Have you completed your Christmas shopping? Some gifts are purchased, some are lovingly hand-made and others come straight from the heart.
Of the many gifts given and received over the Christmas season, often those most valuable are the ones that don’t come from a store.
One of the most thoughtful gifts I ever received came from my daughter. She didn’t have a lot of money but wanted to do something special for me.
I had a drawer full of recipes cut from the newspaper, jotted on scrap paper or passed on from friends. My daughter took the opportunity to go through these whenever I wasn’t home and neatly print the favourites onto recipe cards, which she placed in a small file box. This allowed me to find the ones I wanted with ease. Almost twenty years later, I still use and appreciate this gift.
My children, now grown with families of their own, don’t remember a lot of Christmas gifts received while they were young. What they do remember is receiving a new board game every year. We would spend hours as a family playing these games. The time spent together is what their memories are made of.
Over the years I’ve given and received some wonderful gifts. I’d be happy to share more of them but would rather hear about yours. What are some of the best gifts you remember and what make them special.
I’ll do a draw from the comments I receive and one of you will win a gift from me!
My Mom gave me a calligraphy pen set when I was about 10 because I loved cursive writing. She noticed that my teachers had commented on my credit cards that my penmanship was very good and she thought I had a talent for it. Here we are 50(ish) years later, and I am even more passionate about calligraphy than ever because I realize that I had actually been given two gifts. One was the talent from God to form the letters naturally and with ease, and the other the tools to do so from my Mom who nurtured that desire in me. Is there a story here of God being at work in my life…..of yes there is. God is Good!
BerylAnne, thank you for sharing this story. Your mother’s gift helped unleash God’s gift and became a life long passion. It’s pretty hard to top that!
Good morning Tandy: One of the best gifts I ever received was from my 12 year old son Sam. He knew I loved chocolate pie. He got up very early in the morning, took all the supplies to the basement (as to not disturb me and let me know what was happening). He made me a chocolate pie and served it to me while I was still in bed.
His thoughtfulness truly warms my heart. I would much rather have a homemade gift made with love than a store bought gift. It means so much more.
Merry Christmas to you, Brian and all your family. May you have a very blessed Christmas season.
Hi Julie. Thanks for sharing this. That was a sweet gift in more than one sense of the word! What a thoughtful son you have. Merry Christmas to you as well.
I was a kid that received everything I asked for at Christmas. It was a miracle I wasn’t a brat!
One year, my grandfather gave me a train set. I hadn’t asked for a train set, so this unusual gift was almost a shock. Plus, I was a GIRL and wasn’t that more of a BOY gift?!
I took this gift back home and put the tracks together and played with the battery operated train, making it go around and around on the tracks. I created imaginary towns, and scenes, and enjoyed it much.
In hindsight, my grandfather (who adored me) was sharing his lifelong career in the railroad with me. Something I didn’t understand at my young age. It’s probably the most prominent gift of my childhood now. All the other gifts were passing fancies that came and went from my life as fast at the year’s toy marketing ploys.
Thanks, Kimberly. Your grandfather gave you something that enabled you to exercise your imagination and creativity. How wonderful!