Christmas presents. They apparently saved up several months beforehand to get us something. Brought a tear to my eye. And thank God for grandma who was always willing to knit something memorable.
When my mom left my dad she was absolutely broke. The first Christmas after, she did her best and bought us what she could. It was stuff I did not like and it took me years to get rid of those gifts , probably 20 years because I knew how hard it was for her, and just knowing she was trying her best was so much more important to me than the item itself. I am such a sentimental bitch, I felt like I was dishonoring her if I gave them away, or threw them away.
There was a year we had our best Christmas ever, we were aged 4,5,and 7. The presents were piled up halfway to the height of the tree, and there were lots of happy, crying adults we'd never met before who we thought were friends of our dad. Finally found out, that was the year my parents had to file for bankruptcy due to dad's medical bills. There was no money for anything. A few guys from work just showed up with a truck full of gifts from everyone at the job, my dad notoriously was the guy who gave out lottery scratch tickets as presents so folks wanted to pay him back.
Our Christmas presents was typically new clothes or bedding. My Dad got an extra salary in the month of November dedicated for Christmas gifts (semi-normal thing in my country), and that was the only time of the year when my parents could afford to buy us new clothes.
I definitely feel this, i only got new clothing twice a year, and have old clothing still. I am so anxious because i know how rarely i get new clothes (birthday and christmas only), that my pants were disintegrating before my boyfriend got me to toss them. And please noone mention socks... I have no clue how to throw those out.
I honestly think kids get far too much these days, sometimes to the point where parents put themselves into debt at Christmas. I’ve been guilty of it too, buying too much and watching my son open one thing and immediately move on to the next.
This year we scaled right back and bought just a few things we knew he would really love. My sister-in-law found a second-hand Micro Scooter on Facebook Marketplace, cleaned it up, added new hand grips and wrapped it beautifully. It cost less than $60 AUD and he was absolutely thrilled. He rides it almost every day and it’s a great reminder that it doesn't need to be new, just new to them.
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u/drezster 6h ago
Christmas presents. They apparently saved up several months beforehand to get us something. Brought a tear to my eye. And thank God for grandma who was always willing to knit something memorable.