrick Kucharson
Better Gift Coach

P.S. Who’s seeking a gift to bring to the host(s) of a holiday gathering? Reply to this email with some details and I’ll happily reply with gift suggestions.

 

Subscribers putting BGC
gift ideas into action

 

Have you been inspired by a gift idea shared in the BGC newsletter? It would be the highlight of my week to hear from you about it! Here’s who made my week:

A subscriber’s version of 🎁The “John Hancock a Recipe" Gift:

I gave my mom a casserole dish with my grandmother’s broccoli casserole recipe etched inside. This was a year after my grandmother’s death and she always made broccoli casserole for Christmas. It was the last handwritten recipe of my grandmother’s that my mom had and when my mom tried to laminate it, the paper crumbled. This was a way to immortalize the recipe and always have a piece of my grandmother with us at Christmas.

Madeleine from Ohio

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