Chocolate Covered Cherries, Bic Pens and a Comb

There is a present under the Christmas tree wrapped in aluminum foil. It showed up almost immediately after the tree was decorated. It may never be opened or used, but it is the most important gift under the tree.

I've been overhearing a lot  of chatter about holiday stress from co-workers lately. Seems that the pressure to buy the right presents is a big deal for people. Or having to buy when you can't really afford it. It got me to thinking about what Christmas would be like without presents or gifts.  It got me thinking about chocolate covered cherries, Bic pens and combs.

Growing up in a large family, Christmas was a big deal. One of the memories that stands out is waking on Christmas morning before my parents were awake and sneaking out into the living room to discover all the presents under the tree. By 1962, there were 8 kids so that would make for a ton o' presents even if our per-person gift count was less than smaller families.

We would put our presents in piles to see who had the tallest stack. But that bubble was burst when we compared what we got to our next door neighbors, who not only got more stuff, but they got cooler stuff. 

There was the year when some of us received used toys."That electric train set is for you 3 older boys" Mom said. It was bad enough that we had to share presents, but used toys?? I remember feeling ashamed because we got used toys, then feeling ashamed of feeling ashamed because I was old enough to know how tight money must have been for my parents. You can bet that I never mentioned the word "used" when comparing what I got for Christmas with my pals out on the playground.

One year, in 1995, I almost didn't get any presents at all. I had just moved to Lincoln that fall for a new job and was not in a relationship, and thus, had no plans for the holidays. When word of this got out at work, one of my co-workers insisted I join her family on Christmas Eve for pizza. I accepted, had a wonderful time and she gave me a shirt as a gift. I was touched.

And Georgette, who was  just a co-worker at the time, invited me to join her extended family, also known as "too loud and too many", for dinner on Christmas Day. I accepted. The gift she gave me turned into an even bigger gift when we started our relationship about a month later.

So back to the aluminum foil wrapped present under the tree.  It was important to my parents that the youngest children buy gifts for rest of the family. Each of them would be given a couple of dollars to buy 9 presents. That's about 40-50 cents a person. Off to the "5 and Dime store" we would go and  the older kids would help the younger kids pick out their gifts. Popular among the items you could buy for 40 or 50 cents were combs, Bic Pens, spiral notebooks and....cheap boxes of chocolate covered cherries-the cheaper the better. Because wrapping paper was expensive and in short supply, the boxes of chocolate covered cherries got wrapped in aluminum foil. There would always be at least 5-10 boxes of chocolate covered cherries under the tree.

We were given strict orders to act excited and surprised when opening our gifts from the "little kids". Good acting skills were helpful. "Oh thanks, Jerry. A comb!" "Thanks for the Bic pens, Jane"  And if you were real lucky, you received a box of chocolate covered cherries-one that had not been opened. You see, it was real easy to sneak into a box of someones cherries, take a few out of the box and wrap it back up with the aluminum foil. 

When our parents divorced in the mid 70's our Kingkade family Christmases ended abruptly along with any traditions we had in place.  We all scattered to new families and relationships and new traditions replaced the ones we grew up with. Except at my house.

The first present that I place under our tree every year is a box of cheap chocolate covered cherries wrapped in aluminum foil. It may not get opened. It certainly won't have been opened early by some sneaky sibling. It's my connection to past Christmases. When Christmas was magic. Before I learned about the difference between presents and gifts.

I'm not sure what I'm getting for Christmas presents this year.  Don't really care. I just know there will be gifts. Even when the presents were few or used, I always received gifts.