News

Editorial: One of the greatest gifts

By Scott Wagar

12/20/2011

In today’s age, we live in a Christmas mentality of buying and receiving numerous gifts at the most expensive price possible, which I disagree with, primarily because of a Christmas gift I received some years back.

A few years ago, I was sitting with my Grandma Gillies during Christmas Eve watching her great-grandchildren open their gifts. As we watched, my grandma smiled at me and told me that as a child Christmas was much different for her then it was for her great-grandchildren.

My grandmother told me that on Christmas Day as a child, along with her siblings, they usually received sugar cookies as a gift, baked especially for the day by their mother. At other times, on a good Christmas holiday, they each received an orange and a candy cane.

As we sat together that evening, my grandmother told me another story, which was so special to me it has never left my mind. She told that after she married and my grandparents had my mom and aunt, they found themselves in the midst of a Great Depression with little money to their name. To earn extra money, my grandfather ran the local rink in town, which brought in extra cash each year. However, one fall they had a mild season with temperatures so warm my grandfather couldn’t make ice at the local rink. As the days drew closer to Christmas my grandfather became quiet. My grandmother one evening asked him why he so silent in recent days. He told her that he was feeling discouraged because without the extra money he made at the arena, he wouldn’t be able to buy Christmas gifts for his family.

They went to bed that evening, but my grandmother awoke to find my grandfather gone in the middle of the night. As she got up to look for him, she noticed it was cold in the house and when she went to look at the outside temperature gauge. The temp had dropped well below freezing and my grandmother realized that my grandfather had made his way to the rink to make ice so he could get the rink open for the holiday season, while at the same time being able to make some extra cash for Christmas gifts.

For the next days, my grandmother didn’t see my grandfather as he was practically working around the clock to get the rink open, while at the same time working his day job. On Christmas Eve, as my grandmother was setting the table for supper, my grandfather, after a week of absence, walked into the house, and with him he carried a smile and two small wrapped packages in his arm. During that week, he was able to get the ice made and the rink opened the day before Christmas Eve. As my grandfather made his way that evening from the rink, he stopped at the local five and dime store where he purchased two cloth dolls – one for my mom and one for my aunt, and each for a nickel a piece.

As my grandparents sat there watching their children open their gifts, my grandfather was still quiet. When my grandmother asked if he was okay, he told her that he only had enough money to buy the children gifts, but wasn’t able to get her a gift for Christmas, which he felt extremely sad about. My grandmother put her arms around him and told him it was okay, that she understood, and then the evening turned toward the Christmas dinner.

Since the time my grandmother told me that story, I am certain that all the gifts the young children in our family received that year are long gone and forgotten about. And yet, the cloth doll my mother received that Christmas Eve, that nickel doll, is still in my mother’s home today and holds a very special place deep in her heart.

Christmas isn’t about numerous and expensive gifts. It’s about the love that goes into the gift – the love of a man who worked two jobs, who stayed up all night inside a cold rink, who was covered in ice so thick on his pants legs it was hard to walk, who continued to work long hours so the local residents had a place to have fun skating. That is love and a nickel gift is more priceless than other gift one can receive.

This Christmas, I am going to be thankful for the simple gifts I receive in life that are in reality the greatest gifts in life – family, friends, health, and last, but not least, the story my grandmother told those many years ago which has become one of the greatest Christmas gifts I have ever received.