When the PS1 came out I really wanted one. On Christmas day there in my parcel pile was a PS1 shaped box of about the correct dimensions. I wasn’t allowed to touch it all morning.

WHen the grand time came to crack open the box I picked it up, it felt oddly heavy, but I was so excited that I just ripped it open.

Inside I found a box made of plasterboard in which my dad had hidden two of those ‘green tyres’ the ones that were solid and never got punctured.

To say I was gutted was an understatement. Oh how they laughed.

Worst of all the tyres were crap and caused me loads of buckles, were a nightmare to get on as well.

Note: THose brought up in orphanages and/or squalor don’t need to put their miserable ‘I got nothing’ christmas stories up.

Well not exactly a kid, but when I was 15 I was really into collecting porcelain dolls (I know -weird) and my grandparents got my younger sister a porcelain doll, beautiful girl in a gorgeous tan tartan dress and matching hat she had lovely red curls (my sister didn’t collect them!!!) and I got a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt -I was 15 and Mickey Mouse was for little little kids, bright pink -a color I never ever wore, and a size too big -great they thought I was fat too!!!
I was so gobsmacked my jaw dropped and I had to leave the room because I needed to cry I was so upset.

Note: THose brought up in orphanages and/or squalor don’t need to put their miserable ‘I got nothing’ christmas stories up.

I wasn’t brought up in an orphanage, but much of my childhood was spent in pretty dire poverty. Despite that, I always got Christmas presents – even if they were only second-hand toys from jumble sales. It didn’t bother me one jot, and I can honestly never recall anything which I would class as the “worst Christmas present”. And if people have unpleasant memories of what they received for Christmas, then that’s got to be really tragic I reckon.

And if people have unpleasant memories of what they received for Christmas, then that’s got to be really tragic I reckon.

Too easy…………

Can’t remember that far back!

Whats a christmas present ❓
have I missed something here

I guess STW has really run out of topics when Christmas present threads start appearing in February.

The worst Christmas present I got when young was when my brother, whose system involved only shopping in one shop, ended up doing his Xmas shopping in an off licence. He then got the train down and there was a party on the train, in the course of which my present was drunk – I didn’t even get the empty bottle.

I wasn’t brought up in an orphanage, but much of my childhood was spent in pretty dire poverty. Despite that, I always got Christmas presents – even if they were only second-hand toys from jumble sales. It didn’t bother me one jot, and I can honestly never recall anything which I would class as the “worst Christmas present”

(Sobs at the Humanity of it all) 😥

If I din’t get a beating I considered myself lucky. 🙂

I got shingles for Christmas when I was 16.
Ian

I guess STW has really run out of topics when Christmas present threads start appearing in February.

No it’s in response to the ‘best Xmas pressie’ thread what was resurrected today. I think this one’s got far more potential for entertainment.

Look! Jesmondingo proves me right straight away! 😀

A pack of these:

Seriously. They were meant to allow me to record all my albums onto cassette so I could listen in the car. Except that I had no albums.

No it’s in response to the ‘best Xmas pressie’ thread what was resurrected today.

I guess I have moved from regular to semi-regular as I must have missed that.

Schadenfreude,Elfin?
Ian

Commodore 64. Not because I didn’t want it but because after all the frantic opening of the box, wiring it up, press the button and…..sweet FA. I spent all Christmas day unplugging the wires, reconnecting them, changing the fuse in the plug and still FA. This went on for days as I tried again and again but still nothing.
The shop it was bought from didn’t open till the new year and as soon as they opened the doors we in there ranting, ranting and ranting. The shop assistant set it up switched it on and nothing. He calmly reaches for the power pack pulls out a glass fuse and replaces it and bingo it worked.
Back home, set it up and it works. 45 minutes later and the cassette tape finally finishes it’s install and I can play Hunchback just like in the arcades.

a sofa. aged 7.

My mum and dad gut me and my big bro an AMIGA 500!!!!!

They spent ages ‘building up’ the present, pretending it was for mum, until they finally revealed that the BIGGEST BOX IN THE ROOM WAS ACTUALLY FOR ME.

They had forgotten the monitor.

Christmas got cancelled one year!!

One year I got a toy machine gun and my brother got a microscope. I was convinced my mum and dad had spent more on him than me and kicked off big time.

I still feel really bad about it now, some 36 years later – they must have had a horrible Christmas Day because of me 🙁

Schadenfreude,Elfin?

Oh yes. 🙂

The gift that keeps on giving…

a grifter

the year that BMX went “big” in the UK and all my mates got them

My mum knew I wanted one – but let the shop assistant talk her into the grifter because the saddles on BMXs looked “too hard”

I was stuck with that bike for years – I know it makes me sound ungrateful, but it felt like a very big deal to me at the time

a pack of write protect tabs for 5 1/4″ floppy disks.

a pack of write protect tabs for 5 1/4″ floppy disks.

Nice!

You could have used them to protect your copy of ‘Bezerk’ (if you had a TRS80), or better yet, ‘Castle Wolfenstein’.

Not the worst present but the biggest disappointment. I got a “Whirlybirds” (remember that?) game when I was 9 years old. I spent the whole of Crimbo morning flying this little plastic helicopter round and round on a plastic rod about three inches off the floor.

About 3 o’clock in the afternoon my Dad and my uncle came back from the pub a bit the worse for wear and my uncle stood on it, shattering it into about 50 pieces. He never got me a replacement and I don’t think I ever really forgave him. He’s dead now (natural causes before you ask)

a grifter

You had a right result! A Grifter was a far superior bike to a crappy BMX.

Ungrateful little git. If youd’ve bin mine, I’d’ve had you adopted.

Unoriginal and common, but socks. **** socks.

The weird thing is that as you get older you start to appreciate the gift of socks more and more until you get to the point where you’re like: “Oh socks! ****ing yes! I NEVER remember to buy any of those little ****s and here they, delivered by Santa and his band of merry ****ing elves. Warm feet for another year!”

It may be time to sleep.

Back when Star Wars was all the rage I wanted an At At, wanted it more than anything, and you know I could probably have got it.
But my Mum decided that rather than the At At, they’d get me a transformer truck – not the super cool Optimus, oh no. This was some rip off shizer that looked a bit like an arthritic (no leg beds see) At At, and was in no way bad-ass (no frikin’ lasers etc). The back sort of folded open to make a base thing. ’twas utter rubbish to be honest and probably cost the earth but just wasn’t anything like what I wanted. was relegated to back of cupboard before the end of the day. And actually I regret how I felt very much, I knew it was me being picky.
35+ years later and I’m still bitter.

Still, my Mum is ace and love her to bits.
Hi Mum!

a grifter
You had a right result! A Grifter was a far superior bike to a crappy BMX.
Ungrateful little git. If youd’ve bin mine, I’d’ve had you adopted.

I was far too well brought up to tell my mum how disappointed I was. And grifters weighed a ton and were rubbish at wheelies

I really, really wanted Super Street Figher II Turbo for Christmas, but my brother persuaded my parents that Rise of the Robots was better.

THE HUMANITY!

I never did tell them how disappointed I was, but my brother kind of guessed when he realised how rubbish Rise of the Robots was.

How about the reverse?

When i was 17, my then girlfriend wanted jewellery for christmas and hinted a lot about this as only a 16 old girl can. I hinted much to her disappointment that her music collection badly needed expanding. I fashioned a jewellery box out of a cassette box and put a ‘nice-for-the-financial-means-of-a-17-year-old-just-growing-out-of-his-paper-round’ ring in it and then wrapped it up so it was very obviously a cassette box. Gave her the box and said she should open it round the tree with her folks on christmas morning. So she was really disappointed with me for christmas eve and then well chuffed in the end.

Grifters? Pfft!

I got a Raleigh Bomber – the first big-wheeled bike around in the UK I believe and I guess a precurser to a true MTB. After the initial ‘ha, you’ve got a Raleigh Bummer’, all my mates loved it – great for flying down the school steps and stuff.

The weird thing is that as you get older you start to appreciate the gift of socks more and more until you get to the point where you’re like: “Oh socks! ****ing yes! I NEVER remember to buy any of those little ****s and here they, delivered by Santa and his band of merry ****ing elves. Warm feet for another year!”

I love getting socks now. I haven’t bought any socks for years now.

“we need to tell you kids we’re getting a divorce”

ohhhhhh what a joyous christmas that was haha

When I was 16 I got a wooden nutcracker in the shape of a soldier. I’m allergic to nuts.

When I was 16 I got a wooden nutcracker in the shape of a soldier. I’m allergic to nuts.

LOVL!!!

When I was about 25

Me – Oh… a trouser press.

Mum – Everyone should have one.

Me – You haven’t.

I get socks every year – it’s a joke really because I once jokingly said I didn’t want socks for Xmas. They’re usually cycling socks though so that’s good 🙂

Worst present I can think of (for birthdays too) was always clothes. Ungrateful, yes, but I can still remember the feeling of disappointment when I opened a present to find it was clothes. I never give my son (or other kids) clothes as presents now.