RHYS BOWEN: What was your favorite Christmas present ever? I know what mine was. I was 18. Transistor radios had just come on the market (yes, I realize this declares me to be OLD) and I really wanted one. But my close friend was getting married in Germany and I was invited to be part of her wedding. So my parents were buying me my train ticket to Stuttgart for Christmas, and I wasn’t expecting any presents.
Even though I was no longer officially a child I still had my Christmas stocking at the bottom of my bed. I woke early in the morning and started to go through it, expecting the sort of things that were usually in it: a sugar mouse, maybe a handkerchief, a pair of socks, a notebook. Instead I pulled out a battery. What on earth? I asked myself. What use is a battery to me? And then I felt excitement creeping up my spine. It couldn’t be, could it? And there at the bottom of my stocking was my transistor radio. Thinking of it still brings tears to my eyes. I'm sure it was my soft-hearted dad who thought of that.
I have tried to duplicate that feeling with my own kids whenever I get a chance. The year that the Phantom of the Opera came to San Francisco for the first time the kids were in college or high school. I tried to get tickets but they were way over our budget. Then John stopped by the theater, just in case. It turned out they had obstructed view seats, two for one night, two for another at a reasonable cost. We bought them. They turned out to be the stage box. How amazing was that? So I made up an impressive invitation:
You are invited to attend an evening of music and mayhem with me
On….
Signed,
Your friend, the Phantom.
I watched the first of the kids open this, expecting it to be a Christmas card, read it and then look up, face alight with excitement. No way! Really?
They went on two separate evenings. Jane and Dominic went together and he, my future actor, then in high school, insisted they went in full evening dress: tux and top hat, and a long dress for her. It was an evening they’d never forget.
Apart from those the gifts that stay in my memory are hand made ones. I still have crude pieces of pottery, strange tree ornaments from their early years. Dominic continues that tradition: one year he made aromatherapy candles for everyone, another year home made bread with a jar of his sourdough starter. I have velvet pillows Clare made one year. One year I made bead bracelets for all the women in the family. These days it’s a question of time. All of my kids are working like crazy while driving kids to sports and drama practices. And the grandchildren are no longer able to be pleased with a hand knitted sweater or home made puppet.
But I still love the simple gifts. I long for a classic Christmas like the ones on TV movies.
Trying to recreate this simpler, magical feeling of Christmas we rented a house in the snow with another family one year. When we arrived it was like a Christmas card scene. Snow everywhere, so beautiful. Then the first night it rained. And rained. And the snow melted. And it was raining too hard for the kids to go outside and play. And there was no TV. And the other wife got sick so I had to do the cooking. Needless to say this was not a fond Christmas memory.
However, one year we took a Christmas markets cruise through Austria and Germany. That was fabulous, seeing handmade toys, those rolling pins for making cookies, smelling spiced wine and sausages cooking and seeing the wonder in children’s eyes. I suppose what I’m nostalgic for is for another, simpler time. How about you?
What was your favorite Christmas? Favorite gift?
