What was your favorite Christmas gift?
Mine was a Crissy Doll with long red hair that could grow. (I got it when I was about ten years old. It wasn’t long before her hair was as tangled as mine.)
I asked my Travelers Rest friends to tell me one of their favorite Christmas gifts as a child. Before I knew it, everybody was adding to the fun. I decided to include them all because it’s Christmas all over! Some submitted photos, some I added. I hope this brings back a few fun memories.
Jo Ann Whitaker: 6th grade. AM Transistor Radio with wrist strap from my Grandmother. Stuck it under my pillow at night and listened to music from other cities.
Janet McDonald: Santa brought me a “motor car” when I was 5. I think he liked it as much as I did. Dad had his work cut out for him cranking it and giving all the neighborhood kids rides in it until we were old enough to spend many hours driving ourselves up and down Belmont Ave.
Tim Baxter-Ferguson: This.
Lorie Lopez: Mine was when I was in 4th grade and I got a real leather football. Daddy was burning leaves a few weeks later in the ditch and my football rolled into the fire. I screamed and cried. Daddy got it out but it was a little black after that. I still love football!
Gene Taylor: 1965. Santa brought my first guitar. Here I am on Christmas morning singing the Tuberose Snuff jungle. “If your snuff’s too strong, it’s wrong. Choose Tuberose.”
Judye Morris: My brother Tim’s go cart, until I wrecked it behind the barn.
Annette Taylor: Real cowboy boots in 2nd or 3rd grade! I still have them. Wore them constantly and had some “disagreements” with mama about when I could wear them.
Jill Kremer: The Barbie Townhouse, even though “Santa” said some very bad words when he was trying to install the elevator.
Anne Laveley: My 110 Kodak camera. Wasted a ton of film on silly pictures. But what memories were captured!!
Amy Gore: 12, my cartouche necklace. We were living in Cairo and my mom…er Santa… bought it at the souk [market]. It was my first grown up gift. My brother got mad at me later that night and jerked it off my neck and broke the chain! I still have it.
Crystal Cantrell: A shoe box full of nuts and candy and fruit and a big candy cane and daddy reading us the story book Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Chloe Massie: I really liked my Lion-O action figure from the 80’s Thundercats cartoon. He had a Sword of Omens and the Claw Shield. And don’t get me started on my Lite Bright and Legos! I used to be a creative master with those. Even had my own LEGO Millennium Falcon once.
Kate Salley Palmer: A “Sparkle Plenty” doll. I have a photo of me holding her. It was all the rage in the late 40’s!
Sonya Vehorn: 10 years old, My first horse delivered by Santa.
Tim Davis: A set of Viewmaster reels featuring wild animals of Africa.
Thom Long: In 1963, I was eight years old. I got my first real drum: a Ludwig marching snare drum. My brother, Tim, bought it from another student at Greenville High so Mama and Daddy would have it for Christmas morning. GHS colors were red and white, so I had to repaint the rims gray for Wade Hampton! This led to a lifelong passion (obsession) for drums as Ringo and the boys showed up two months later. It sits in my living room to this day several feet away from my Palmetto drum set.
Frankie Buckner: A bride doll!!
Kelly Piepho: My Elton John Album.
Bren Bowman: ”Real size” doll when I was 5.
Joey Justice: Coming to Grandma’s for Christmas was a great gift! Having Aunt Alpha hug and kiss on me (Just seeing her smile and laugh), hearing Uncle Walter tell all of those stories. Having Grandma running me out of the kitchen…hearing her saying “Hey boy”, the great food and knowing that I would have to run it off to wrestle the next week, being the baby of the whole family, all of the love and laughing. The love that I felt at her house for Christmas was better than any gift! Gifts come and go but the love and memories from a wonderful family last forever!
Merry Christmas from all of us here at TravelersRestHere.com.
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Thanks to all those who contributed. You brought many smiles.
Photos compliments of individual contributors except for…Viewmaster, Sparkle Plenty, The Night Before Christmas, Christmas Tree illustration, and Crissy Doll photos—Google images.
