13 People Who Got a Gift With a Serious Twist

Ever received a gift that made you question everything you thought you knew about presents? Gifts are usually meant to delight, surprise, or show appreciation, but sometimes they do so in ways you never saw coming.

• After breaking up with an ex and moving out, I had to cut all contact with her completely. About a month later, I came home from work with a migraine.
  So there I was, minding my own business, when the doorbell started ringing. I’m not expecting anyone, so I just decided to ignore it. It continues unabated for a couple of minutes, so I get ready to go downstairs and tell whoever it is to make like a tree. On opening my front door, I hear a voice coming up through the letterbox.
  “I know you’re there. I know you’re ignoring me. I just want to give you your Christmas present!”
  Yeah, no. Not happening.
  I close the front door, turn the doorbell off, and go to bed. I wake up a couple of hours later and decide I’d best go down to check she hasn’t damaged anything. Upon reaching the front door, I find a crushed but fully wrapped present that’s been forced through the letterbox. I won’t lie, I felt guilty.
  Right up until I picked it up, that is. It was very light, too light even. On closer inspection, it turned out to be an empty chocolate orange box. To this day, I believe that ‘present’ was a decoy to get into my home; what her intentions were next, I don’t know. But I doubt they were good. © ****poorplanning / Reddit
• I was the one who gave the gift. When I was about 10, my mom would bring my brothers and me all to the local Dollar Tree one at a time to buy gifts for each other.
  I ended up buying my older brother a can of Febreze. No idea why. © ijustwana*** / Reddit

• One year, I was about 10, my mother decided she’d make my Christmas gift theme “things that are purple.” That’s all I got. I never loved a color, let alone purple, and I certainly didn’t feel any personal thought was put into gloves, an umbrella, and ear muffs in purple.
  What hurt most was how utterly delighted she seemed in her cleverness. While I sat staring at a pile of trinkets that had utterly no use to me or my personality. And while all my brothers seemed to have their bounty, I was gutted—and sad that I’m pretty sure my mom saw that too. © Lettuce**** / Reddit
• My high school boyfriend went to a steak house with his parents and thought I might like the steak knives, so he asked the waitress if he could keep them. © AlwaysDisposable / Reddit

• For an awkward gift: not me, but when my brother was in the throes of puberty, my parents got him a basket of
  — breath mints, tongue scraper, mouthwash
  — strong-smelling soaps & loofahs
  — multiple kinds of deodorants with a helpful hint that you can use more than one at a time
  — lots of new socks & boxers
  — deodorized shoe inserts
  He got the hint and was not pleased. Bless them, I mean, they really tried; I’m not sure there’s any way to tell your pubescent child they stink without them being a little bothered. It didn’t help that they gave it to him in front of the rest of the family, though. © Much_Difference / Reddit
• I got paperclips wrapped in cardboard (mailed from my hometown, mind) with a note from my mom: “Thought you could use these.” Always thinking of us, but... we do have paperclips here. © zomboromcom / Reddit

• I broke up with a guy in my 20s and kept asking him to give me back a portrait a friend had done of me. It was always clear it was mine, and I was just letting him borrow it. For 3 years, he didn’t give it back.
  Then, for some bizarre reason, we started dating again, and again I asked him for it back. Then he gave it to me for Christmas a few months later. Rather than get me a gift...
  Another year, he got me a kit to make him sushi. Yes, to make it for him. Surprisingly enough, that second relationship didn’t go well either.
  He always told me I gave him the most thoughtful gifts, and he always gave me random things. It wasn’t about the gifts; it was a symptom of how he just didn’t invest much time or thought into me. © AlwaysDisposable / Reddit

• So my ex got into a car accident back in November. It’s pretty bad. She ended up in the hospital till January.
  Now let’s step back, she used my car, I left her the keys as an emergency, and this emergency was driving to her friend’s house. So she destroyed my car, and I wasn’t even able to retrieve some important items I had in the car. Okay, whatever.
  Christmastime comes, and she is so excited to give me my gift. Turned out she got me a GPS system. No irony to the fact that we no longer had a car because of her accident, so it was a worthless gift.
  I tried not to show anger or confusion at why she was so excited. © jaytrade21 / Reddit

• I got an empty envelope. It had everything written on it (the name of the person who gifted it) and was properly glued. © iknowthisischeesy / Reddit
• I can’t remember what birthday I got this gift on, but I was a kid, and I got a pair of inexplicably bright orange pants, the super skinny but elastic type. I have never been known for wearing anything flashy, let alone skinny jeans.
  And I am a guy, and the jeans were clearly meant for a more feminine physique. It was a weird gift to receive. Especially for me, because this did not fit any part of my taste at all.
  I wasn’t salty or anything, I still accepted it, but I just never wore it. Not a single time. I think I ended up giving it away at some point, but I still wonder why someone felt that would be the ideal gift for me. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I was working in a pre-surgery clinic. This older gentleman came in, and we were having a normal conversation while I did his vitals. Just before I told him to return to the waiting room, he asked me what year I was born.
  Not thinking much of it, I told him, and he pulled out this big white binder and started flipping through the pages. After a few seconds, he pulled out a page and gave it to me. It was a collection of various coins from around the world dated with the year I was born.
  I think it was bizarre in the sense of how random his act of kindness was, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to be given a part of a coin collection as a “Thank You”. I still have it and think about it a lot. © SourHyperion1 / Reddit
• One year, my parents bought me stilts and a juggling kit for Christmas, and then a unicycle for my birthday a few months later. I had never expressed an interest in the circus or anything of the sort. © zorkempire / Reddit

• My grandma is a retired hairdresser. She is also one to save everything. During my horribly awkward teenage years, I’d begun using product to style my hair in an attempt to look cool.
  Grandma took notice and gifted me a plastic freezer bag absolutely stuffed with about 30 or 40 used combs and partially-used hairstyling products that she’d saved from her salon over the years. Most of the combs were sticky and festooned with a few decades’ worth of stray hairs.
  One container of hair product was so old that its contents had actually dried to dust and blew away into the breeze when I opened it.
  Grandma: “...well, you’re just so into your looks these days, I thought you could put those to use.” © Unknown author / Reddit

These stories made people see gift-giving in a whole new way. So next time you unwrap a present, brace yourself. It might not be what you expect.