Merry Christmas

Here are a few Christmas memories… more throughout the day

I had several good Christmases as a kid. The year my sister and I got our NES with the “Back to the Future” game was pretty big, but the one that really stands out in my mind came when I was 6 or 7. My childhood Christmases always centered around whatever toy line I was really into that given year – be it GI Joe, Centurions, Dino-Riders, C.O.P.S. n’ Crooks, etc. But there was one particularly awesome Christmas that came as quite a surprise and delivered me what was to become my favorite childhood toy line of all time.

Quick bit of backstory – My dad has worked for the US Post Office his whole life. He started out as an electronics technician and progressively worked his way up the ladder. Throughout the 80s he spent a lot of time away from home, being sent to Oklahoma for weeks-long training courses (we lived in Florida). He would always return with a toy/present for me and my sister. On this particular Christmas, he was away at school in Oklahoma. It was the only Christmas he ever missed because of work and my mom was pretty upset that he couldn’t reschedule his course for after the holidays. Anyways, we decided to ‘postpone’ Christmas that year as a family until my dad got back home, so we didn’t open presents until mid-January.

I don’t remember exactly what I was into that year, probably LEGO or Silverhawks, but what I ended up with was a collection of toys I’d never heard of that my dad saw in Oklahoma and thought were really neat… The big reveal: STARCOM!

He got me the big white ship, the little white ship, and the big triangular black ship… and he got me the station that had the little elevator that went up and down when you magnetized a guy to it. Those toys blew me away, and it was so cool that it was something that my dad had just found and new I’d love. Later I discovered the morning cartoon, and throughout that year I pieced together most all of the line with my allowances, birthday’s, etc.

Long Road from Super Articulated

Hi, I have 2 very distinct memories.   My Mom gave Paige and I a pair of flannel pjs.  But Paige got the top and I got the bottoms, it was very funny; and we havent let her forget it.  The second one is not necessarily a gift but the thought put into it.  My Dad use to go and get us a gift just from him, I only really remember 2, but its something I havent forgotten.  Now that he is gone, it makes the memory even sweeter, and something I hope we will do for Caleb and Ellie.

Shannon(my sister in-law)

That’s easy – my Marx Sam Cobra. I wanted him badly, and I remember
opening him on Christmas morning, thrilled to have him. I loved all the
Marx figures, but that one I remember particularly well.

Michael Crawford the Great Reviewer

My favorite Christmas present was a BMX bike. I remember how much I wanted this one particular bike but the man at the store told me he could not put training wheels on it. When I woke up that morning for Christmas my bike was there with the training wheels. I woke up at 4 am and rode that bike in my house till 7 am. I was so exhausted from riding that bikes that I went back to bed when everyone else was getting up.

From my long time friend Ed