Imperfectly Perfect Gifts
One of the many joys of Christmas is the delight that comes from giving and receiving gifts. What child hasn’t wished for some item, written a letter to Santa, or dropped hints to their parents about that perfect gift?
Not every gift we open is desired, of course, and some are even expressly unwanted. Fruitcakes, tchotchkes, and clothing immediately come to mind. In the 1983 film, A Christmas Story, a young boy named Ralphie receives from his aunt a set of handmade, pink, bunny pajamas with matching slippers. He is disappointed, to say the least, as he unwraps the imperfect gift. Adding insult to injury, his parents force him to wear them!
Ralphie’s perfect gift is a Red Ryder carbine action BB gun. He eventually gets it and with glee runs outside to try out the gun for the first time. He foolishly puts his target on a metal sign and fires. The BB ricochets back and into Ralphie’s eyes, knocking his glasses to the ground. Suddenly, the perfect gift, one that was so desperately wanted, leads to disappointment. It is an imperfectly perfect gift.
“Adoration of the Kings” painted by Gerard David, c. 1515. Credit: Wikimedia.org
Imperfectly perfect gifts have always been part of Christmas. The tradition of giving and receiving presents during the holiday began at the first Christmas, when the Three Wise Men brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the baby Jesus. The gifts perfectly foretold of the child’s place in Christian teachings: gold as a symbol of his Kingship, frankincense for his role in teaching God’s word, and myrrh to illustrate that he was a true prophet. Yet, in another sense the gifts were imperfect. After all, how can a newborn baby actually utilize such valuable, significant items!
During these last weeks before Christmas, my family has been thinking a lot about gifts—those we receive and those we give. Still, this was only part of the inspiration for this piece. As I have written about before, I have been working to digitize my family’s video tapes from the 1990s. One tape that I recently found captures my sisters and I opening our presents by the Christmas tree on the morning of December 25, 1994.
Watching this now, one particular gift stands out. I unwrap a present revealing some type of box. I exclaim how surprised I am to get it saying, “You got it here!” My father mentions that he found it in a catalog, and I hug and thank my parents for the gift. But what was it? No one could tell.
After carefully inspecting the video, I remembered! It was a multimedia CD-ROM titled Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual. In 1994, I was a big fan of the show and had even formed a club with my school friends to discuss all things Star Trek. The CD-ROM included a virtual tour of the starship Enterprise and enabled users to learn about different areas of the ship. I was clearly very excited to receive the gift, and in the video I told my parents that “50 years from now, this could be worth billions.”
Unfortunately once I started playing it, I was disappointed. The CD-ROM was exactly what it purported to be: a technical manual structured as a virtual tour. In my mind, I must have thought it would be more like a game, similar to another popular CD-ROM from that era, Myst. Yes, it was the perfect gift and exactly what I wanted for Christmas. However, it was also something of a let down.
A perfect gift: roller skates given to Barbara (Hagenbuch) Huffman
I reached out to several family members to discuss memorable gifts they had received over the years. My aunt, Barbara (Hagenbuch) Huffman, showed me a pair of roller skates she got for Christmas and wore the the night she met her future husband. My mother, Linda (Gutshall) Hagenbuch, told me about her collection of dolls that were given to her when she was a girl. Each of these gifts were remembered because they were perfect presents, although imperfect gifts cropped up too.
When I spoke to my father, Mark, he told me about a sought after, yet disappointing present. Around 1960, when he was seven years old, he received a car wash toy, which we believe to be Ideal’s Car Wash. He explained further:
[The car wash] had a ramp on the side where you could run a few metal cars up to the top and bring them into a compartment that had a small water reservoir beside it. You could put about a half cup water in it. As the car neared the reservoir tank, you could pump a small thing with a hose attached, and squirt water onto the car which was supposed to be dirty.
But, after a few tries it didn’t work. I’m not sure why. Before I knew it, the toy was bundled up and taken back to the store. I’m thinking it was Sears and the situation was explained to customer service. I remember being very upset, because I thought someone could have fixed it. Mom and Dad traded it in for a Lightning Glider sled. They were in stock in the store.
My wife, Sara (Mowery) Hagenbuch, recalled an imperfectly perfect gift as well. On Christmas day in 1993, she received a child-sized acoustic guitar, an instrument she had been wanting to play. Her parents snapped a picture to remember the moment she held the guitar in her lap and strummed it with a pick.
Of course, six-year-old Sara needed to take lessons to learn how to play the instrument, and these began later on. Unfortunately, her interest in the guitar quickly waned. She next decided she wanted to play the piano—an even more costly instrument—and the guitar was tucked away in a closet, where it remains today.
Sara (Mowery) Hagenbuch with her guitar on Christmas morning of 1993
Presents are an important part of celebrating the Christmas holiday, and thankfully, most of the gifts we receive are not imperfect. That said, we must never lose sight of the fact that presents are merely symbols. Whether they are prefect or not, it is the memory of that first Christmas, as well as our time spent with loved ones that matter the most. And, who knows, maybe Sara’s guitar will soon find a new player. Our son, William, turns six next year!
