For 10 years, we owned a small successful hotel in Ireland. Money wasn't scarce and so, each Christmas, we took a lot of time picking gifts for our only son. He wasn't spoiled! He didn't receive stuff willy nilly all year. But at Christmas, we always bought him something pretty spectacular.
A couple of years ago, when the latest recession hit, I asked my then 21 year old son, who was home for Christmas, what his favourite Christmas gifts were when he was a child. He thought for just a moment and said" I don't really remember individual presents. But I'll always remember Uncle Conor and family coming to stay (my son's cousins were more like brothers to him). And especially the Christmas when I was about 6 or 7 and Dad kept warning that Santa better not land the reindeer on the new hotel roof and damage it! Dad "grumbled" that the reindeer were more trouble than they were worth, that they better not poop on the hotel driveway either."
I suddenly recalled that holiday! My goofy husband waited until the boys were in bed on a snowy Christmas Eve, went out to a friend's rural farm with horses. He picked up a large bucket of frozen horse droppings and scattered them on the driveway where they could be clearly seen on the snow. The next morning when the boys got up and raced to the tree, they saw that the cookies and milk and carrots left out for Santa were duly "nibbled".
When my grown up son recounted that as one of his favourite memories, it was a very key moment for me and parents should take note. It's not how much children get at Christmas, it's the magic you create!
By siobhan o'brien from Fermanagh, Ireland
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That is so cute! Thank you for sharing :)
What a sweet story. My 3 boys are grown & all live away from me but they will be here for Christmas along with my grandchildren. I now look forward to asking them about their special memories of Christmases past. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas.
What a sweet story thank you for taken the time to tell us . Is there still poo in your drive way now .this Christmas. .I remember hugging my mom the last Christmas I saw her in 1983 I had a watch she loved I gave it to her for Christmas that year.
What a beautiful bittersweet story. The love you shared was so special. Thank you.
I have a similar story. I asked my son who is 23, just the other day, what was his favorite Christmas memory. He could not remember individual gifts either except for one. When he was 8 years old all he asked for was a Nintendo 64. I cannot tell you how many times he asked for it. Money was somewhat tight that year, but I knew that I had to make sure he got that expensive toy. So, by purchasing that I had to limit what else he received that year.
So I wanted to make that gift extra special. So we made a scavenger hunt out of the gift. He started in the living room and the "elves" had him running all over the house and outside in the snow to find more clues! In the end, the present was back under the tree after he had run through all 6 clues. This took him more time to build up excitement for the very special gift! Once he found the Nintendo 64, He was excited and could not wait to tell everyone in the family how the elves had sent him on a magical hunt for his prized gift.
I loved that day and so did he. The gift was special to him, but the extra attention the scavenger hunt gave him, was what he so fondly remembers! A little bit of thought on my part, gave him a treasured memory that he will never forget!
I absolutely love this sweet story! It just made me remember my one very special Christmas when I was eight years old and really wanted a bicycle. Well, no there was no bicycle and daddy said that there must have been a child out there somewhere that Santa knew needed one more.
I remember the Christmas, my ex husband and I worked to make it special for our girls. We didn't have much for them under the tree that year, so their father took his boots, and got the soles wet, then proceeded to make footprints from our hearthstove to the tree and back.
I woke up to the sweet voices of our girls squealing as they saw the footprints coming from the stove to the tree. Those girls are now 24 and 20 with children of their own, and I have a beautiful memory of a Christmas that was special to them and us.
Love this story! Thanks for sharing it.
My son didn't have any presents under the tree for his first Christmas, because he was only 3 weeks old. He was supposed to come on Dec. 26, but decided to come early. It's good thing he did, because he weighed 8 lb.s, 4 oz.
But his second Christmas--my husband and I didn't coordinate what we were buying for him, and when I set them under the tree, there were 14 big gifts. 14! Gifts that would have made some child's Christmas. I told my husband that was too many, and he'd be overwhelmed, so I took about half of them and put them back in the attic. He got them for his 3rd Christmas.
After that, we coordinated our shopping and decided that he'd get maybe 3 big gifts plus some little ones. As time went on, he got old enough to tell us what he wanted, so it was slightly easier to shop. That is, until "Home Alone" and the Talkboy came along.
Talkboys were sold out everywhere. One morning, I found myself in Target after I dropped him off at school, and realized I hadn't even washed my face yet. Finally, my BIL called and said he was at a store and there were Talkboys--did we want one? He was getting one for his son. YES!!
After all the hype, the tape recorder didn't do nearly what it did in the movie.
More recently, we pretty much gave our son and his wife gift cards every year. That's what they wanted. A few years ago, we got a refund of $500 when we had to have our roof replaced. I got the cash and split it between two little boxes I hung on the tree.
Then I got two little token gifts, some little herb pots for her and a clock puzzle for him, and those were under the tree. After they'd opened them, and they were being SO polite, I said, "You know, there MIGHT be something else on the tree." He found them in about 5 seconds.
A couple of years ago, I put a mini-paint gun in his stocking, and told him to play with it outside, so he promptly hit the mantel just above the fireplace with a small ball of paint.
Fast forward to this year, and suddenly everything is reversed. They load us down with presents, even though we've told them not to buy us anything.
I was worried that his birthday would get lost in the shuffle of Christmas, but he thought the whole month was for him. Christmases for me weren't that happy after I was about 12, long story, so I made sure they'd always be happy for my son.
NOOO!
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