Over 50 years ago, someone contacted The Providence Journal about our family. Our family was large but there was not a lot of disposable income. We were not poor. My mom back then was a stay-at-home mom and my dad brought home the paycheck. It was not a large amount of money, we did not have many new things, we did have a lot of things given to us (second hand) which is why I believe someone who knew our family sent our family name in to the Providence Journal.
I remember the boxes being delivered to our apartment--red boxes with white snowflakes as part of the "wrapping." At that age, it seemed as though my sisters and I were receiving a treasure trove of gifts from some mysterious Santa's elf. The toys were the inexpensive novelty toys: cardboard base with the face of a "man" printed on it, covered in plastic and laying between the two were metal shavings that we could build the beard with a magnetic wand. There was a "Barrel of Monkeys," a set of jacks with a small ball, a cardboard based "arcade" game where one moved the board around to make the tiny silver balls fall into the indentations. There were several items like these in the boxes.
Sadly, I believe that if children received these items today, the games may sit in a corner, end up in the trash, or pawned off to some other child. Here I am at 61 and I share the magic of those few Christmases with my high school students. I want them to know that something so small by today's "standards" meant the world to my sisters and I back then. I hope they learn that they can appreciate any form of a gift no matter how large or small it appears to be and that they can appreciate not having to have all of the latest electronics.
You see, I work in a high school where every Thanksgiving and Christmas our students bring in items for the food baskets. Also all of us purchase gifts for the families we have been blessed with to make their Christmas (and Thanksgiving) a bit happier. In a sense, I look at it as "paying it forward."
Review from Guidestar