When you were a kid, did you do the child version of ”Keeping up with the Jones”?

No. I was the token poor kid (very poor) in a rich neighbourhood so I kept very quiet about what I got for Christmas.

Not really. I remember feeling left out of Christmas, being Jewish, especially wanting a tree, and jealous santa did not visit my house. I have a vague memory of one year really feeling like it wasn’t fair that I couldn’t get gifts like some kids who were talking about all their gifts, but typically my friends luckily did not go on too much about what they had received. I don’t remember ever lying about what gifts I was given. Once I hit my teens we got money for the holidays anyway.

I don’t recall ever feeling the need to embellish on the gifts I received Christmas morning. My parents were practical gift-givers, as well as frugal. One year while still a pre-teen, the big gift was an electric blanket. I do remember being occasionaly envious when a friend received something really nice, like a new bike while mine remained an ancient hand-me-down. Fortunately, the friends were good about sharing and never commented on my belongs or lackthereof.

Nah, the Jones’ were a poverty stricken bunch.
Keeping up with them would have been tantamount to self sacrifice & well, it’s xmas so bugger that for a game of soldiers!

No, I never thought about what others had.

I didn’t compete in games I couldn’t win. We were moderately poor, though I was always amazed at how much my parents did for me and my sibs. Next doors kids had money, and their gifts would fill the room, and I remember them always rubbing that in my face. Same with the Jewish kids who had 8 days of gifts, for some reason I didn’t understand then.

@filmfann All these stories of eight days of gifts, I think I had eight days two years of my life, and many gifts were very small, could be just chocolate money. I always wonder if there are really Jewish kids out there who get 8 fabulous gifts on Chanukah? I might ask that question.

I was an only child, and I suppose I got more gifts than a family with a bunch of kids, but the gifts were never over the top. Usually educational or practical.

Even though I grew up in a poor household (my parents we’re divorced and my mother was unemployed due to a work-related injury), my father would lavish me with expensive gifts. I was the kid that lived in the worst house/neighborhood, but had the best toys. When I was twelve I had a BMX bike that cost my father $900…a stereo worth $1000…in 1985. It was a strange dichotomy. My friends were jealous of my stuff, whereas I was jealous of their homes.

Never. @JLeslie:

My two sibs and I got several wonderful gifts every Chanukah, but also the chocolate and real gelt. (and the mittens, scarves, underwear and socks my mother would have bought us anyway.)

I envied my friends whose mothers baked; I lusted after home-made brownies and choc. chip cookiers that were never in our cookie jar.

The same mothers were often creative tree trimmers and yard decorators (and made better Halloween costumes)>

However when I was young, the holidays were less consumer-driven, toys and gadgets had a longer life span and everyone seemed much less greedy than today.

My sister still has the little Singer sewing machine that my father gave her 58 years ago, and I still have a drawer filled with hand-monogrammed linen handkerchiefs.

@gailcalled Yummmm, the famous Christmas cookies. My mom actually did bake from scratch during the year, so I did not long for all the sweets of Christmas, but I do love Christmas cookies. I do my own version for Chanukah now. Almond cookies, coconut macaroons, forgotten cookies, one or some. I usually give away a few to Christmas friends. I never understood having Turkey on Christmas after having it at Thanksgiving. Some of my friends ate very different foods based on their national background for Christmas.

@JLeslie: On my new vegan regime, I love the macaroons with honey.

Erratum; The Singer sewing machine is 48 years old and not 58.

No. I had one friend who was rich and she always had the cash and the stuff, but, I was the horse loving little artist. All I wanted was to ride horses and draw and read & write. :-)

Christmas was an exciting lovely time for us kids but looking back on it now we got very little. It didn’t seem that way at the time and I never felt the need to exaggerate what I had been given probably because no one got very much.

I was a poor kid from a poor neighborhood and went to a poor school. No one had much to brag about. One time my Mom gave me an old used bike for Christmas. I was grateful to have the bike but embarrassed that my Mom couldn’t afford to get me a new one. I lied to my friends about how I got the bike. Also the tires were very old and all of the rubber came off the back tire after about 4 miles of riding. Now I own 4 bikes and one bike is a time-trial bike that has cutting edge high-tech wheels that cost $1000 each. HA!

I didn’t brag or boast for a few reasons. One, I went to a school where that just wasn’t an acceptable subject and the teachers were strict. Two, I was super spoiled by my grandparents and knew I could get 90% of what I wanted, just as I wanted it and I knew most kids didn’t have that. Three, I had to mind my p’s & q’s in front of my parents not to hurt their feelings because my grandparents gave me so much and my parents at the time couldn’t afford the same.

@filmfann Here is my question about Jewish kids getting gifts on Chanukah.

Plain and simple, nope!

No. At the beginning of the school year I got 1 pair of sneakers and 1 pair of shoes and those had to last me the entire year (see profile pic). I wore the same corduroy pants until the cord was gone. The irony of all that is that we weren’t really poor, I was an only child and my parents had decent jobs, they just didn’t care. Christmas was the least of my concerns back then.

No. Everything I wore, except for school uniform, was handed down from my older cousins or bought from charity shops. My family was the poorest in the community.