A doll house as a child.
A diamond engagement ring as an adult.

My diamond engagement ring in 1964.

Last Christmas with Jim was the best ever. It wasn't about the "gift exchange" per se, but more about the intimate sharing of the Christmas Spirit. That's what makes it so hard this year.

Easy to answer for me. It was my last Christmas with my husband, 2012. I've used the same fake tree for about 6 years. Before that, Felix would take our grandaughter to a tree farm and the two would always pick a beautiful tree. He asked me in 2012 if we could go out and buy a real tree. We both went to his favorite tree farm and once again picked the most beautiful Christmas tree I ever saw. The smell of the fresh cut tree stayed with us throughout the season. He was so happy to have it in our home because most of our grandchildren never had a fresh tree. I did my best to decorate it with all the ornaments that we collected over the 40 years that we were together. A wonderful Christmas was celebrated by all. I'm sorry, I can't tell this story without breaking down. My love passed 3 months later from a long, hard fight with cancer. It was our best Christmas ever.

I'm sorry, my reply wasn't really about "the best gift I ever got" but then again, to me, it was the fact that I gave my hubby his last Christmas wish of a real tree, and his loving it and appreciating that we could do that one last time.

Oops! After writing all that, and reading it over, after I posted it, I noticed I put the wrong year. It was 2011, and he passed in March of 2012. It's late, I'm tired, good night.

We rarely give each other gifts for the holidays. We bought things we like for ourselves whenever we wanted. The most memorable "gift" to ourselves during the Christmas holiday was we took a trip to England with our daughter.

What a great post!
1. As a child: a red puffy bean bag chair and my own hardback copy of Little Women. The bean bag bit the dust a long time ago but I still have and read the Little Women.

2. As an adult; a stuffed Beast doll with an emerald necklace around his neck. He was in my stocking;. I looked at my pitiful gifts and said to my husband "is this it?" He exclaimed at me, "Look at the Beast, Look at the Beast!" I said " I already looked at the stuffed animal, I'm not 12 anymore, unlike some people I know!" Makes me laugh out loud t this day. How I loved that man!

As a child, I received a wooden toolbox my dad built for me. My mom painted it and personalized it with my name. It was filled with real tools. I've been handy ever since.

As an adult, 4 Christmas' ago, my wife gave me the guitar I'd always dreamed of, a Fender Stratocaster. I put it away 2 years ago and found it again recently. Haven't felt much like playing it yet but having it out is beginning to evoke more smiles than tears.

Thanks Praised for making me think about the joys of Christmas' past.

Peace and ((hugs))
John

Easy? For me. 2007 we had no money for gifts and decided what little we had we would try to make a nice meal at least. It was Christmas eve and getting late when everything was closing. We stopped at a small grocery in a not so great part of town to grab a little something for dinner. There was a small puppy tied to a mailbox outside the store. Long story short it was freezing cold, snowy and blowing and the store was closing. We asked the store owner who the pup belonged to. He said it had been tied there all day and he couldn't take it home so he would leave it there. My husband said no way and gave him our number and he put the pup in the car. We tried for weeks to locate the owner as she was well cared for clean and sweet. 7 years later she is sleeping next to me where my husband should be and it my reason for living. She is the best present I have ever been given. Part of gods great plan? I sometimes wonder.

Oh, soalone, your response sent shivers down my spine. That was such a beautiful story and memory. These are the kinds of things that support a belief in a higher power.

As for me, Steve gave me my engagement ring as a Christmas gift. He loved buying Christmas gifts and he had four sisters. I remember him showing me the Waterford crystal pendants he bought for each of them, and saying it was very pretty. Then, when I opened my gift and saw the Waterford box, then lifted out my identical pendant, I thought, "Oh great, he thinks of me like a sister!" But on the silk cord of the pendant also hung the beautiful ring! Not like a sister after all!

I grew up in a family that was not wealthy, so our gifts were pretty modest. But my parents tried to find gifts that we would really like. I liked my art supplies and kits with little pieces I could attach and make different things.

A good topic, praised! Alice

As a child, it would have to be the blouse my sister made me. I am the 5th child of 6 kids in my family, with 3 older sisters. I grew up poor, Daddy's first bout with cancer when I was 4 pretty much guaranteed that, so I rarely ever got anything new for myself - it was all hand-me-downs. All the girls sew, and when I was 7, my eldest sister made me a red dotted Swiss blouse with a scalloped collar. I loved that thing! I think I wore it everywhere, and with everything - even my yucky hand-me-down plaid skirt! Yeah, no fashion sense from an early age. It was a real gift of love, and the only new and just for me piece of clothing I got for years. It made me feel special.

As an adult, this will probably sound strange, but the gift that mattered most was time. Cliff died Veterans Day November 2007. I had used up all my leave and bereavement leave by December, and I and my kids were just a mess. We were still in shock, reeling from Cliff's sudden death, and just devastated. I tried working full-time, but was breaking down all the time. My bosses went to the big boss because they wanted to donate some leave time to me. The big boss said no, he wanted to donate HIS time. So the big boss in my office donated some of his own leave time so that I could take the time off to grieve with my sons over Christmas. That sounds simple, but I was a government employee, and it required the Mayor's sign-off on an executive order to do it. No small thing! Unbeknownst to me, the lawyers I worked with, together with our big boss, went to the Mayor and asked him to do it, and the Mayor agreed right away - he wanted to help. I didn't know they were doing this - it was presented to me as a done deal and a surprise. It was such a huge kindness, and it was done by some of the most unlikely characters imaginable, but I have never forgotten it. When I finally returned to work in the New Year, I was stronger and more prepared, and so were my boys. I had really needed that time.

Nice discussion - thanks!

Love and Hugs,
Martha

I'm about to show my age, but the first gift I remember was a doll called Tiny Tears and later a poodle skirt was what every girl wanted. As an adult just 3 Christmases ago Art proposed with a beautiful engagement ring. Sharon

Growing up, my family celebrated Christmas with my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. The gift I cherished the most was from my grandmother...a stuffed toy bear wearing a nightshirt and cap. I took it everywhere!

As an adult, my most cherished memory of Christmas was the first holiday my husband (then boyfriend) spent together. We had been dating only for a month. I knew he really liked watches, so I bought him a Mickey Mouse watch with the arms that moved for the hour and minute hands. I took a gamble that he would like it, after all, I spent quite a bit on it, it was a Seiko. He gave me a gift to open and it was also a Mickey Mouse watch, a smaller version and also a Seiko! I knew then and there we were meant to be together forever!!! I still have my MM watch after 28 years!

Having been an only child I got just about everything I wanted at Christmas. No brothers or sisters to share with. My favorite times though was spending time with family both sides. I didn't care about the gifts as much as that family time. I had great grandparents and it made me happy to spend Christmas with them. I miss them to this day. Now I lost my mother to cancer when I was 26 and I remember the last Christmas spent with her. They allowed her to come home from the hospital and we knew the end was soon. She died Jan. 17 in other words right after Christmas. With Jim his last Christmas was spent at the Veteran's hospital after just coming out of Intensive care after a severe gastrointestinal bleed. The whole family was there and I was so happy Jim was alive. Of course you know the end of the story-he died April 17,2009, It was his last Christmas with us and that is precious to me. Of course we had other happy, happy Christmases but this sticks in my mind.