The Spirit of Christmas Past

     In the movie The Santa Clause, Tim Allen reluctantly inherits the role of the world-famous, globe-trotting giver of toys.  On his first night on the job, Sarah, a little girl sleeping on the the couch awaiting his arrival, coaches the amateur Santa through the annual Christmas Eve rituals, including a reminder that he is supposed to drink the milk she has dutifully left for him.  Impatient and irritated, he replies that he is "lactose intolerant". 

    The idea that Santa couldn't drink milk was quite different from anything Sarah had ever heard.  The following Christmas, when Santa is considerably more seasoned, he finds that she has left him a glass of soy milk.

      I don't know about you, but, like Sarah, I noticed Santa Clause did some things differently when he came to our house, too.  For one, he did not wrap our presents.  For two, he did not put them under the tree. (He did, however, always eat the cookies we left for him every Christmas Eve.)

    The way Santa and his elves handled a family of nine children was simply to stack the gifts in piles all around the living room and leave a name tag for me and each of my siblings on top of the stash of gifts.  Once in a while, I would even notice a price sticker on one of the gifts.  This didn't seem to make sense to me because why would the elves, who made all the toys, need to put an orange JC Penney price tag on it?

     Years later, when I understood that Santa counted on the moms and dads around the world to help him out a little, the manner in which the gifts were left became irrelevant.  When I look back on my childhood, I feel a sense of great warmth and love that someone did their best to put the things we wanted most in each of those piles.  (Nine kids allowed five things each on their list equals forty-five requests.)

     So today, in honor of Christmas past, I remember my favorite gifts of the many placed in my pile by the loving, wonderful Santa Clause.

     10)  The first gift I ever cherished was the Chrissy Doll.  She was about a foot tall, wore an orange   dress, had very cool matching shoes, and her long brunette hair could lengthen or shorten using a dial in the middle of her back.  I don't know what inspired the concept, but this doll was wildly popular.  Plus she had a sister Violet and a whole bunch of friends that kept all us girls happy for years.

    

     9)  The Fisher Price Sailboat.  There must be a modern version of the toy, but the one back in the day rocked.  It was a big boat with a captain and passengers that floated in our bath tub, complete with a smaller tug boat in the event of an emergency.

     8)  The Fisher Price Camper.  Whoever invented this ensemble was someone after my own heart.  This camper had bunk beds, a rowboat that sat on its roof, a grill, a picnic table, and even the dog.

     7)  The Cynthia Doll. Her special gadget was that you put records in her side and she would say very hip things like, "Hey, do you wanna go the game?" or "Are you going to the party Saturday night?"

     6)  The Fisher Price Schoolhouse.  I got this toy as a five year-old (and future teacher), but so important it was to me that I climbed into a dumpster as a forty year-old to save it when some family member got possessed and threw it away.  Now I don't save everything, but you don't trash my Fisher Price Schoolhouse.

     5)  Timey Tell.  She was a cute doll with blonde curls and a watch on her wrist.  If you set it to a certain time and pulled the string on her back, she would tell you exactly what you should be doing at that hour.  Whether it was brushing your teeth, eating lunch, or going to bed, Timey Tell was the most disciplined baby doll of all time.

     4)  Charlie's Angel Doll & Action Gymnastic Set.  I have to group these two together because the Jaclyn Smith action figure was nothing without the trampoline, parallel bars, and rings, and vice versa.  All I know is that Kelly Garrett flipped around those bars thousands of times before I finally outgrew it.

     3) Knit Magic.  I never really learned how to knit, but this toy made me think I could.  The hardest part was getting started, but once you did, look out....all you had to do was crank and crank and crank, and you would eventually have all the scarves, hats, and potholders you could ever dream of.

     2)  The Big Wheel.  I love this toy, and, if I could, I would still ride this thing to this day. 

    

     1)  The chance to give Christmas to someone else.

     Yes, I eventually learned what every Scrooge of every cinematic version of A Christmas Carol learned ~ only thankfully without the torment.

     As a child, Christmas was simply about "getting".  But, over time, the great surprise in Christmas became that nothing tops the joy of giving.  For most of us, that giving is to our children. For others, it may the less fortunate, the lonely, the sick, even the imprisoned.

    No matter who it is, when we give to others, we get back something far greater than anything ever found in any one of those piles Santa stacked all over living room, or in any stocking, or under any tree, or in any material thing on the planet.

    Just for fun, I have posted images of the best things I "got for Christmas" below. Looking at these thing now, they bring happy and nostalgic memories...but their only meaning is in that someone found the joy in giving.

     It is a joy, too, that I am grateful to know in the Christmas of now.

   
     Have a wonderful Wednesday.