A year or two ago I wrote a book. And a lot of you have that book and have sewn a whole bunch of projects from it. This time of year it seems to be especially popular because it includes lots of gifty projects that are easy and cute to make for all the kids on your list. You know, mittens, hats with ears, that sort of practical but fun stuff.
And Tutus. How can I forget tutus? Every girl has a tutu on her Christmas list, doesn’t she? No? That’s just because she didn’t think to ask. Or maybe she’s a practical little one and only thinks tutus are only appropriate summer wear. Not so! Just check out S a couple Christmases ago. A tutu is a perfect holiday accessory. It’s all about how you layer it.
I hope the book has given you some handmade holiday inspiration this year.
And if you know my book, you might also know that STC, my publisher, makes a whole bunch of really gorgeous books that provide year-round crafty inspiration. I mean, really spectacular books. I chose STC for my book because I think they (Melanie Falick and team, specifically) put out the most beautiful, inspiring, and useful craft books in the business.
Like I said the other day, books make great Christmas gifts. And to help you give the give of crafty book goodness this year (or maybe I should say “to give you some crafty book goodness this year”), STC has generously offered two free books as a give-away for the holidays. (One book is supposed to be for me and one for you, but I’ll give my copy to a second winner. Think of it as my little holiday gift to you.) And, to make it even better, STC is letting the winners pick from any of the following titles:
- Kaffe Fassett Dreaming in Color
- Heather Ross Prints
- Knitting from the Center Out
- Knitting: Fashion, Industry, Craft
- Fabrics A to Z
- Denyse Schmidt Quilts
- The Painted Home by Dena
- Gertie’s New Book for Better Sewing
You know all these books and have been drooling over them, right? So let’s see. For our contest, let’s do this. Tell me, in a comment, your most memorable holiday gift ever. Was it handmade? Gigantic? So horrible you break out in a rash every time you think about it? Tell me about it! I’ll randomly pick two winners on Thursday around noon ET. We’ll contact the winners via email for their book selection and shipping address.
(And yes, I will be picking winners at random, but if your number is drawn and you haven’t told me about your most memorable holiday gift in your comment, I’ll draw another winner in your place. Got it? Good. This should be fun!)
After you’ve left your comment why not visit The STC Craft Blog for their annual Handmade Holiday countdown, featuring tutorials, tips, visual inspiration, and maybe a surprise or two. And, by the way, STC is also running a special web promotion: 30% off a selection of books from now through the end of the year. Check out the list here (and take note that the Alexander McQueen book on my list is included, although Little Things to Sew is not, unfortunately).
Oh yes, one more thing. Whatever you do when you leave your comment, do not check that little box that says, “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.” Just trust me. You really don’t want to do that.
We got a wall hook plaque painted with Swedish trolls. Just really not my thing!
My most memorable holiday gift was a silver comb and brush set from my boyfriend when I was 18. It was so beautiful and made me feel beautiful, but he felt badly because he couldn’t afford the mirror. “Oh, no,” I told him. “This is perfect.” And it was, because without a mirror, I believed I really was beautiful.
Thanks for a chance to win!
My most memorable gift was a cassette tape recorder I received as a child (maybe 4 years old, I loved gadgets back then too). I used that recorder for countless hours of fun with my friends creating our own radio show and made up songs for many years. I would say though, more than that recorder, the most valuable part of the whole gift was the cassette inside. When I played it for the first time, it was “Santa” greeting me (an amazing thing all its own). Learning later that my dad couldn’t get Santa to sit still long enough to record a greeting, he recorded one for me in Santa’s place. Now that my father is gone, I’d pay a lot of money to get that cassette back so I could hear my father’s voice one more time.
My most memorable gift was actually one I have given… I made my mum and dad a framed collage of pictures from when we were kids. My dad thought it was a breakfast tray (why? no idea) and kept leaving it aside and not opening it… we almost had to beg him to open it… and his face when he realised what it was I will never forget… we laughed so much and it was such a great memory! Thanks for the chance to win!
I had the best Christmas when I was six. I got ice skates, one of those heads to style hair and put makeup on, a gerbil, AND my favorite gift: a Dorothy Hamill doll. 🙂
My most memorable gift is the trinket box my daughter had made for me when she was in gradeschool. She even made me a bracelet with some of her beads and put it inside.
My most memorable gift was the year Santa brought our family a computer, complete with a huge desk, a printer and a ream of paper with the holes down the side. None of us had a clue what to do with it but we were so excited!!
I love LTTS and am using it for several gifts this year. Thanks for the chance for another book!
I received hair curlers as a Christmas gift a few years back. I have straight, limp hair and have never in my life curled it. But still, a lovely gift for someone.
My most memorable gift…Rainbow Brite roller skates as a young girl. They were a dream come true!
I know this is going to sound totally silly, but one year (I was maybe 8?) all I wanted for Christmas was a olives. I loved olives (still do!) and didn’t really *want* anything else. While most of my family still got the usual dolls, feathered purses, and ridiculously NOT me outfits, my grandmother had apparently gone on a search and bought me a restaurant-sized giant jar of olives. Massive. It remains my favorite gift ever (and I did eat them all…eventually).
My most memorable gift was a VHS of the musical “Annie”. I’m sure my parents thought it was a small, inconsequential gift, but I looooved it. We didn’t own many movies, so it was special to me. My six-year-old self tortured my older brothers with how often I watched it.
A toy sewing machine that one of my brothers promptly broke on Christmas morning. It took my mom six months to get the replacement part. I remember being so disappointed. I was in love with that broken machine. I truly did enjoy finally sewing with it. I love your patterns and I especially love your Little Things to Sew book.
I was probably 8 or 9 – I desperately wanted an Easy Bake oven. My mom got me a bag of flour with a note taped to it: “You can use my oven any time.” She kept that promise, too. I think I got a My Friend Mandy doll that year as well, so it wasn’t like I ONLY got a bag of flour for Christmas. Thanks for a chance to win a book!
My most memmorable gift was the Christmas I received the first three volumes of the Anne of Green Gable’s series. After seeing the movie on PBS earlier in the year my Mom remembered and purchased the books. Everytime $6 was saved I would wait patiently until the next visit to the store to buy the next in the series. I love books!
My husband likes to buy me expensive things that I refuse to buy myself. My most favorite was when he got me my serger!
I’m not sure how old I was, but I definitely remember when I got my purple and black 10 speed bike. It was all I wanted for Christmas and couldn’t wait for some of the snow to melt so I could take it for a spin!
Jess
My memory isn’t a gift in the concrete sense, but was definitely the best Christmas present my sister and I ever received. One Christmas morning, we woke up to discover reindeer footprints in the backyard and on the roof! I still have no idea how they swung it (although I have some hair-raising images in my head), but it was right during that magical time, we were about 3 and 5, of absolute belief in the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus and we were just wonderstruck and amazed. I have no idea what we received as presents that year, but it remains the most memorable Christmas of my childhood.
A doll house that my parents made for me. it was very 70’s with olive green kitchen appliances and groovy upholstered furniture that was all handmade. We still use a lot of the pieces for my kids and I am amazed at how great my parents did with all the details like painting the GE symbol on the fridge and sealing a little action shot of a football player to make the screen of the tv.
My grandma likes to get people the same gifts. She has 4 granddaughters including myself, and one grandson. My younger sisters and our cousin the fourth granddaughter always get the same presents – dolls, sweaters jewelry. I sometimes get the same present as my cousin (the grandson). One year we both got He-Man action figures. I never liked dolls (or action figures) so I thought it was really weird.
One Christmas when I was younger, my grandmother sent me a box of socks. Random pairs in colors that did not match anything I owned. I was a bit offended at the time. I now know much more about her situation at that time and realize though she did not have much money, she was trying to give me a truly useful gift. I still have one pair, and they still do not match anything I own.
Back when American Girls first came out (I’m talking early 80s here!) they were very big in my neighborhood/ circle of friends, but my parents could only afford to buy my sister and myself one doll each – no accessories. My grandma and grandpa decided as a Christmas present to make the bed and bedclothing (including hand sewing a Kirsten quilt). It meant so much to know they cared about what I liked. It may have been the best present ever!
My most memorable gift was two years ago. My trusty old Kenmore sewing machine from the 80’s finally died. It had seen far more use than was ever intended. It had sewn through college, most of my friends weddings, baby gifts and quilts. I was heart broken at the prospect of being without a machine but knew we could not afford to replace it. Christmas morning I found a beautiful new Bernina under the tree. My lovely husband had somehow found the money, conspired with my parents to pick it up and deliver it and even my children had managed to keep the secret. I never use it without thinking about all the love that went into that gift and am so thankful for a family that understands my need for a creative outlet.
My most memorable childhood Chistmas was a Barbie Camper Van. Loved that! My most recent memorable gifts were a sewing machine and a serger, which got me into sewing!
I remember my sister and I got china dolls dressed in elaborate velvet holiday outfits–we loved them so much! Mine had short, golden corkscrew curls and a red velvet dress with white fur trim.
Mine is the set of knitting needles and notions I was handed down from my grandma
My most memorable Christmas gift was when I was about eleven or twelve, and we got a kitten for Christmas! My parents had wrapped up a book about a Christmas cat, and my brother and I opened it, but still didn’t really get it. My parents finally had to tell us that the kitten was waiting at our neighbors house. We rushed over, and smothered that poor little kitten with kisses. She got to play in all the wrapping paper all morning. Thanks for the chance to win!
When we were younger, my sister and I got a porcelain doll every Christmas and birthday by my parents. Since we were getting those everyone thought we wanted porcelain trinkets. Oh it was horrible! They were pretty, but they took up so much room and we weren’t allowed to play with them.
Most memorable (and disappointing) was a postage scale. Really. I still feel depressed just thinking about it. 🙂
I remember being extremely happy one Christmas ( I must have been around 8 yrs old?) when I got a special edition of Monopoly. At the time that was the best gift ever, and I harassed everyone until they would agree to play with me.
My most moveable gift ever was a beautiful long res coat from my parents. They sent me on a treasure hunt to find it in the house and there is this awesome pic of me at 16 in braces smiling as big as the horizon when I found it. I wore that coat all thru college and grad school. Its last years were spent with my wonderful grandmother who always admired it. A coat that provided warmth for years and generations.
I remember, when I was about 13, my dad gave me a ring with a real ruby in it and a telephone. I’m not sure which I was most excited about. What really makes it memorable is the fact that before and ever since he does his shopping at the bank and just gives us cash to buy what we want.
My most memorable Christmas was the year my husband and I gave each other specific ideas so we wouldn’t waste away money. My list was a Yankee candle, any scent besides lilac, a Hummel figurine, or Crabtree and Evelyn gardeners hand therapy lotion. I received a generic lilac candle, a precious moments figurine and Crabtree and Evelyn exfoliating treatment:):):) we still laugh about it, because he truly thought he did really well and purchased everything exactly as stated on the list!!!
My most memorable gift was the Etch-a-sketch Animator. I was in 4th grade. You could sketch a series pixelated images and then watch then come to life when you pushed the animate button. So cool!
My most memorable gift had to have been when I got a close contact saddle for Christmas from my parents. I had been ****y all morning (yes, I was a teenager!) because my older brother got a car and all the gifts I had opened were clothes and little things. Imagine my surprise when the last gift was for me and inside was a saddle! I had been borrowing one from my riding instructor so this was a BIG deal to me to have my own.:)
My most memorable holiday gift was when I found out I was pregnant with my now 6-yo boy on Christmas 2005. I had a couple of miscarriages before that so I was very happy and hopeful.
When I was 16, my aunt got me a hope chest and a set of silver — so completely old fashioned for the 80’s but I thought it was cool!
My most memorable holiday gift was the last one: a Kindle from my sister
My most memorable gift was a sewing chest from my husband. We had just moved to VA from WI, my first time living far away from my family, and he thoughtfully bought it and stained it for me, hoping it would make our apartment feel more like home. This was 15 years ago, and I still use the chest!
My most memorable (and mortifying) gift was from my well-intentioned grandmother who has terrible timimg. I opened up her gift, pulled it out trying to figure out what it was. My 9 year old self realized it was a training bra–red-faced, I shoved it back in the box and ran from the room.
Every year my sister gets me a cat calendar. It’s memorable in that it’s so predictable 🙂
When I was five my mother saw a picture of a homemade sleeping bag in a magazine. It looked like a teddy bear in a blanket. The pillow went in the pocket of faux fur that looked like the bear’s head and paws and the quilted pocket facing it was for sleeping in. Mom made figured out how to sew them just by looking at the picture and made one for each of her children. Growing up we used them for years and years for sleepovers and trips and late night movie viewing until all the batting was spilling out and the satin eyes and nose and cheeks were shredded. She has since made “bear bags”, as we call them, for all of her grandchildren. They are just as loved and well used by the next generation.
My most memorable gifts seem to always have been from my Uncle Bob. He didn’t have much money and always seemed to get us something from Walgreens — I’ve received a giant ‘L’ necklace, odd perfumes, and ski hat that said ‘Chicklets’ on it. Classics all!
o=Once, when I was about 9, I begged for certain doll and was told I was too big for dolls now, “you hardly play with the ones you have, etc”. crushed of course, I headed down for Christmas morning, when lo and behold, there she was under the tree. Still have a picture of the face that “believed” again in the magic of x-mas.
My most memorable xmas gift was (my very first) sewing machine from my parents about 10 years ago. I had spent the months leading up to xmas on my mom’s old machine, making gifts for friends and family. I totally wasn’t expecting to get a machine of my own that year, but it turned out to be the most perfect gift ever as sewing is such a huge part of my life now.
Hands down, my favorite present was my bike but a very close second was the Christmas I got a round carry case and a new flannel nightgown so that I could attend all those slumber parties in high fashion. No more footies for me!!
Most memorable gift was matching xmas dresses my mother sewed for my sister and I. I was seven and my sister was five. I still have them tucked away in a box somewhere.
I got a Miss Piggy tamborine when i was about 7. I used to love shaking the gifts under the tree to figure out what my gifts were. that year, the first one i shook rattled like crazy, and i knew right away what it was. i laughed and laughed because it was so obvious i was startled.
MOST MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR ME WAS RECEIVING A BRAND NEW DOLL HOUSE WHEN MY SISTER+I WERE FIVE YEARS OLD-REMEMBER IT STILL !
THANK YOU FOR A NEAT GIVEAWAY!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Last Christmas I made my daughter Lidia a five foot tall rabbit. It took forever to stuff and I LOATHE making stuff toys.
It was made completely with scraps and I gutted an outdoor cushion to stuff it,so it cost pretty well nothing.
I assumed she would get sick of it after a few weeks and we could give it to St Vinnies. Twelve months later she still sleeps wrapped around the thing every night.
Last Christmas I made my daughter Lidia a five foot tall rabbit. It took forever to stuff and I LOATHE making stuff toys.
It was made completely with scraps and I gutted an outdoor cushion to stuff it,so it cost pretty well nothing.
I assumed she would get sick of it after a few weeks and we could give it to St Vinnies. Twelve months later she still sleeps wrapped around the thing every night.
My husband (who at the time was only a boyfriend) bought me this horrible, I mean so so ugly jewelry set from a big box store. It was gold with fake rubies, just over the top. We still joke that he is NOT allowed to buy me jewelry!
My most memorable Christmas gift was a pie dish from my husband, because I had wanted one for a long time, but never found one I liked and he remembered and got it for me and even wrapped it (normally I both buy and wrap my own presents).
When I was quite young my Opa made me a doll cradle. It was pretty big actually, my baby brother fit in it! He made it for me and I felt so special!
I got pregnant with my second child 🙂 best christmas present from my husband ever!
My most memorable gift was a set of interchangeable needles given to me by my mom
I would have to say that the most memorable gift I have received in recent years was my sewing machine. My husband and parents chipped in together to give me a lovely bernina so that I would stop borrowing Mum’s, and my goodness, that really started something!
My friend’s mom was dying from lung cancer and after hearing us talk on the phone, my husband, a few days later, said that he found some extra money and asked if I would like a plane ticket to go to her. Best present ever!
Actually, not EVERY little girl has a tutu on her Christmas list. My soon-to-be 5yo is pretty fed up with princess/ballerina/pink frilly hype. I just feel the need to point that out.
I do own the book and I love it. I made messenger bags for both my kids and they use them all the time!
My most memorable Christmas gift was the gift of the health of my daughter (now 22 years old!) who was born 13 weeks premature and was going through a tough time at Christmas in 1989. She was 6 weeks old, and had surgery…..two days before Christmas, we thought she might not make it, but she was strong and a fighter. She had her first Christmas in the hospital, but was healthy from Christmas forward and left the hospital the next month at about 4 pounds….every Christmas, I remember how lucky we are that she ended up being a totally healthy human being!
My most memorable Christmas handmade moment (not really a gift) was being ordered by my new in-laws to provide Burnt Orange coloured Christmas crackers for the Christmas lunch table. I hunted high and low, for days, but they were not available anywhere. So I made some. I covered silver crackers with orange cellophane. At Christmas lunch they looked perfect on the table and everyone seemed quite pleased with the “new girlfriend”. Unfortunately they proved to be completely indestructible and no way could they be “cracked”.
I’ve had a trying morning with kids today and it’s been a real gift to read everyone’s lovely stories. Thanks.
Due to a sad set if circumstances I lost most of the pictures of my three children as babies and toddlers. For Christmas one year – before the digital age – my dear mother wrapped her own photo albums of my children and gave them to me as a gift. Mom was like that. She passed away June 2011. Holidays are not the same without her.
When I was 17 and getting ready to go to music school, my parents bought me the grand piano I so desperately needed. Now it lives in my living room.
Maybe around 6 or 7 my sister and I had bikes waiting for us under our Christmas stockings. We had a braided yarn rug in the family room and we rode them around and around the rug in our pajamas, helped out by the grooves and the training wheels. Probably the only time we were ever allowed to ride our bikes in the house, but I don’t think could have stopped us if they wanted to.
My then husband-to-be made me a mantle to go over my mantle-less fireplace; still one of the most memorable gifts I’ve ever received!
My most memorable Christmas gift was the year my hubby surprised me with vintage fabric he’d sourced & chosen himself online & 2 sewing books. It was towards the start of my return to sewing after my 1st child was born & I haven’t stopped since! By the way, I just had a book buying binge the other day & your book was one I bought, that I’ve been wanting for ages. Can’t wait til it comes in the mail.
When Cabbage Patch dolls first came out, my grandmother somehow got me one for Christmas. I still have it, though it’s well-loved now! Thanks for the chance – I love LTTS and have made quite a few projects from it:)
My most memorable gift was the first bike Santa got me as a child. It was bright yellow with rainbow accents, had ribbons and was gorgeous. I still remember coming to the top of the stairs and looking down at the tree and seeing it.
When I turned 12, I got a stereo system. It was like a rite of passage in my family that you could add it to your wish list for your 12th Christmas. I wanted one for my room so badly and remember scanning presents under the tree Christmas morning to see if there was a box big enough to hold one. It had all the bells and whistles – CD changer, tuner, cassette deck – and I was thrilled.
My most memorable Christmas gift was given to me by my husband 6 years ago. We had just moved into our new house (which is STILL a real fixer-upper!) with our ten month-old son. I was feeling so exhausted and overwhelmed I said, let’s just skip the tree and presents this year. That night after I went to sleep, my husband went out back, cut down a Charlie Brown style tree, decorated it with lights and a small handful of ornaments. He also had a couple of wrapped presents under the tree for me and our son. Waking up to that sight on Christmas morning was so magical, I have the most wonderful husband!
My older brother with a costume of a Santa claus’s dwarf is maybe not a history of a gift, but is the image of my childhood Christmas.
I never understood why he used that costume, was so evident for me that he was my brother and didnt understand why nobody else noted it.
🙂
I December of 1999, I had been friends with my husband for a year, and dating him for two months. He was a bike messenger with a few milk crates of belongings. He went to a fancy department store and got me a beautiful cashmere wrap. The saleswoman demonstrated different ways I could wear it, including if I got “a chill at the opera.”
If I had known how expensive it must have been, I might have refused it. But I still wear it and we still joke about getting a chill at the opera.
The gift I remember most was our very first home computer. (I was 10) It was awesome because we were soooo excited to just be able to play Pong on it! Yep, that’s it, Pong, that’s all it would do. My brother and I would even fight over it. Good times 🙂
great giveaway! two or so years ago i gave my husband a hand-knit fair isle sweater. it was a labor of love but so worth it!
Well, I got as a gift for Christmas an outfit from my mother in law for my daughter who was just turning one. Picture this: black leggings trimmed with lace. Not so bad, right? Lets keep going…..
The top was a pink and black zebra print teddy. Yes teddy as in lingerie style teddy. Trimmed in rows of pink and black lace. With a pink and black lace rose on the, I guess what would be on a woman, bosom. The straps were more scratchy pink and black lace. Beneath the teddy was a pink tissue t-shirt, but it was a half shirt because the teddy wouldn’t quite cover the nipples. Well more like a quarter shirt, going just past the Teddy’s “neck” line! Umhmmmmmm.
Any guesses as to why I make clothes? 🙂
When I was a little girl, my five brothers and sisters and I were allowed to choose one “big gift” from Santa in the Sears gift catalog. We were comfortable, but since we were a large family, we all understood that by “big,” Santa meant $5.00 or less! Actually, this was just fine by us, and Mom filled in with books, pajamas, and simple stocking stuffers. I know some people who tell me they spend thousands on each child, and I find this so sad; we were more than happy with our little gifts and I truly believe we felt the true spirit of Christmas much more deeply.
Nonetheless, one year something totally unexpected rolled down the chimney.When I came down Christmas morning, a gorgeous shiny green three-speed bicycle stood at attention under the tallest of the tree’s branches. It was for me! I loved that green bike, and rode it up and down our dirt road for many years. Mmm. It was a green Christmas!
My most memorable gift was a Cabbage Patch Doll. It was the year they were super popular and the evening news showed parents stampeding toy stores to get one for their child. I figured I didn’t have a hope of getting one because my parents aren’t exactly “join the stampede types”. The best part was that she came with a handmade wardrobe. Clothes sewn by my mother and grandmother, even a hand knit sweater.
When I was 15 I got a maple spoon rack to display my spoon collection. I still have it and plan on passing it down to one of my girls.
I most memorable Christmas was the year my parents gave us a sailboat for Christmas. I guess it was a pram- a small boat. It was red wood and they assembled the entire boat including the upright mast and full sail in our living room.
Christmas 1978 I received a National Geographic subscription from my Oma and Opa. With 12 grandchildren in the family this may have been a present for my older cousin but it ended up with my name on it. Turns out, this was the best present ever and they renewed it every year until I went off to University. I even had special shelves built in my bathroom to hold the collection and my son reads them on the toilet every day! He’s getting a subscription this year.
My strongest memory about Christmas gifts is the one I never got. I so badly wanted a Sindy doll (like Barbie) with her bendy legs and arms, and remember wishing really, really hard to have one. I think it was felt that her ‘shapeliness’ would have a detrimental influence on me 😉
I have a few… and I can’t believe someone else got a miss piggy something- mine was a pillow, I used to hide in my room with a needle and thread and try to “sew” my first stitches into it at the age of four. A knitted strawberry shortcake doll from my great grandma- which I still have. And a ride on pink motorcycle bike! All very fun and memorable!
My husband gave me a toaster for Christmas a few years ago. In his defense, it was a nice toaster. And we really did need a new toaster because our old one was on its last legs, but I still cried with disappointment. He knows better now. Gifts are to be frivilous, not practical.
I remember how I my husband gave me… pots and pans.
They were a really good quality, I will admit that, and we had just moved in together and we could definitely use them, but I was just so disappointed because that’s exactly what they were: very, very… useful.
Hmm.
Here’s to sparkling little gifts for Christmas!
My mom loved to buy me Madame Alexander baby dolls every Christmas. I just love the way they smelled out of the box!
After years of frustration on a $200 sewing machine, my husband bought me a Bernina sewing machine and serger as an anniversary gift, I was so stunned and overwhelmed –only gift I ever cried over!!
Though not a holiday gift, it was my 25th birthday. I happened to be about a year older than most of my friends who i played rugby with in college. I don’t know why this stands out so much, however, my friends were… are! a little sarcastic. I remember getting home from class & there is this huge black plastic bag covering something, sitting in my living room. I’m fully prepared for it to be alive or something as my friends were such pranksters. So, i sorta kick it and there’s this clang. It was a walker. An aluminum framed, walking assistance device generally used by older ones, walker. A play off the fact that i was so old now that i was 25. Officially old enough to play in the senior league.
Has to be my little girls first year at daycare, she made a Christmas card with her little handprints with a tonne of glitter on it. It’s only a couple of years old but I love getting the card out every now and then and seeing how small her hands once were.
My MIL gave me a knitted leopardskin jumper several sizes too small! UGH!
My most memorable Christmas gift was from my dad in 1976 when I was 16. There was a small wrapped gift for me on the tree and it was some perfume (Jovan musk). It was the only Christmas gift he ever bought for me, up to that point, by himself. I felt that he was finally acknowledging that I was a teenager and maybe that he understood in some way. There have only been a couple other instances throughout my life when I thought he really understood me. He is gone now but I will always remember his gift.
My most memorable gift would be the year my sister and I got desks for our bedrooms. I had so much fun filling the drawers with paper and pencils and lining the shelf with my most cherished belongings.
The gift i remember most is a small red typewriter that was plastic but it actually worked. My mom received a larger version. I have a christmas photo of us typing away together.
When I was 8 or 9, I loved to be surprised at Christmas. I never snoop to find presents. Still don’t. So I told my 2 year old sister to be sure that she didn’t tell me my Christmas present because I wanted it to be a surprise. She said “Don’t worry. I won’t tell you it’s a California Raisin!” (That’d be the characters popular in the ’80s, not an actual box of raisins.)
I don’t have any idea what happened to the figurine, but I remember being disappointed in knowing, and a bit pleased in getting it at the same time.
My most memorable gift would be the first Christmas gift I ever remember getting, Chiclets! I remember my mother helping me get them out of my stocking on Christmas morning and us laughing and shaking the little yellow box to make that oh so fun Chiclet noise!
My favorite was the year my parents bought me a blacklight and this awesome, huge pink, black light reflective chair. Absolutely perfect for pensive brooding while listening to Nirvana and needlepointing. Yes. Needlepointing. I was a strange teenager.
A surprise gadget I had no idea my husband was planning on buying me. Sorry, not handmade or nostalgic.
I’d love the knitting from the center book. Thanks!
Receiving a Baby Thumbelina doll when I was a child – I loved that doll & it went everywhere with me for years.
Thanks for the chance to win Dreaming in Color.
Congratulations to Dana and Heather who have been selected as winners with a little help from the good people at Random.org. We’ll be contacting each of you by email to get your selections and shipping details.
And thanks to all of you who shared your Christmas stories. They were great!