This isn't a gift I received myself, but I saw Father Christmas outside Tesco's yesterday and it brought back this memory. I hope you don't mind me sharing it.
One Christmas when one son was 4 and the other 8 months old, I was struggling to get everything done in time. My mother was in hospital recovering from a hip operation, my elder son had had a bad asthma attack a few days before and was still taking steroids, and I had shingles.
I went shopping for groceries for my Mum and Dad and outside the supermarket there was Mrs Santa (Helping hubby, because he was very busy that year) .. I only had enough cash on me to pay for one child so I paid for my eldest, knowing that the baby would be quite happy just being there with his brother. I had just worn through one of the knees in my jeans and was slim then (8 stones 10 pounds), I was wearing 'grunge' and holey jeans way before anyone else!
Anyway, Mrs Santa obviously thought I was too poor to pay for both of them (as opposed to too busy to queue at a cash machine) and she gave the present to my eldest and then a tiny teddy to the baby. I explained I hadn't paid, but she just smiled and said "Merry Christmas". You should have seen the look of delight on my baby's face. I had never seen him smile quite like that, young children's faces are so expressive aren't they? He held onto that teddy carefully all the way to the car.
So that was a great present for my son and also for me, seeing him so filled with joy at receiving it.
