My take on the worst Christmas gift ever is more of a concept than a specific gift. The worst Christmas gift ever is one you buy because you like it -- you would love it as a gift for yourself -- and then give to someone else, with little or no regard for whether that person will like the gift. Perhaps, you talk yourself into believing he/she will love it -- I mean, totally dig it! -- but this is just not true.

I think we all have committed this one. I guarantee we all have been the "victim" of this yuletide crime.

Observe enough Christmases, and this will almost certainly happen to you.

The year was 1992. I was in my early-20s and living with my eventual first wife. Through her, we had a friend-couple, with whom I had very little in common, but I was (inexplicably) devoted to my partner, so I obliged as much as I could stand in hanging out with said couple.

Christmas approached, and we decided to spend as much time with the other couple as possible during the holiday season. One night, the other male in the scenario and I were sent out to pick up a take-out dinner. On the way, he said he wanted to show me the main gift he bought his wife for Christmas.

He was excited. And so, I became likewise. "What is this cool gift?" I thought.

My sort-of-friend took me to the trunk of his car to show me what he had hidden there. To my surprise, he revealed a mini-casino game set. I was stymied. In my immature way, I told him that was a fine gift. Inside, I thought, "What!" and "Why!"

You see, I knew from conversations we'd had, that his wife hated casino games. I knew from playing mock blackjack with her.

This was not a sound purchase.

I was a little henpecked (sadly), and these were not my friends. They were my partner's friends. That night at home, I told her the situation. She agreed the gift would be the worst Christmas gift ever, and that the giver had bought it for himself.

We would see the couple again the next day, and my partner decided she would spill the beans about the gift to her friend (which is just the kind of not eloquent decision a twenty-something would make).

She did so, and soon our female acquaintance was trying to pry out of her husband what he had gotten her, and that it basically, "better not be a casino set." (Yes, her man looked at me like I had betrayed the team -- from one man to another -- and I knew I had done just that.)

He gave her the gift on Christmas morning nonetheless. She hated it. She hated that she had stated she would hate the gift and that she still got it for Christmas anyway. She hated me (not because of the gift -- we were always contentious). For an afternoon, she hated her husband. (True, she had a mean streak.)

It was truly the worst Christmas gift ever.