The Best Christmas Present You Ever Received

What was your best Christmas present ever?

For me there is one answer – my Lionel electric train set that my parents (actually, I think my father) gave me when I was six or seven.

It was a basic set with a single oval track, one engine, and a few cars.  Maybe this was a birthday present, or maybe it was for both Christmas and my birthday because when I was young the price limit on any present in my home was one dollar.  Even in 1946 an electric train set must have cost more than that.  I Googled it and a new starter set today costs over one hundred dollars.

That electric train, now lost to the junk yard of history but not to my memory, was the best Christmas present I ever received even though it was just a basic set.  I loved playing with it in my bedroom for years. I would move the throttle knob on the transformer and my train would race around the track. I could make the engine move slower or faster without even touching it.  If it was going too fast the train would fall off the track when rounding a curve. My fascination may have been rooted in wanderlust but it was also my first experience at controlling something from a distance.

Times have changed.  So have I. Today, with the internet of electronics, I can turn lights on or a thermostat up to warm my home from an airplane a thousand miles away. Even so, the magic of that train set has never left me.

Sprite remembers her best Christmas present was a frying pan that her brother gave her after she moved away to college.  She thought the gift odd when she opened the package, but now says it was the most useful gift she ever received. I can personally attest to that.  With only a frying pan Sprite can create a charming meal out of almost anything.

Sprite also remembers the string of bubble gum under the tree when she was allowed by her parents to open a single present before Christmas.  Sprite and her sisters delighted in chewing all of that gum for days.  And her gift cost less than one dollar at the time.

As you think about your own Christmas shopping this year you might take a moment to remember the present that was the best you ever received.  I’m thinking it wasn’t the most expensive.  I’m thinking it was the most thoughtful, or heartfelt, and that is what made it the best.

Today, at the end of a meeting, a friend read a benediction she wrote. Her words were wise and touching. I asked her to send me a copy, and next week that will be my Christmas present to you.

Meanwhile, tomorrow morning I’m going out to buy an electric train set for my two grandsons, ages three and six.  I know the electric train will compete with all kinds of electronic gadgets and, perhaps, even bubble gum, but I’m going to give it a try, for old time’s sake.

I wish everyone an early, thoughtful Christmas, especially to my dad, now age 102.  Thanks again, Dad, for the Lionel electric train. Almost seventy-five years later it’s still my best Christmas present ever.

Alan