Zoomer Readers Share Stories of Memorable Christmas Gifts

Memorable Gifts

From thoughtful handmade gifts to an insurance payment that came just on time, our readers tell us about their most memorable Christmas gifts. Photo: Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images

When we were growing up, Christmas was all about getting our hands on that big ticket item. Yet, the gifts that bring back our most cherished memories of Christmas are often not the most expensive ones.

Instead, the ones that leave their mark on us are usually made special by the gift givers who go that extra mile. Whether they’re handmade, wrapped in a peculiar way or bring back memories, the old adage that says “it’s the thought that counts” usually holds true.

Here, we take a look at some of our readers’ most memorable Christmas gifts, as shared on EverythingZoomer’s Facebook Page in 2021.

 

Bring on the Nostalgia!

 

Barbara Helka: My very favourite gift was a box of Cracker Jacks. My two young children gave them to me for Christmas and then told me I did not have to share! I have never forgotten that.

Shelley Mullin: An Easy Bake Oven that I always wanted…I was 54 when I received it from my brother as a surprise gift …made me cry happy tears ❤️❤️

Mary Paterson: So many memorable gifts: dolls with handmade clothes (still have a small one), skis for all three of us, a velvet skating skirt lined with satin, Shetland sweaters from our Scottish Aunts that matched the plaid skirts our Grandma sewed.

 

The Thought Always Counts

 

Lori Anne: The year after my mom passed (dad had passed 10 years prior) my niece made me the most beautiful Christmas tree skirt .. made from a little bit of my mom’s clothes, material, her knitted dish cloth and my dad’s ties used as spacers between each wedge. I absolutely love it.

Melanie McConnery Phipps: When I was 10 all I wanted was for my Uncle to come home for Christmas. I remember sitting by the tree with all of my Mom’s family getting ready to open presents when my Grandpa told me to go get something from the bedroom off the living room and when I opened the door, there he was. He had finished his shift the day before and drove 9 hours just to be there for me. I do not remember anything else about that day but sitting with him opening presents.

 

No Wrapping Required

 

Patti Walsh: A toy monkey that I wanted so badly and when I woke up on Christmas, there he was hanging in the doorway.

Amanda Dinsdale: My husband rigged an elaborate bird feeder outside my kitchen window with branches from the forest and corrugated metal and then put a blanket on the window on Christmas morning that I had to pull down. It was the most thoughtful gift and I loved him for it!!!! 😍

 

A Cinderella Moment

 

Shirley Le Blanc: One slipper. My husband had wrapped the two in different packages. We travelled away for the holidays and he left some of the packages at home. So on Christmas day I got a package with just one slipper!

 

Gifts That Take You Back

 

Denise Gendreau Crane: My boyfriend gave me a gold ring with my initials engraved in it and five pounds of chocolates 50 years ago. I still have the ring and he has been my husband for 46 years ❤

Deborah Sullivan: When I was about 12, there was a large wrapped box…inside was another smaller box…and another…and ANOTHER! Finally…there was a lovely, birthstone ring, a heart-shaped ‘amethyst’ (doubt it’s ‘real’) because my birthday is on Valentine’s Day! It was a gift from my parents!

Another memorable Christmas, MANY years later, my 4 kids went together to give myself and my second husband an absolutely wonderful trip to ‘wherever.’ We chose Cuba and had a fantastic time!

Maryanne Whelan: Mine is a cross made of white and yellow beads my son made in school when he was seven. Now he is 40 but I always put it on my tree — my favourite gift ever.

 

An Early Christmas Gift

 

Deborah DeVos: One year I had a bad car accident. My husband at the time cleaned out my bank accounts from my business and my personal accounts. He skipped the country and left his daughter with me. I had no money and I couldn’t work. I was waiting for an insurance payment but none came . Finally, two days before Christmas my lawyer threatened to expose the insurance company, saying that a woman with three children was being left penniless because the insurance wouldn’t pay her her money they owed for three months off work. He mentioned that the news media would gobble up the story like crazy. After all it was Christmas.

Amazingly I got a call that afternoon, two days before Christmas . They had a check for me. I had to go pick it up by 4:30, it was 2:00. I lived an hour away from the insurance company. It had snowed heavily all day and was still snowing. I gathered up my kids and we got on the road no problem. I made it to the office two and a half hours later. I ran up stairs to the insurance office just as the lady was locking the door. She asked me who I was. I told her and she went back inside and retrieved an envelope. I thought it would only be a few hundred dollars. When I got back into my car I opened the envelope. Inside was a check for the entire amount owing for me being off work for 3 months. I couldn’t believe it. That was the start of one of my best Christmases.

When we got home people who I didn’t know started showing up with bags and bags of food and gifts for my kids. It was amazing. As a thank you we decided to go to the midnight mass at Westminster Abbey in Mission where I lived to give thanks for my prayers being answered.

I was able to give my kids a very memorable Christmas, I’d say one of the best we had ever had. Not expensive presents but gifts for them for Christmas. I hope my children thought so as well.