[Fluff time] Is a lousy Christmas gift with a possible use would be as worse as a lousy one with no plausible use?

A kayak? Dude where the hell do you come up with these examples lol.

If the gift doesn’t suit the recipient, it probably is a sign the gift giver either doesn’t know the recipient or doesn’t pay attention to their interests.

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I asked for a toolbox or a proper ladder for years. I got all kinds of other stuff that didn’t interest/appeal to me. It pretty much all ended up at Goodwill. Then I got the toolbox and the ladder. Good stuff.

I gave up on the drills//sanders etc I wanted and just went out and won them at golf tournaments.

Kayaks? I have friends who asked for a kayak as a wedding present. We all chipped in on it. I don’t think I personally know anyone wealthy enough to give a kayak as a gift. It would be freaking awesome to receive one, but I can’t imagine having the nerve to ask for such an expensive gift.

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Not sure where you’re getting the idea that fishing poles for women or bath sets for men are problematic in some way. Both of those examples make sense to me as good gifts for anyone.

Like, if I bought you a book by Richard Dawkins, at least you would have use for it as a doorstop?

I figure any gift can be regiven, donated, or put on a shelf for eventual use. I keep a box of small gifts that i use as gifts/trade items for geocaching.

I’ll take that kayak if she doesn’t want it.

First of all, every gift is of plausible use to SOMEONE. The trick is to match the gift to the recipient. While there are women who would be thrilled to receive a fishing pole as well as men who lust after bath sets, there is clearly little point to gift giving minus consideration of the recipient. Every gift is useful to someone while worthless to others. It’s simply a matter of picking the recipient as well as the gift.

@LuckyGuy ‘s point about regifting is good. Almost everything (other than my aunt’s evil honeycake) can be regifted. I went to an event on the weekend where part of the cost of admission was a donation to a refugee gift drive. I filled a large bag with things from the hopeless gifts pile in the middle bedroom – all still in original packaging – some in their gift bags – new puzzles, craft scissors, books, scarves, a couple of games. Things from that stash are going to a Christmas swap event this weekend.

@BellaB The honey cake could be broken up and sparingly offered to the birds.

I received a toilet plunger with a parrot carving at the end of the handle for Christmas one year—from my sister.

We didn’t speak for a couple of years after that. When that particular wife (#2) and I divorced, I left it for her. While there were some good times, the thing was somewhat symbolic.

I defy anyone to better a decorated toilet plunger…

We have a traditional pot luck supper /“white elephant” party where a bunch of us gather yearly before Christmas. Each participant is required to bring as beautifully wrapped a present as he or she can manage. In the early years, the “presents” were supposed to be items that we wanted to “regift”, but as the crowd grew, there is now a loose agreement that items be either re gifts or restricted to values below $30. The presents are spread out to be lavishly displayed and numbers are drawn from a hat (or mixing bowl). Whoever draws #1 selects from among the gifts and opens it to the hoots of the well fed and by now inebriated crowd. #2 and all subsequent participants then in their turn can either open a wrapped gift or “steal” an opened gift from its owner, whereupon the victim of the theft may open a gift or steal one other than the item just snatched from him or her. There are other rules, but the fun of the thing is in the opportunity to dazzle your peers with tasteless schlock. And there are useful things that pop up. 2 years ago, I gave away a brand new big fully charged fire extinguisher that I bought go 10 bucks. For years, the star of the event was a hideous candy dish that popped up year after year never to be stolen. Whoever picked that sucker was just stuck with it til the following year. But the “candy dish corollary” allowed the lucky recipient to pass the the dish off to the hosts ahead of the next years party so that she didn’t have to walk in as a “marked” woman. We would all be required to gather in the garage while our host or hostess slipped the “old maid” into the pile of other loot. A few years back the final recipient dropped the dish in his kitchen while in the process of boxing it to wrap. He informed us all of the tragedy and announced the end of the era. But the highlight of that year’s party was the appearance of a ziplock bag of ugly red and green glass shards from a box so small that no one could possibly suspect the hideous candy dish.

@Berserker A kayak? Dude where the hell do you come up with these examples lol.
I guess I should have included an ”etc.”, it was not merely about a kayak but the spirit of getting anything, could be a pellet gun, an airsoft pistol, roller skates, anything else, but something the receiver was not into.