My grandparents-in-law owned a junkyard many years ago and were always sure to curate a selection of great future Xmas gifts from it, which they stored in a shed (sometimes for decades).
And so, when I married into this family, I was introduced to a family tradition called Junkyard Christmas.
First - you receive a gift specially chosen for you. For example, I received a wooden decorative item that was designed to contain your kleenex box - for my bathroom (because that's what every bathroom needs) - clearly created by a child in a woodworking class. Or the strange cookpot shaped like a green chicken.
Next - the true fun of Junkyard Christmas begins. All of the great items that grandma no longer thinks are worth space in her shed are placed in a pile and you have to take turns picking what you want from the pile. Don't want anything from the pile? Too bad! You must take a turn until every single item is gone. If you refuse, Grandma gets extremely upset.
50% of the pile is dated glassware and broken kitchen appliances from the 70s. The pile is salted with dirty toys and games. The rest is tacky decorative items. Remember, every last item has to be chosen!
Alas, grandpa died and grandma moved into an apartment and had to clean out her shed, so the tradition of Junkyard Christmas ended last year. Instead I got an Off-Brand Hickory Farms Summer Sausage box - despite being a vegetarian. Yum-o.
On the subject of bibles - I have about a dozen of them stacked in a closet. Not only did my grandparents give them to us repeatedly growing up, but I also somehow inherited bibles when various members of our families died. Because no one wants to throw out the bibles. So not only did I get a bunch of them, my dad got a bunch of them when he was growing up, and my granddad had at least three favorites, and we got bibles at our wedding and bibles at our 1st anniversary and bibles at our 10th anniversary. Some of them are really nice bibles. Only problem with all these bibles is that I'm not religious. But do you throw out the bibles that are engraved with your name, or your dead dad's name, or your granddad's favorite bibles with his handwritten notes? See, I feel guilty about that, despite not putting a whole lot of faith in the bible. So, instead, I have this box full of bibles. I should leave them to someone in my will for fun... "And to Uncle Jimmy... MY BOX FULL OF BIBLES!"
And finally... Grandmas with dementia. When I was very young, my grandma sent my 8 year old brother a £5 note with a card telling him it was for school books, because she knew that my mother wasted all of her money and didn't support him properly. Also, it was a secret and don't tell anyone. My brother was confused... because in Canada, you don't purchase your own elementary school books... and he wanted to give it our mom because apparently she was broke and he was concerned about that. My mom had to carefully explain that grandma is a little bit crazy... and then explain to me why grandma didn't care enough about my schoolbooks to send me money.
