The best Christmas gift I got at as child, (it’s not what you think)!

When I was a kid, my grandparents lived all the way on the other side of country. We would visit them in the years we had the money to travel. There was one thing for certain, presents would always come from my grandma. Lots of them! A kids dream come true. Until you opened them.

Every year as I would open Christmas gifts and they would be something randomly thrifted (not a bad thing), a gift given to her she didn’t want, or more often than not, something my grandmother was trying to get rid of from her house. A collection of glass angels, a seahorse decorated in shells that she bought in the 70’s, a pair of old plaid pants, a collection of used pencils. She would also wrap things in cool boxes which made me think I was getting something awesome, until I opened it to find things like Reader Digest from 1985.

Eventually as a kid I came to expect this and just looked forward to the weirdo presents I would get. Then one year when I was fifteen I unwrapped a box that was the box for a nice alarm clock. I thought, “it would be so great if there actually was an alarm clock in there”; I needed one for getting up for school (ahh pre-cell phone days). I opened the box waiting for another set of chotchkies when I discovered it was an alarm clock!!! Holy moly, she actually gifted me what was in the box! I used that alarm clock for many many years until I moved to Italy.

I’m not sure why she actually gifted me something in it’s box or something practical, but it ended up being one of the best gifts I got as a kid. What was the best gift you ever got as a kid?