By Gail Marsh
Ah, Christmas. Today’s holiday season pales in comparison to early Christmas memories. It’s probably because back then I was just a child. I had no additional Christmas responsibilities. Without money of my own, I gave very little serious thought to purchasing gifts for others. Presents for my parents were usually handmade at school. My mom and dad dutifully ooh-ed and ahh-ed over my small gifts for them regardless of how each looked.
Unlike my mom, I had no worries about preparing Christmas dinner for our sizeable extended family. Christmas cookies? I “helped” make them, which means I liberally doused each cookie with red- or green-tinted sugar sprinkles and then ate most of my glorious cookie creations.
The most pressure I felt during the holidays was reciting my lines for the children’s Christmas Eve service at church. I was able to keep my worries at bay by concentrating on the small brown sack of peanuts and hard candy I knew we’d all receive after the service ended. Those were the best Christmases ever.
Special gifts
As I look back, there are two childhood Christmas gifts that stand out, even now. I remember feeling happy and excited about both gifts.
Wedding doll
First, there was my “bride doll.” On Christmas Eve, I tore back the wrapping paper and there she was. She took my breath away. Dressed in white with lace everywhere, my “bride doll” smiled up at me and I swear I saw her blue eyes twinkle! She had pearl earrings, wore high heels, and each dainty fingernail featured a subtle red polish that matched her lipstick perfectly. On one hand she wore a diamond ring, and in the other hand carried a small bouquet of flowers.
A doll isn’t an unusual gift. I received many dolls over the years for Christmas. But here’s the unusual thing: I never played with her. My bride doll stayed in her original pink box for decades. Oh, I’d pull her out from time to time, just to remember what she looked like. Somewhere along the line her ring disappeared, as did the bouquet. I’m not sure why I didn’t play with my bride doll. Maybe because she was just so perfect, I didn’t dare!
Tea set
The second memorable Christmas gift was my china (porcelain) tea set. I loved the tiny teacups and saucers, but the sugar bowl had a tiny removable lid, so it was my favorite. There were enough pieces to serve six of my dolls or teddy bears, but I never really played with this Christmas gift either! Again, I may have been too afraid of breaking the delicate pieces or somehow otherwise harming such a treasured gift. (Full disclosure: I wasn’t always the most agile or careful of children.)
A new idea
I recently rediscovered my bride doll and the tea set. They both look much like they did on the Christmas Eve when I first received them. As I contemplated these special gifts, I made a decision. This Christmas, the doll and tea set will come out to play! Little ones who visit us this holiday season will have something new, yet old, to play with. If a teacup accidentally breaks, it won’t be the end of my world. If some lace on the bride doll’s dress gets inadvertently wrinkled, I’ll live. Toys are made to be played with, and I can’t wait to watch it happen!
Do you have special Christmas memories? A special Christmas gift? Please share your memories in the comments below.
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I remember around 1970 that I got a GI Joe, with the footlocker. I played with mine a lot. Well let’s fast forward to six months ago. A friend of mine has a eight year old son who adores all things GI Joe so this 62 years old dude gifted him my old Joe. The smile on his face was worth a million bucks. The thank you note made me teary eyed. I would post a picture if I knew how.
Very moving Robert….I don’t even think you need to post a picture. Personally, my favorite times were when both my parents were here.
You’re right Drew, I would give anything to have my Dad back this Christmas.
My most memorable Christmas was when I was five or six years old. All I wanted was an electric train set. On Christmas morning when I came downstairs to see the tree with all the toys under it, there was no train set to be found. I cried, and then my parents took me down to the basement where there was this huge train set the size of two ping pong tables with a mountain my mother made with paper mache. The train tracks ran up on the mountain and circled around a glass lake and down below was a small town with lights. She even made trees out of sticks with Spanish moss on them.
That’s wonderful! Thanks for sharing.
My most memorable Christmas was 1942 or 43 when I came down stairs from my bedroom to see a Lionel train set setup on the dining room table in an oval shape. That started me on a hobby which lasts to this day – altho now in HO gauge (1/87″ scale). While I no longer have a layout I have several storage cases of Great Northern/Northern Pacific rolling stock. I still enjoy riding on Amtrak – but alas no where near the Empire Builder or the North Coast Limited or the other true “streamliners” of yesteryear! So, I live today with my fantasies of yesteryear! Ahhh nostalgia! (Oddly, I pursued a career in the military and aviation!).
Do you remember the Great Northern boxcar logo with the goat standing up – and the graffiti that it attracted? Ahem. I built a Great Northern boxcar kit for my son’s HO layout – and made sure I added that important bit of graffiti to it. He, in turn, sent me a T-shirt with that same goat. So, I bought a ‘paint-pen’ and added that same graffiti to the shirt. Ahh, traditions . . .
Lol. 🙂 Merry Christmas, Tommy! 🙂🎄🎁
When I was 9, I asked for a foot pump air mattress for Christmas. My Dad and my brothers laughed! Next camping trip I was pumping with my foot and laughing at everyone else’s blown out cheeks.
I remember the Christmas’s that I cried when I got gifts that I knew my parents could not afford.
Very moving- I would love to meet them.
Thank you, Gail! Such a wonderful account of your most memorable Christmas gifts! I can remember many gifts that I received over the years. Sadly, none was as special to me as either of yours. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you, Neal.
Thank you, Gail!
Your wonderful article brought back memories of my childhood. I too was gifted a bride doll when I was 5. I had been looking at a catalog with my grandmother and commented on how pretty she looked. Everyone was rather shocked when I (a boy) opened the box on Christmas Day and there was a bride doll inside. I liked it and put it on display in a corner of my bedroom. I never played with it but it stood there for 2 years. Then it got boxed up and stored for 30 years until mom started adding to her doll collection. It’s back in a box now stored in my basement. That Christmas was almost 70 years ago.
Thank you, Gail! What wonderful and special memories! The best recent memory of Christmas was about 8, 9 years ago. Daddy broke his hip early one Sunday morning while seeing if a cow had calved. Momma called minutes before we would have left northern Virginia to come home and spend part of the time with each set of parents. Every morning I left my in-laws and drove to the hospital to spend the day with Daddy in his hospital room. He slept most of the time and I did Christmas cards but I think that we both enjoyed the time together. Until his last days this was our only time together that we were not doing farm work. I also got all my cards sent before Christmas day that year! 🙂🎄🎁
Ah…the beautiful bride doll. I too was gifted her one Christmas and played with her for years. And since I had a habit of trimming my own bangs real short, she too received a hair cut. Her spiked hairs would look right in style these days.
Thanks for bringing about this memory.
Beautiful story- thank you for sharing it.
When I was 9, Santa gave me a Montgomery-Ward coaster bike for Christmas. Kids’ bikes only came with one tire size back then, 26″, so you had to be tall enough to ride a bike that big. That was the only bike I had as a kid and rode it everywhere, even across town to the swimming pool. But when I turned 14 and got my driver’s license, I never rode it again. Wonder what happened to it?
Mine was when I got the Coca Cola bear, like the one that Rader in early Mash shows had. As a only child this was my best friend for years.
I just recently gifted my porcelain tea set I had as a child to my granddaughter for her 5th birthday. I played with it often, and I’m happy to report she also has tea parties with it. Her dad said when she is done, she carefully wraps it up and puts it in the box I had it in. I’m glad she understands how special it is! Hopefully she will have fun and treasure it like I did.