ADVENT CALENDAR: CHRISTMAS GIFTS REDUX

It’s funny how some Christmas memories fade and some endure,
especially when it comes to gifts.



We weren’t poor but we weren’t exactly well off either when I
was young. Santa’s gifts were often determined by budget
concerns but he always managed to leave us clothes and some
toys. (although one year I got a note with the other gifts:
“Dear Bill, I owe you one telescope. Santa Claus”)


Ads for a forthcoming movie bring back more memories. One
Christmas eve my sister and I could hear Alvin and the
Chipmunks “Christmas Song” play over and over while our
parents laughed. When we asked why the song kept playing we
were told it was the radio and to get to sleep before Santa came.
(of course by now I already knew the Awful Truth). It turned
out Santa had left us a portable record player along with a copy
of the record!


I still have the gift my sister gave me one year: a wooden chess
set, the kind that doubles as a box to hold the chessmen. It’s
over thirty years old now.



As I grew older I learned that giving gifts was as much fun as
getting them. We didn’t have a color tv so one year when I was
working at the toy warehouse I put a portable Magnavox color
tv on layaway and gave it to my folks for Christmas. That tv lasted
for years, even after my folks got a larger console set. It migrated
from bedroom to bedroom passing from my kid brother to my
sister’s kids back to my brother’s kids until it finally gave up the
ghost.


And then last year, I got a gift from a group of great friends, the
computer that I’m using right now to preserve these memories.


Oh, yeah! I eventually got the telescope!

Originally published in Dec 2007
This post is part of the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories
at the Geneabloggers website. Visit it for links to the Christmas
memories of other genealogy bloggers!