The Best Christmas Present

The best Christmas Present that I can remember was not a present I received, but one that my father received when he was 8 years old.

My father’s family farmed cotton in a small town north of Baton Rouge, LA. The fall of 1948 had been a very difficult cotton harvest. What they had not lost to a drought was taken by the infamous Boll Weevil. As with most small farmers my grandfather had borrowed money to purchase cotton seed and supplies and now had no way to pay back the bank or the company store.

My father tells me that my grandfather sat them down (family of 6) and explained there would be no Christmas stockings and certainly not a present. Although my father knew it had been a difficult fall he had hoped for some small token and celebration. After all; he was just 8 years old.

Christmas Eve arrived and my grandparents treated it like any other day. However, at dark my father noticed a box on their planked and splintered front porch. My Dad told the story every year with such happiness. He explains that the box looked larger than any box he had ever seen. The box was filled with fruit, nuts, a salted ham and 3 small wooden toys. The box had been left by the Salvation Army. They had been able to provide similar boxes to several families in the small community.

As far back as I can remember my Christmas stocking has been filled with fruit and nuts in holding on to a tradition that always brought tears to my father’s eyes. My father was an annual donor to the Salvation Army and I have followed in his footsteps. My father died last year, but his tradition still lives in my home today.