The Best Gifts I've Ever Received on Christmas

My childhood memories of Christmas are all jumbled up. There are a few I remember vividly, and others that have already faded from my memory entirely. But there are certain gifts that made certain Christmas's UNFORGETTABLE!


Caitlin's Top 10 Best Gifts EVER


1. Baby Alive.

She eats, she poops, she is pretty much a real baby... or so I thought at the time. It was 1990 (I think) and I was the happiest kid ever. My sister, Meghan, also got one!  It definitely made my hero worship for Santa reach new levels of insanity.

2. Bean Bag Chairs.

Imagine waking up on Christmas morning, waiting to see what Santa brought you and your 3 siblings... only to find 4 giant bean bag chairs sitting in the middle of the living room! It was like I'd died and gone to bean bag heaven! We LOVED those bean bag chairs (kudos mom and dad). We loved them so much.

3. A Pink Game Boy Color

The way our parents must've felt when TV finally came in color.. that's how I felt when game boy came out in color. I was elated! I begged both sets of parents for it, and my Dad really came through for me that Christmas. Not Only did he get me a game boy color.. he got me a pink one. He knew me so very very well.

4. Blue Eyed Contacts

As a brown/hazel eyed girl, I always thought I would be prettier with blue eyes. Around 14 years old I started begging my parents to let me get colored contacts. I really didn't expect them to get them for me.. after all, it was a vain and frivolous request.. yet again, my father pulled through for me when I least expected him to and BLAM! Blue eyed contacts. Did I look like an extra from the movie Dune? Yeah.. was it creepy? HELL YEAH! But it was also awesome. By the way, I should really stick with my natural eye color.

5. Bikes!

Another extremely awesome Christmas was the year my parents got all of us bikes.. and they were all the SAME. haha. I think my parents realized early on that we would fight over them if they weren't all the same. I think some were blue and others were yellow but I think the yellow ones were bigger and the blue ones were smaller so we couldn't fight. I can't honestly remember. I just remember how AWESOME it was. We were bike riding kids.. we rode EVERYWHERE and we LOVED to play on our bikes. We even played McDonalds Drive Through like weirdos. 

6. A Squirrel Bank

it looked EXACTLY LIKE THIS!!!

Now you're thinking.. um.. WHAT?!?! How did this make your top 10 list???? I'll tell you how. It came from my brother. I don't really know how to explain it. My mom took us all to the dollar store and told us we could pick out 1 present for 1 sibling that we randomly drew names for. My brother got my name. He got me this squirrel bank. When I opened it for Christmas, I was so happy I almost cried. I still don't really know why. I just loved it so much and I loved that my brother gave me something so cool. To this day, this might be the reason behind my squirrel obsession. 

7. A black and gold dress

this gold and black dress

The year my grandmother died.. I should say the CHRISTMAS that my grandmother died, she sent me a few gifts. A hand-stitched Christmas stocking, and a black and gold dress. I loved it. It was the most beautiful dress I'd ever seen. Sadly, she died the next day. I got madly ill with food poisoning. It wasn't the greatest Christmas, but it was a great gift, and something I cherished for a long time. I did end up giving it away at some point (I try not to be a hoarder) but sometimes I wish I'd kept it.

8. A Ski Trip to Park City

This Christmas we are going to Park City!!! Woot woot! Happy Christmas to meeeeee!!! I'm so excited to skiiiiiiiii!!!!! That is all.

9. My Little Pony (and matching underwear to go with it)

The one year I got excited about receiving underwear, was the year my mom got me My Little Pony underwear. Yeahhhhh. Every time I wore those I felt powerful. I felt majestic. I felt like a My Little Pony. I also got 2 ponies! They were the best toy ever! I will never forget those ponies and how much I loved them. I even Incorporated them into my barbie games. It was awesome. Good job, Mom.. good job.

10. An iPad

It's so beautiful

My dad seems to be the master of pulling it out of his back side when you least expect it. That sounds wrong, but let me explain. My Dad kept hounding me about my Christmas gift and that I MUST NOT OPEN it until Christmas Day. Little did he know, that I really really wanted to open it early just because he dogged me so hard. But I didn't. I don't know what it was but I actually decided that since he was the gifter, I needed to respect his wishes. And I waited. And finally on Christmas day, I opened it. I don't know what I expected. I was a grown woman, and pregnant. I wasn't sure what my dad would be willing to give me since (again) I was a grown adult who didn't need things like barbie dolls or game boys. Well last year he really shocked me. I pulled out this iPad and just sort of stared at it in shock for a while. My dad isn't a hipster. He doesn't follow trends, and he certainly could care less about keeping up with the Jones'. To give you an example, the TV in his living room was free from HIS father in law and I'm pretty sure he'd still have the old black and white with bunny ears if it still worked... he just doesn't really put a lot of value on having the newest or the best.. he's not materialistic. So the fact that he got me an iPad was just sort of a shock. Turns out his motives were pure... he wanted to make sure he got to see as much of Sonja as possible through face-time and he was worried she wouldn't understand the small screen as well as the big screen. We have done a lot of face timing with Grandpa since then. A truly thoughtful and sweet gift... 

What makes these gifts special to me aren't really what the gifts were, but the thought behind them. The acknowledgement of my personality that was involved, and the willingness to sacrifice time, money, thought, or whatever else in order to make me happy. I think that's really what goes into a good Christmas gift. It could be a new car, or a card with a snowman on it.. it's what the intent behind the gift was that makes it a good gift.

Merry Christmas!