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Dolls N DreamsI was thinking about that today, and remembering how exciting xmas is when you are very young. Dont' get me wrong I still get excited but not like I did then. 
I remember my favorite xmas gift was when Santa brought me my Raggedy Ann doll, I was 5 yrs old and I was so excited xmas eve night I could not sleep because I just knew Santa was bringing her!.
What was yours??????
Charlotte Des Roches DesignsOh Tami, Great memory...mine is from I was a little older, and knew the Santa thing, but had 4 younger siblings & wouldn't ruin it for them for the world...and we had had a very rough financial year as a family...and I worked with my Mom helping her make special gifts for my siblings...and when Christmas morning arrived, there was my favorite doll...all dressed in the most beautiful white silk wedding dress...It was so wonderful, and it took a few years before Mom told me that a group of neighbors had brought her a whole bunch of things to use for making our gifts, and one of the things was a silk parachute...which she used to make my dolls dress!!!
Hugs &
Back Road BearsNo particular gift is coming to mind HOWEVER..... I always got a stuffed animal for Christmas and once I opened that gift none of the others mattered.... I only had eyes for my newest furry best friend!!
And I'm afraid I'm still the same way!!! :crackup: Love my stuffies!!!
Though unlike my childhood I now also like the 'clothes' boxes.... ya know, those long flat boxes that you avoided as a kid because you KNEW they held something inside that, once on your body, would make you look like a dork!
:crackup:
I got a pretend cash register the Christmas I was 5 years old. After I opened it I realized it was broken. 
I was very sad since I really wanted it. My mom took it back and let me pick out another gift. They didn't have any more cash registers so I got a Breyer horsehttp://www.breyerhorses.com/. I remember looking around the store and spotting that little horse on the counter. That was 1972. I got one every Christmas and birthday for many years. I have enjoyed collecting these gems for 35 years and have over 150 pieces. I still add a new horse now and then.
THis was WAy back 
My family was also having a difficult time, financially. Boy, parents were sooo young back then; my dad was 25 years old and my mom was only 22! I was only 4 years old, but I remember My uncle, 17 years old made a wooden horse in woodshop class. It was amazing! Cut out of flat wood pieces with a barrel body and solid wood barrel head, leather ears. It was taller than me and had a handmade leather saddle and bridle. He had painted it as a black and white Pinto. Me and my younger brother and sister could sit in the saddle. What wonderful dreams I had riding that horse!
Karen
Ruby Mountain BearsI remember getting a tiny piano, I played and played that thing, Probably made my mother nuts. Funny I hadn't thought of it for oh so many years.
Posts: 8,574An accordian. I was 6. I wanted to play piano and they didn't want to get one....so the accordian was the next best thing. 2 years later they capitulated and I got a piano.....40 years later I inherited my Uncle's Steinway, still love it.....
This year? gift certificate to Fabric.com.....enough to last a year, if I shop only the sales.
:crackup: :crackup: :crackup:
di
Hope everyone has a wonderful surprise that makes them feel mushy and happy inside....
Past Time BearsI was quite the tomboy as a kid and got a much-wanted cowboy hat and boots when I was 5 or 6. My mode of transportation was a stick horse.
I love this thread, some of your stories are giving me goosebumps 
My most memorable present I think was a Cabbage Patch Kid that I know my mom had to fight to get.. heehee. I still have her. I remember one year my mom and Dad Surprised me with a My little Pony castle and I don't think I've ever been quite that excited. I had no idea and it was so cool I have pics of me opening them somewhere and they are soooo adorable.. heehee.
Hugs!
Melanie
Bear Paws by Roxanne
Oh, I think my favorite was a Easy Bake Oven!
I thought that it was neat to be able to bake a cake just like my mom. :hug:
I think thats around the same time my brothers got "Creepy Crawlers!"
Drea's BearsMy most memorable gift, I think would have to be a littl stuffed mouse that I got from my Uncle. I called him 'Frightful' because he had eyes as big as saucers and ears big enough to hide behind.....he looked like he was afraid of something. I still have him, yes I still sleep with him too! :redface:
My Uncle passed 8 years ago, I did not know this untill recently when my aunt told me but he used to go out every year on his own shoping for me. My aunt was not allowed to go with him, it was just him shopping for me to find the perfect gift, and she always knew when he had found it because he would walk in the door with the biggest smile and tell her all about it! It made 'Frightful' all that more special to me.
AndreaM
Dolls N DreamsOh, I think my favorite was a Easy Bake Oven!
I thought that it was neat to be able to bake a cake just like my mom. :hug:
I think thats around the same time my brothers got "Creepy Crawlers!"
Oh Gezzzzzzzzzzzzzz Roxanne, that brings back memories, I got one of those too
and I swear my brother got Creepy Crawlers the same xmas!!! LOL
BlondheartI wasn't really a child anymore. I had always wanted a teddy bear when I was a kid and I never got one from Santa. So when I was 23 I was living with a friend far away from home for the first time and working two jobs on top of making bears, and still barely making ends meet. Daytons came out with the idea of spending 150.00 and when you presented them with the receipts you could buy this big beautiful white Santa Bear for another 25.00. My friend from work and I had been at the mall Christmas shopping and they had an entire room filled with Santa bears floor to ceiling in Daytons and I was just in awe and I wanted one SO bad. But I couldn't even afford the 25.00 let alone spending 150.00 first.
That Christmas my roommate was going home for Christmas, so I was going to be in our apartment alone. She didnt' see any reason to have a tree since she wouldn't be there but I was feeling sad and lonely and homesick and I wanted one. I bought a tree two days before Christmas that was marked down to 3.00. It was like a big Charlie Brown tree, and it was dried out and raining needles everwhere. I had no ornaments so I just put stuff on it from around the house. I had no presents to go under it because my Mothers package had been lost in the mail. My Christmas evening consisted of going to candlelight service in a HUGE church where I didn't know a soul, and Christmas dinner was tuna salad on a rice cake.
My friend I had been shopping with that day stopped by on the way out of town to her parents house with this big silver package for me. When I opened the box, inside was the Santa Bear from Daytons. She had gotten some of her other friends together to each buy one of their presents at Daytons so they could collect 150.00 worth of receipts so she could get me the bear for Christmas.
I still have it. To this day I think it's one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever gotten. Even though I was so very poor and had nothing that year, it made my whole Christmas that someone would go out of their way to do that for me. Since then I have tried to make sure that every year someone who really needs that little extra effort and thoughtfulness gets it from me! Kinda like a pay it forward thing. Oddly enough finding out every year someone who DOES need it always presents itself. In fact this year it did just last week. The only thing I wish is that I hadn't lost touch with that friend over the years, because she never knew what she started or how much it meant to me.
Matilda Huggington-beare MMmmmmm?..... I would have to say a 'red plastic transitor radio.' It took two batteries and was small enough to fit in your pocket. My brother got a 'green one' and we took our trannies everywhere that summer.
My mother still has them in a drawer in the living room.
Now that's going back abit......
The only thing I wish is that I hadn't lost touch with that friend over the years, because she never knew what she started or how much it meant to me.
Your story was just wonderful Kelly 
:hug:
Oh yes Kelly - reading your story truly gave me a lump in the throat ! With all the glitz and
glamour of Christmas we should all try , even in a small way to "give a little" to help someone less fortunate ; and spare plenty of kind thoughts :hug: 
The prezzie that I got most excited about as a child was my Sindy horse ; rich brown , with a brushable mane and tail , and accessories ! Tiny little brushes , a bucket ,
and a saddle and bridle to take on and off !!! I was overjoyed to receive him , and straightaway gave him a ridiculous name : Pentagon Gleam the First , :redface:
as , obviously he was a famous showjumper ( he could vault big books :crackup: ) Oh , the devoted hours .... Guess who he really belonged to ???
My brunette Barbie doll ! 
Festive mini hugs , Ruth
BlondheartOh yes Kelly - reading your story truly gave me a lump in the throat !
glamour of Christmas we should all try , even in a small way to "give a little" to help someone less fortunate ; and spare plenty of kind thoughts :hug:The prezzie that I got most excited about as a child was my Sindy horse ; rich brown , with a brushable mane and tail , and accessories ! Tiny little brushes , a bucket ,
and a saddle and bridle to take on and off !!! I was overjoyed to receive him , and straightaway gave him a ridiculous name : Pentagon Gleam the First , :redface:
as , obviously he was a famous showjumper ( he could vault big books :crackup: ) Oh , the devoted hours .... Guess who he really belonged to ???
My brunette Barbie doll !Festive mini hugs , Ruth
Obviously you owned race horses in a previous life! :crackup:
PottersHouse BearsMy favorite Christmas gift was a stuffed lion. He was beautiful. I was probably 9 years old when I got him. I had him until I was out of school. When I moved out of state, I had to leave most of my things behind to pick up at a later date. However, while I was away, my sister's dog destroyed all of my stuffed animals.
But on the gift topic, my absolute favorite gift of all times was a birthday gift. I was 11 years old. My birthday is in January. My mom asked me what I wanted, and there was only one thing I even cared about that year. I wanted a duck, a real duck. I told mom please don't get me anything now, just get me a duck in the spring. So I did not get a birthday gift until March, when I got 3 ducks. It was well worth the wait.
Hearts Ease Bearsyes Kelly that was beautiful story! and i can datemyself and say i remeber the easy bake oven and my brother did indeed get the creepy crawlers! my babay sister got the other items years later..but my favorite gift came fomr the great aunt who raised us..i know now she didnt have much money..but she bought me my first ice skates! i had them on my feet until i grew out of them! i used to pretendi was one of those beautiful skaters on TV ( and our tv was in a little cabinet with what a 9 inch screen?) thanks for the memory! deb
Newcastle, OntarioMy favourite gift was a birthday gift, as well. My birthday was in December, and I always had a choice of a party or a big gift. I always chose a party - what kid doesn't want one LOL! Anyway, Lassie was my favourite TV show and one of my friends bought me a stuffed Lassie. I was over the moon - I didn't even want to open the rest of my gifts and I remember my dad was very upset with me because I made such a fuss of Lassie. He said it hurt the other kids feelings, which was true in retrospect, but I sure loved that dog!
hugs,
Brenda
Bears by EdieMy favourite Christmas gift was a hard plastic "Topsy" doll that I got when I was about 5 years old. Being a thin, hard plastic it was quite fragile , so a day or two after Christmas I carefully put it up on a high shelf (as high as I could reach being 5 ) so that my younger sister couldn't get it. Well, I was small for my age and about the same size as my 3 yr old sister so of course if I could "just" reach the shelf then so could she and she managed to grab the doll's leg and then dropped it and it fell on the floor and smashed to smithereens! To my great delight I found the same doll many, many years later at an antique show and it is now a treasured part of my doll collection - and even now I can see why I was so taken with the doll, it really is delightful!
My parents always made Christmas magical for us despite having very little money. My dad worked in the factories in Coventry as a welder in the 50s and 60s and more often than not they would lay off the workers for long periods with no pay so it was hard to give 3 kids a Christmas. One year I got a small transistor radio..the kind in a leather case. I remember this as the very best thing I ever got, I kept it for years and years and used to listen to the pirate radio stations under the bed clothes with my sister.
I found out years later that particular year all our presents were second hand, and the little dolls my sister got were free with coupons. It makes me feel very humble that they did this for us..and makes me realise that it didn't do us any harm to not get everything we wanted!
Newcastle, OntarioJenny,
I agree with you - we always felt happy on Christmas with what we got. I think we understood what sacrifices our parents had to make and sometimes just couldn't do what we wanted. It actually makes me upset to see how much our grandson gets every year. He discards things so easily and isn't particularly attached to anything. He has so much "stuff". Sometimes I wish he was mine, so I had some control - it's hard being a grandparent sometimes.
hugs,
Brenda
Cleathero CreationsMy favourite gift was a beautiful dollshouse. I loved it so. I still have it and every so often purchase things to revamp it (bits got broken over the years and the young daughters got into and seemed to take great delight in wrecking it. So O put it up. This was even more special as Dad had been laid off but they still managed to get special presents.
Jellybelly BearsRuth I used to love my Sindy dolls too...wonder where they have gone now, Barbie is still around.
Anyway, my birthday and Christmas were always combined into one... 
so I can't remember if this was a bthdy or Christmas morning, but it was a "mixed" gift..my Strawberry Shortcake dollhouse. it cost $200 back then! I was SO lucky to get one..and I got the dolls for the years around it birthday and Christmas, and inbetween haha. And I got a strawberry shortcake cake all iced with the doll design for the bthdy. sorry...but like i said, they are kinda interchangable to me :bday: I just remember being so surprised and happy, for the house and the cake, they were my biggest happy surprises ever I think.
bears by beesley TMYou know, I just love this thread! It brings back such awesome memories for me. Thank you for bringing this subject up Tami!
When I was a little girl (born in 1956) every year I would ask for the new doll of the year. It was a Chatty Cathy or what ever the new DOLL was for that year.
I was so excited when I went to bed that I would wake up at about 3 in the morning and run to the kitchen. You see my Mom and Dad always took her out of her box and set her under the tree un wrapped. As soon as I saw the box I could go back to bed and go to sleep.
But for some very odd reason I do recall that when I was around the age of 4 my Mom bought me a stuffed yellow monkey with a rubber face and a banana in it's hand and I cried for days because I hated it. I have always regreted that because my Mom is now gone and she was so proud of that monkey she had bought at the Co-Op Toy Land and I know I broke her heart. Out of the mouth of babes I guess! Luv You Mom!
Hugs Louise~!
