THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. PLEASE VISIT THE MAIN PAGE FOR RECENT CONTESTS.
Every day from now to December 12th, I’ll be posting a new contest on my blog to win that day’s prize. Your entry is only good for that day. To win the prize for any other day, you’ll need to come back and enter again.
The grand prize at the end of the 12 days of Holiday Hell Contest is two Kindles, to be awarded to two lucky winners who have entered the Kindle drawings (which are seperate from the daily drawings. Entry into the daily drawings does not enter you into the Kindle drawings).
The fine print: You can win one of the daily Holiday Hell prizes and still be eligible to win the Kindle. You must complete the entry form for each daily contest entirely, double checking that your name and mailing address are correct because this is what I’ll use to mail your prize. If your prize comes back to me due to an incorrect mailing address, you forfeit your prize. Prize winners will be drawn before the end of each day following the contest (ie Day 1’s prize winner will be drawn before the end of Day 2) and will be announced on my blog. Kindle winners will be drawn and announced here on December 13th. All prizes will be mailed by December 20th.
Only one entry into each drawing per household/IP address. Duplicate entries will be deleted and entrants will be disqualified.
International entries are welcome and I will mail overseas, but will not guarantee receipt by Christmas as it will go by dolphin due to the obscene cost of shipping overseas.
I reserve the right to modify the rules at any time.
The Day 9 prize pack is:
Mango Liquorice (from Australia
Australia cell phone charm
Air New Zealand travel pack
Acheron buttons and lanyard
In a Heartbeat by Donna Richards
Signed Death of a Pirate King by Josh Lanyon
Tethers by Sara Reinke
You’ll Be the Death of Me by Stacia Wolf
Signed Surviving Demon Island by Jaci Burton
The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James
Lone Star Courtship by Mae Nunn
The Loner’s Guarded Heart by Michelle Douglas
I can’t stress enough how important it is to read the rules and give exactly the information I ask for, as I will disqualify your entry if it’s not correctly–and completely–filled out and I would guess maybe a fifth of them come in incomplete.
We’re going back to the comments today (because I like to keep you on your toes!). Thanks to yesterday’s contest, I have some new ideas for questions to ask. One of the most popular recommendations was to ask: What is the best (or worst) Christmas present you’ve ever received or given? I’m leaving it a little more open with the different options so you can answer more easily. Leave your answer in the comments but don’t forget to come back and check to see if you’ve won, so you can send me your mailing address.
Good Luck!
Best gift I ever gave was a photo montage of me and my sisters, to my parents. I was in high school and cut openings in a posterboard matt and put the whole thing in a huge frame. There’s a little brass plaque from Things Remembered with the date and “Merry Xmas” (instead of “Christmas,” because they charged by the letter).
My dad still talks about how much he loves it, 20-some years later.
My DIL went into labor on Dec 25th. My first grandson was born on Dec. 26th This was my best Christmas present.
Hmm… I think the worst gift I ever received is tied between acne cleanser from my grandmother that gave me a rash after one wash and the numerous x-mas cards from my uncle that always had my name spelled wrong =/ I can forgive the first. The second? not so much
The best gift I have gotten for Christmas was getting to adopt two abandoned cats from the pound. They needed a good home and love and I needed them.
I swear, no one in my family knows me at all! I got so tired of bad gifts that I just asked to please have gift cards. Now I get a lot of gift cards for the bookstore and couldn’t be happier.
I have to say, I enjoyed reading everyones comments on their best/worst presents. Lots of great stories there!
I honestly can’t think of a “worst” gift. I remember as children we always got new pajamas as the first gift we were allowed to opem on Christmas eve – but we liked that tradition. One of the best gifts I got was a couple of years ago my Husband bought us 2 Robot vacuum cleaners which run around the room by themselves! I really like those!
My very best Christmas present was the year my husband bought me a black and tan miniature dachshund. I named him Barkley.
The worst ever was a doll, given to me by someone who perhaps thought it was appropriate for a young girl – it was tossed unopened and unplayed with into a closet (this was long before easy returns) and remained there until finally thrown away. Can you tell that I DID NOT PLAY WITH DOLLS? Nor would anyone that knew me think that I would. It definitely was worse than nearly any of the clothes or underwear or hand-knitted things to keep you warm that we all have received, if only because those were useful and used, if not what every kid dreams of.
The best gift at Christmas for me, was a warm and welcoming home – I was a foreign student, and I completely lucked out with my assigned host parents. They had me over at every school break, if I wanted to get away from the dorms. =) That warm welcome really helped me with homesickness at every holiday. I still see them every so often, and I graduated 14 years ago.
My favorite gift was a movie, Meet Me In St. Louis. My little brother had recorded over the taped copy I had, so my mom bought me the DVD. I was so excited!
My stepmother knows I like little knickknacks to set around my home to decorate so one year she gave me nicely wrapped medium sized box to open up in front of the whole family. It was the ugliest carving of a bizarre fish with another fish inside it. I love my dad so I had to pretend to love it and set it out to be displayed for everyone who comes to my home to see. They visit me too often to throw it away – I am still trying to think of a plausible way to get rid of it! Gotta love your family.
Best Christmas Gift for me was when my husband got me my Shih Tzu. I begged him for two years for a dog, but he is not an animal lover. But finally one year my friend and I went to the pet store at Christmas to pick out a Shih Tzu puppy for her. I was playing and cuddling with one when I turned around my husband was standing there and ask me if that was the one I liked. That was 5 years ago and my husband adores our dog and wants to get more.
Ok keep in mind this was from a 5 yr. old. A pair of black fuzzy dice with orange flames on them. Hmmm grin and say they’re great lol!
Wow – this is seriously the hardest question I’ve had to answer in a while! I think the best gift, because it was such a surprise, were the gifts I received from one of my home teaching students my FIRST year of teaching! She made me refrigerator magnets in the shape of red apples – “#1 Teacher” and “Best Teacher”. Just thinking of it gets me all happy, weird – I’m not a teacher by profession, I’m a biologist but I teach part-time (one-on-one) to pay the mortgage. I had so many wonderful teachers growing up, so to have a student regard me in such a manner was so absolutely INCREDIBLE. ME?!!?! I don’t think I’m the best teacher, heck I couldn’t teach full-time with a class full of students, BUT I try to relate to my students. Every one of my students complain that I’m tough but amazingly they like me, I remember that about the teachers I loved as a child. I hope that I always remember those apple magnets until I kick up my toes…
I couldn’t think of the worst I ever received, but the instant I read the contest question, a memory came to mind. I witnessed the “giving” of what had to be the worst, tackiest gift ever. My great-grandmother wasn’t a very nice person. Sad, but true. She would continually forget about my oldest cousin. One Christmas, she says, “Oops, I forgot you, Krissy.” She then proceeds to pull the the ugliest earrings right off her ears and hand them to my cousin. I can still remember assorted family members’ chins hitting the floor. Needless to say, about two minutes later, I also witnessed the disposal of the worst Christmas gift.
The worst Christmas present I received was from my mom. When I was a kid she took all my G.I. Joes and accessories and gave them to some needy kids that otherwise wouldn’t have had anything. Years later, I made a comment about how much they would be worth if I still had them today. My Christmas present from her was a box of used G.I.Joes that she bought at a garage sale. I was 40 years old at the time and I don’t play with G.I.Joes anymore!
Not the worst I’ve given, but one of the funnier moments. Every year my father inlaw gives sweaters to the sons and son and laws. They are always the same sweater for all 5 of them, and only vary in size and color. This usually leads to some laughter, because the style is all wrong for at least a couple of the guys. Last year was extra special though, because when my father inlaw opened his gift, his new sweater matched all the others!
For the past four years my not so wonderful husband of 14 years always hands me a plastic grocery bag with three magazines in them not a Merry Christmas nothing. Lucky me
big white Granny Panties is always a great one *note the sarcasm
My worst Christmas present ever was from my mom who gave me a man’s watch. She kept trying to convince herself and me that I could wear it. So I put it on, and sure enough, the face of the watch nearly covered my whole wrist.
One of the worst gifts was a box of regifted chocolates – maybe from the last Christmas or Valentine’s Day. They were as hard as a rock!!!
My husband gave me a rug cleaner one year UGH. Shortly after we had to remove most of our rugs because of an old cat with a problem. I didn’t want to use the darn thing anyway and it was always him saying “The rug needs cleaned.” I told him I no longer wanted anything with a plug unless it was a computer so one year he wrapped up a cord with a plug lol.
I have two favorite Christmas gifts that I received. Both the same year, two years ago.
DH gave me a LARGE gift certificate to shop at my friends bookstore,(made me happy and helped her!!) and I received a remote car starter!! Whoohoo, the BEST invention!! The weather outside can be frightful, but the toasty car is soooo delightful!! LOL
Happy Holidays!!
The best gift I’ve received is a bright light lamp that has lasted for years and years. The worst has probably been the digital scale my mother gave me. She means well, but Christmas is the last time you want to be reminded of your weight…
Worst gift I ever received was a book I absolutely didn’t want from a person who ignored my the list on Amazon that included approximately 100 books that I did want.
The best gift I ever gave was a Simpsons figurine of Bleeding Gums Murphy. Months before Christmas my guy casually mentioned that he had wanted one, but didn’t get it and was bummed that they had become difficult to find. I hunted one down on eBay. On Christmas morning his happiness that I had remembered and gone to the trouble to find it were completely out of proportion to the cost of the gift.
When I was nine, I got a Madame Alexander Cinderella doll. She spent the next year with casts on a various body parts (I broke my arm twice- once the summer before I got her and once the summer after).
My favorite christmas present was from my sister. I needed a knew pillow so thats what she got me. When I opened the the present tapped on it was a note saying I would find my next gift……… it gave me clues to where the next one was. She did a scavanger hunt for my gifts. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast.
One year I received a denim skirt edged in lace. I couldn’t think of anything worse at the time! Last year my brother gave me a box of Coca Cola…to replace all the cans he had been ‘borrowing’ from my pantry!
As for the best present, it wasn’t the present but how it was received. My father didn’t write names on any of the presents…he wrote numbers. To two young children, who already had to wait until Christmas night to open the presents (until all the family arrived) it was torture, particularly for my brother who was a ‘guess artist’
When I was 9 I desperately wanted the most beautiful Victorian doll I had ever seen. I also absolutely wanted this stuffed cat with the whitest, silkiest looking hair I had ever seen. I was torn because they were both expensive. When they both showed up under the tree I floated inches off the floor for weeks. I still have the doll.
My VERY best Christmas ever was one year my son was an Army Ranger on location “unknown” and I hadn’t heard from him in a while, unlike most servicemen they are not allowed any contact and you don’t know where they are in this world! When we’re sitting around exchanging presents and the phone rings “Satelite call Via Honolulu” I started shaking and crying (he’s my youngest) and I was really missing him. He had stayed up and waited in line to call to say Merry Christmas even though he was miserable and it was the middle of the night there. I’m crying now and he’s home now! LOL I can’t top that, yet ; )
My most treasured gif is fom my daughter, a ring and earrings that I hold dear to my heart.
Dina
Best gift is easy…it was December 2005, and I received notice that I could travel to China to pick up my daughter.
Best Christmas was December 2006, my first with my beloved daughter from China.
There is no worst gift because I know, regardless of what I received, that person was thinking of me for a little while that day.
Corney mushy stuff, huh!?!?!?
Once I received Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer panties with a nose that actually lit up. I’m not sure if that should go under best or worst, because they were pretty funny.
My favorite Christmas present was when I was about 10 and my grandparents gave me a Make and Bake oven. I was so excited when I took the paper off of the box. I made my uncle slit open the tape on the box because I did not believe the oven was really in it. My family has a tradition of placing items into boxes so the box does not match the contents.
I think the worst gift I ever received was perfume. Heavy on the alcohol, light on the perfume!
Someone in the family was selling beauty aids/perfumes and had a huge stock. She quit soon after starting and her leftover stock became Christmas gifts for all the girls in the family.
Not they are the worse but my mom would always have very sensible things in my stocking. Hmm… underwear, toothpaste & socks.
I think the worst present wasn’t really for me, it was for my daughter when she was a baby. And it was more than one. My mother-in-law likes to go garage sale shopping, and she would buy tons of old, grubby, ugly clothes that had probably been new fifteen years and five kids ago. And wrap them up for Christmas.
Now, if she were low on money or living on a fixed income, I would have been exceedingly grateful. But she was doing this while rehabbing her kitchen with custom cabinets and granite counters, adding a new sunroom on the back of her house, and planning a two-week tour of China. Call me mercenary, but I would much rather have had one nice, clean, new outfit than a box full of junk.
A couple of years ago, my brother had a star named for me. He gave me the certificate & map showing the location framed & matted. It was lovely.
Best Christmas gift I have received is jewelry. I got a pair of gold hoop earrings that I love.
I love receiving gift cards/gift certificates, and one of the best Christmas gifts I got was a Visa gift card, which I used to get whatever my heart desired.
Well, I have to say one of the best & most memorable gifts I gave…and have ended up receiving immeasurable rewards for doing so, which I’m still amazed over to this day…is something I did one year for my little brother and myself.
My mother has always been grinchy…she just doesn’t like the Christmas season much. So one year, I must have been about 15 years old, I was pissed at my mother for her usual Grinch routine and so I spearheaded the decorating of the house. She promptly took over the tree decorating because…well, I don’t know why, but she did! *eye roll*
Anyway, to make it special for my brother, who is 3 years younger, I made homemade stockings. His was some hideous leopard print, and I can’t even remember mine. Then, every evening we’d camp in one of our rooms and I read chapters of A Christmas Carol to him until we finished it a day or two before Christmas.
Of all our Christmas’, it’s the one he refers to til this day. Who would have known! What a blessing it turned out to be.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Best gift I’ve received was a Fisher-Price castle (I was about 4 or 5). I can still remember how excited I was when I saw it set up and waiting for me in front of the fireplace!
My best Christmas gift was waking up two years ago after having my stomach rupture and almost die. The tears of joy on my daughters faces I will never forget.
My worst Christmas gift was when my ex-husband bought me this really beautiful Barbie doll and the day after Christmas he returned it so he could keep the money for himself. Guess this is partly why he’s my ex!!
The best gift I’ve ever given was a Clan Grant kilt for my husband last year. He’s really big on his Scottish ancestry and has been talking about getting a kilt for years – it was so great being able to be a part of making that dream come true (especially because good kilts are not cheap!).
The worst gift was last year. The only gift I got from my “adult” children was a Hillbilly Birdbath – an upside down plunger decorated with artificial flowers. What were they thinking?
The best Christmas present was my husband coming home safely from Bombing Vietnam the first year we were married.
The best and worst christmas present I received was the year I asked Santa for a real live Unicorn as a pet. I got a unicorn, but it was my little pony sized. I loved it, but i was disappointed that Santa couldn’t fit a real unicorn into his sleigh.
The best was a trip to a Mexican resort, everything paid for, had a great time. Also, I love handmade things, have so many I still use, from the pottery made by my young nieces and nephews to a very pretty afghan made by my grandmother.
My grandparents, who lived in another state, used to send us four kids a holiday card with $2 in it for each of us. 35 years ago, as a kid, that was great. As we got older, the amount stayed the same, and it didn’t buy near as much.
HOWEVER, my grandparents and my uncle were all surviving on my grandfathers social security check. I realized as I got older that for them to give $2 to each of us was a lot. We were their only grandchildren, so they’d be so excited when we’d come to visit in the summer and give us little gifts then too. Yet, they survived on powdered milk and anything else that could stretch that one little check.
So, to me, that was truly a gift of love. I still have some of their cards written in their shaky handwriting. I opened one of them a few years ago because I was storing them and $2 was still in it. Talk about bringing back memories (and tears)! Julie
My best Christmas present was from my parents when i was a teenager.
My birthday is christmas eve and on that day i was given a caphor wood jewellery box.
Dad said water it and it will grow – which was a really strange comment.
But the next day on Christmas morning i had the caphor wood blanket box to match the jewellery box.
They did a really good job of hiding the gifts that year.
For the holidays, we just do one gift exchange between the four of us now for a few years and I remember when we first did that and added in more fun, such as watching some holiday shows and playing some board games. With my two children (young adults) and my hubby and I, playing scrabble, we would be laughing so hard because hubby would be cheating making up words and sometimes we’d challenge him and find out they were indeed words! That first Christmas we had to make some changes but we got so much more with the laughter, that we look forward to doing it again!