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Every season we try our very best to give people in our lives meaningful gifts we think they'll enjoy. Most of the time it works out. But every once in a while we suffer a massive gifting fail. What happened? You thought you'd nailed it -- but you were so, so wrong. It's the thought that counts, right? As awful as it is to be on the receiving end of a gifting fail, I think it's even worse to be the gift-giver who blew it. Some may disagree with me, though. At any rate, here are a few tales of gifting fails. Do any of these sound familiar?
1. My Grandfather bought me a "personal massager" for Christmas ... who knew Sears sold vibrators? He was mortified when my uncle burst out laughing and I turned red. It was so well intentioned, I had injured my back during the tennis season (high school varsity). He just bought the wrong sort of massager.
2. We had a personalized sweatshirt made for my uncle's birthday -- a play on the Heinz 57 bottle since he was turning 57. Well, he didn't want people to know how old he was. We had his name embroidered on the front--spelled differently than he spelled it. And it was a light blue sweatshirt, which turned out to be his least favorite color.
3. I bought my wife a nice set of knives, because she'd been saying for a long time that she wanted them. But when I did, she was offended that I had purchased a domestic item as a present. So I said fine, give them to me. And that's what we did.
4. My mother, bless her well-meaning heart, lives in fear of buying me gifts because I take them quite personally (it's like when you set someone up on a blind date and they're all, THAT IS WHO YOU THINK I'D GO WITH?!?). So this one time she bought me this really lovely bath-y lotion-y set ... rose-scented. BUT waahhhhhhh (literally, crying -- yes, I was in my 20s kthx) I HATE THE SMELL OF ROSES IT'S LIKE YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ME!!!
5. I spent more money than I should have on airfare for my mom. She double-dipped and got airfare free from somewhere else. She felt guilty about the lie and gave my gift cards back. Here I come San Diego!
6. When I was in middle school, my friends and I would all exchange gifts with one another. My best guy friend and I were talking on the phone one night, and I asked him, 'What do you want for Christmas?' He must have been looking at the TV or something, because he joking said, "A Simply Red CD." I hadn't ever heard of the band Simply Red, but I thought he was serious, so that's what I bought him. When he opened it up, he was like, "What is this?" He'd never heard of them either!
7. Every year I buy my husband an article of clothing that doesn't fit.
Have you ever been on either the receiving or giving end of a gifting fail?
Image via Arman Zhenikeyev/Corbis
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