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"During the holidays, it&amp;#039;s not the decorating, writing cards, cooking big meals, baking cookies or cleaning the house that throws me for a loop. It&amp;#039;s the gift giving. Spending money isn&amp;#039;t the problem I just can never make the right decision about what to give.  Often, I become obsessed with a certain item and decide that everyone else will like it too. Last year, for example, I bought several tins of this great chocolate-covered toffee popcorn called Top O&amp;#039; the Pop from Williams Sonoma. Of course, I kept one for myself. This year (don&amp;#039;t tell anyone) I bought everyone a gourmet gadget to make beer-can chicken called a &amp;quot;chicken sitter.&amp;quot; I have no idea whether my family and friends have any desire to make beer-can chicken, but I own one and love it. I often have this fantasy that my friends and family are sitting around on the day after Christmas saying, &amp;quot;Now why did she give us this?&amp;quot;  With all the stress surrounding the holidays, who doesn&amp;#039;t make gift-giving blunders? To get a better idea of what not to do, I asked people to tell me about the worst gifts they ever received. Here are the best of the worst (plus a few of my own mishaps):  A friend received a salad shooter as a wedding present, which she was thrilled about until she opened the package and discovered a piece of cucumber stuck inside the machine.  One year, I gave a friend a selection of fancy French cheeses. They were so stinky that they smelled up her refrigerator and she had to store them on the front porch.   The first Christmas I spent with my mother-in-law, I bought her a small Christmas dessert platter from Crate and Barrel.Because of the diameter of the plate, the only box that would fit was 12 inches high. She dug into the box, lifted out the plate and screamed, &amp;quot;Oh, a set of dishes!&amp;quot; My husband cut the excitement short by telling her, &amp;quot;No, Mom, it&amp;#039;s just one plate.&amp;quot; I shrunk into my chair. Several years ago, a boyfriend gave me a knife block for Christmas. I admit it wasn&amp;#039;t all that romantic, but I was trying to be appreciative until I found out that on the following night he went to another girlfriend&amp;#039;s house and gave her a ruby and diamond ring! My friend Jane&amp;#039;s mother was making her a felt Christmas tree skirt as a gift. However, halfway through the project, her mother got bored with sewing it. She wrapped up all the pieces and told Jane she should finish it herself. When my sister was in college, she gave her husband-to-be a pair of boxer shorts from Burger King that said &amp;quot;Home of the Big Whopper.&amp;quot; Her now-husband thought it was funny, but his mother was horrified when she fished them out of the wash bin. A coworker&amp;#039;s former boss gave her the same exact present two years in a row. It was a not-very-attractive black purse that turned into a backpack. She happily donated them to charity. Another (slightly unethical) coworker says that the worst gift she ever gave was when she told her friend that she&amp;#039;d adopted an animal at the zoo in her name. The coworker never actually did\u2014she just made up a certificate on the computer and gave it to her friend.  A friend received a $25 gift certificate to Tiffany &amp;amp;amp; Co. Of course, nothing costs $25 at Tiffany, so she ended up spending $200 of her own money to use the gift certificate.  My brother received a gift and after he opened it, the gift giver told him there was a rebate on the item, but he needed the UPC code. He then proceeded to offer to split the rebate with my brother. My brother then told him he could keep the whole thing.   My friend got a present and went to exchange it only to find out that the product had been discontinued for years.  One year, a friend&amp;#039;s husband gave her Tiffany &amp;amp;amp; Co. silver heart earrings. It was a sweet gift, but she rarely wears earrings and tended to wear gold more often than silver. They returned them together and he let her pick something else no big deal but, the next year he gave her the exact same pair. Of course she thought it was a joke and started laughing. Turns out he totally forgot he got them for her the year before!  What&amp;#039;s the worst gift you&amp;#039;ve ever received? Post your story in comments. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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