In a conversation that took place earlier today I was reminded of some Christmas gifts I received as kid. Being a Pastor’s kid, we were pretty poor, so Christmas time usually started out with big wishes – only to discover on Christmas morning that this wasn’t the year that we got the big one. It’s funny because although I’m sure I got really nice stuff for Christmas, for some reason I can only remember the gifts I was disappointed with. I know… I was probably a selfish unappreciative little brat, but regardless … that little nugget can’t be to encouraging for parents who are currently searching for that perfect gift.
I’ll never forget one Christmas my older brother asked for a TV. For some reason, he thought this was going to be his year. As a teenager, this would be a turning point in his life. Back in those days, even though it was rare for someone to have a TV in their room, in our minds everybody our age had a TV in their room. This was going to be huge. Even I was started to get a little excited for him… jealous, well yes that too… but I thought this could possibly benefit me in some way as well. As Christmas got closer and closer, he was getting more and more excited as he knew he was getting a TV. When Christmas finally arrived a large box showed up with his name on it. This was it. The moment it was all going to change. The year we start getting the “big gifts” on our list. We had finally made it! His turn came to open his gift. A funny look appeared on his face as he thought “hmmm, I would have guessed a TV would be slightly heavier than this”. Perhaps he thought that it was a new, much lighter TV. He tore into the box with much anticipation, ripping through the paper to find a big brown box secured in tape. Quickly the tape was torn from the edges and he opens up his box to find his brand new, top of the line… ELECTRIC BLANKET!
Um… Let’s just say this wasn’t a great moment in the Riggins household.
Couple that with the fact that our cousins got motorcycles that year… and yea, things started to get a little ugly.
With Christmas, especially for kids, there is always expectations – sometimes we get what we want, sometimes we get what we need, sometimes we get what we’re told we need. As I mentioned above, I only remember for the disappointing gifts which means that socks and underwear really stick out. My most disappointing gift that I remember was an electronic football game. Talk about a waste of money… although the ads on TV made it look so awesome. Check out this commercial – this cracks me up — and trust me, this thing absolutely DID NOT do this at all…
So… as a kid, were you ever let down at Christmas? What was the one thing that you had your hopes up for that Santa forgot to bring you? Or maybe some of you parents thought you had the perfect gift only to discover it wasn’t quite what your child was looking for? Any good Christmas gift stories, let’s laugh about it in the comments.
Have a great weekend!
