This thrift store gift is a Cool Golf Thing

This golf plate was not expensive, but it is greatly appreciated. Tim Gavrich/Golf Advisor

A fun annual holiday tradition for golfers on social media is to share, with a chuckle, gifts non-golfers have given them. All of us golf obsessives have gotten some weird ones over the years. A few Christmases ago, my then-future mother-in-law provided a stellar entry into that tradition, placing a sleeve of Hello Kitty-logoed golf balls in my stocking. The goof-gift was very successful.

But she also gave me one of the sweetest - and, unlike those hideous golf balls, actually useful - golf trinkets to come my way in recent years. A savvy thrift-store shopper, she found an old JC Penney Home Collection plate with an old-school red golf bag on the center. I think it straddles the line between retro and kitsch perfectly. I'm not inclined to find matches for it because it stands out nicely as a one-off in the cupboard. It's not something that will ever get me on "Antiques Roadshow" - I think she paid a dollar for the plate - but the thoughtfulness of the gesture remains touching. It seems to make my morning English muffin taste just a little bit better.

Do you have a golf trinket of some kind that you value, given to you by a non-golfer? Share it with us in the comments below, if you'd like.