Do you remember your
worst Christmas gift? Jeanette and I
both remember the Christmas in Montreal as our worst Christmas ever. My gift was gross green ski pants (when
everyone was wearing bell bottoms).
Jeanette was 14 and got a toy sewing machine. What were my parents thinking? They panicked and shopped on Christmas Eve
and simply grabbed the first thing they saw.
My father had been working very long hours and had no time to shop so
presto! thoughtless gifts.
I tried to swallow my disappointment
but it was hard. That year or two between
being a child and a teenager was difficult.
My parents simply didn’t think how we would react. I think Jeanette was scarred for life! All I know is that it didn’t happen
again. I think part of the solution was
that my parents started to give us Christmas money to buy gifts for the other
kids which added to the fun. I could
make $10.00 stretch like nobody’s business.
I remember getting my brothers comic books and those TV books (I think
Peter still has F-Troop and I still have Mod Squad) and getting Evening in
Paris perfume for my mother. Dad usually
got cigarettes or a bic lighter (in those days a pack of cigarettes was 35
cents). Jeanette got bubble bath or
mittens or a toque. Often the kids would
get some type of boxed game or a deck of cards. One year I bought my dad a broom and tied licorice sticks on it.
When I started earning my own money
I started doing the Boxing Day sales and I would shop in January for good
sales. Yes, for Christmas gifts for the
family. I always had a stash of gifts in
my closet and sometimes I even forgot what I had bought for them. It was so much fun finding a “deal”. Who doesn’t love a good deal? A couple of years ago I found those little
knit gloves for 39 cents. Who can say no
to that. I bought them all! Surprise Book Club.
A couple of weeks ago a survey said
that 44.6% of kids between the ages of 6 and 12 wanted an iPad. Good heavens!
I would never have dreamed of asking my parents for a gift that cost
$100 – or even $50.00. In fact, I don’t
know that we ever actually “asked” for anything. My mother was pretty observant and would
notice what we were looking at in the store.
The thing was that very early in life we had been told in no uncertain terms
not to plague her (yes, plague her – in Danish). “Ikke plagge mig” she would say and if we
dared asking for Oreo cookies in the grocery store there would be a whack on
the ear or a slap across our legs. No,
we did not ask for anything in the store. When we went to the Woolworth I would
make a beeline for the doll department.
The doll department was a row of dolls laying neatly in a bin (in those days there weren’t
the kind of shelves we see today). If I
had seen a ToysRUs store I would have thought I was dreaming. There were maybe 20 dolls or so laid
out. I never strayed very far from the
dolls so needless to say I got a lot of dolls when I was a kid.
My mother often sent us a game and
the day of Christmas Eve we often played Monopoly or Ludo. These days my nephew Christopher is our Games
Master and we are forced, yes forced, to play games as part of the Christmas
entertainment. It is actually fun to see
him organize us and sit there like the little teacher he is while he instructs
us in the latest game. “Things” is the
latest game he has brought around and that is a lot of fun. Also “Apples to Apples” (I think that’s the
name) is quite fun. Just a hint in case
you are a games person!
11 more sleeps!
No comments:
Post a Comment