Really really bad gifts

Holidailies Prompt: “Holiday faux pas.”

I think I can honestly say that I’ve never committed a major holiday faux pas.  Mostly because the opportunity has never presented itself.

Instead, I will share a story from a friend.  She was young and newly married, and her mother-in-law came to visit for Christmas, bringing all sorts of gifts for her son and new daughter-in-law.

Unfortunately, the mother-in-law’s idea of “nice gifts” was very different from that of my friend.  My friend opened one very intricately wrapped box and pulled out some very risqué lingerie.  It was not really my friend’s style, nor was she convinced it was her size, but the bigger issue was that it was from her mother-in-law.  Who she didn’t know well at all. 

So my friend graciously thanked her mother-in-law and tried to avoid her husband’s horrified looks.  As her mother-in-law began to speak, my friend got a sinking feeling in her stomach.  Her mother-in-law was mentioning how much her sister, her deceased sister, had loved the lingerie.  At first, my friend hoped that perhaps this gift was a newly purchased copy of the deceased sister’s lingerie.

Nope.  Her mother-in-law had given her used lingerie that belonged to a dead woman.

I don’t know about you, but that seems like a holiday faux pas to me.