My best holiday shopping memory

by Robyn Wright on December 22, 2011

in Living,St. Louis

Rexall Drugs SignThis year I am still struggling to be in the holiday spirit. Sometimes I wonder if my really wonderful memories from my childhood are holding me back now as an adult, knowing that things will always be different. I am pretty good about accepting the here and now the rest of the year, but this time of the year I struggle. Today I was thinking of one of my favorite holiday shopping memories.

Eagle Stamps SignThis was in the late 70’s. I think we did it multiple years, but I can’t be sure. My dad would take my brother and I up to the local drug store, a Rexall store which has long since closed, to do our shopping. My mom let us use the Eagle Stamps that she earned throughout the year that we always put in the Eagle Stamp books. I think Dad was instructed by Mom to get us out of the house actually and so that is how it started. I remember looking at everything and trying to pick out the perfect present. Certain people I really remember – like my dad – I thought it would be a riot to buy him a bottle of Gas-X pills and I’m sure you all know why Dad needed it! For my Aunt June I wanted to get a nice pen since she worked in the fraud department at Mercantile Bank – I thought she must use pens all the time. Of course, my idea of a “nice pen” was probably only 50¢ back then.  Our Rexall was very small, but packed full, and I remember going up and down the aisles over and over again picking out just the right gifts for everyone on my list. I was so proud of my purchases and paying for them with the Eagle Stamps and then I wanted to see everyone’s face as they opened their gifts on Christmas Eve. Such wonderful times.

By the way, in that same strip mall was a Velvet Freeze that made the best shakes ever and our meat market that always gave us kids a little smokie when we came in with our parents. Not related to the story really, but thinking about the drugstore reminded me of the other places.

Do you have a favorite holiday shopping memory?

Disclosure: None, just a memory I’m sharing.

© 2011 – 2012, Robyn Wright. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: holidays, memory lane, shopping

  • terrik

    You know, what I really remember most about Christmas shopping is going shopping with my Granny.  She bought stuff for people all of the time, because she was always thinking of others.  She’d see something and immediately think of which friend or family member would need or want it.  Her favorite thing to do was the “big care package” type of gift, where she would get something like a novelty wastebasket, (or she’d use a big popcorn tin or shoebox, whatever) and just fill it up with things.  She’d get several kinds of candy, socks, gloves, pens, notebooks, lotion, you name it, it would be in the box, then she’d put a card inside with cash in it too.  No two gifts were alike, each was as personal as she could make it and I think every single person who ever got one from her remembers it because you could just feel the love coming out of the box when you opened it.

    I remember going to Woolworth’s with her (and other stores too), wandering around and picking out the colors of gloves for the different people in our family.  If I saw something and said “I think Aunt Joanne would like this” or some such, in the cart it would go and I don’t think she ever said no.  

    When she died and we had to go through her house, she had tons of stuff like that, mostly in big Ziploc bags with people’s names on it, where she’d buy stuff whenever she saw it and hold onto it until their birthday, anniversary, Christmas or whatever.

  • Betty B.

    Aaww sometimes I wish I was born in that era I was a 90′s child but always felt like I never belonged I was the only one who listened to oldies. I actually don’t have a favorite holiday shopping memory, but I do enjoy the look on the persons face when they open their presents

  • davisesq212

    Every holiday time, my dad would take me (as a young kid) on the subway (which I loved as a kid and now hate) to Rockafeller Ctr to see the tree, then go to GM when they had a huge car dealership next to FAO Schwartz to test drive (sit in the front seat) cars in the store and then to FAO Schwartz so I could get one toy. We would then go to this small diner on the next block and have hot dogs and french fries. I used to love doing that every year!

  • Pauline Milner

    My Sister and I used to go to North Conway, New Hampshire every year shopping.  We used to spend 5 days there together and it was a ton of fun.  Besides shopping, we loved eating and I think we ate at most every restaurant in North Conway.

    She died in 2003 in a car accident and every year I miss going with her shopping.  However, I have a lot of wonderful memories of those times with her.

    Pauline Milner, dod@rogers.com

  • Ravzie

    I used to work in the same hospital with my Mom.  We would always participate in the needy family gift program there.  It was so fun to go with her and try to pick out the gifts.  All we knew was “10 year old boy, coat size large, pants size …”, whatever, and so on.  We gave our persons names and personalities as we shopped.  “No, Joey would definitely not like that one.  You know he can’t stand red.”  We would joke and have the best time getting the gifts.

    Mom died this year.  I’ll always love her.

  • write4fun

    I remember our dad – who hated to shop and never ventured to ANY mall – took my sister and me to Woolworth’s in the late ’60s, and we bought our mom some pajamas, plus he let us buy a ‘pet’ stocking for our cat that had toys and treats in it. About the trading stamps; I recall one birthday (a week or so after Christmas) when he took me to the stamp store and I got a blue scooter plus a pair of roller skates – what riches! The blue scooter was sort of unusual, because most of the ones we saw were red. Happy holidays, everyone!

  • Shannon

    I too struggle this time of year with my bittersweet memories.  It is nice to know that I am not alone, thanks for the post.

  • Terri S.

    Thank you, Robyn! Your wonderful post took me down memory lane. Yes, life was so much easier and sweeter when we were children. I too remember how my Mom would ask my Dad to take us out “window shopping” before Christmas. She needed (and definitely deserved) a break from 8 children (4 boys + 4 girls). We oohed and aahed at all the expensive items in the windows of those fine shops but always returned to our corner drugstore to buy our Mom’s Christmas presents. My six older siblings always chipped in together with money that they had earned from shoveling snow for our neighbors and small businesses to get her that pretty blue bottle of perfume. It was actually Evening in Paris eau de toilette. I was the seventh child and I wanted to buy my Mom a box of her favorite peppermint Chiclet gum in the yellow box. It was my favorite too and she always gave me one of those ten yummy Chiclets. My Dad would hand me the nickel before going into the store so I would feel grown up paying for it. I can still see Mr. Ed (the owner/pharmacist) pulling a section of wrapping paper off the huge roll that was mounted on the wall to meticulously wrap our gifts for us. I can still hear the sound of the Chiclets in the box as I carefully shook my package from side to side. I made a gift tag with my name and my little brother’s name too. We hid those gifts until Christmas morning and the delight on my Mom’s face was as if we had given her diamonds from Tiffany’s. Yes, for me these were the good old days, golden moments that I’ll always remember and cherish.

  • Joyce McDaniel

    Robyn,
    You bought back so many memories when you were talking about the Rexall Drug Store and my mom collected the Eagle stamps too.  I remember we had a Western Auto store that had the prettiest doll babies that I loved to look at. I always loved looking at the stuffed animals. I loved tigers and lions. One year I got my tiger from Santa and my uncle Leroy gave me a lion. I am now 51 and was 5 when I received them I still have both of them little old looking but still in tack. That was the best Christmas I had as a child
    My best memories are when my mom and I would go every year at 4:am in the morning to get the best deals at the stores for my sons and the grandchildren.  We were so cold  but laughed the entire time. Now I am disabled and she is not well, I sure miss  those days.  Thanks for the memories. Tomorrow is my mom’s birthday and cannot wait to go see her tomorrow. Merry Christmas to you and thanks for such a great year of fun. Hopefully next year my health will be better and I can be on more. God Bless Joyce

  • slehan

    I remember going with my dad to a general store kind of place & he’d buy my sister & me some beef jerky out of a big glass jar.

  • tannawings

    This is gonna take awhile to type :)
    This is my favorite shopping memory and also relates to my own personal love of the Toys for Tots organization.
    It was back in 1969 and my Mom had just moved back to Iowa with us four kids.. she worked hard  and she was the sole provider. Things were bad, but not as bad as they had been where we lived before.
    A few days before Christmas, a car pulled up and inside were two Marines. It was back in the day I guess when parents worried less or perhaps because Mom herself was a Korean War vet she allowed me to go with them.
    We arrived at the YWCA where a whole room was filled with toys and the guys helped me pick out three toys one for each of my brothers, and also a hat/scarf set for my Mom. Afterwards we had cookies and I remember the young Marines smiling too and having a nice time.
    On Christmas morning, the toys were under the tree… and there was even one for me there too. There wasn’t alot else there, but we had out Christmas stockings and presents ‘Santa’ had brought. It was a great Christmas.

    Many years later, I thought back to that Christmas and realized those nice young Marines might have been heading to Vietnam soon… that maybe that was the last time they smiled without a care and made some children happy.

    I guess it is my favorite shopping memory because it ‘gave’ me more than presents that I carry with me to this day. Toys for Tots is of course much different now, but the spirit is the same – giving of yourself to help others.

  • Christina

    One year when I was about ten my mother and father took me and my brother George to a large department store and let us choose whatever we wanted (this was highly unusual!), one gift each.  I chose a doll house (that I cherished for years and years) and George chose a small car which he could sit in and pedal!

  • nik

    My favorite shopping memory is from when I was a little kid, back during our family’s calmer years, living in the suburbs and pretending to be normal. Me and my sibs would get all gussied up and go to Breakfast with Santa at Gimbels with Mom and Grandma…I remember piles of pancakes and watching a Christmas play and getting little presents from the Elves and being told to keep our elbows off the table and the napkins on our laps. Then we’d go down to Santa’s Workshop where us kids got to go in a little miniature Christmas cottage by ourselves (no parents allowed!) and pick presents for our family. We had spending limits and I remember taking sooooo long to get just the right gifts…we felt so grown-up and “responsible”. It was like we were on a secret mission, because after the Elves wrapped up the gifts, we would carry them out like they were top secret bundles, and then we’d go home and carefully hide them until Christmas. Watching our parents open them up was just as fun…we did a “great job, picking the perfect presents” as they always said. Mission Accomplished.  ;)

  • deadchristmastrees

    thanks for sharing that!  My fav childhood xmas memory is our christmas eve tradition.  We sit by the fire and eat fingerfoods and egg nog.  Sounds simple but I was never close with anyone in my family and that one night we were like a perfect storybook family!

  • http://twitter.com/tssk10 Teresa Kwiatkowski

    That is a nice story.  I remember wrapping a pack of Winstons for my dad for Christmas when I was little (I probably got them out of his carton).
    tssk10(at)gmail(dot)com

  • Eileen Richter

    My best shopping memory was in 1990 when I had left my marriage and moved out on my own. I had 3 kids in tow and was scared, totally out of my element, unemployed and going to school. . Even though rich in friendship and having immediate family with emotional support, I was dirt poor as they say,  Christmas loomed with worries about bills and fears of the future, but my biggest worry was how to ‘present’ Christmas to a 3, 8 and 10 year old. I had been doing a few cleaning  jobs to help out a bit but had an old back injury (from a semi accident at age 19)  that would not allow steady employment. About a week before Christmas I had a knock at my door and an old acquaintance stood before me. It was the surgeon whom our family had befriended years before, when I had the first of 5 back surgeries. He stood with an envelope, said Merry Christmas from he and his wife and went on to say they would have donated this to their church but thought I could use it more. A quick smile and he was gone.  I opened the envelope to find $500…it might as well have been a MILLION!  I shopped the next few days to find some gifts for the kids   I dont even remember much of what I purchased…a trendy doll, a skateboard and some clothing (socks and underwear I remember buying happily) , but was also able to pay my electric and phone bill. It felt SO good to to go to Christmas Eve service and put something in the offering plate.  But the biggest gift of all given that night was not money, it was that this restored in me the goodness and spirit of REAL people, and began the regrowth of Faith and Trust I had lost so many years before. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002333317824 Dawn Schmidt

    My favorite shopping memory is going to the grocery store with my Father whilst my Mother was in hospital having my Sister. My Father and I never spent time together and I was aged five so the one on one interaction fills me with fondness. I even remember our purchase (ice cream!)
    mummytotwoboys@yahoo.com 

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