My Dad's sister
and my Mum really don't get on at all and just before Christmas had a bit of a falling out.

My Mum, being the she-devil she is, decides that she's going to get her own back via the Christmas presents given to my 14 and 15 year old female cousins and so buys them really nice gifts that their mother (conservative isn't the word) would never approve of in a thousand years.
Gorgeous knickers from Accessorise, BeneFit make up, etc.
She's almost cackling away as she wraps them, knowing that she'll get to be the fabulous aunty, my Dad's sister will do nothing but glare, and the presents will probably be confiscated later, much to the chagrin of my cousins, encouraging them to turn rebellious.
My Mum really is a piece of work.

And on Boxing Day when we see them, if goes exactly as she planned. I've never seen my Mum so happy to be in the same room as her Sister-In-Law...until the presents for me and my sisters are brought out.

Three, beautifully wrapped packages. Each the shape of a small box.
'Ooh, could be jewelery!' we're all thinking.
And then we unwrap them...

You should all be familiar with address books, and probably with the fact that you can sometimes buy little sets of address book and diary, etc.

My aunt had taken a set of address book, birthday book and journal, and separated them out, wrapping one for each of us.
Ok, well maybe she genuinely thought that three females of 20, 19 and 16 would find these useful...

I open up 'my' Address Book to find that not only is it a shoddy present, it's a shoddy present that's been used.
Yes, my aunt had actually given me an address book full of my cousins friends addresses.

Still, unless she gets a time machine for her birthday, I doubt my older sister will be getting much use from her 2006 Journal.

Cheap Tat, no doubt about it.

They didn't even burn properly when we got home and my now-not-quite-so-smug Mother used them to get a fire going.

I don't think we're 'doing presents' next year.
(Completely Underwhelmed, Sun 6 Jan 2008, 14:29, closed)

Memoir
You could use this story to write a misery memoir in later life as long as you keep reinforcing the fact that 'My mum burned our Christmas presents'.
(BobbyDarin Was somewhere Beyond the Sea on, Sun 6 Jan 2008, 17:04, )

Sounds to me like
they need to grow the fuck up and start acting like adults, and not taking out their mutual detestation on their respective kids.

But hey, that's just me...
(The Resident Loon drives women crazy, but not in the good way, Sun 6 Jan 2008, 17:18, )

I agree with the Loon
But another well-told story. Have a click.
( Davros' Granddad Church of B3ta (QOTW denomination), Mon 7 Jan 2008, 9:51, )