Cool Christmas gifts from my childhood

Dude, I’m tellin’ ya……….

I was talking with a friend of mine recently, and we were remembering some of the more thoughtful and cool gifts that we have either given or received thru the years.

Both of us lamented the fact that unfortunately most people don’t put a hell of a lot of thought into their gifts anymore. It’s all gift cards and crap. It is thoughtful in itself to give someone a present. Kind and generous too. We were just thinking more in terms of really finding that deeper, special gift that is just perfect for the personality of the person. Or the long-lost days of making something yourself.

She shared how she put a lot of time and effort into a special gift for a friend who had shared a very cool experience with her. She sought out and gathered material pertaining to the experience and made a remembrance-type gift that would help her friend relive that special time over and over. Apparently, he left it at the bar that night. It was gone just like that. And she’s disappointed to this day.

I started thinking of some of the special, really cool gifts that I have received for Christmas. Or gave to someone else. Or just memorable gifts in general. 

The very first Christmas gift that I ever remember getting was when I was 5 or 6. It was a Bat Cave with action figures. It had Batman and Robin, the Joker, the Penguin, etc. And there was a little playset that was the Bat Cave. I loved it because I was still watching the relatively new reruns of the campy show with Adam West. So to this day, that remains the earliest Christmas gift I can ever remember receiving.

Right around that same time…..1976 or 1977…..my parents bought the kids an Atari system. We were the first family on the block to get it. None of my friends had it yet. But within a year or a year-and-a-half, everyone had it. I remember playing the 3 man baseball game most of that Christmas day. And it came with Pong and a game called Combat where you shot at each other in tanks. Eventually we had upwards of 120 games and they were part of the Christmas gift list every year until we were teens.

No shit……my parents still have the original game console and the cartridge games. They held on to it “so the grandkids can play on it”.   

Well, they have grandkids now. But these kids are used to playing World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. Games that depict incredible fantasy worlds and war-torn Europe circa 1944 complete with burnt out churches and B-52s swooping in. The grandkids aren’t too hot to play Atari these days. Since my folks live in Henderson, NV I tell them they should take it to the pawn shop nearby on the cable show Pawn Stars. I saw them give a customer like $100-125 for the console and about 50 games. My parents should be able to get $150 for the whole set ( joysticks, paddles, games).

Back in the day, my eccentric grandfather apparently had an extreme dislike for Billy Carter—-President Jimmy Carter’s goofy brother. I remember someone gave my grandpa a big ol’ poster of Billy Carter with a silly bucktooth grin on his face holding a can of beer. But when they gave it to him in the canister, you had no idea what it might be…..Sinatra? The whole Rat Pack? A classic car?

Nope……Billy Carter. He took a long drag on his ever-present cigar and just held it up and glared at it. Everyone was laughing.

Other than the Atari, the gift that may have gotten the most mileage out of my brother and I was electric football. I think they still sell it at ToysRUs. We played that game for hours and hours. Once our friends owned it too, we created a league and had sleepovers where the order of the night was all about electric football. We’d keep stats on sacks and touchdowns. You could buy teams painted in the real pro jersey colors thru the manufacturer. For years, we bought teams from the NFL and expanded our little private league.

Another year, my parents bought me the entire set of a book series I really enjoyed as an adolescent. There were about 33 books to the series. It took me a good year or longer to devour them. I held on to them too. And when my nephew (now 16 and who likes to read as much as I do) was about 8,  I passed them along to him. Saved some coin on his Christmas gift that year !

One of my favorite Christmas gift memories was when that crazy-ass cousin of mine, Bill, gave a present to our grandma. This is the guy who provided so many of the Thanksgiving adventures { See: Thanksgiving Memories }. He was only about 18 at this time–making me about 12 years old. And he brought in this big ol’ box that could’ve had a big microwave or a TV in it. Grandma unwrapped the first box to find a second gift-wrapped box. And then a third. And a fourth.

As a younger kid, it was the first time I had seen this gag. But Bill took it to the extreme. He literally had 14 or 15 wrapped boxes stashed inside each other. When she finally got down to a box that could hold a pair of earrings, there was a little wallet picture of him in there. He had to have gone thru three rolls of wrapping paper. And some of the boxes were taped air-tight like Fort Knox. She had to take a knife and cut the tape off. …..really wrestle with some of ’em. Hilarious.

Her grandmotherly quotes of, “What the sam-hell?”    or       “Oh my gosh !!  Billy !!! “ 

That was pretty memorable.

Eventually my brother and I got to that age where we searched the house and eventually would find some of the wrapped presents. We even adopted the careful technique of slitting the tape with a knife and then re-wrapping it perfectly; with fresh tape laying exactly over the old strips. Of course, that took the surprise out of many of the gifts on Christmas morning.

So my recent discussion with my friend about cool and thoughtful gifts made me remember all of those memories.

Which was kind of a gift in itself from her. Thanks, kid.