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My poor Mom Never seemed to learn what I liked for a present. I remember getting new dolls and putting them immediately in my toy box in the basement. All I ever wanted was Breyer horses or anything related to horses. Ideally I would have gotten a real horse, but it wouldn't have fit in our suburban back yard.
That's all I wanted too. Model horses, no dolls. Tinker Toy corrals, Lincoln Logs.
Our gifts were pretty modest except we had ONE big year. Sister got a bike, other sister a sewing machine and I got a pony. Tied to the tetherball pole in the suburban back yard. We boarded it next to the dry river bed.
That's all I wanted too. Model horses, no dolls. Tinker Toy corrals, Lincoln Logs.
Our gifts were pretty modest except we had ONE big year. Sister got a bike, other sister a sewing machine and I got a pony. Tied to the tetherball pole in the suburban back yard. We boarded it next to the dry river bed.
WOW. I'll say that was a big year! Three fantastic presents and one was a pony! (Suddenly I feel deprived, lol.)
Dolls, books, Lincoln logs, games, lots of Barbie stuff. Loved my Velvet and Dawn dolls too. A big oven. Baby bassinet set and doll, paper dolls, clothes .
Dolls, doll houses, doll clothes, doll strollers, doll highchairs, doll bathtubs. Get the theme there? I liked dolls as much as any other little girl but I also wanted a doctor kit. I got a nurse kit. I wanted a chemistry kit. Nope, my mother said they were for boys. I got a toy stove. I wanted an erector set. Of course, that was for boys, too. I did get Tinker Toys. I guess they were unisex. I usually got a Jon Nagy Learn-to-Draw set, too, but to this day I can't draw flies.
At least that was better than what my grandfather said he got in his little mining town in the Virginia mountains. Every year, the ladies from the big church down the mountain would come up by train and hand out present. Underwear and socks for the boys. Knitted mittens and hats for the girls. A box of hard candy (cue Dolly Parton singing "Hard Candy Christmas"). One year, he said they were given oranges. Nobody knew what to do with them. Did you eat them raw? Cook them? Pickle them? He said it was a couple days before anyone got the nerve to attack one. To his dying day, he had oranges for everyone on Christmas Day.
Obviously it's far different than for me and kids today where we got things like electronics, video games, etc. But for you, what kinds of gifts did you get? And not sure if you felt different, but I know how disappointing it was when I'd open up a present just to get clothes lol.
My parents were "well off" but we never were inundated with presents. We got "just enough", I think.
On Christmas Eve we all got matching Lanz of Salzburg night gowns and slippers. That was our tradition. My mom got the same. My dad sometimes got a plaid LLBean bathrobe.
Christmas day, I think we each received under ten gifts. Dolls when we were younger. I collected Madam Alexander dolls. One Christmas each of my sisters and I got a copy of "Little Women" and a "Little Women" character doll. When I was older, I loved Barbie.
Frequently we got Faire Isle sweaters and plaid skirts or kilts for school. Purses. Make up - once I received lots of Yeardly and Miss Dior perfume. Usually, after 12, we got earinngs. Generally simple stud earrings.
We frequently got a board game we could play together. One year, Scrabble. Another, Monopoly.
One Christmas my parents gave all three of us a Ouija board.
Boots were always popular. I remember getting Frye boots one year. I was so happy!
My very, very favorite gifts was always wrapped in shiny green paper, with a white satin ribbon and a sprig of holly. Those were BOOKS - from our local Indy book store "The Book Mark". I still have every one.
Tangerines, apples, English walnuts, Brazil nuts, orange slice wax candy. One banner year binoculars. There were five kids, and Mom and Dad were hard pressed to do much more. It got better as we got older, but I only remember the early years.
My father hated birthdays and Christmas. If he'd had his way, these would have passed unmarked and uncelebrated. In this respect, my mother openly defied him. She would save little bits of her grocery money over the year, and somehow she managed to buy each child one (small) birthday present and one Christmas present (also small) each year. I would usually get a book on each occasion, because I loved to read. We all got Christmas stockings with walnuts and tangerines and some chocolates, too.
The Christmas presents were hidden somewhere until Christmas morning. At first, my mother hid them around the house, but later she hid them offsite, at neighbor's houses, where my father couldn't find them. We took turns unwrapping our presents, going in order from youngest child to eldest child. It was hard for us to enjoy anything about this process, though, because as each Christmas present was opened, my father would glare at our mother and then at the child opening the present, his head turning slowly from one to the other, turning red in the face and breathing heavily to contain his rage. All he needed to complete the picture of resentful fury was cartoon steam coming from his ears. He would be beside himself that my mother had managed to defy him--again!--and given us each a present on Christmas morning.
Bear in mind, these were very modest presents, and we each received just one. Examples: a toy truck for a little boy; a push-along duck on a stick for a toddler; a bottle of Love's Baby Soft for a teenage girl; a little doll for a young girl. Nevertheless, my father would be incandescent with rage that my mother had spent any money on us.
Later on Christmas Day, he'd usually throw a gigantic, screaming temper tantrum and banish us all to our rooms. After Mass, of course.
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