It’s that time of year when you’re probably thinking about what to gift your child’s teacher to say thank you for everything they’ve done for your child this year. Whilst chocolates, candles and mugs with ‘World’s Best Teacher’ splashed on them are commonly received by teachers, it’s the weird gifts that are often most memorable.

This week on Reddit, teachers are sharing the weirdest gifts they’ve ever received. Some are hilarious, some are a wee bit creepy, and others will either leave you with a lump in your throat or scratching your head wondering “WTF?”

Here’s just some of our favourites:

Two frozen t-bone steaks from his family farm.

Also the best gift I’ve received. (sasky_07)

I had a parent that HATED me. They gave me weight loss pills for Christmas because she noticed I had “gained a little weight.” (realitysnarker)

A homemade card with all of them drawn poorly, but they snipped their hair off and glued it to the card. Horrifying. (bored-blonde)

Fluffy earmuffs with cat ears on top. I’m a pretty stereotypical male physics teacher. I was so confused. I eventually found out that even though they were gifted to me, it was intended that I would then gift them to my wife? (OllivandersOtherWand)

A pen that was stolen off of my desk, wrapped in a piece of thrown-away wrapping paper from a gift I’d opened earlier in the day.

I treasure it. It’s the thought that counts, right? And she really wanted to give me a gift. (smmcg1123)

A rose…and not the flower. Assuming they took a Christmas gift from home that they shouldn’t have and just wanted to give me something nice and wrapped up. (Proof-Carrot-4161)

A gallon of pickle juice. No pickles, just the juice. And yes, this is all the explanation I received as well. (bagal42boy)

Not mine, but a colleague was gifted a taxidermied small crocodile head “for your desk”! She was horrified. (digthisbird)

I work with the younger end of the school-age spectrum and I received a “card” from a child that was a life-sized outline of them (traced by their parents) that the child had then painted inside of. The paint was various shades of red. It looked like a crime scene and was over three feet long. (scattercost)

A baggie of homemade sushi.

It was a soggy piece of seaweed wrapped around cold rice. The child’s mom left me a voicemail warning me not to eat it. (alan_mendelsohn2022)

Many of my students are aware that I have a collection of animal bones, and one of the weirdest, but coolest gifts I received was the skull of a dingo that they found on their family property. (Morticiankitty)

A potato.

It came from one of my favourite students, too. She laughed when I opened it and said she didn’t know what to get me. She had even drawn a silly cartoon face on it.

The memory still makes me smile. (KapitanFutball)

A gift certificate for a 60 minute massage (from the student’s mom, who recently became a massage therapist) 🥴 (magiodriv)

Just yesterday my wife got a gift of a large head of cauliflower. The kid grew it himself and asked if she was going to eat all of it that night. (Ignornatsportsguy)

A purple table runner with a large rip in it. Mum told me the child saw it in a charity shop and insisted he had to get it for me as a Christmas present because it was my favourite colour. It was simultaneously the weirdest and most adorable student gift I’ve ever received. (crazycatdiva)

A huge rock from her “ garden “. It basically was a gigantic stone that she took from somewhere. She had nothing to give, they were poor and she wrapped it up. 40 years later I still have it. Reminds me that kids are good and it’s the thought that counts. (gbenn57)

I got a can of Peaches from a group of kids once. They loved the song Peaches and so did I so we bonded over that. I ate the peaches and kept the can, it’s hanging above my board now. Students ask me every year why and I remember those kids. (Slomper)

Mayonnaise. A jar of used mayonnaise.

She knew I hate mayonnaise and it was a joke all year so on the last day of school, she presented me with the used jar of mayo because it’s all she had in her fridge at home. It’s the weirdest but also maybe best gift I’ve received from a student (question_girl617)

When I was at a preschool a 3/4 year old walked in one morning and handed me a packet of dry protein oatmeal. Her mom just shrugged and said she didn’t feel like arguing that morning lol (rayeis)

What did you buy your child’s teacher this year?

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