Christmas is coming, and fast. Last minute shopping is underway, and the temptation to pick up a ton of cheap toys and go quantity over quality is getting ever stronger. If you haven’t picked up any of this year’s crop of presents yet, the temptation is even stronger, and if you were to happen across a big box of cheap vintage toys you probably wouldn’t think twice about scooping it up and taking it home to your kids.

Your vulnerable, fragile, incredibly mortal kids.

You definitely should not take home any of the toys on this list, however, because if they don’t outright kill you, they have a good chance of at least maiming you or causing some good old fashioned brain damage. Thankfully, most of these toys have long been pulled off the shelves, and you’d have to go out of your way to find them…but God help you if you do.

See Also: 10 Terrifying Toys From The Past

10 Aqua Dots

Aqua Dots seems like the safest thing you could buy as a present for your kids. They’re just soft little beads that stick together when exposed to water. No heat, no messy glue, and they’re small enough to be vacuumed out of the rug if spilled. What could possibly be the harm in buying them for your child?

Well, as we all know, kids like to swallow just about anything they can get in their mouths. Unfortunate, when it comes to Aqua Dots, that can be deadly, because Aqua Dots, when digested, turn into GHB, the date rape drug.

One child, having swallowed a handful of the little beads, had a seizure and then fell into a coma. He did eventually awaken from it, but suffered permanent brain damage as a result.

9 Easy Bake Oven

Can someone please explain to me why you would give a child an oven?

Easy Bake Ovens are small, true, and they are heated using a light bulb, yes, but they also reach temperatures of 350 degrees. That’s hot enough to bake a chicken breast! Not to mention the several cakes, cookies, pies, and other assorted treats that come in the little boxes of Easy Bake Oven mix.

In 2007, Easy Bake Ovens suffered a recall not once, but twice within a few short months of each other after several children got their fingers caught in the doors and burned them, often severely. One child reportedly even had to have portions of her finger amputated after the little powerhouse of an oven cooked it to the bone!

8 Hoverboards

We’re in the future, and it’s bright! Extremely bright, in fact, from all the fires. Hoverboards were long considered a staple of the ideal future, a sign that we had finally arrived at the peak of technological advancements.

What we got was…not as great as we had hoped. For one thing, the hoverboards had wheels, making them less hoverboard and more like a Segway without handlebars. Secondly, the darn things kept bursting into flames at the worst possible time, which is to say, anytime, ever.

Why were they bursting into flame? Well…we don’t know. Some of the reported explosions of fire and melted plastic happened with the hoverboard was simply sitting still and unused.

On the bright side, this is a great way to burn down your business for the insurance money and not get caught!

7 Sky Dancer Dolls

For a short time, every girl’s dream was to have a Sky Dancer doll. Like a mix between a Barbie and a Beyblade, these little fairy-esque toys would soar in the air, spinning in circles, blade-like wings whirling away…right into your face, where they would proceed to slice and dice you like a discount ham.

Sky Dancers were beautiful, but so, so dangerous, and would apparently often rocket right into your face and slice at any bit of unprotected flesh they could access, including eyes.

Not suitable for children, but great for a ranged weapon in a 90s themed battle.

6 CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit

Is there anything more fun as a child than pretending to be a crime scene investigator? You get to feel smart, and catch the bad guy by simple mistakes he can’t help but make. With the CSI Fingerprint Examination kit, you could play this little game even better, picking up actual fingerprints to inspect and compare. Finally, you can solve the mystery of who really took the last cookie from the jar!

Then, of course, you get cancer and die, because the fingerprint powder contained asbestos. In fact, the powder was roughly 7% asbestos, which is more than enough to give you mesothelioma (and render you eligible for financial compensation).

The mystery that should have been solved here is how this ever passed any safety checks.

5 Roller Skating Barbie

Barbie has more careers, expertise, and hobbies than I can count, but one of the forgotten hobbies that few remember is roller skating. Barbie is allegedly quite skilled at it, moving so fast on her skates that she leaves a trail of fire in her wake. Literally.

Rolling out in the 1980s, Roller Skating Barbie was a big hit, until it was discovered that her skates were literally creating sparks that would light anything even a little flammable like a candle.

After a few fires and burns, Roller Skating Barbie (and the matching Ken) were discontinued and recalled, never to be seen again.

4 Gilbert U238 Lab

Remember earlier, when I mentioned safety checks for toys? Apparently, they didn’t have those in the 50s, because this little mutant making wonder toy fell into the hands of thousands of children across the US, despite the fact that it contained 3 different samples of active uranium ore.

The kit also contained a small lab with which to examine the materials, and a Geiger counter, in case you wanted to know the exact dose of radiation you were getting that was making your skin green and itchy.

3 Aqua Leisure Inflatable Baby Boat

Imagine this: it’s summer, and you’re throwing a party to celebrate the fact that you’ve gotten a new pool. One of the big, deep ones, the kind that they show elephants stomping on in the commercials. You have your baby in the pool with you, in the little Baby Boat you just bought her. You look away for a second, but you hear the sound of tiny stitches popping. You swing back around just in time to see your baby slip under the water, headed for the bottom.

This was a situation that faced many parents after the Baby Boat from Aqua Leisure was found to have a defect in the stitching of the seat which, when it ripped (as it was fond of doing) dumped the babies straight down into the water, where several almost drowned.

2 Water Slides

Welcome back to summer. Your baby almost drowned in the pool, but you got her out just in time, thank goodness. You decide to set up another activity: a Slip-n-Slide, a can’t-go-wrong classic that keeps your party going.

The kids love it, the parents love that the kids are entertained, and all seems well until your husband decides to be a clown and just on the Slip-n-Side as well. Things are going good! Until he hits the end the the slide and nearly breaks his neck (and definitely slips a disk or 3) being thrown onto the grass from a sudden stop. The extra length and weight of an adult means extra speed, and extra speed means a sudden stop is more deadly than ever!

Some toys, it seems, are for kids only!

1 Gilbert Kastor Kit

These guys again? Last time we saw them, they were letting kids play with radioactive materials. Let’s see what they’re up to this time!

According to the description of the product, you simply cast your own little soldier toys and paint them lovingly. Well, that sounds really nice actually! What could be the problem?

Oh, right, you were meant to cast the soldiers out of melted lead. Real, actual, brain damaging lead, the kind that, you know, gives you brain damage. Or poisons you and sends you to the hospital.

This product has been off the shelves for decades, but it’s still incredible that a toy so damaging to your health could even get on the shelves at all!

Then again…it could explain quite a bit.

Being a celebrity has proven to be more than just glitz and glam. In many cases, it can also come with struggles. Though many fans have simple interests in their favorite celebrities, some admirers take their obsessions to the extreme—even committing unspeakable acts at times.

For these 10 celebrities, the dedication of their fans went from mere interest to a completely bizarre and unhealthy obsession resulting in gifts that could never be purchased in stores.

10 Dead Rabbit

Being a celebrity comes with fame and fortune—and fans. For Avril Lavigne, her continued success has made her no stranger to interactions and gifts from her admirers. However, she hadn’t expected the weirdness that accompanies some gifts. During an interview, Avril was asked to name the strangest gift she’s ever received.

For some singers and actors, the presents are articles of clothing—bras, shirts, and sometimes underwear. But for this singer, it wasn’t a material item at all.

Instead, during one of her tours to promote an album, Avril was given the body of a dead rabbit. There was no note, so Avril didn’t understand the fan’s intention. However, it’s been said that a rabbit could be good luck.^[1]

Akin to her first album title, Avril decided to “let go” and move on from the event, though it’s doubtful that she’s accepted any more strange packages.

9 Preserved Baby Shark

The quick rise in fame of the Jonas Brothers—Kevin, Joe, and Nick—was mostly due to their musical talent and eventual Disney deals. Their fans, ranging from teenage girls to adult men and women, have been known to be dedicated and sometimes straddle the line between what is acceptable and what isn’t.

At times, the Jonas Brothers have had to deal with fans taking things a bit too far, including sneaking into their hotel rooms and giving them macabre gifts—such as a preserved baby shark.

The gift, which was provided to the brothers from an adoring fan while they were on tour, did not come with an explanation. But the preserved baby shark was inside a tube. The brothers were uncertain as to what the gift was supposed to mean or what they were expected to do with it.

The shark was accompanied by a simple note saying, “Here’s a dead shark.” The most pressing question was not the “why” but “how” the fan was able to obtain it in the first place.^[2]

8 Sperm

The option of having a family is one that depends on the people involved. However, it doesn’t entail sending one’s sperm in the mail to a favorite celebrity in the hopes of starting a family. For actress Tricia Helfer, a fan decided that his best option to win her favor was by doing exactly that.

The event happened when she was opening fan mail. She didn’t realize what had fallen out of the envelope until she looked at the other contents of the letter: a picture of a man, woman, and child as well as the syringe filled with white liquid and indications that the fan wanted her to start a family with him immediately.

Unsettled and a bit fearful, Tricia told someone at the studio where she was working about the incident. From there, the police were contacted. The detectives were able to track down the creepy fan, though Tricia did not reveal what happened to him.^[3]

Tricia Helfer is not the only celebrity to experience this. In early 2019, singer Iggy Azalea was sent a vial of semen, though it was intercepted by her assistant before she could see it.

7 Breast Implant

Body parts falling off is a strange, macabre aspect of zombies. Norman Reedus, who stars on The Walking Dead, knows about this firsthand. Although he’s dealt with fake body parts being thrown at him in a battle with zombies, he’s also grappled with body parts being mailed to him in real life.

In an interview, Reedus showed a breast implant that was being used as a phone cradle in his trailer. The implant was sent to him as a gift by a fan who thought that Reedus seemed depressed. Instead of getting rid of it, Reedus found the gift hilarious and decided to clean it and put it on display.^[4]

In 2015, the actor received another breast implant in the mail. He decided to throw this one at costar Steven Yeun instead of putting it on display. However, Reedus did joke that he wouldn’t be opposed to getting more implants from fans in the future.

Reedus has continued to receive breast implants, some wrapped in fat and delivered to him in jewelry boxes, as well as gifts such as squirrel meat.

6 Cake With Human Hair

“Let them eat cake” may not have been a real saying by Marie Antoinette, but for Ed Sheeran, eating cake has been a popular pastime. Sheeran’s love for the treat is well-known by his fans.

He has received multiple gifts, ranging from dolls to necklaces to baked goods. As Sheeran is not one to turn down food, he had accepted a cake from a fan thinking that it was just what it seemed to be—a delicious surprise and a thoughtful gift from a fan.

But there was an unexpected filling inside. Once Sheeran bit into the cake, he found that it had been filled with clumps of the woman’s own hair. There was no explanation for this, though Sheeran believes that it may have been the fan’s way of trying to be “inside of him.”^[5]

Despite his love for cake, Sheeran has become a bit less exuberant when accepting baked goods from fans to avoid another hairy situation.

5 Teeth

Known for being eccentric and wanting to stand out from the music crowd, Kesha has done things that could be considered a bit creepy—such as breaking into Prince’s house to have him listen to her music.

This is why it doesn’t seem too out of character for Kesha to request something equally strange from her fans. In this case, she had asked them to send her teeth—real teeth—in the hopes that she could make something out of them while she was in rehab recovering from an eating disorder.

As a result, Kesha received almost 1,000 teeth from her dedicated fans. True to her word, Kesha used the chompers to make items for her to wear, including a bra, a headdress, earrings, and a necklace. In fact, the headdress she wears to promote her album Warrior is made from her fans’ teeth.^[6]

Apparently, the focus started when a lone admirer sent her a tooth that Kesha turned into a necklace made with her own baby teeth. From there, she began to collect the teeth sent to her. Finally, she asked for her fans’ teeth and accumulated hundreds of them.

4 Letter With Menstrual Blood

Letters from devoted fans are not uncommon. In fact, it’s one of the ways that celebrities know that they’ve started to make it big. For Taecyeon, a member of South Korean boy band 2PM, it was not the meaning that went too far but what the letter was physically written in.

Rather than using ink, an admirer wrote her message in menstrual blood. The fan wrote that she had dedicated her menstrual blood to Taecyeon and stated that he could not live without her—even though he didn’t know who she was. She also enclosed her pubic hair inside the letter.^[7]

Many of Taecyeon’s fans had claimed that the letter was fake until the writer came forward to prove that it was true. She even claimed that she wasn’t a fan of the band and just wanted attention.

3 Human Skin

Though it sounds like the plot of a horror movie, Zac Efron did not audition for this part. Due to his starring role in Disney’s High School Musical movies and his continued time in the spotlight, Efron has had his fair share of fan experiences—from receiving their letters to even having them show up at his gated neighborhood to leave tokens of their love in his mailbox.

However, one fan took her obsession a bit too far by sending Efron a piece of her own skin. The actor, who opens his own fan mail, was greeted with the grotesque sight of a piece of skin sitting inside an envelope.

Stunned, Efron got rid of the skin. Now he laughs about the story—mostly because he claims he doesn’t know how else to react to someone sending him a piece of skin.^[8]

2 Human Ear

Jared Leto has not been one to shy away from the strange. Just recently, his date to the MET Gala 2019 was his own severed head, a take on the theme “Camp.” He has also provided strange and slightly unwanted gifts to his Suicide Squad castmates while trying to get into the character of The Joker. Due to his own eccentric personality, Leto seems to draw the same weird tendencies from his fans.

One admirer decided to send the actor and lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars the fan’s own severed ear. In a 2013 interview, Leto explained that he opened up a package to find a severed human ear inside as well as a note that asked, “Are you listening?”^[9]

There was no further explanation for the ear or even any indication of the sender’s identity. Despite the strangeness of the situation, Leto embraced his fan’s macabre gift by tweeting a picture of it as well as poking a hole through the ear and choosing to wear it as a necklace.

Even though he found a use for the ear, Leto did ask his fans not to send him any more body parts.

1 A Baby

Dolly Parton’s fame has eclipsed genres and generations. She is known for her big hair and big attitude, and her music has left an indelible mark on country music and its fans. Due to her popularity, Parton has her share of admirers. However, Parton’s experience with one fan’s gift is unlike that of any other celebrity.

With her single “Jolene” at No. 1 on the country music charts in the early 1970s, Parton may have considered the possibility of a few women naming their newborns after her hit song. But she hadn’t expected a new mother to do so and then leave the baby on Parton’s doorstep.

Parton found the baby girl lying in a box at her front gate. The accompanying note stated that the infant was named Jolene and that her mother wanted Parton to have her. Freaked out and worried for the baby, Parton called the Department Of Health And Human Services and took care of the infant until they were able to come.^[10]

There was never any follow-up from the mother, and Parton doesn’t know what happened to the baby after the authorities took her.

With Christmas fast approaching, I present our second gift related list. Everyone has to buy for at least one guy who has everything so I have pored over the Amazon catalog to bring you a bunch of gifts that I think most men would enjoy. I have tried to select items that are varied in price to cater for all budgets. Remember – you only have 5 more shopping days before Amazon won’t be able to deliver in time for Christmas.

10. Apple Airport Express $90.72

AirPort Express with AirTunes brings your iTunes music in your Mac or PC into your living room — or wherever in your home you have a stereo or a set of powered speakers. All you have to do is connect your sound system to the audio port on the AirPort Express Base Station using an audio cable (included in the optional AirPort Express Stereo Connection Kit) and AirTunes lets you play your iTunes music through your stereo or powered speakers — wirelessly. I have three of these in my home and I couldn’t live without them now – best of all you can use them from a Mac or PC and it is as simple as selecting which airport you want to play (including multiple) out of from a menu that appears in iTunes. It also includes a USB port for wireless printing.

Buy it at Amazon

9. Remote Controlled Bugs $24.95

These bugs are exact replicas of those found in nature. They take two AAA batteries and are driven by a branch-shaped remote control. What guy wouldn’t want to have some fun sending bugs around the house to scare everyone?

Buy it at Amazon

8. Pocket Compass $14.10

This is obviously a geek’s toy. When I first moved to London, a pocket compass was the thing I needed most when getting around. No batteries required – just Earth’s magnetic field! This is a heavy-duty metal lensatic sighting compass with luminous points and liquid dampening.

Buy it at Amazon

7. Planisphere Watch $49.95

A perfect gift for your favorite astronomer! The face of this wristwatch is a mini planisphere that really works! Rotate the faceplate to any time and date and it displays a map of the constellations visible from mid-northern latitudes. Luminescent background glows in dark for 2 to 3 hours. Rubber/steel band adjusts to any wrist size. Face diameter, 1-5/8″.

Buy it at Amazon

6. An Incomplete Education $23.10

Think of this book as one-stop shopping for your brain. So you never studied philosophy? Turn to page 306. You can’t tell Keats from Shelley? Page 195. Spanning 10,000 years of knowledge, featuring 3,684 things you should have learned but didn’t (or forgot somewhere along the way), it covers world history, art history, economics, literature, science, political science, religion, psychology, even film (what’s the big deal with Citizen Kane? See page 174). The updated edition of the 1990s bestseller.

Buy it at Amazon

5. Newton’s Cradle $9.69

This is the classic “desk toy”. Using Newton’s third law has never been this much fun! Swing one ball and one ball on opposite end swings in response. You can spend hours playing with one of these things – I know, because I have!

Buy it at Amazon

4. Classic Gumball Machine $29.99

This would look great in an office or any space set aside for the guy with everything. The design is classic red. I received a gumball machine when I was younger and I loved it – it is a brilliant gift idea.

Buy it at Amazon

3. The Outsider $5.50

A young, amoral bachelor called Meursault kills an Arab on a beach in a fit of heat-induced rage. At his trial, the fact that he did not cry at his mother’s funeral is a central piece of circumstantial evidence. He is sentenced to death, which merely serves to confirm his conviction that the universe is indifferent.

This book is very popular with guys and has inspired a film: Lo Straniero (1967), by Luchino Visconti. It was also the inspiration for the Cure’s Killing an Arab, as well as, some say, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Buy it at Amazon

2. Popcorn maker $59.95

There is nothing better than sitting down with a big bowl of popcorn and watching your favorite movie. This popcorn maker is dishwasher safe and made of stainless steel. It certainly beats standing over a pot on the stove. For a double-banger gift, why not throw in item number 1 as well…

Buy it at Amazon

1. Complete James Dean Collection $27.49

What guy has not once in his life wanted to be like James Dean? He was suave, kind, and masculine. This collection includes all three films that Dean starred in: Rebel Without a Cause, Giant, and East of Eden. I own all three and they are brilliant movies. Each film is presented in a double DVD special edition, and includes new and vintage documentaries, commentary tracks, publicity materials, and even the infamous “Drive Safely” commercial spot Dean filmed shortly before his death in a car accident.

Buy it at Amazon

Among the many reasons people have for selecting a particular gift, throughout history, symbolism has often played a big part in gifts exchanged by high-profile individuals, especially leaders of nations and various celebrities. Sometimes the meaning behind these baubles is so subtle or personal that outsiders would never guess the real message. Whether the purpose of the gift is to seduce, mock, threaten, express admiration, etc., the message can take some very unexpected forms.

Here are 10 surprisingly symbolic gifts exchanged by famous people.

10 Pushinka the Puppy

Who would think of using a cute little dog to gloat over a victory? Apparently, one Russian leader during the Cold War did in 1961. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had a relatively cordial relationship with President John F. Kennedy, despite the fundamental differences between their two nations. However, a gift Khrushchev sent to Kennedy hints that he was not a gracious winner when the Soviets edged ahead of the U.S. in the space race by succeeding at sending a pair of female dogs, Strelka and Belka, into space and returning the animals to Earth alive.

He sent the offspring of Strelka, a puppy named Pushinka, to President Kennedy to seemingly, rub in the USSR’s triumph. According to a Reader’s Digest article, Kennedy responded by pledging to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. This goal was, of course, reached in 1969 with the famous landing of U.S. astronauts on the moon.^[1]

9 Corpse Doll

Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, was known as a director who was exceptionally talented at making frightening movies, but there were times when the reserved British director’s own behavior could be very disturbing to those around him. The claims that actress Tippi Hedren made about the physical and mental trauma she endured on the set of The Birds, as well as aggressive sexual harassment while filming Marnie, were depicted in the 2012 film The Girl.

It was during this turbulent time that Hitchcock gave a tiny replica of Tippi Hedren, inside a miniature coffin, to her six-year-old daughter, future actress Melanie Griffith, as a present. It was a bizarre gift, to say the least, and it is likely that the macabre doll was an expression of the bitterness he felt toward Hedren for rejecting his advances. According to Hedren, he would later take revenge by trying to ruin her career.

Griffith’s daughter, actress Dakota Johnson, commented on the incident during an interview with Vanity Fair. “It’s alarming and dark and really, really sad for that little girl,” Johnson said of her mother. “Really scary.”^[2]

8 Desk from Queen Victoria

One particularly meaningful gift presented to an American president from a British monarch is the Resolute Desk, an elaborate desk with intricate designs given to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880.

One reason this now famous piece of furniture, prominently featuring a detailed eagle on the front, is so special is because the oak timber it was carved out of was actually salvaged from the British ship, the HMS Resolute. This is the ship the United States had helped search for and rescue from the Arctic Ocean in 1855.^[3]

7 Book Bound in Human Skin

One of the creepiest symbolic gifts of all time was from infamous highwayman James Allen. After being condemned to death in 1837, Allen, who was illiterate, dictated his crime-riddled memoirs to the prison warden with instructions to give a copy to John Fenno Jr., whose accusation of attempted murder had resulted in the highwayman being sentenced to death. The most shocking part is that James Allen actually asked to have his memoirs bound in his own skin. The autobiographical book, bound in the skin from Allen’s hide, was intended to be a sign of his respect for Fenno.

Oddly, it wasn’t that unusual at the time to bind books in human skin, a practice known as anthropodermic bibliopegy. In addition to this volume, which can be found at the Boston Athenaeum library, a number of other human skin-bound books are still in existence, primarily housed at prominent universities like Harvard.^[4]

6 Dead Fish

The symbolism of some gifts is more obvious than others. The Mafia has a long history of using dead fish to convey the message that a person will “sleep with the fishes” if they ignore a particular warning. This method of communicating threats has often been reflected in pop culture, depicted in movies and TV shows.

One real-life example that received a lot of attention in the media was a 2003 incident when a man was charged with threatening a female reporter. She was working on a story of an alleged mafia link to the actor Steven Seagal, and the man left a dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a one-word note, “Stop,” in her car.^[5]

5 Crystal Caravel Chandeliers

Gifts aren’t always given specifically to a certain individual. Sometimes they are presented to a nation, town, or venue. The Basilica of Guadalupe and Church of San Francisco in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, features a famous pair of ex-votos—a type of tribute in the Roman Catholic Church made in various forms.

These ex-votos take the shape of the caravel, a boat used in Portuguese and Spanish colonial expeditions. Crafted in 1788, probably by Joseph Antonio Otaegui, the legend surrounding these striking works of art is that they were commissioned by sailors who wanted to pay tribute to Saint Francis of Assisi because they believed he had saved them from a shipwreck. After originally being donated to Saint Francis’s church, the caravel chandeliers were eventually moved to their current home, which was considered to be a more appropriate location since it is in the state capital.^[6]

4 Stalin’s Sword

One highly symbolic gift was a two-handled longsword with an 18-carat gold hand grip and a hand-forged blade, commissioned by British monarch George VI for Russian leader Joseph Stalin. Presented by Winston Churchill, the elaborate weapon was given to Britain’s WWII ally, the Soviet Union. It was given as a gesture of gratitude for their pivotal 1943 victory in the 5-month-long Battle of Stalingrad, which turned out to be a devastating defeat for the Axis powers that arguably changed the course of the war.

Ironically, the Soviet Union soon became an enemy of the UK and other freedom-loving countries, including the USA, with the onset of the Cold War less than two years after the end of World War II.^[7]

3 Replica of the Great Seal of the United States

Some gifts are not quite what they seem, especially when it comes from a political adversary, memorably demonstrated with the legendary Trojan horse that concealed a small army. A more recent example is a hand-carved wooden replica of the Great Seal of the United States that was gifted to U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman by the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization in 1945.

However, concealed within this symbolic gesture of friendship was an advanced piece of technology for the time—a very thin listening device or “bug.” The listening device did not give off any signal and contained no power supply. It was created by the well-known Russian inventor Leon Theremin. Shockingly, this seal hung in the ambassador’s office for seven years before the device was finally discovered in 1952.^[8]

2 Al Capone’s Japanese Weeping Cherry Trees

In addition to their beauty, cherry blossoms are also known for their profound symbolism, representing rebirth and the fleeting nature of life. This made the two Japanese weeping cherry trees donated to Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore by a grateful former patient such an appropriate gift. The really surprising part is that the patient was notorious crime boss Al Capone, once considered Public Enemy No. 1.

When Capone, who had been serving a sentence for tax evasion at Alcatraz, was released early from prison in 1939 due to worsening health, Johns Hopkins University Hospital denied the iconic gangster treatment because they were worried about bad publicity. However, Union Memorial Hospital did agree to treat the syphilitic Capone and was very accommodating during his six-week stay. Not only did the hospital give Capone a two-room suite, but they allowed the presence of his entourage, which included family members, bodyguards, food tasters, and his barber.

Capone was under the care of prominent syphilologist Dr. Joseph E. Moore and, after leaving the hospital, received several weeks of outpatient treatment before returning to his home in Miami the following year.

The trees were a gift “to thank Union Memorial for the compassionate care and medical attention he received.” Although one of the trees was removed in 1950 when a new wing was added, the other tree remains on the campus, and more have been planted from its cuttings. The tree has actually made money for the hospital in recent years. When a 10-foot branch broke off after a heavy snowfall, the wood was carved into decorative crafts used for fundraising.^[9]

1 Miniature Bejeweled Gold Ship

It’s true that British monarch Henry VIII eventually had his second wife, Anne Boleyn, beheaded, but the two had a lengthy and very romantic courtship while Henry was still married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. During the good times, Henry and Anne lavished many extravagant and often intriguing gifts on one another. At Christmas of 1527, Anne gave Henry a miniature gold ship, but the scene inside the ship where a solitary damsel is tossed about makes an interesting point. The reason this trinket was so meaningful is because of what was happening at the time.

Henry was trying to have his marriage to Catherine annulled with plans to marry Anne. Henry’s controversial actions, which eventually led to the English Reformation, put Anne in a difficult and vulnerable position. Ships often represented protection. This gift is a symbol of Anne’s humble submission to Henry’s will, which he refers to in a letter thanking her for the miniature and the diamond attached. In the opinion of historian Dr. David Starkey, this gift would have been a symbol of Anne’s resolution to marry Henry.^[10]

Exchanges of gifts, or simply giving gifts is an old tradition between nations, dating back to the ancients. Emissaries between governments often arrived at their new station bearing gifts from their sovereign, indications of friendship. There are some who consider the famed legendary Trojan Horse to have been a gift, though The Aeneid makes clear it was a votive to the goddess Athena.

One of the earliest gifts to another nation given by the United States was the new ship of war, America, built in Portsmouth during the Revolutionary War. Congress gave the ship to France to replace another lost in a grounding, and besides, with the war ending, the United States no longer had a navy. But it offered a convenient means of expressing gratitude to the King of France for his aid during the war.

It is a tradition which continues, for a number of reasons. Here are ten notable examples of gifts between nations.

10. Morocco Made a Gift of Lions to the United States in the 1830s… Twice

Morocco was the first nation to recognize the Independence of the United States, and the treaty of amity between the two nations is the oldest American treaty still in effect. In the 1830s two different Sultans made gifts of lions to the United States, and in both instances, they were delivered to the American legation in Tangier. In both cases the American Consul in Tangier wrote to Washington for instructions. The first case concerned a lion and two Arabian horses intended as gifts for President Andrew Jackson.

The animals remained at the legation, at Consul James Leib’s expense, while Congress dithered. Returning the animals to the Sultan was unthinkable. Finally, Congress passed a resolution to have the animals sold, with the proceeds donated to Washington orphanages. When Leib’s successor to the post, Thomas Carr, presented his credentials to the Sultan he received notice of a gift of two matched lions, as well as more horses, intended for the President. Again, the consul waited for instructions from Congress, writing them of the inordinate expenses he suffered to feed the lions while he waited for Congressional action.

While he waited for Congress, Carr informed the Sultan that the President and Congress could not accept gifts. The Sultan responded that the lions were gifts to the American people, and insisted they be accepted, which Carr relayed to Washington. Congress finally passed a law instructing the President to house gifts from foreign dignitaries and rulers in the Department of State, or to “dispose in such time and manner as he shall see fit” of gifts which could not be accommodated. When the lions arrived in America they were quietly sold, the funds deposited in the Treasury, as per Congressional mandate.