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Once again I found myself facing the Holiday season unprepared. Every year I tell myself I will start shopping early and every year it gets put off by other concerns and expenses. As I sat in thought about how I was going to manage this year, I started to reflect on the Christmases I had as a child and I came to some realizations. In all the Christmases I've celebrated there are actually very few where I remember the gifts. Actually some of the most memorable were the poorest.

As I look back now I realize why they are the most memorable. With no money to spend everyone had to come up with different ways of expressing the joy of family over the holidays; like the year when my younger sister and I had to forgo our usual Christmas allowance and had no money to buy gifts for our parents. Searching through the house we managed to come up with six cents. Not having enough money to buy anything at a store, we approached our parents in turn and bought a comb from each of them from an unopened package that I had discovered in an upper cupboard. After receiving assurance from each parent that they would keep our secret my sister and I decorated brown paper and wrapped our "gifts" content that even in such a small way we were able to let our parents know that we were thinking of them and loved them enough to find a way to give them something. I think those combs were probably two of the most memorable gifts my parents ever received. I clearly remember the amused and touched expressions on their faces when they opened them. Even in the good years it's not the gifts I remember. It's other things: Mom's homemade root beer, walking through the neighborhood looking at the Christmas lights, decorating the tree, making homemade ornaments, siblings getting together to make plans for the holiday. After contemplating these things, I have now ceased to worry about this year. With three grown daughters and seven grandchildren,and not much money, I see this year as an opportunity to find more unique ways to make this year one of the most memorable.

Learn more about this author, Pat Estabrooks.
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