• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Kerry Cooks

Recipes and inspiration from the sweeter side of life

  • Home
  • Rainbow Cake
  • Recipes
    • Rainbow Cake
    • Cookies and Cookie Dough
    • Cakes
    • Bars and Brownies
    • Brunch
    • Cupcakes
    • Nutella
    • No-Bake
    • Seasonal
      • Valentine’s Day
      • Easter
      • Summer
      • Autumn
      • Halloween
      • Christmas
    • Healthy Choices
    • Savoury Recipes
  • Baking 101
    • How to’s
    • Cupcake Academy
    • Baking Essentials
    • Baking cheat sheets
  • On the Side
    • Beauty
    • Reviews
    • Blogging
    • Things I love
  • Get in Touch
    • Work with Kerry
    • Disclosure

My best (and worst) Christmas presents ever

September 28, 2012 By Kerry Cooks 4 Comments

Hello lovely blog readers! Do you get as excited about Christmas as I do? Every year as soon as September rolls around my mind starts to fill with present ideas, a list of things to bake and home decorating inspiration. I’ve even already started to pick up Christmas presents! And in the next few months, I’ll be bringing you a series of posts on how to have a great, but extremely thrifty, Christmas.

Milo in the Christmas tree!

While thinking about this post, I realised once again that I have the worst memory in the history of memories in the universe…. ever. I can recall some fantastic presents from my childhood, a Nintendo 64 being the bestest ever (although that was a getting-our-tonsils-out present for me and my brother)… but I find it hard to remember specific Christmas’s (Christmases? Christmasi?) and what presents I received. Can you? Am I just the worst person alive?

I can recall fairly vividly the Secret Santa presents that I received during my 6 Christmas’s at Boots…. I LOVE the tradition of doing a secret santa, although some people clearly put more thought/effort into it than others, and some put zero thought into it. Here are some of the presents I got from worst to best –

  • A bottle of wine (I don’t drink wine, but handy to give away again)
  • A microwavable teddy hot water bottle (could never bring myself to microwave it, hopefully found a new owner in the charity shop I sent him to)
  • A girly cocktail glass covered in hearts – after languishing in my cupboard for a year or two, it made its way to a charity shop to join the teddy.
  • A lovely pair of earrings that I still wear years later – thanks John!
  • A pair of party feet and a box of malteasers. Stereotypical? yes. Useful and delicious? Yes!

and gave –

  • Homemade Christmas biscuits in a gift wrapped tin
  • Wine (to someone who likes wine, I think!)
  • A Lego annual (to a Lego superfan)
  • A pretty necklace and bracelet set (I did later see the recipient wearing them so…. success?)
  • Homemade twix stuffed cookies in a gift wrapped tin

Clearly secret santa’s are much better if you know the people involved well, and they’re becoming increasingly popular amongst groups of families and friends in these lean times.

Oh, and I’ve come up with (hopefully) a solution to my memory problem – I’ve decided to repurpose one of my many notebooks (stationery, yay!) as a diary of sorts, recording the bigger than the stuff of everyday life stuff, including birthdays and Christmas’s, what I did, what presents I got etc. Wish me luck!

What’s the best/worst secret santa present you’ve ever received, and what’s the best/worst (if you’re willing to admit it!) one you’ve given to someone else?

Check out my Pinterest for more Christmas inspiration for home and gifts, and homemade treats!

x Kerry

Share the love!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Print

Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: Christmas, gift, Holidays, Lego, Opinions, Pinterest, Santa, Secret Santa, September

Previous Post: « Stop what you’re doing and look at this!
Next Post: Snapshots from my week »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. heather says

    November 20, 2012 at 10:20 pm

    my best xmas gift just had to be when my mum bought me my drum kit last year its awsome this year i just want small stocking fillers like scented hand sanitiser and mist spray and lady gaga perfume 35 days i cant wait

    Reply
  2. bakearama says

    September 30, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    I absolutely love Christmas too – less than 3 months to go! Can’t honestly remember my best and worst presents but some lovely memories of being with the family in a nice toasty house in front of the tree. Speaking of trees, is it time to put it yet?!

    Reply
  3. Pam McIlroy (@Pamreader) says

    September 28, 2012 at 4:00 pm

    Great post. I don’t like being given alcohol as a gift either. The worst gift I received was a microwave cookery book when I didn’t have a microwave. As I’m sensitive to smells, other things that fall into the worst gift brackets are smellies (perfume, scented bath products and scented candles).
    The best gift I ever received was a handmade pine bookcase with my first name at the top.
    The best gift I ever gave was a copy of the Odyssey to a friend who had out it on his wish lift for years and never received it. The look on his face when he opened it was a joy.

    Reply
    • kerrycooks says

      September 28, 2012 at 4:04 pm

      Thanks Pam! That’s so sweet, I think its definitely more satisfying to give the perfect gift to someone else than to get one yourself.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Kerry!
Cookie-dough addict, rainbow cake lover, friend to cats, never met a pizza I didn't like. VERY enthusiastic human. Homebody and adventurer. Nice to meet you!

Read more about Kerry...
Kerry Line
Facebook 11,405Fans
follow
Twitter 2,369Followers
follow
Instagram 1,800Followers
follow
Pinterest 7,344Subscribers
subscribe
Post 1,118Posts
edit
Comment 8,256Comments
comment
Kerry Line
Kerry Line

A note about links

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, which means that if you click on it and go on to buy something, I might earn a few pennies (and it will cost you the same!).
Kerry Line
Kerry Line

Footer

Work with me!

I love telling my audience about products I love! Get in touch -> Read More…

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Kerry Cooks Privacy Policy

See it here!

Get Kerry Cooks posts direct to your inbox!

Enter your email address below to get new posts by email, it's FREE!

Join 14,776 other subscribers

Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100

Copyright © 2022 Kerry Cooks

X
Subject:
Message: