You can make the case that Christmas is most magical when you're 4 or 5.
Giftwise, though, I nominate ages 10 to 12 as peak Christmas. That's when you have an idea of the source of those gifts, but you also have some things you really want but see no path to getting them other than at Christmas. You're too young to work and in my day, parents didn't randomly buy us anything except food.
My best childhood gifts were always (always!) sports related. I wasn't a great athlete, but boy did I love sports. Even more, I loved the stuff that went with sports and the only way I could get those things (which weren't that expensive, but beyond 10-year-old Brad's budget) was as Christmas gifts.
With no further ado, here's a countdown of 10 sports-related Christmas gifts of my childhood, providing a window into what my parents had to seek out during those years and their hits and misses. This list doesn't include sports games (Electric Football, Monday Night Football, APBA baseball), but actual sports-related equipment.
10. Raiders rain poncho. My stepmom got it for me shortly after marrying my dad. I hated the Raiders. I loved the 49ers, but I'm sure she thought, "Oh, it's a football thing. He'll love this!" and I had to play along. For the next few years, I wore it only during downpours. Otherwise, I'd suffer wet clothes before putting on that silver-and-black monstrosity.
9. Generic football jersey. Same era as the poncho. It was yellow with brown numbers and some green. I remember thinking maybe it was a knockoff of the Steelers or the Packers, but couldn't tell. It was No. 15, so I thought maybe it was Bart Starr? I wore it, but hoped no one would ask me who it was, because that was impossible to answer.
8. Nerf football. I love all Nerf products and was thrilled to get this. A Nerf football! It wouldn't hurt to catch! I could actually grip it! The Christmas morning joy and the longevity of the gift suggests it should go higher on the list, but the fact that it rained constantly in my hometown meant that when I left it outside, it would get waterlogged and weigh five pounds for a month (an 11-year-old boy couldn't really wring it out well), moves it down.
7. Baseball mitt. Few things are more thrilling than your first real baseball mitt and mine came at about age 8 or 9, when I was in Little League. It's not higher because I rarely had someone with whom to play catch (this list is probably explaining why) and other gifts are better for the lone 10-year-old on a dreary June afternoon. That mitt did catch a lot of "grounders" courtesy of throwing of a tennis ball off the garage, though.
6. Shoulder pads. Perhaps the least practical gift on the list (did I really need shoulder pads to play football in the yard with my friends?), but so cool. I would occasionally put them on and spend 45 seconds tugging a T-shirt over them just for the experience. White, cheap plastic shoulder pads seem cool even now.
5. Wiffle ball and bat. I loved this sport as a kid and have written about it previously (actually, my research indicates I've written about wiffle ball 12 times (!), but the linked column is about my wiffle ball peak). Getting the combination of the yellow plastic bat and a few wiffle balls was great. The only reasons it's not higher on the list is that Christmas isn't in baseball season and I could go to a local hardware store and buy them with a few bucks.
4. Red, white and blue headband and wrist bands. Those sweatbands stayed with me for years as I played on our driveway basketball court in 52-degree weather (which does not make you sweat). I loved basketball. I thought sweatbands were a necessity to be a cool player. I don't know if I ever washed them, which may have been a mistake. I'll ask my sisters.
3. Football kicking tee. This probably wasn't expensive, but must have been hard to find. An orange kicking tee with ridges so you could adjust the angle of the ball? Perfect. I found a 2-by-4 board and draped it across two trees that bordered my backyard and spent many afternoons practicing field goals (soccer style kicker!), often with the aforementioned Nerf football. I probably made 5% of the kicks from about 15 yards away, so more time was spent retrieving the ball.
2. Nerfhoop. Every kid I knew wanted one. This was a perfect year-round gift, because I hung it on the door from our family room (the former garage) and could shoot jumpers, free throws and the inevitable dunks. My stepmom and sisters probably told me 1,000 times to keep quiet, but I was dunking! With a red, white and blue headband on! They didn't understand cool.
1. Red, white and blue basketball. Was my obsession with red, white and blue basketball gear more inspired by the nation's bicentennial or by the American Basketball Association? Well, I read magazines and books that included George McGinnis and not George Washington, so make your guess. I'll never forget coming out Christmas morning, seeing a squarish package addressed to me, picking it up and feeling the basketball treads. Yes! Weather didn't affect this; I could play basketball in the rain. No gift of my childhood was used with more frequency than that red, white and blue basketball.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
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