CHICAGO — Did you ever get fishing gear for Christmas — and hate fishing? Or how about a donation in your honor to a charity that you don't give a hoot about?

The Chicago Tribune asked some financial services executives to talk about their worst holiday gifts. Here's what six of them had to say:

James Tyree, CEO of Mesirow Financial: "That's easy. For about 25 years in a row my mother gave me a sweater." Tyree said he has a big neck — 19 inches — and, therefore, rarely wears sweaters. "No matter how many times I'd tell her, I'd get a sweater," said Tyree, whose mom has since passed away.

Jeff Kolb, managing director for investment bank Donnelly Penman & Partners: "One of my former employers owned vineyards and wineries as well as the bank I worked for. Every holiday they'd send a gift box to employees with two bottles of wine.

"It was a nice gesture, but, of course, the wine came from their Missouri winery west of St. Louis, not from their California winery east of Santa Barbara. At least one year, it included a bottle of White Lady, an excessively sweet wine that might have tasted better back in the days when I drank Boone's Farm.

"Not only that, but we had to serve the Missouri wine at several customer receptions. No wonder we had trouble meeting our new-business targets."

Ed Jacob, CEO of North Side Community Federal Credit Union: "I got six pairs of nylons from a Korean importer when I was a small-business lender at First Chicago about 15 years ago. I thanked him but told him I couldn't accept them. We had a policy that we couldn't accept anything with a value over $20, although I'm not sure they would have exceeded that."

Emilia DiMenco, executive vice president at Harris Bank: "Someone once gave me a fly-fishing pole, complete with a tackle box full of flies. I hate fishing."

Judith Carre Sutfin, chief financial officer of Amcore Financial Inc.: She once received a radio-flashlight from a great aunt. "What is this for?" Sutfin wondered when opening it. "If I'm out in the woods, I can listen to the radio," she said, noting that it kept the family in stitches for weeks. She kept it for years but seems to have lost track of its whereabouts.

John Canning, chairman of Madison Dearborn Partners: His most disliked gift? "Every time a purported donor sends a message that in lieu of a gift he/she has made a donation in my honor to a charity that, in most cases, I have no involvement. I would rather get the gift and make my own charitable donations."