(CNN) -- Holiday gifts can be tricky for both gift givers and gift receivers. Good gifts are often the result of careful planning and consideration, but it takes only a slight oversight or miscalculation for the best of intentions to end up as an awkward, unwanted gift.
We asked CNN.com readers to send us stories of the best and worst holiday presents they've either given or received. Here is a selection of their responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity.
Sonia Beracha, Caracas, Venezuela
The best gift I have received for Christmas was when I was about 10 years old. I got a toy oven, which cooked with a light bulb, and it came with cakes, and cookies mix. Just add water and bake in this mini oven, the cakes and cookies were excellent, and you could buy the mix envelopes. It was the best toy I have had in my life.
Larry Horton, Las Vegas, Nevada
My worst Christmas present ever was a coffee mug with my aunt and uncle's picture on it... KISSING. YUCK! No Thanks. I'll just take a simple Christmas card.
Susan Filkins, Los Angeles, California
[The worst was] a box of chocolates from a friend that had a gift card addressed to her that she forgot to take out before she gave/transferred it to me!
Mary Collins, Center Point, Indiana
The best gift ever has to be a Christmas baby. My daughter and son-in-law gave us our third grandchild yesterday. Their names are Bill and Rachel Christmas. The baby, Amber Rae Christmas, joins her 11-month-old sister Tabitha Elizabeth Christmas. Both girls will be celebrating their first Christmas this year.
Douglas Palosaari, Pensacola, Florida
Worst Christmas gift: A pair of white plastic hands reaching up from a wooden base. Purpose: to "hold" all your remote controls. The word ugly is not strong enough to describe the gift which would not fit in anyone's decor except perhaps the Munster's.
Nicole Mottarella, San Marcos, Texas
My paternal grandmother is known in our family for giving goofy gifts, and it's become a joke in our family. The worst gift I ever received from her was a pair of bell bottom overalls with a huge orange button on the front pocket. Later in the year when my aunt and cousins were talking and laughing about the gifts we'd received I learned that the company that made the overalls had gone out of business before I was even born, and not only that but they had belonged to one of my aunts as a teenager. She purchased them with her babysitting money! Last year our youngest cousin (she's 8) received an angel Christmas ornament with a missing arm. Our grandmother thoughtfully included a note explaining that the ornament was so pretty that she decided to buy it anyway. The One Armed Angel has become a new tradition in our family. The angel is now being passed around the women in the family with a book/journal that has the original note pasted inside to track her travels. This year I passed her on to another cousin of mine. I even built her a prosthetic arm!
Linda Chalk, San Bernardino, California
My entire family pooled their money to buy me the big present they knew I really wanted -- a new couch that would match the tile and granite. Then they sent my teenage son to pick out something "modern." No one remembered he is color-blind. I now have a PURPLE couch. Ouch!
Melissa Daul, Green Bay, Wisconsin
The best gift I've ever given will be given this year. My sister-in-law and I made a 48-page heritage album scrapbook for my grandparents. The album has pictures from my great-grandparents' weddings, my grandparents as children, my grandparents' wedding, complete family pictures of my grandparents with their 14 children and a graduation, baby and first communion picture of each child. We also put an updated family picture for each of the 14 children into the album. With my grandpa recently turning 80 and my grandma being 78, they've accomplished so much and raised a healthy well-adjusted family. They are so proud of their 14 children, 40 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. I'm so excited to give them this book. I know that my grandma and grandpa will enjoy looking through it and reflecting on the wonderful family they have raised.
Kay Fondren, McCalla, Alabama
The worst gift I ever received was a set of plaster-of-Paris utensils (spoon & fork) 3 feet long and weighing in excess of 20 pounds that are supposed to hang on a wall. They were brown with a bright gold outline (if you can imagine that). What made the gift so horrible is the fact that a sweet old lady who visited me unannounced and regularly because she was all alone was so proud of them and had a "perfect place" chosen where they should be hung in my house so everyone could enjoy them. I hung them because I have a heart and know it's the thought that counts. I was grateful however when the sheer weight of them caused one to slip heavily from the wall and land on my unforgiving tile floor causing a huge white, brown and gold explosion of powdered plaster dust. Needless to say she and I cried (though for different reasons). She promised me she'd have more made for me. As of this date she hasn't found anyone with the mold. Maybe after everything was said and done, they "broke the mold" (pun intended, of course).
Margery Swiren, Orlando, Florida
I am a court reporter and worked for a woman who owned a court-reporting agency. Although she provided me with the assignments, I billed out about $75,000 per year, of which she received a percentage. One Christmas, she gave me a piece of wood about 10 inches long in the shape of a piece of watermelon. I wanted to ring her neck. I would have preferred a gift certificate to the grocery store for $10.
Deb Meyer, Stowe, Pennsylvania
In 1998, I received a fireproof safety box from my deceased roommate's parents -- the SAME roommate who had deliberately burned her ex-boyfriend's house to the ground and killed herself in the fire less than three months before Christmas. It must have seemed like a good idea to them at the time.
Peg Clevenger, Fort Walton Beach, Florida
The most thoughtful present I ever received was a pair of socks. We were in Iraq and presents were few and far between. We put up a pathetic looking tree and low and behold the next morning Santa brought all of us a pair of black socks. Merry Christmas, all.
Christie W., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Early in our marriage (while still a novice) my husband purchased a very small Lucite calendar with paper inserts for the months. This was a stocking stuffer and of course all women know great things come in small boxes. Minutes after opening the box the calendar fell apart in my hands. Convinced it was some sort of gag gift, I laughed but soon learned it was the best small item he could come up with after hours of looking at a local Odd Lots store! My husband has since learned his lesson but his hapless purchase has given us years of laughter every holiday season.
Dorothy Hawkins, Tampa, Florida
Actually most of my gifts are the worst, because I celebrate an anniversary, my birthday, and Christmas all in the same month. Each gift giver wants to do a twofer or a threefer. That just doesn't seem quite right. I would appreciate one gift for each occasion.
Sierra Akerley, Vail, Arizona
The best gift I ever gave was a flock of ducks from Heifer International to my friend. The ducks were sent to a family in a Third World country, where they would provide food and income for the family, not to mention great insect eaters in the garden! Any type of charity is a great gift for the friend that has everything!
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