Well, it wasn’t in December it was a birthday gift in early May 1985.
My best friend had a Masters degree in theatre and wanted to be a stage director. She was really looking foirward to reading Arthur Miller’s “Salesman In Beijing” which was scheduled to be published that fall.
My roommate worked in publishing and managed to get her hands on a bound galley…I gave it to my friend and she was thrilled.
When my father was a toddler, he went missing when his family visited a farm. They found him in the cattle pasture, licking the salt lick.
My dad is a huge fan of western art, Frank McCarthy in particular. In 1978 he went on a business trip to the US and brought back a few art books, one of which was by McCarthy, When I was a kid he would get them out at least once a year and we would go through them and he would tell me which ones he liked and why. A few years ago I got him this and had it framed.
My mum saw Li’l Abner when it was released in Australia (1960 probably) when she was 18 or 19. Since then it’s been her favorite film but she could never find it anywhere on VHS or DVD. I managed to get her a DVD copy from the US (they have a region-free player). She was so excited to get it when that when she opened her present she was actually jumping up and down!
In fact she delayed Xmas lunch so she could watch the first 1/2 hour 
This from a woman in her late '60s who loves things to occur on time.
Many decades ago, when my dad was in the Air Force, he bought his mother a set or Noritake china while he was in Japan. When she passed, the china was given back to my parents. My mother treasures it and loves that set, serves 12 with several serving dishes besides. About 20 years ago the large platter was broken on Thanksgiving. My mother was heartbroken about it. Five years ago I found replacements.com and got her another large platter for her china. She cried.
One year I had the idea of getting my fiance’s siblings, their kids, and the brother’s wife into a huge portrait. For once, his two siblings agreed on something and we all actually managed to get together (3 kids, 1 wife, 1 fiance, 2 toddlers, 1 baby) to have the picture taken. When their mom and dad opened the box, his mom cried. I don’t know if she cried because she loved it or because it meant her two oldest children stopped bickering long enough to cooperate on something but the fact is that she cried and it made me cry. It still hangs on their wall even though there’s another adult, the toddlers are teenagers, the baby is nearly a teenager, and there are 2 more children and 2 more toddlers added to the mix. I think it’s time for another portrait.
When my sibs and I were kids, my father attempted to grow grapes several times. We always managed to kill off the grapevines.
So one Xmas I ordered half a dozen grape vines, two each of red, white, and blue. I told him that since he no longer had little kids in the back yard, maybe the vines would live. They did live for a while, and Daddy enjoyed having his own homegrown grapes.
Or Photoshop!
(hey, it enabled us to get rid of that cut-out snapshot of the last grandkid that was gluesticked into the family portrait…)
