Your Favorite Christmas Gift

[WesternOutlaw]

In the spirit of the holiday season, I thought it would be fun to share memorable Christmas stories. While Christmas isn't just about gifts, so much of what children remember are those "special gifts" they received on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

What holiday gift(s) did you receive as a child that really bring back great memories? Who gave you the gift and what was special about it? Was it Lego, or was it something else you "always wanted"?

Share you memorabe gifts.

[Alice]

I didn't have Lego as a child (that is a sad story in itself) so my story doesn't involve Lego unfortunately. I did have a really memorable Christmas though. I was 11 years old. We had just moved to a new town the summer before. The year before this, my neighbors had this black cat with green eyes that I would play with all the time and he let me pick him up and hold him. It was my first experience with a cat really because my parents had always been "dog people". He ended up getting hit by a car and dying. It was very sad. So on my Christmas list, I specifically put that I wanted a black cat with green eyes. My mother tells me that its ridiculous to ask for a cat because she is highly allergic (It's her fault I didn't have Lego, too). My dad was kind of the pushover so I told him and he agreed with my mother. No cat. So fast forward to Christmas morning. I wake up and go in the living room to open presents and when we get done, for some reason, I walked outside.. and there she was. A black cat with green eyes. My mother accused my father, but he didn't do it. My parents later found out that she was left behind by someone who had recently moved. It was a really neat Christmas and she lived with us for about 10 years.

[Lego12]

Thats a neat story Alice.

My favorite christmas gift was probably when I was 4 or 5 and my grandpa, who used to me a farmer, gave me a John Deer tractor. I used to sit on it and drive it around. It was so heavy......it was entirely made out of meatl/steel.....what a great gift.....of course I didn't have lego back then....

Edited December 14, 2008 by Lego12

[WesternOutlaw]

That is a neat story Alice. Thanks for sharing.

It was so heavy......it was entirely made out of meatl/steel.....what a great gift

Toys were really heavy back then, when they still used metal. I remember playing with my friends' Tonka toys that were heavy as well.

I shared one of my favorite gifts on EB last year or the year before, but here's one of my more memorable Christmases.

I was around 10 years old. My mom or dad had asked me to take a walk around the block on a Christmas Eve. It was very cold, but for whatever reason, I agreed (you do these things as a kid). When we got home, my family had told me that Santa had come. Set up by the Christmas tree was a toy that was not on my list; but when I look back, one of my all time favorites:

I no longer have it and tried to buy it on Ebay a number of years ago. It was well over $200 (USD) before I gave up on the auction. I played with it for weeks creating many imaginative scenerios surrounding the "Curse of the Mummy".

[matanui911]

I always remembered my parents getting me my guitar, and my Lego imperial star destroyer!

[Svelte]

My parents didn't have a lot of money, so I normally only got smaller sets and sometimes a medium sized one. I do remember begging and pleading for this set though. It was on sale so it was more affordable, but even so it took up most of my Christmas buget and Santa didn't bring much else. I didn't care though

It's a fantastic modular design, cleverly brick-built and still holds up today. There's so much interior space and it's airtight! Some of the MM stuff is OK but the problem with the more recent Space lines and a lot of the SW sets are they are all wings and surface with little or no interiors apart from the cockpit. The Cosmic Fleet Voyager not only had a spacious interior, it also had a detachable lab section and all the interiors connected logically and had their own airlock systems. It was very swooshable although the top detailing did tend to fall off. I will be very keen to see what 09 brings with its theme, though to be honest I was never into Space Police originally. There are enough Police in Lego sets as it is! Police in Space is just over-egging the pudding

As for this year... Now that I'm a big boy I've bought my own special Santa present which just arrived in the post this morning. Can't wait to open this one either as I think it's a modern classic in its own right.... Who could disagree?

[Darth_Legois]

Probable 4504 Millenium Falcon

Got it for Christmas one year, It was great!

Too bad I lost C3PO & Obiwan because we moved soon after that.

Im planning on rebuilding it this holidays with on of my fellow TFOL friend.

Also this year im geting 10178

Edited December 15, 2008 by Darth_Legois

[VBBN]

Either an Air Hockey table or...

[Brickadier General]

As most of the die-hard Lego town/train enthusiasts are aware, the Lego Airport Shuttle set was released in 1990. I was five that year and remember spotting it in one of the little product catalogs that used to come in sets. Even though there were also trains in there that I thought were amazing, I found the Airport Shuttle more appealing. For me, the prospect of having a Lego monorail kit was so cool, and I loved everything about this one; the great red and white color scheme of the monorail, the track, the little stations, and the fact that the track could transition from ground level to elevated...I could have track weaving over and under each other!

From that moment on, I pleaded for it around Christmases and birthdays. Yet time and time again, no Airport Shuttle. However, I can't say I was that disappointed. I was generally happy with whatever I received. As long as there was a Lego set, I was generally a satisfied customer. Rest assured though, it still remained high on my wishlists.

But as time passed and holidays came and went, so too did my life change. In '91 my family got a nice little Miniature Schnauzer. We wouldn't get to have her very long, because the following year my parents split up and got divorced. I would be living with my dad, and since he worked and would have my sister and I at the babysitter during the day, he felt it wasn't good to leave a little puppy alone all day. So he ended up giving her to my grandparents to take care of. Between that and my parents splitting up, the year that followed was not the happiest of times.

Flash forward to the Christmas of '93. This year, I was excited since I was able to spend Christmas at my grandparent, whom I enjoyed being around, and of course I would get to see my little dog again! When Christmas morning came, I was the first to run down the stairs and went to look at all the presents and see which ones were mine. One of them was a nice big one, marked "from Santa," and as I shook it around and heard the sound of shifting plastic parts inside, I knew it had to be a Lego set. Of course, I didn't know which set it was, and I sat staring at the presents under the tree, wondering what it could be, until the entire family came downstairs.

Once everyone was around the tree, the big box was the first gift I hurried toward, and I frantically ripped away the wrapping paper to see what awesome set Santa had bestowed upon me. Then I began to see the box art...the beautiful red monorail cars with their white trim in all their glory. I couldn't believe it! I remembered having asked for it so many times, yet it was the last thing I expected to see on that Christmas day.

After opening it, I couldn't wait to build it and set up the track to see the monorail go 'round and 'round. My little dog sat beside me as I put things together, and not once did she ever try to go after and chew on my bricks. To this day, 1993 remains my most memorable Christmases, and not just because of the Airport Shuttle. Being able to spend it with my grandparents, see my dog, and have a great Christmas dinner cooked by my grandmother made it all the more enjoyable. The Airport Shuttle, as cool as it is, is also a reminder of that day. And although my grandparents and dog are no longer living, every time I look at the Airport Shuttle I am reminded of them. It should come as no surprise then that it is my most treasured childhood set.

As a side-note, the following year I received this:

[Pencoin]

Not LEGO related (I had LEGO as soon as I was born) but still fits in.

I had watched others play video games, and I wanted some of my own, but there were very expensive. But that christmas I got a Gameboy Colour to my surprise (I didn't know what it was as I was very young). More later.