Sometimes the Best Gift is the Memory
We had our annual family Christmas party Saturday night. My entire family gathered at my dad’s house for a huge holiday dinner, presents, and a whole lot of fun!
If you listen to the advertisements on TV, you’d think the best presents are the biggest and most expensive gifts. Not so. Let me tell you a little bit about the gifts we gave…the ones that will be remembered for years to come.
One of my brothers adopted a dog recently. His dog is a pretty good dog, but he suffers from a little separation anxiety. The dog went through a period where he would chew up my brother’s pillows while he was at work.
As a joke, I emailed the rest of my family and asked them to each wrap up a pillow for my brother, Brad. Saturday night, when he unwrapped his first gift, it was a lovely pillow pet. His next gift was a standard pillow. Then came a ladybug pillow, a cheetah print body pillow, another standard pillow, and a pillow with a pillowcase decorated especially for the dog. By the end of the night, everyone was rolling with laughter, including Brad. I’m sure we’ll be talking about those gifts for years to come.
At the end of the evening, my kids gave my dad a very special gift, too. My sister attended the University of Oregon, so we’re all big Oregon Ducks fans. Except my dad, who loves to be a contrarian. Early in the evening, my dad was giving my son a hard time about being a Ducks fan. So it was perfect when my dad opened his last gift of the evening…a children’s book, entitled “Go Ducks!” Again, we all had a good laugh.
I’m certainly not saying that every gift should be a joke. Believe me, my family gives nice gifts, too. But sometimes a good, unexpected gag gift can go a long way toward creating fun family memories. And it’s fun memories that bond families together.
Do you ever give gag gifts to your family? What’s your best story?
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By Lynnae McCoy, on Dec 15, 2010
I'm Lynnae, wife of one and stay-at-home mom of two. I'm committed to getting out of debt by being frugal with my choices in life.
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When I was a lid, around 10 years old or so, I desperately wanted a pet duck. We had dogs and cats and lived in the suburbs, and a duck wasn’t really feasible. Nevertheless, my desire was intense.
For Christmas that year, every single present (and stocking stuffer) my parents gave me was DUCK-THEMED! Stuffed animals, socks, stationery, figurines, etc. My mom must have spent a zillion hours finding all this duck-stuff. I have never forgotten the effort and love she put into that little project, and we still laugh about it 30 years later!
When I took my in-laws to a lighthouse during one summer, my father-in-law was totally enamored by the lighthouse. I secretly bought a little lighthouse in the gift shop which I gave him the following Christmas so that he can hang it on his Christmas tree. He loved the gift and displays the lighthouse on his tree every year now. It is full of memories for him and for me.
My step-dad had a fondness for zany Christmas socks….so there was usually a new pair. I will fondly be thinking about all those zany socks this year, or when I see them in the stores, in his memory this first Christmas without him.
You are right – the memories are more precious than gifts!
The older we get, the more we appreciate that!
Our wackiest gift ever was an accident.
My uncle loved sunflower seeds. One year my Grandma gave him a large bag, only…the bag weighed 20 lbs. and had a large red cardinal on it.. clearly stating black oil bird seed. She was so proud to give him something he liked! She was sure he would enjoy his snack on the plane ride home! We had to take turns exiting to the back porch to control the wild and hysterical laughter. It has been well over ten years and I can still see the look on my uncle’s face and the sweet unknowing smile on my Grandma’s face. What a memory!
What a great joke! love this post. thx!
Good thing the dog just chewed the pillows! Hopefully not the furniture, too. That would’ve made for expensive gag gifts.
I remember my little brother actually getting coal as a kid as a gag gift. I felt sorry for him, but he ended up doing well for himself with his “real” presents. :)
Not sure if it was a “big joke” or not, but my wife (we are separated and working on getting back together) gave me … get this … a big pack of socks for Christmas. I spent much more TIME and THOUGHT on her for Christmas, and while I wasn’t expecting anything expensive I would have thought she cared enough to get me something a a bit more meaningful. Not exactly a good way to convince your spouse that you love him.
We love giving a variety of gifts and enjoy laughing! Once, our youngest got a baseball bat from my folks, but for some reason, he thought it was a pile of sticks! When telling my inlaws at their house the next day, they got a kick out of it and wrapped up some sticks from their yard. ALL of us had a good laugh, but the funniest one for me was the year our sons were 12 and 16. I have always told both my boys that I wanted a list from them of things that they would like to have. They always knew they wouldn’t get everything, but I encouraged them to put it all down…all their dreams. Well, our oldest, who was 16 at the time said he wanted a one, cute hot chick and our youngest son who was 12 wanted a fridge for his bedroom. So, as their last gift, the 16 year old opened not one, but TWO Barbies…one blond and one brunette and our 12 year old opened got his fridge…Barbie sized! Thirteen years later and we are still laughing about those gifts.
Our Dad was very sick, and could not get out on his own. When his brother came in to see him, he and his wife took my Dad to a large retail store to buy us each a gift card. This was really the only “shopping” he could do. So when Christmas came, my Dad made my brother and I open our packages together, since it was the same thing. We each opened a 4 pack of toilet paper, and we all got a kick out of it… the gift cards were slid in between the plastic wrapping and the toilet paper itself. My kids were there, and still to this day talk about the year we got toilet paper for Christmas.
The following year, we lost my Dad in November, and I was packing up his apartment. I found the left glove of a set that matched the ones my Dad bought my brother years before. My brother happened to have lost his left glove elsewhere earlier in the year.
When I found Dad’s left glove, I slid my brother’s gift card into the glove. Dad knew he wouldn’t be with us at Christmas so he had his brother buy our gift cards in advance. I put the glove in a plastic container that Dad used to hide stuff in, and wrapped it as beautifully and ornately as I possibly could.
My brother was so excited to have a left glove, when he put it on and found the gift card he couldn’t hardly stand himself. We all giggled, and cried at the same time. Who knew 1 glove could be so exciting?
Probably the funniest gift we have given is tee shirts that we had printed. We spent alot of time with my sister, her husband and two kids–doing trips, hanging out,etc. One time when we were together, my husband snapped this crazy picture of my sister…she had stepped outside on her deck and closed the sliding glass screen door–and suddenly pressed her face against it, making this really ugly face (crazy eyes, nose smashed against the screen,etc) at my husband and he quickly took a picture!! So we had tee shirts printed with that picture on it for Christmas for us two, and them (including kids) and each had a unique phrase on it pertaining to that person–such as (for her 13 year old daughter) “thank goodness I got my fathers looks!”, and for her 11 year old son “I want to marry someone just like mom”, and for her husband “My wife…if I knew then what I know now…”, for my husbands shirt “And you thought YOUR inlaws were bad!” and for my sister “You should see me on a bad day!”..and so on…it was hilarious!!! It took awhile for my sister to see the humor!! Then we took a group picture of everyone in their tee shirts. For the longest time her shirt hung on the wall of my nieces room for all her friends to see!!