Share the story of the best Christmas gift you've ever received and what made it so special, highlighting the personal significance and memories associated with it.
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I was 5 or 6 and my grandma made new clothes for ALL of my stuffed animals and dolls. On Christmas morning, coming into the living room of my grandparents, finding all my teddys an dolls sitting in a row, with new clothes. She crochets and knits the whole year. I will never forget this present. It was amazing.
Came home alive and uninjured from a war.
My late husband borrowed money to buy me a laptop. I had just been accepted into university as a matured-aged student (the highest grade I had successfully passed prior to that was year 9). We didn’t have much because we had two young children who both had disabilities and so I had to provide their care instead of going to work. My husband arranged a loan to buy the device for me to support me in my studies and so I could study on move. He was killed a few weeks later on my birthday. I currently hold a distinction average in a dual criminology/law degree. I know he’d be proud.
my dad leaving
The best gift I ever received was my puppy. I've had him for nearly 8 years now :)
When I was 6 or 7, Santa got me every single TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles) action figure. My mom....cough, sorry, Santa.....even bought a rack so they all hung off the fireplace like at the store. I was a god among my friend group for a time after that.
(Years later she told me she bought the rack because, and I quote, "I wasn't wrapping every f*****g one of those individually."
my grandpa made me a dollhouse and furniture for the house when I was 7..
My dollhouse always vanished after New Years day .. or a few days later. Then, the next christmas, the Christkind brought it again. This made it so much more precious, not having the dollhouse all year round.
Even when I asked for something specific, it was never "right", what I'd actually wanted. So I didn't ask any more. I was probably around 12-13. My dad made me a 33 rpm record player, mounting a repurposed turntable on a box he made himself and painted garish steel grey and fire-engine red. I had no records, but - another gift that day was a 33 rpm record, the kind you joined a record by mail club and they'd send you one record free and you could cancel and keep the free record. Sound tacky? It took everything I had not to break down sobbing as this was the first time they had made me feel loved. I didn't ASK because I didn't think it was any more attainable than the moon. And the record was Beethoven on one side and Schubert on the other. I played them over and over and over and over. And dad MADE it for me.
Aww!! Not sure how much time has passed since then, but it sounds like your dad (/parents) went to great lengths to communicate to you how much you mean to them. I hope they saw how much it meant to you too!
A recording of my dad playing piano. He was a very good player, I grew up listening to him play in the evenings when he got home from work. He died in 1982 at 46 YO, I was 18. About 10 years ago, my mom surprised us with a CD of him playing. She had found old reel-to-reel tapes. It was amazing! Along with him playing, there was audio of him, mom and grandparents talking to us when we were babies/toddlers. Priceless.
The best present was definitely a Aprilia RS 660
A microscope!!! I was in 3rd grade and I kept slides and cover slips in my pockets - just in case someone skinned a knee, cut themselves... I won the 3rd Grade Science Fair that year for my study of what skin actually looks like, layers, etc. ~~happy sigh~~ I became an ATLS Nurse in the military.
I don't remember what the gifts were. My family was lower class, and I later learned that my mom didn't have the money for wrapping paper. She took paper boxes from work and bought white tissue paper. She made them into a train with each car having one of our (4) names on it and our gifts wrapped in the white tissue paper. I thought it was magical at the time. Amazing what a little creativity can do.
I love to hear stories of peoples' ingenuity making a lot out of a little on special occasions! When there's so much thought and care put into the presentation, the gifts inside the wrapping can be the least meaningful part
A beautiful, healthy baby girl............no explanation neccessary.
My best Christmas gift also turned out to be my worst. I wanted to be a pilot more than anything, so my parents got me flight lessons at 15. Turns out I get massively air sick and my ears don't pop. Like at all, I don't adjust to pressure I just hurt. (Same issue with diving or driving through mountains.) Sadly I am destined to remain at sea level.
My lovely dog, buddy. (Lil tidbit, I named him that because I was so surprised I couldn’t think of a name, so I fudged it and said “screw it, you (my parents) were calling him that already, and buddy’s the name of that dude from elf, so his name’s buddy, that’s christmassy”)
prolly a scooter. nope not an electric scooter. just. a. plain. old. scooter. BUTTTT I LOVEDDD IT!!! now if this was a best b-day present then my cat, pumpkin pie! i named her that bc shes orange and white swirled! and im nine and got her for my 4th b-day and still have her
A single day when my parents didn't fight. I was 10 and it was the only thing I asked for.
Massive framed and signed print by James Gurney the author and artist of Dinotopia.
fidget necklaces
little women (the book)
and probably this crime scene book where you had to figure out things and there was a different puzzle on each page or two (i forgot the title, cat pissed on it and had to throw it.)
When I was around 7-8, my parents decided to trust me with a 1986 Ski-Doo Tundra. Still have it, works great, the only issue is that none of the lights work and it has no reverse.
A pony and a horse (tack and all)
My birthday is November 30th. Every year, my parents would tell me to "remember to ask around your birthday and Christmas" for things. If something was name brand or expensive, we either recieved it for a special occasion or saved our money and bought it ourselves.
I was raised in a very small rural town. One year somehow we got to go shopping between my birthday and Christmas. I had birthday money I needed to spend. There were 2 Barbies I wanted. Barbie's little Stacie had just been introduced, and 90210 dolls came out. I NEEDED a Stacie and Brenda Walsh. I was in the store with my mom trying to decide since I could only afford one.
I don't remember how she did it, but she talked me into buying Brenda. I was so happy. Then Christmas came and my parents gave me Stacie!!!! My mom had it the whole time so she really had to get me to buy Brenda. Best. Christmas. Ever.
A store the size of the doll's house so that the dolls could go shopping (food and toothpaste and Maggi and such things). With a cash register, scales and tiny little paper bags for packing loose lentils, pasta and dried beans. Together with the doll's house, the Christkind picked it up again a few days after Christmas, only to bring it back the following Christmas.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/272955692815?hash=item3f8d6d570f:g:XssAAOSwqc5gAIp9&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0DN7AV5xkPVYvndZNBa6Uq9Lsng2aahG3iTMhZeX1nhW0NcpAKA3J86cX49wC0WyMbjk1pJUEv6rKXM6OjATRuHEZHsgjMt5tgpmshK8SDyuqcVM3ApZr%2FfZ2zQmvF6sEIuekD8s%2BioiVkNdR%2FwBPyH2hZyaL0r4zBqfmAr0xB%2BmQ36aA5revw9kvAe%2FoIHKuPJS%2FJJF6nvXr3tJPJr16dmyJEV0qLOof0jQzZritUAq19JF0v46S0RRQA1q7jJoMdziWOXMODxiSougugfIQ2Q%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMwJfl3JFj
just an example kaufmannsl...232459.jpg 
An ivory pendant made from my late Grandmonther's piano keys.
I think it's my Mjølner-necklace. It's one of the first Christmas presents my bf got me. And he saw that I'm a Norse Heathen but that I didn't have a necklace that showed it. I had other "alternative" necklaces (Ankh, pentagram... you know) but bot anything that showed my faith.
Have worn it almost every day since he gave it to me.
Peace. My first Christmas being out of foster care, and away from an abusive house. It was raining; there was no tree or presents. Just the bliss of knowing that I was finally free from what I considered hell on earth.
I was a divioced single mom with an18 month old baby & I was 26 yrs old.
I asked my mother to get me a nice set of pots & pans because the set I got 7 yrs earlier was getting worn out.
When Christamas arrived she came to visit for the day bringing a big box. Oh boy my new pans. I was so happy till I opened my box. No PANS.
To my shock & disappointment it was filled with every form of Taboo cologne, lotion, and powder she could find.
I was upset & said mom I really needed & wanted the pots & pans. I dont need all this perfume stuff.
She took my hand & said I could save my money & get a set in a few months but I would never save enough to buy even one bottle of perfume for myself. She was right in a few months I was showing off my new pans I saved up for.
I enjoyed many many an evening in a bubbles bath relaxing after a long day. I always had nice perfume to put on for a dinner out or special event. She taught me to take care of myself & enjoy little things to be happy. I am now 65 & have a very fond memory of that Christmas so long ago.
(BTW We lost mom 2 years later making my gift all the more endearing. It took years to use the lasts of the perfume.)
Vintage Christmas linens and place settings, crystal serving trays, and a pearl necklace from my late Grandmother. She passed from covid last year and those were the things she wanted me to have. They arrived in the mail just after Christmas, so they weren't actually gift wrapped presents, but I felt like they were my last presents from her that I'll cherish forever.
