Residents talk about the gift giving of their childhood

Published 12:24 am Sunday, December 14, 2008

From the Christmas orange to Elmo Live, gift giving has surely had its evolution.

Through wars, recessions and the big booms, Christmas makes its annual appearance. But little boys and girls want different things from year to year.

In the 1900s fruit was a delicacy. It wasn’t readily available year-round, so enjoying an orange for the holidays was special.

Email newsletter signup

During the 1940s, things were tight and war was becoming the main focus. Christmas was about what you had, not what you didn’t have.

But as war ended and better economic times came, the presents under the Christmas tree grew in number. Technological advances led to bigger and better toys, and children’s wish lists grew.

But once all the gifts, large or small, are opened, one thing remains on Christmas morning — family, friends and love.

Verna Farr — the 1920s

With more than nine decades of Advent seasons under her belt, Natchez resident Verna Farr — who will turn 93 two days after Christmas — has seen a few changes with how the holiday is celebrated.

“There wasn’t as much to it then as there is now with all the music and celebrating,” she said.

But the shift to a more public, protracted holiday began during her formative years.

“When I was a small child, we would just stay at home and celebrate it there, but as I grew older and got in school we started celebrating more,” Farr said.

That meant singing Christmas carols on the steps of the former Britton & Koontz location downtown and watching as people decorated their homes, businesses and Christmas trees.

“They were just beautiful when they first put the lights on,” Farr said.

And just because Christmas was a smaller, less crassly commercial affair doesn’t mean that children didn’t watch the calendar in anticipation.

“We looked forward to Christmas for weeks beforehand,” Farr said.

Her parents would sit Farr and her siblings down and talk to them about what they wanted for presents, and when Christmas morning rolled around there were boxed presents under the Christmas tree.

But just as important in Farr’s then-young mind was the stocking hanging on the mantle. It was filled with small trinkets, but it was a special delicacy that she recalled pulling out of the seasonal sock every year.

“The stockings were always filled with toys and fruit, apples and oranges — it was always apples and oranges,” she said. “We didn’t get fruit during other parts of the year.”

Jim Sanders — the 1940s

Jim Sanders, who grew up during World War II, said Christmas was a special time of the year.

“Times were kind of tough,” Sanders said.

During the year, there really wasn’t much to go around, and Christmas was the only time he and his four siblings got anything.

“Christmas became very, very special to us,” he said.

But tough economic times infiltrated Christmas, too, and the gifts were usually small or shared.

“I remember one time my brother and I got 8-mm projector and we showed these little cowboy movies. We shared that together,” he said.

He also shared a bicycle as a Christmas present with his younger brother.

Sanders said that’s one of his favorite Christmas memories.

“We never fought about whose turn it was,” he said. “Every time I think of Christmas past, I think about that.”

His parents would also give the children fruit.

“That was a big thing for us,” he said.

And while Christmas was never a huge blowout affair with presents aplenty, Sanders said he cherishes those times and carried them with him into adulthood.

“They were good Christmases. We were thankful for what we got,” he said.

So when he and his wife had children, Sanders wanted them to see Christmas as a time of giving and not receiving.

“We decided one Christmas to find a family that was a needy family,” he said. “We got a cardboard box and filled it with canned food and took it to the person’s house. We didn’t know who they were and they didn’t know who we were.”

The memory of helping out a family in need is something Sanders’ children still talk about today, he said.

And one year, instead of buying Christmas presents, Sanders said his family decided to make their own, another Christmas memory his children still talk about.

“I’ve tried to teach my kids and grandkids that it is more of a blessing to give than to receive,” he said.

Gloria Neames — the 1960s

The one present Gloria Neames had on her childhood Christmas list couldn’t fit in a box under the tree.

In fact, it wouldn’t fit under the tree at all.

Like many children at Christmas, Gloria Neames, now 57, had a horse atop her Santa list.

But unlike many of her playmates, Neames’ wish actually came true.

“I guess my favorite childhood Christmas present was the year I got a horse. I was probably 12 or 13,” she said. “Her name was Mary.”

For Neames, horses were a normal part of life, but she had never had a horse to call her own.

“We grew up in the country,” Neames said. “I was just a country girl.”

The day she received the horse is one that stands out in her childhood memories.

“Daddy just rode up with the horse,” she said. “It was larger than life. At first, I remember that I was a little scared because it was so big.”

Mary the horse was a shared gift between Neames and her brother, but that didn’t seem to matter at all.

“We enjoyed that horse for years and years,” she said. “It was the gift that kept on giving.”

Neames said that, like the horse, many of her Christmas gifts were outdoor toys. She said they were popular even in the cold winter temperatures.

“We got other things like pogo sticks and roller skates and balls that you would play with outdoors,” she said. “We played outside more than kids do today.

“I think that is why we have so many children today that are overweight. They just don’t get outside like we used to.”

Spending time outdoors was something that began in her childhood, but it remains one of her favorite things to do today.

“I’m still just a country girl and like hunting and just being outside,” she said. “In fact, I went hunting (Thursday).”

Jamie Tyler — the 1980s

When Jamie Tyler was 7 she wanted one thing under her Christmas tree more than anything else.

“My older sister had one and she would never let me use it,” Tyler said of her sister’s Easy Bake Oven. “I just wanted one so much.”

And then on Christmas morning it happened — the oven was under the tree.

“It was my favorite gift,” she said. “Whenever I used it I felt like a little adult.”

Tyler said the days following Christmas at her house after she got the oven were filled with a lots and lots of baking.

“I would make all the little cakes and feed them to my parents,” she said.

While Tyler said she loved the baking at the time, she looks at the experience a little differently now.

“They weren’t very good,” she said of the Easy Bake’s cakes.

But looking back on to her favorite Christmas gift ever, Tyler sees a change in what children want.

“Now it a lot more electronic stuff,” she said. “It’s lots of iPods and video games. Nobody wants a bike anymore.”

But now at 25, Tyler has a new outlook on Christmas provided by children of her own.

She has one son that’s 3 and one less than a year old.

“It’s great to see him have so much fun with his presents,” she said.

This will be her youngest son’s first Christmas — and she’s looking forward to it.

“He’s going to love it,” she said. “Even though he can’t really understand it all yet.”