Hey Pandas, What Is The Best Christmas Gift You Ever Received?

I was 5 or 6 and my grandma made new clothes for ALL of my stuffed animals and dolls. On Christmas morning, coming into the living room of my grandparents, finding all my teddys an dolls sitting in a row, with new clothes. She crochets and knits the whole year. I will never forget this present. It was amazing.

Came home alive and uninjured from a war.

My late husband borrowed money to buy me a laptop. I had just been accepted into university as a matured-aged student (the highest grade I had successfully passed prior to that was year 9). We didn’t have much because we had two young children who both had disabilities and so I had to provide their care instead of going to work. My husband arranged a loan to buy the device for me to support me in my studies and so I could study on move. He was killed a few weeks later on my birthday. I currently hold a distinction average in a dual criminology/law degree. I know he’d be proud.

my dad leaving

The best gift I ever received was my puppy. I've had him for nearly 8 years now :)

When I was 6 or 7, Santa got me every single TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles) action figure. My mom....cough, sorry, Santa.....even bought a rack so they all hung off the fireplace like at the store. I was a god among my friend group for a time after that.
(Years later she told me she bought the rack because, and I quote, "I wasn't wrapping every f*****g one of those individually."

my grandpa made me a dollhouse and furniture for the house when I was 7..

Even when I asked for something specific, it was never "right", what I'd actually wanted. So I didn't ask any more. I was probably around 12-13. My dad made me a 33 rpm record player, mounting a repurposed turntable on a box he made himself and painted garish steel grey and fire-engine red. I had no records, but - another gift that day was a 33 rpm record, the kind you joined a record by mail club and they'd send you one record free and you could cancel and keep the free record. Sound tacky? It took everything I had not to break down sobbing as this was the first time they had made me feel loved. I didn't ASK because I didn't think it was any more attainable than the moon. And the record was Beethoven on one side and Schubert on the other. I played them over and over and over and over. And dad MADE it for me.

A recording of my dad playing piano. He was a very good player, I grew up listening to him play in the evenings when he got home from work. He died in 1982 at 46 YO, I was 18. About 10 years ago, my mom surprised us with a CD of him playing. She had found old reel-to-reel tapes. It was amazing! Along with him playing, there was audio of him, mom and grandparents talking to us when we were babies/toddlers. Priceless.

the entire box set of harry potter! i was so happy

The best present was definitely a Aprilia RS 660

A microscope!!! I was in 3rd grade and I kept slides and cover slips in my pockets - just in case someone skinned a knee, cut themselves... I won the 3rd Grade Science Fair that year for my study of what skin actually looks like, layers, etc. ~~happy sigh~~ I became an ATLS Nurse in the military.

I don't remember what the gifts were. My family was lower class, and I later learned that my mom didn't have the money for wrapping paper. She took paper boxes from work and bought white tissue paper. She made them into a train with each car having one of our (4) names on it and our gifts wrapped in the white tissue paper. I thought it was magical at the time. Amazing what a little creativity can do.

A beautiful, healthy baby girl............no explanation neccessary.

My best Christmas gift also turned out to be my worst. I wanted to be a pilot more than anything, so my parents got me flight lessons at 15. Turns out I get massively air sick and my ears don't pop. Like at all, I don't adjust to pressure I just hurt. (Same issue with diving or driving through mountains.) Sadly I am destined to remain at sea level.

My lovely dog, buddy. (Lil tidbit, I named him that because I was so surprised I couldn’t think of a name, so I fudged it and said “screw it, you (my parents) were calling him that already, and buddy’s the name of that dude from elf, so his name’s buddy, that’s christmassy”)

prolly a scooter. nope not an electric scooter. just. a. plain. old. scooter. BUTTTT I LOVEDDD IT!!! now if this was a best b-day present then my cat, pumpkin pie! i named her that bc shes orange and white swirled! and im nine and got her for my 4th b-day and still have her

A single day when my parents didn't fight. I was 10 and it was the only thing I asked for.

Massive framed and signed print by James Gurney the author and artist of Dinotopia.

fidget necklaces
little women (the book)
and probably this crime scene book where you had to figure out things and there was a different puzzle on each page or two (i forgot the title, cat pissed on it and had to throw it.)