Chicago Speaks

This month’s question: What is the worst Christmas present you’ve ever received?

Divina | 28, Oak Park
I had just gotten out of college and was excited about starting this kind of urban life, and I got a set of silverware in a mahogany box. It was the kind of stuff an elderly woman would polish and hand down to her kids. It was too nice for where I was at in my life. It was more like a wedding gift.

 

 

 

Joni | 21
I got a Victoria’s Secret lotion package from my boyfriend’s mother, not my boyfriend. It was a little odd. I found it was from her a year after the fact.

 

 

 

 

Debbie | 31, Lakeview
An ornament. Not just any ornament. A large-sized hollowed eagle ornament, an eye sore at best. Not only is the eagle deformed looking, but a purple metallic colored shirt is painted on to enhance its ugliness. This is one gift that you stare at and simply ask… “Why?” I’ve confronted the gift-giver on several occasions, and she just laughs. It’s still in the box after three years.

 

 

A.J. | 29, west suburbs
I got some bad sweaters from my mom. I mean, really bad. And the problem is, you have to wear them the next day to make her feel good. They were in style 10 years before I got them.

 

 

 

Miss Santa | 27
This one time, I was dating this guy, and I wanted lingerie and he bought me a blender. I made him take it back.

 

 

Jesse Alejos | 31, Roscoe Village
Probably a Michael Jackson doll that is still in my posession. Seems one of my closest aunts did not know that Michael Jackson was not so cool anymore when she bought me the doll for Christmas. I didn’t take the doll out of the box for a few years until my cousin decided to take it out of my closet and tease me about having it — quite emberassing because MJ had really “cooled off” by then. To this day, my older brother ridicules me about having a Michael Jackson doll, but I keep telling him it is going to be worth something someday — hopefully in U.S. currency too!

 

Brian | 25, Lincoln Park
The Legos I got from my mom when I was like 20. She would still give me Legos now, at 25.

 

 

 

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