Any Faux Pas with your Christmas gift tags or cards in your past

Last Christmas my 39yo cousin didn't give my sister, mum or I anything. He's not usually a great gift-giver and tends to go in with his sister (who is even worse!), but to give absolutely nothing was just odd. The next day my aunt rang and said that my cousin had just realised all our presents were still in his room and why didn't we say we hadn't got anything from him (uh...because we're not that rude?). He dropped them off a few days later and one of the gifts was addressed to Joshua, his 36yo nephew!

Funnily though, last Christmas during present unwrapping I heard that same cousin saying thank you and saw him unfolding the beach towel I'd bought him. He was quite confused when I responded as he'd just unwrapped the present from his mother. Turns out my aunt and I have very similar taste!!!
 
That is happening this year. I am super busy this year plus I am just tired of taking my time to make things look nice and no one caring. So they will be lucky if things even get wrapped. It won't be as nice as normal, but they can deal.

My grandmother used to wrap gifts very elaborately, a la Martha Stewart, then would get upset when the grandkids, including me, would rip off the fancy wrappings in two seconds. My mother would constantly tell her not to bother, but to no avail. I suppose one can't expect kids to appreciate the time and effort involved.

My mother used to have one of these bow makers. That's about as fancy as she'd get. Or she sometimes would write the recipient's name in glue then cover the glue with glitter.

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Santa spelled one of our kids name wrong one year. In 'his' defense, it was late and 'he' was very tired! :rolleyes1
This still happens all the time to me though. For whatever reason my name is hard to spell. I mean I get it there are multiple ways of spelling it but for pete's sake some of my family members have problems still, my husband's step-father and mother sometimes have problems (it took like 4 times to get my name spelled correctly on my home and auto insurance policies-my step-father-in-law is my insurance agent). My fav though is when people would misspell my name when it's right in front of them on the computer like when you are IMing someone. It never fails every year I receive a card or gift tag with my name misspelled...
 
This can happen whenever a person has reused a Christmas bag...the old tag was left on it and then a new one added just in a different spot. Unfortunately sometimes the bag is given to the wrong recipient. If I reuse a bag I remove the old one but I get it when you're in the thick of wrapping gifts that step can be missed. It did make for a good laugh 3 years ago when a bag that was put in my pile of gifts was actually meant for my step-father-in-law and we only realized the mistake when I took out of the bag men's socks :rotfl2:. The side of the bag that has the name tag with my name on it was an old tag and the new tag which was on the other side of the bag (never thought to look) was for my step-father-in-law.
 

One year, my mom decided to number all the gifts instead of putting our names on them. She lost her list so on Christmas morning, she tried to remember whose gift was whose. There was a lot of opening and passing the gift to the intended recipient that year.
 
My FIL and step-MIL gave my 2 year old son a "baby's first Christmas" ornament, even though it was his third Christmas. step-MIL made the comment, "I couldn't remember how long it's been since he was born." It hurt DH's feelings. This happened in front of step-MIL's children and grandchildren. It was sorely obvious that DH's family are not valued anywhere near as much as her offspring. It's sad. Now, it's been ten years since that Christmas eve, and we haven't seen them in at least 5 years. It's gotten that bad.
 
My FIL and step-MIL gave my 2 year old son a "baby's first Christmas" ornament, even though it was his third Christmas. step-MIL made the comment, "I couldn't remember how long it's been since he was born." It hurt DH's feelings. This happened in front of step-MIL's children and grandchildren. It was sorely obvious that DH's family are not valued anywhere near as much as her offspring. It's sad. Now, it's been ten years since that Christmas eve, and we haven't seen them in at least 5 years. It's gotten that bad.


Now that is very sad indeed :(
 
Not with a tag, but UPS just delivered my package from Target. DS's snowbibs turned into womens rain boots, size 6.
LOL
They are expediting the snowbibs to me, and a new pair of boots to the woman in Kentucky. Told me to keep the boots. Going to find someone to give them to, they are too small for me or my girls.
 
One year, my mom thought it would be "fun" to mix up the grandkids' packages and see if everyone could guess who each gift was REALLY for. Yeah, really "fun" when my nephew went home with the CD my daughter asked for.

And Mom can't figure out why we all groan every year when she wants to make a "game" of the present unwrapping.
 
Last Christmas my 39yo cousin didn't give my sister, mum or I anything.

I've never exchanged gifts with aunts, uncles, or cousins - not all of them anyway. As a kid, the cousins used to draw names and you'd get s present for that ONE cousin.
 
Never had any mixups but I remember the years my little brothers cried because they couldn't read the gift tags yet at their young ages!
 
My grandmother used to wrap gifts very elaborately, a la Martha Stewart, then would get upset when the grandkids, including me, would rip off the fancy wrappings in two seconds. My mother would constantly tell her not to bother, but to no avail. I suppose one can't expect kids to appreciate the time and effort involved.

My mother used to have one of these bow makers. That's about as fancy as she'd get. Or she sometimes would write the recipient's name in glue then cover the glue with glitter.

il_570xN.198315761.jpg
b0f12a39af062fc94042bd9a3286b01d.jpg
 
My grandmother used to wrap gifts very elaborately, a la Martha Stewart, then would get upset when the grandkids, including me, would rip off the fancy wrappings in two seconds. My mother would constantly tell her not to bother, but to no avail. I suppose one can't expect kids to appreciate the time and effort involved.

My mother used to have one of these bow makers. That's about as fancy as she'd get. Or she sometimes would write the recipient's name in glue then cover the glue with glitter.

il_570xN.198315761.jpg
b0f12a39af062fc94042bd9a3286b01d.jpg


My mom had the same bow maker. She made tons of bows and they lasted for quite awhile. My mom spent quite a bit of time wrapping gifts and was quite creative. For me, wrap it up, slap a bow on it and call it a day. LOL
 
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My mom had the same bow maker. She made tons of bows and they lasted for quite awhile. My mom spent quite a bit of time wrapping gifts and was quite creative. For me, wrap it up, slap a bo on it and call it a day. LOL

We had one too. I actually knew how to use it at one time :)
 
My mom only writes names on about half the gifts. While we open her unlabeled presents we end up passing them around a bit until she remembers who it's really for.

Santa doesn't wrap presents at my house anymore ever since he accidentally left the wrapping paper roll with the rest of our wrapping paper and the kids noticed.
 
That is happening this year. I am super busy this year plus I am just tired of taking my time to make things look nice and no one caring. So they will be lucky if things even get wrapped. It won't be as nice as normal, but they can deal.

My grandmother used to wrap gifts very elaborately, a la Martha Stewart, then would get upset when the grandkids, including me, would rip off the fancy wrappings in two seconds. My mother would constantly tell her not to bother, but to no avail. I suppose one can't expect kids to appreciate the time and effort involved.

My mother used to have one of these bow makers. That's about as fancy as she'd get. Or she sometimes would write the recipient's name in glue then cover the glue with glitter.

il_570xN.198315761.jpg
b0f12a39af062fc94042bd9a3286b01d.jpg

My mom had the same bow maker. She made tons of bows and they lasted for quite awhile. My mom spent quite a bit of time wrapping gifts and was quite creative. For me, wrap it up, slap a bo on it and call it a day. LOL
Wired ribbon from Michael's is your friend at wrapping time! I bought several rolls in different colors and designs years ago. Some has holly, some has glitter, some is wide, some is skinny...it is all beautiful. I just warp it around the gift, tie a regular bow, and it looks spectacular! We save the ribbons each year and reuse them over and over again.
 
The first year we were married, on a very tight budget, bought gifts in advance as we saw on sale and I wrapped as we went. On Christmas Eve, figured out the presents said MOM and DAD. Couldn't remember which ones were for my mom and dh's mom, my dad and dh's dad! We've gone to using first names on tags since!
 
Because most stores don't give boxes anymore when clothing is purchased, Santa will use whatever box he can find lying around the house...shipping boxes, cereal boxes, etc.
 
The first year we were married, on a very tight budget, bought gifts in advance as we saw on sale and I wrapped as we went. On Christmas Eve, figured out the presents said MOM and DAD. Couldn't remember which ones were for my mom and dh's mom, my dad and dh's dad! We've gone to using first names on tags since!
I have a terrible fear of doing this. The way I make sure I know which are which is on the "from" if they are for DH's parents I put his name first, if they are for my parents, I put my name first.
 
Last year I got my daughter a Tsum Tsum. And I got the school audiologist she works with a lovely white fleece throw.

Or at least I thought. That was until my daughter opened up the fleece throw Christmas morning.

No worries. The audiologist got a great laugh, and her granddaughter loved the Tsum Tsum.
 





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