Sunday, December 5, 2010

What About YOU? Favorite Christmas Gift

photo by flikr
Today's What About You Question: What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child?

I was eight the year Easy Bake Ovens hit the stores. My mom, a single parent, could not afford a gift of that size. When I spotted a huge gift under my aunt and uncle's Christmas tree with my name on it, my heart leaped with hope.


photo by flikr
 Do you think I got my wish? Could this be why, forty-some years later, I still love to bake?

Your turn...

17 comments:

  1. When I was 16, my 9-month-old baby brother was in the hospital dieing of cancer. The doctors said he was too sick to come home for Christmas. There was no greater site than when my parents walked in holding my brother--tubes and all--for Christmas. Still makes me cry just thinking about it. He's 47 today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh yes. I got a Patty Play Pal one Christmas. She was a doll as big as me. I loved that doll. I think us babyboomers had it pretty good without all the commercial hype that exists today. Our Christmases were simple and left me with wonderful memories.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was the year my Nana and Papa gave me my own Bible! I am glad you asked this question. It really made me think! At first, I couldn't think of anything and then I remembered how excited I was when I opened it. I think part of the excitement was b/c I had NOT asked for it. It was a surprise and a great one!
    Hugs,
    andrea

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jen:
    When I was in the 5th grade, there was this big box at the back of the Christmas tree with my name on it.
    I opened it to find a desk, blonde, with a deep drawer on either side of the knee hole. It had tall legs that angled out from the bottom. That was 1956. Today, it sits in our back bedroom. Hubby uses it to hold his stereo component set. I can't open the drawers in it because it got bumped when he fell and hit it on the way down. I have some books (imagine that!) stored in one of those drawers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh Jeanette, I adored my Easy-Bake oven!

    I think my favorite gift was a small, cream colored vanity--with a little stool, a mirror, and a place to set my brush. I felt like a princess!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jeanette, I don't really remember a favorite one. Maybe a my birthstone in a ring when I was in High School.

    ReplyDelete
  7. My dad had been closeting himself away in the basement for months, and I wasn't allowed to go downstairs. On Christmas morning I walked in to find a two-story dollhouse, with individual shingles and a wraparound porch. He had spent all that time putting it together just for me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, this one's easy...I got twin Cabbage Patch dolls one year, and my mom handmade a whole case of clothes for them. I still have the dolls and the clothes and can't wait to see my daughter play with them as much as I did.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Reading these warms my heart! Thanks for sharing your happy memories,
    Jen

    ReplyDelete
  10. Jen, what a fun question. I think my fav toy(s) were the dolls I was showered w/every year. Bride dolls, dolls that cried and moved. Beautiful toys for a little girl who loved playing make believe!

    cb
    http://sunnebnkwrtr.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Probably the really good dolly they gave me when they figured I was old enough to take care of one! Still have it somewhere.

    Good question!

    ReplyDelete
  12. OOOH, I can SO see you playing with that Easy-Bake. Except our Jeanette wasn't playing, she was cooking for those dolls!!!!!

    Hmmm. One year we got a garage converted into a playroom, with ping-pong and pool tables. It was so fun!

    Blessings, dear one,
    Patti

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi! You said on a comment on my blog that you came over from Jan Cline!

    I have met some wonderful new people the past two days! Where is Paris from Naperville (Chicago area)? My younger sister who died a year ago this December 29th (I really miss her) lived in Naperville, and on cross-country trips from Utah to Virginia, before my daughter and I settled in Virginia, we would stay with my sister and her husband (who is also deceased). I miss him too, but through MY faith in Christ, I know I'll see them again.

    And you're a grandmother too! I have 7 children from my married children who are also settled permanently in Virginia.

    Anyway....I remember the easy bake ovens from my children's childhoods. Maybe if I had gotten one, I might like to bake!!

    So now I'm a follower, and look forward to dropping in often.
    Ann Best, Long Journey Home

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sweet story! And that first comment brought tears to my eyes!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Jen -

    Any time I sat on Santa's lap at the store, I asked for a doll. My parents were happy to oblige. :)

    Blessings,
    Susan

    ReplyDelete
  16. My favorite gift memory is the year our family decided to make personal gifts for each other. My dad made me a painting and it hangs in my house to this day.

    Blessings,
    Mel

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh, I remember begging for an Easy Bake! My best gift was just a little stocking stuffer--my parents gave me a real birthstone necklace. To them it was small. To me, it was "you trust me to have something so grown up and beautiful." It meant the world to me to have that feeling--maybe because I was the baby of the family.

    ReplyDelete

Oh, it's YOU! I'm so happy to see you here today, and look forward to reading your comments.