New Scaratings

For the record, yes, I know I could have said Christmas gift, and yes, for the record, I am a member of a Christian Church, and yes, for the record, I am enjoying the holiday spirits. So please don't start an argument about how to say Merry/Happy/etc. Otherwise, the powers-that-be might shut this thread down.

For the most part, this is the season of giving. It might be a gift, it might be a card. It might be you receiving or you giving. Regardless, it is the time of year we think about family and happiness and gifts. But gifts are also given for various other reasons, such as birthdays, home warming, get-well, etc.

That in mind, and right now I have no mind.....what do you consider your favorite gift?

Personally, I have four to mention

1) While living overseas, and my father was in the military, I went with him to the base's book store. From there, I became hooked on Hardy Boy books. Read through them Hardy Boy books faster than a dog can eat a grill cheese sandwich. EVERY time he and I went there I went STRAIGHT to the rack where they had the books, with checklist in hand, to see if there were any new books. Every 1-2 months, a new one would show up and I spent my allowance on buying it. I remember my father asking me once, probably in October, to see the list. I gave it to him and kept searching. About 15 mins later, he gave me the list, and I thought nothing over it. That Christmas, I had HUGE HEAVY box under the tree. It was the remaining 20 or so books I needed to finish my collection. My father worked with the sales guy at the book store to help finish my collection. To this date, I still have Hardy Boy books 1-56 in (almost) mint condition.

2) Sears Whishbook Catalogs. My My My. Can't tell you how many pages were dog-eared on that topic over the years. But, after we moved state-side, and after I had already taken ownership of my Atari, I remember that I had circled a Pachinco machine on one of the pages of a Sears Catalog. Sure enough, Santa brought me one that year. I played that thing to death and kept until I finished college. I think my ex-sister has it now....or "had" it.

3) Speaking of my ex-sister, I'll toss her one. She asked for a dog one year while still living overseas. She got it. She named it........well...........she was young. She named it Christmas. That was our family dog for about 3 of our 6 years, until we move back state-side.

4) When I started dating my now-wife, I gave her a present on our third-month dating anniversary. It was a long-stem rose. She kept it for at least 2 years, taped to the top of her dresser. Kinda scared me that it went from red to black, but she loved it.

For many years, my Christmas present was my following year's fishing license. In WV, you could purchase the license in December. The license was in my stocking, along with a bag of pistachios. Well into adulthood, my mother would give the gift of fishing.

This year, I'll have to purchase my license myself, along with the pistachios.

my mom did a subscription to math and logic puzzles every year until the year i had to get it for myself. still when it comes i think "merry christmas, chief, thanks."

I'm going to stray somewhat from this thread's theme...

Over the 60 years of Christmas presents I have received, that I can remember, there have been so many that I really liked. (I can't remember the one's I got before I was five-years-old.) This was a tough question, but I closed my eyes, and went into a trance. Suddenly, the Ghost of Christmas Past appeared before me, took me by the hand, and transported me back to Christmas morning 1951. There it was beneath the tree. It was a splendid castle with tin British soldiers. My tin soldiers defended that castle from imaginary attacks for many a year, until I got older, and moved on to other things. (I would say that castle is my "Rosebud".)

Okay, as I promised, now I will stray from this thread's theme.

What was the worst Christmas present I ever got?

It was Christmas 1960. I was a freshman in junior high school. Now, I was into girls, rock and roll, and dancing. All of my buddies had record players, and their parties were great. I DIDN'T have a record player, and wanted one more than anything else. As Christmas approached, I kept dropping hints to my parents that I wanted one of those boxy record players, that were about the size of a suitcase.



On Christmas Eve I saw it there under the tree. It was all wrapped up in Christmas paper, bows and all. In the morning, when our family went down to open our presents, a dashed to tear the wrappings off of my "record player". Guess what...? There was a reason for the box it came in being about the size of a suitcase. IT WAS A SUITCASE...!!!

It looked a lot like one of these, and to the best of my knowledge, it was never used:

_________________
"The game is afoot."

That box record player would probably be worth some money now. Especially with Vinyl making a comeback

TIAMAT, you are probably right. However, I never got that box record player. At one time there must have been thousands of them, but I fear that most of them have long ago been tossed into the trash, and now sit rotting and rusting at the bottom of landfills to join my Christmas suitcase present, which probably beat them there.

_________________
"The game is afoot."