The first Christmas gift I remember was a rocking horse. I found it wrapped in a pink blanket under the tree. I was absolutely thrilled! I must have had other gifts from Santa that year when I was four, but my rocking horse is the one I remember best.
Through the years other gifts come to mind, especially with the help of Kodak. There are photos of my sister, Eileen and I with dolls and doll trunks full doll clothes, board games and paint by number art kits. As our family grew, the twins had matching tricycles, Randy and Phil opened trucks and match box cars. Even though there were six of us, we always had a stocking filled with a coloring book, crayons, walnuts and oranges.
The gifts I remember most were the gifts I gave to others through the years. I remember buying my Mother a glass apothecary jar for 25 cents. It was decorated with pink and gold swirls, which I had hope she would fill with the traditional holiday sugarplums. She being very practical filled it with cotton balls and kept it in the bathroom.
Growing up in a large family, Christmas gift snafus were bound to happen, My brother, Lenny opened Phil's gift by mistake and liked it so much he kept it, didn't matter that Phil was short a gift. My Mother was also known to hide the Sears Christmas Catalog that would come in the mail, as we would fight over it and by Thanksgiving, the catalog would be torn apart.
It must have been hard for my parents to come up with Christmas presents for all six kids. I can't even wrap my head around it. We always had enough, even the year when my Dad's factory went on strike and he wasn't working, my parents went to the Salvation Army to help with Christmas.
Since my husband and I never had children, we sponcer families through the Salvation Army give what we think they might like as a way of playing it forward. I hope I would be able to provide a child the same thrill I felt when I unwrapped my first Christmas present. That's my Christmas wish.
