Most Memorable Gifts

Most Memorable Gifts
Compiled by Lisa Hummel

“What’s the most memorable gift you’ve ever given or received for the holidays?” That’s a question heard often during the winter season, to be sure, but how often does it make you stop and question your own personal experience in playing “Santa”? Well, at this time of the year, it’s nice to sit back, relax, and ponder the true meaning of giving — because, more than the presents and the wrapping and the cheerful-colored bow, the exchanging of gifts is a once a year excuse to show your holiday spirit. And that’s memorable in and of itself.

Here’s what some folks had to say:

“The best Christmas gift I ever gave was the year I gave my one son a Super Nintendo and the other son a [Sega] Saturn.”

—Oscar Douglas, City Clerk

“The best gift I ever got was from a friend of mine. Instead of giving me a wrapped gift … she gave me her time, a gift certificate for eight hours of whatever she wanted me to have her do … so I asked her to help me clean my apartment, and we did and we bonded, too.

Time from a friend. It was something I really needed that I didn’t even really know I needed. It was very memorable.”

—Michael Grabauskas, Midtown
Resident and all-around “jolly old soul”

“I received my most memorable gift last year when my husband and I exchanged the same gift unknowingly.”

—Peggy Daws, Nick’s 1014 Café

“This one is a no-brainer for me. I’ll never forget waking up on Christmas morning when I was eight years old and my father had gotten me an electric train. He had put the circular track around the Christmas tree and the train was going around and around with walnuts and little candies filling its boxcars. I simply couldn’t believe my eyes. I was stunned for minutes, just watching the train going around the tree. Electric trains have a certain electrical smell that sends messages to your central nervous system. I played with that train for a long time after Christmas passed and I could easily have done without any other presents that year.

For me, and I guess any little boy, electric trains are grown-up toys in a way. I loved that train more than I’ve loved any gift I’ve ever gotten before or since. It was, for me, pure magic.”

—Cole Smithey, MODE Movie Reviewer

“My most memorable Christmas gift was something that I gave. It was a gift for my father for Christmas of 1987. I made a videotape. My father was bedridden, he was very sick, and I put together 45 minutes of people wishing him a ‘Merry Christmas’ … there were former neighbors, children that used to play in our neighborhood that were now grown, former co-workers … plus I included three long segments on the three of us children and what we were doing in our lives … There was a lot of humor in it … and people he hadn’t seen for so long.

He saw the video and he cried through all of it and he died on January 21 of the next month.

There were so many people who came up to me at the funeral that saw the video who wished they would have done the same thing … That was the very most special gift that I have ever given.”

—Cynthia Sudor, Vice President Sales and Marketing, Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts

“Last year. It was pictures of my daughter that I gave to her grandparents, aunts and uncles, that type of thing. Everybody loved them.”

—Brandon Smith, Paytime, Inc.

“I bought a girlfriend of mine a 75-year-old antique movie camera and about four hours after I gave it to her she dumped me. She told me she’d been cheating on me for four months, she left, and she kept the camera.”

—Greg Swartz, director, Hollywood, PA

“When I was around 6 or so, it was Christmas morning, and my parents and older brother were around the tree opening gifts. As we were enjoying the merriment of the morning, we heard this strange, muffled sound, almost like a person talking. So, we began picking up packages to see where the noise was coming from. My parents seemed just as confused as I was, and finally, we found where the noise was coming from. The package just happened to be addressed “To Beth, From Santa” I opened it, and it was this 1½ foot tall doll named “My Baby Beth” (no lie, that is really her name!!!) She had a voice activator in her that cried, said “Momma,” and giggled. That was the noise that we heard! She is the prettiest, softest thing, with blonde hair and blue eyes! I still have her today, and I am 24 years old! I think I even have a picture of her and me somewhere!

The Christmas season is very special to me; my family is very close, and just the thought of sharing the spirit of the holiday and recalling memories from the past brings a smile to my face!”

—Beth Gaydos, Public Relations Coordinator, Hersheypark

“The most memorable Christmas gift that I’ve ever received was my first child. He was born on the 16th.”

—Barbara Groce, President, Capitol Region Chamber of Commerce

“The most memorable is also one of the oddest, but it was also pretty great … I had a receptionist named Viola and for some reason she stopped talking to my other receptionist Li Hidley … so one year, I just said to her, ‘Viola, for Christmas I’d like you to start talking to Li Hidley’ and she started talking to him and they remained friendly from then on … It’s odd, but it’s pretty memorable.”

—Carrie Wissler-Thomas, President, Art Association of Harrisburg

“One gift that happened around Christmas — it was when I was about nine and I was still living in Philadelphia — I entered a little contest at a drug store and the druggist really liked me … and I won this electric train set, a Lionel train set, and I still have the train set today … it was great … that’s when we really had community.”

—Mack Granderson, owner, St. Moritz

“I have two stories … my husband gave me a shoe rack so that all of the shoes that were formerly on the floor of my closet are now nicely organized … and I no longer feel like Emelda Marcos.

The second story is a gift that I guess I’ve both given and received … Last Christmas … I got a Palm Pilot and I was so overwhelmed that I immediately handed it over to my then 21-year-old son. Iit’s actually changed his life, he’s certainly more organized now than he’s ever been.”

—Ellen Hughes, WITF

“There are so many memorable things … but I’d have to say the chicken pox that I got from my little sister. It was so embarrassing, I was in high school and she is seven years younger than me so she was in, what, the fourth grade? … So, the whole Christmas holiday I was itchy and scratching …”

—Jennifer Kuzo, Marketing Director, Felicita

“My most memorable gift was a bike with training wheels... [it was great]... I got to ride it around my house...”

—Bruce Bond, WNNK-FM, as heard on the “Bruce Bond Late Afternoon Show”