Friday Question #236
What is the best gag gift you’ve ever given, or received?
What?! You don’t do gag gifts?! Come on, they’re so fun… as long a real gift accompanies them. Ha ha ha.
The first one that comes to mind is this blow up bear head that we got for my sister’s fiancé, Will, for his birthday. Yeah, there is a story behind it… that is not worth telling*. But! Will hung Brutus (that’s the bear’s name) up in his man cave. Woo hoo! And don’t worry, Will got a real gift, too.
Ha ha. The second story is worth telling, imho. For the longest time, we kept teasing Gina and Steve that we were going to get a giant stuffed giraffe for their son, Luca. We were only teasing, because their house in Queens was small and there was no room for giant giraffes!**
But when they moved to Texas, it was ON. Muah ha ha.
Gina sent me this photo a few days before we went to Dallas for Luca’s birthday, letting me know a box addressed to me had arrived at their home.
I asked Gina if she wondered what was in such a big box. Muah ha ha.
She said “It says ‘stuffed plush giraffe’ on the side.”
Boo on you, Amazon!**** Good thing Luca can’t read yet.
I also asked Gina if she thought some choice words when she saw what it was… I know Gina so well… I was very close on what she was thinking when she saw it. Ha.
Come on. We had to get it for him (along with some real gifts).
If not just to include Raffie in the group pics we take when we visit!
*Because I am a bad story teller and don’t know where the pic is that explains it.
**I had an entire paragraph here about how I try to ask the parent what would be appropriate to get a kid, because I don’t want the parent to be like “Ugh! More junk to take up space!”*** But the paragraph came out wrong.
***Except for giraffes, obviously.
****I told my coworker we got Luca a giraffe. She asked from where, and I told her from Amazon. “Straight from the Amazon? How legit!” was her response (well, something like that). Ha ha.
Themocracy
My sis made a framed picture of me and Kevin as Superman and Lois Lane for christmas one year (she put our heads on their bodies). I laughed so hard I cried. It’s hilarious!
No gag gifts from me 🙁 I love the giant giraffe though!! Hilarious!
We always do a group grab bag at Christmas time at my family party. The limit is usually $20-$30 and some folks take the time and get a good group gift. Others spend it on the latest item in the “As Seen On TV” store. It is a yankee-swap style grab bag so you never know what you might end up with! This past year I got a Sesame Street Bert winter hat, with a Sports Authority gift card attached. Looks like next year that hat with a different card is going in the pot!
The look on Luca’s face with that giant giraffe is priceless! He looks so excited to have such a wonderful toy! I’m sure Gina just loves it! 🙂
Whaaa?! That hat sounds awesome! Maybe you should save it for another blogger holiday party 😉
Hee hee hee. I heard Raffie got to wear the medal they got from their most recent 5K, so I think he is becoming a member of the family! 🙂
Effing fantastic! Our family does rounds and rounds of gag gifts every Christmas. Mostly redneck stuff, including a 20-year-old bottle of brut that’s given around. For a white elephant, we did a 6-pack of Jeremiah’s Weed malt liquor but took a can, dumped it out and left an IOU on it.
BTW, I love you consideration for the parent in gift-giving. I hate when people are like, “Here’s this massive train set. Feel free to move your coffee table and display it in the living room.” I always think pajamas, books and cool sippy cups make good gifts for the wee ones.
Ha ha ha! That sounds really fun! 🙂
That is exactly why I try to ask. I do notice that kids get these HUGE toys (or toys with lots of pieces!) and I think the parents must get annoyed with that stuff taking up so much space (or the little things getting lost)!
haha! I think the giraffe is cool. I mean it’s big but it’s not ugly. lol Are you scouting TX races now??
I will have to when I have our next visit planned! 🙂 It will probably have to be a winter one, lol. Too hot there in the summer!
Best gag gift at work: A flyer to a bronies convention in Chicago. I didn’t find out who it was from for like a week!
Gag gift outside of work: stuff from coworkers at my Bachelor party… no details needed here!
And giant stuffed animals are great for kids!
I’m sure I’ve given and received some gag gifts but I can’t think of any right now. My dad and one of his buddies used to gift each other an agitator from an old washing machine. They would come up with creative ways to gift it to each other. The only one I remember was when a large wrapped box appeared on our front porch at Christmas one year and he opened it and it was the agitator!
I like to consider the parents when I’m buying gifts too.
Ha ha! That is really funny! Sounds like your dad has a good sense of humor 🙂
Every Christmas we do a yankee-swap or white elephant or whatever you want to call it with my mom’s family, and gag-gifting has pretty much become a competition. Several years ago I got this metal pig…sculpture…for lack of better term. The pig’s body was a fan, but it wasn’t actually functional. It think it was intended to be a lawn decoration or something like that, but the fan blade wasn’t loose enough to just spin with the wind…
I actually ended up re-gifting it a few years later at my first Christmas with Nik’s family, and it was the #1 most fought over gift that year!
I love Raffie! Who wouldn’t? Why do no gags come to mind? I think I’ve become far too serious. I fear I’ll be very tired at Sunday’s race. Giddy hopefully.
We love having Raffie in our home. She’s very quiet and well-behaved.
That was so very cool that Raffie came all the way from the Amazon!!! Impressive!
Sometimes gag gifts are better than the real gifts!
If you consider giant stuffed animals gag gifts, my brother gave me a giant stuffed monkey when I was 16. It currently lives on our sun porch. Bob bought me a Cubs gnome for Christmas one year, totally as a joke, but I kind of love it. 🙂
Oh my goodness I love the giraffe. That is really funny!
PS, I just noticed that the Raffie’s tail is blowing in the wind, lmao!
And so elegantly, too! She has class!
My roommate in college put too much salt on everything and we teased her about it. For her birthday I got her a salt shaker, a few salt sticks, and then sent a 50lb. salt block through campus mail. She had to have some random guy carry it back to our dorm for her. Bahahahaha!
Oh my gosh!!! What did she do with that salt block?!
This reminds me of a time in high school when I ran over a huge salt block in someone else’s car. Oops. Good thing my dad was (is) a mechanic!
The iPhone case you guys made Jason a few years ago was the best gag gift I’ve ever seen. Seriously. It totally tops the jar or pickles someone gave me for Christmas one year.
Aww, thanks! Steven put so much work in to that! I should ask him to pull up the document. It would totally make me laugh!
that giraffe is awesome!
I like that giraffe! It’s cute! Someone recently gave me a rather large hourglass. It’s red, goes on for hours (haha), and has these super traditional looking red bars that hold it up. It’s odd and I have no idea why they gave it to me. Sadly, it was the real gift. I still don’t understand it.
Thank you to you and your friend for volunteering tomorrow at the North Shore Half! Hope to see you out there! Love the giraffe!
You are welcome! Sorry I missed you! We were the fools cheering at the corner of forest and sheridan between miles 5 and 6 🙂 How was your race?
It was so good to see you at Veggie Pride yesterday! I’ve never purposely given or received gag gifts, but through the magic of white elephant gifts I’ve received some doozies. A few months ago I got some plastic gun that shoots foam balls at your coworkers. Woo hoo!
It was awesome to see you! 🙂 We got these toys that look like animals that shoot foam balls out of their mouths for my brothers and Steven’s dad. We got it for Steven’s dad because we got him a flying monkey and he seemed to like that. Steven said he really likes the foam ball thing too. LOL!
I love BOTH of those gifts, aha! The giant stuffed giraffe reminded me of a giraffe-shaped coat rack that I had as a child. And I turned out GREAT. So really, you’ve done Gina’s son a huge favor. 🙂