Books Under the Christmas Tree

Under my Christmas tree you will generally find at least one book wrapped up for each child and grandchild. Not my books. They can have one of those any time they want, but while a few of them do read my books, others in the family have different reading tastes or might not be old enough for a book without pictures. Only three grandkids still that young and they are rapidly learning to read too.How quickly those grandkids do grow up.

Some of those who sent in stories with their entries into my Christmas giveaway also loved those book gifts.

The Best Christmas Gift Ever

Here’s Joan’s story.

“You asked to tell the best Christmas gift you ever got as a child. Well here goes. I was the last of 7 children, so hand-me-downs was in order. Money was VERY tight and I was left alone a lot. So I would sit in my Grandmother’s bay window and read Nancy Drew books. I loved to read! So for my ninth X-mas present I got 4 Nancy Drew books! That was my only gift but what a gift. I still have those books today, some 60 years later! That was the BEST gift I ever got!”

Great story, Joan. I didn’t read as many Nancy Drew books as I did Hardy Boys. I liked those Hardy Boys. I give some of the credit for me becoming a writer to those mystery books. I wanted to be in a mystery just like the ones I read about for them. That meant I had to write my own! And now all these years later, I’ve written my Hidden Springs mysteries.

Books and Barbies

Cheryl became an imagination director for her Barbie dolls.

“When I was a child, my favorite gifts to receive were books and Barbies. They kind of went hand in hand, because my Barbies re-enacted the stories I read. They traveled the prairie (like Laura Ingalls), solved mysteries (like Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden) and even visited Oz. Books and Barbies made my childhood super memorable.”

Books and anything sound like a good combination, Cheryl.

The Secret Garden

Last Jeanne tells about how her grandmother gave her the love of reading. Grandmothers are the perfect ones to do that.

“My favorite memory from when I was young was the year that my Grandmother gave me a copy of The Secret Garden.  She was the person in my life who gave me the love of reading.  She knew I spent a lot of time at our local library but I never had been given a book to actually be able to keep!  My parents and sisters never could understand why I  spent so much time at our small local library! My love of reading was the most ‘fun’ thing I could do (and I was only seven years old!)”

Jeanne says she still loves to read and that she passed that reading gene down to her children and grandchildren. What a gift that is! A child never has to be bored if there are books around. She reports that a couple of her grandchildren try the book under-the-covers at night time to get in just a few more pages. Did you ever do that?

You still have time to check out my Christmas giveaway and enter if you haven’t already. And along with the entry you can tell me about some of your favorite gifts. Always fun to share stories with our friends.