They never got zero presents. However there was one year, when it was still possible that one of them believed in Santa Claus, when they were very very bad, very close to xmas. I mean disobedient, belligerent, surly. Some lying was involved.
Things were very tight that year, and some of the tightness of the money was directly attributable to the misbehavior, but nonetheless Santa Claus had been planning to make one more secret midnight trip to a nearby store to get stocking stuffers. However, on the night of the last chance, more misbehavior occurred, and based on the bad behavior, Santa decided not to. So the stockings were a little skimpy. They noticed.
Apparently they did not notice that their father and I didn’t give each other anything at all.
Nope, I always got something. I didn’t get much once I got to my teens; it’d be like wrapped-up nightdresses or something; that was because there wasn’t much I wanted (I got stuff through the year as and when I needed it, if there was the money available) and I didn’t feel hard done-by.
However, on my 12th birthday, I was visiting my Dad, his wife and my two-year-old brother. We went shopping. My Dad bought my brother a £30 remote-control car that he was far too young to play with, and refused to buy me a cute little pink elephant straw that cost 2p. On my birthday - I even mentioned it in case they’d forgotten. There were no other gifts we got home and I had to pay separately for my lunch using my own money. He was a terrible Dad in more significant ways, but my stepmum was OK, and this was just baffling.
No, but I was close once. I was a young mom. Had a baby at 18, a baby at 19, divorced at 20. Unsurprisingly, I was very broke. The year they were 3 & 4, I had no money for gifts. I was working and going to school, and there just wasn’t any money.
I signed up at Salvation Army for charity.
People, I will never ever forget the generosity shown to me and my girls that Christmas. I had requested blankets, boots, winter coats for my girls; and at the sign-up lady’s insistence, a pair of boots for myself. (I had no problem asking for help on the behalf of my children, but felt guilty asking for anything for myself.)
I must have gotten picked by a church, or a girl scout troop, or something… not only did my girls get the warm items they needed, we got boxes of food, toiletries, TOYS and I got a pair of boots. This was 20 years ago, and it’s bringing tears to my eyes as I write this. (And I still remember what those boots looked like!)
After my car was loaded, I couldn’t drive away. I sat there and cried my eyes out. I was, and am still, so amazed by the generosity…
To this day, I will donate to Toys for Tots, or Salvation Army. When I was doing well financially I adopted families and always gave more than what was requested. Just trying, somehow, to pay it forward.
My brother and I haven’t received any gifts from our mom (our dad is a deadbeat) the last two or three Christmases. We’re below the poverty line, and she just hasn’t the money to buy us gifts. It probably isn’t going to be any different this Christmas. It sucks, but I don’t want her to buy us gifts at the expense of rent or bills.
I don’t want this year to be another Christmas without presents under the tree, so I’m going to buy my family at least one gift for each of them. I’m trying to sell stuff on Amazon and eBay, so if I’m lucky, I might even get enough money to buy them 2 or 3 gifts!
My mother used to recount the story of the boy in her class in school who misbehaved (and not all that badly) the week before Christmas. His father was a coal miner. A Lot of people were; that town had a lot of mines. Rumor was the stocking took about 1/3 of a bucket. She always said his name (which obviously I won’t do here).
If you’re looking for stories of jerkwad parents who ruin their kids’ Christmas out of assholery, my stepmother reported that one year when she and her brother were small their dad threw all the gifts and the tree into a ditch behind the house in a drunken rage.
(I have a late Dec birthday and yes, I am bitter about my birthday’s being neglected every year of my life, including being totally forgotten multiple times)
First of all, I must say and I very surprised, pleased and grateful for the responses to my post. You guys are the best.
My mother had it in for me my whole life. She started me in school late, insisting I was retarded. When the school gave me an IQ test and i scoared 148(!), she refused to let me skip a grade. Her response was “She must have guessed lucky.” I marrid shortly after my 15th birthday solely so I could get away from her. On my 16th B-day, I had birthday presents, a chocolate cake, and French toast and bacon for breakfast.
Blood and DNA testing have since proved that my father and I are not genetically related. That explains so much and also leaves so many unanswered questions. Nobody knows or is confessing to the story, but I bet it’s a doozy
I, too, am a Christmas Day baby, and although my mom was not horrible to me ( I’m deeply sorry for your childhood, Annie X-mas) my birthday was sort of a left over thought. Now that I’m a mom, and do most of the Christmas baking/wrapping/organizing, my birthday is definitely last in the priority list. Sometimes my very kind MIL will bake me a cake. Last year everyone forgot, so… they stuck one candle in a cookie. sigh.
We didn’t celebrate Christmas when I was a kid. Mainly because of my parent’s religious views. Christmas wasn’t one of the traditional holy days that Christ would have observed(it wasn’t even his birthday), so we didn’t either. We did celebrate the fall feast of tabernacles in grand style each year with a week or two out of town, frequently out of state, with large groups of friends. I was curious about Christmas, seeing my friends celebrating it, but my parents never made a big deal out of it either way. There were holidays we celebrated that others didn’t, and there were holidays others celebrated that we didn’t. Simple enough.
Slightly off topic, but those of you with Christmas and near-Christmas birthdays might consider doing what one of my great-aunts did: celebrate your half birthday on June 25th or thereabouts. She apparently got tired of the one gift for both events and as a teenager decided that she was moving her birthday.
The Salvation Army is the best at helping families during the Christmas holidays. When my kids were young and I was poor, sometimes SA was all that ensured that I could put something under our tree*. Grandparents provided gifts, too, but I had a weird relationship with my parents when the girls where young.
Best Christmas ever: after I left my first husband, my new boyfriend’s grandparents gave us two boxes of food. And gave each of my girls a doll. And they took us in for the holiday meal. They made Christmas for us that year, even though they barely knew us.
*Many years we could not afford a tree, so I made one out of a couple of brown paper bags and colored it green, put it on the wall with push pins, and strung some old lights on it. We had that tree for at least 5 years. My daughters still tell their friends about the grocery bag tree. This year we are having tough times, again, but found a tree at Goodwill for $3. The grandson is so happy–he thought that the cutout tree he decorated at daycare last year was going to be our tree this year!
My late father-in-law was born in 1899, the youngest of six children. One Christmas,
when he was very young, his 18 year old brother, Alexander, died of pneumonia.
It was the last Christmas the family ever celebrated.
I asked him if he ever got any gift? He said they each received an orange. And that was Christmas.
In his memory, we all pay attention to Toys for Tots at Christmas. And last year we donated his artificial Xmas tree / decorations to a family our department did up a hamper for.
My father-in-law grew up during the Depression, and once told my wife about a Christmas where his parents borrowed a toy truck for him to play with on Christmas morning, then had to return later that day.
Not really the same as what the OP is asking for, but sort of similar:
When my husband and his brother were something like 10 and 7, I think, they came into the living room Christmas morning and found that Santa had not visited them, presumably because they had been bad that year. (I think that’s the story I remember, rather than coal, but I’m not certain.) They had a very subdued Christmas morning, then my husband’s father asked him to fetch something that was in the basement. When he went downstairs, he found a second, fully-decorated Christmas tree, complete with all the Santa presents.
While I’m sure the reveal was fun, there’s no way that I could inflict the setup on my kids. I love my father-in-law, but he’s not big in the sensitivity department.
There was a girl a year or two behind me in middle school. Apparently starting in November her mother began warning her if her grades didn’t improve she wasn’t getting anything for Christmas. From what I remember she understood the material, just didn’t bother turning in homework or completing in-class assignments. The girl must have assumed her mother was bluffing but come Christmas she got to sit and watch her brother open his gifts.
I vaguely remember a story a few years ago about a father selling his kids’ Christmas gifts on ebay. His description explained the kids had been warned to shape up or lose their gifts. I think one of the boys had even mouthed off, “You don’t have the guts.” Turns out Dad did.
My mother used to tell of a family that lived on their street. Every year for Christmas (in the Depression) the kids would open fabulous presents. Everything in the world. And the day after Christmas, everything would go back. It was all for show.
My mother was one of 11, and I’m on of 5. We always celebrated Christmas and birthdays. As kids, I think my mother would be more excited then us. She could never wait until Christmas, starting us opening one present per night the week leading up to Christmas. She loved everyting about it.
