We did our big Christmas Gift exchange Friday while my in-laws were here. Of course, Santa is still going to bring The Big-Eyed Boy some presents tomorrow, but as for me and VH, tomorrow’s plans are simply to enjoy our son enjoying his presents. One thing sure to stick in his memory: the 5-piece drum set he’s been begging for throughout the past year. I’m not sure who’s more eager for tomorrow morning to come: him, because he’s hoping for that drum set, or me, because I can’t wait to see his face when he gets it. (Yes, I realize it’s going to drive me nuts, but I’m banking on it breaking within the week.)
That got me to thinking about my own favorite childhood Christmas gift. Being nearly 40, I had my share of toys that have since been determined too dangerous for kids these days. But as to my most memorable, my most cherished? That required some serious thought.
It’s not an easy thing to recall, since my mother tended to give gifts she thought I should have rather than ones I actually wanted. That big Barbie styling head that would’ve let me practice the feminine arts of brushing, braiding, curling, setting and applying makeup? Never got it, despite requests three years running. The game of Twister I wanted because all of my friends had one? Never got that, either. Ditto as to Pong (which my brother got but wouldn’t let me play), a Pachinko game, Mr. Potato Head, Uno, Waggie Lamb and Simon. Instead I got a Betsy Alexander doll which was too expensive for me to play with, books, clothes and a Skipper doll (when I’d hoped for a Barbie).
The one present I have cherished for three decades now — and which I still actually have — was the boxed set of the Chronicles of Narnia
Still, I love those books and have kept them despite numerous changes of residence, garage sales and hurried departures. They not only drew me into their world but re-shaped my own, instilling in me a lifelong love of reading. They mattered, and they shaped the person I am today.
So, whether it was this Christmas or one from many years ago, what gift do you most fondly remember?
Sunday, December 24th, 2006, 8:18 pm | 
My Venomous Life | 
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December 25, 2006 at 8:23 am
Amazing we lived through some of that stuff considering how “deadly” they are. In the list of “top ten” I actually had the “creepy crawlers” toy. And it was as nasty as they say it was. I couldn’t help noticing, they didn’t incluse “Mold-Master”. It had a tower that melted plastic chips so you could inject the molten stuff into molds to form plastic soldiers and stuff. HOT and fluid. MEAN stuff if you got it on you.
Yet, we lived.
December 25, 2006 at 12:07 pm
I had the creepy crawlers, too! Gave my daughter the Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kid for her 5th Christmas, then got rid of it when she fed a tube of my lipstick to it. Thank goodness it wasn’t her finger!