My grandparents will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary next October and they still use their toaster that received for a wedding gift. It's been repaired a few times over the years, but it works well.

Actually, no one's used the blender since. My mother finds it too heavy and she's not into baking the way my father was.
Thanks, aggiemom. We look at it this way: until the moment he died (at age 78), my father felt fine. He died suddenly in his own kitchen, relaxed and enjoying his favorite hobby after taking a stroll in the bright morning sunshine. Much better (IMHO) than lingering in pain with a debilitating illness, watching your life ebb away. As his cardiologist told my mother, when he dies, he wants to go the same way.

Anyway, to get this back to a happier note, yes, some of those older appliances just keep going and going! While visiting my mother over Christmas I made a batch of popcorn in our battered but still working avocado green 1960s West End electric popper (with oil, none of that air popping stuff for us). And my parents old rotary phone would still work fine if they had a rotary line (remember when you rented your phone instead of owning it, so Ma Bell made those phones to last forever). I'm impressed with those old toaster posts--I think we're on our 6th toaster so far.

This thread made me look around our house, checking out how many wedding gifts we still had and which ones got the most use. The tomato wins, hands down.

Oops, should be West Bend, not West End.

I still use the little metal tea ball that came inside a Corning Wear tea pot that was given to me when I married 42 years ago. My dear husband hung in on the Christmas tree our first Christmas because we had so few ornaments. It has hung there each year since. Unfortunately my sweetheart died 10 years ago and I cry each time I put it up.

We've been married for 35 years, and I still use lots of my wedding presents: my china and silver, glass platters and silver trays, a pitcher, a wooden cheese board, an omelet pan, a knife set (actually, that was an engagement present), fondue pots, candle sticks, a set of Corningware, a carving set, an electric frying pan.

But my favorite gift, and the only thing I requested, is an original piece of art made by a cousin of my father's. She had given me one for my confirmation, and I told my Mom that, if she asked, I'd like another.

A beautiful teak carving board from my very carnivorous sister at a time when I was experimenting with being a vegetarian. (That phase is over and I use it every week)

I'll never forget driving the 12 hours (6 each way) on one day from Chicago to Minneapolis to get our wedding gifts after our wedding. This is because we obviously couldn't take our wedding gifts on our honeymoon to the pacific NW.

There! Now it has something to do with travel!

seetheworld
I would serch out someone who could make you a quilt useing all your cherished hand made items. It would be something to pass down for generations!

Hands down it would be the All-Clad pots and pans because I use them almost every day! A good set of knives is always valued, too.

As for which gifts I cherish the most, I love the family heirlooms that were passed down -- china and crystal. My MIL also gave me a beautiful linen tablecloth and matching napkins that had been in the family for some time. I also enjoyed getting monogrammed things -- mostly table linens.

mah1980

-There is no "truth" in receiving wedding gifts.
-I found it very un-true to be gratefull seing thing you dislike.

-Do people that give you presents know of your high expectations?
-This is the thing! They do because I do not socialize with whoever I met 2 days ago. Not anymore anyway. This is why it ticks me off when she runs into my house yelling 'I know you hate gifts but I just bought you a gift' - who is she thinking about ME? No herself.

-I guess if your social network is like you then everyone ends up happy, albeit poorer from giving expensive gifts.
-Wrong!!! It is not about value of the gift it is about stupidity of wasting hard earned cash on useless things. Look at this...laying around cover with dust. Ofcourse if you like to have Green vase on your red table just because it was given to you by your aunt - I do not want to see your house decor, sorry.

Ziana,

Take your stuff to a consignment shop. Take the cash and buy your 'friends' a gift with it, or donate it to charity and take a tax credit.

There is no need to keep the stuff around you don't want. When a gift is given to you, it is yours to do with as you see.

How sad you are Ziana. Case in point example:

My mom still uses the cookbook my grandparents (my father's parents) gave them as a wedding gift in the post depression era 1950s. I think it is a Betty Crocker or something of the sort. She was aghast when they first gave it to her but now it is a cherished family heirloom given by two people who are long gone.

Maybe with maturity you will see some of your opinions are a bit rash.

Donate all of the terrible stuff to charity. There are many people that would probably love to have that "junk."

I really hope that you aren't serious about these things that you write. After all of the terrible world and national events of 2005, you would gripe about vases that people gave you.

Yeah...and world hunger (hold me I am falling off a chair laughing)

In relation to travel we requested any cash help our friends could give for our honeymoon in Europe. We were poor and so were many of our friends but they had a party fund raiser which netted us about 2000 in cash which was a heck of a lot to us back then! (1984) That was a great idea and party and one of my favorite gifts. If you say we don't use it anymore that isn't true as we share our memories from that honeymoon to this day...(In fact we just came back from a trip with our kids to some of the same locals)
As for something I use often that has a cherished memory it is a lovely handpainted china teapot with matching cups. I don't know who actually gave it to me as there was no card attached but I "believe" it came from a dear friend who passed away one month before my wedding. We loved to drink tea together. I think of her every time I use it. And my kids know about her from that gift too. (We are a family of tea drinkers)

I have two that are neat ideas- but not used every day....

For a shower gift I got two beautiful/HUGE bath towels with a bottle of rum wrapped in them - I have since used that idea as it was very neat!

For our wedding someone gave us a 50EU travelers check - normally I wouldn't use TC's, but since they knew we were going to Italy on our honeymoon I thought that was a most thoughtful gift.

Most used gift would have to be the grandfather clock from DH - he went all out. It is absoutely beautiful, certainly the classiest thing in our house!

(I didn't get him anything half as wodnerful...)

Wine and water glasses, originally from Eastern Europe, and belonging to my husbands grandmother, and my Mother's wdding china- service for 12. All still in use, not daily, for sure, but on special occasions, family dinners and Holidays.Theyll be passed on to my two daughters.

Litton microwave containers. We've had them 20 years and they still hold all our leftovers and go from fridge to microwave. I've tried in vain to find some just like them but to no avail. They were given to me by my very practical aunt "for that new contraption" and I love them.

I have one of those toasters. My husband's parents gave it to us when we set up housekeeping in 1955, after the two years he was in the Army. It's a Sunbeam and has only had to have a new cord once.

I also still use a damask tablecloth that is quite soft but still pretty, and I have a cakeplate with matching dessert plates that are now listed in the collectible catalogs.

Getting pretty old but still traveling!