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Strange Holiday Food Gifts

I work in the home office of an group insurance company that has sales offices across the country. Every year many of these sales offices send token gifts to my department as a holiday rememberence. Believe me, these gifts are greatly appreciated because they demonstrate that someone has thought enough to thank us for our work. As with many "corporate" gifts, however, some are good and some are well intentioned, but somehow miss the mark.

This year the good ones included a 5 lb tin of miniature Hershey chocolate products, several boxes of home-made type cookies from various boutique bakers, and a package containing 3 kringles from Wisconsin. If you don't know what a kringle is, google it. They are very cool.

The not-so-good ones include a number of those "towers of treats" that were obviously packaged over a year ago and a delicious pecan pie that was just not appropriate to divide amongst 20 people in an office setting. The topper was a fruit cake, in the shape of the state of Texas. No kidding.

How about you? What holiday food gift did you get that didn't quite hit a bullseye?

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  1. Right up there with your Texas-shaped fruitcake, a few years back I received a truly awful corporate gift--a pita bread emblazoned with the company's logo and a recipe book of things to make with a pita...it smelled funny in its little gift box and I had to trash it quickly. Bad! The next year, same company sent a giant, decorated fortune cookie...much better. ;)

    1. lets see, this years terrible gifts(as terrible as a gift can be, because hey......its a gift):
      5$ starbucks card in a xmas card from a material supplier

      Twinkie cake(invision a 10x10 grid of Twinkies.....frosted)

      The funniest one was a large tin of Werthers Originals. BLECK!!!

      1 Reply
      1. re: nkeane

        I would love the Werther's! But I know what you mean. I received a card for Dunkin' Donuts. Helloooo - I run a bakery. We make donuts that are 200% better than DD. What were they thinking? (and yes, they know this is a bakery!)

      2. a few years ago, a friend of mine decided to bake spicy-gingerbready cookies to give out. Well, the cookies turned out very thick and hard, with an overly spicy taste (my tastebuds were attacked by ginger!!). Some of them were burnt. Basically, total baking disaster.
        but, even after tasting them, he still decided to give them out in pretty wrapping, claiming that "it was his first try at baking", and "isn't it the thought that counts?"
        kind of awkward...

        1. My parents got a few strange food gifts this year. They're in the south (VA). One was a sort of chex mix--pretzels, chex, and even M&M's... covered in white chocolate sauce. Looked gross but it was actually oddly tasty. They also got a cheese spread that looked like shredded kraft w/mayo and I don't know what else thrown in. Didn't touch that one.

          4 Replies
          1. re: Lucia

            Hmm ... could that cheese spread have been Pimento Cheese? I've been making that a lot lately and just love it, but the purchased version in the depths of my mother's fridge was truly nasty.

            1. re: MMRuth

              Now that you mention it, it could have been an extremely bastardized version of pimento cheese. I've had pimento and find it unoffensive. In this jar, you could really see the differentiation between the shredded cheese and the mayo--it wasn't mixed well at all.

              1. re: MMRuth

                Yes, Pimento Cheese made with good ingredients is wonderful.

              2. re: Lucia

                The white chocolate mix was probably White Trash - a friend brought some to one of my parties this year. Like you I was dubious, but it tasted great!

              3. Somehow we always wind up with a Gingerbread house. Don't get me wrong, the workmanship, time to put one together won't be argued by me...but as a gift...am I suppose to eat it? Break it apart into pieces for every employee? Regift it? I never know what to do. This year, we auctioned two off for the foodbank...