What was your best Christmas present ever (so far!) ?
As a kid I loved reading. Rumer Godden's books about a dolls' house were a firm favourite. I desperately wanted a dolls' house - I think I've already shared the tale of the house my dad built for me out of Peter Stuyvesant cigarette cartons, lovingly spray painted submarine grey.
Some of Godden's characters were Japanese dolls - Miss Happiness, Miss Flower, and the baby, Little Plum. Can't remember the ins and outs of the tale, but these dolls ended up with a Japanese house - the descriptions in the book were vividly beautiful. Our local library acquired such a dolls' house - every week I would spend a happy hour or so playing with it when we went to change our books. I loved that house.
I was devastated when we turned up one day and the house had gone. The librarian told me with that it had been sold - some lucky little girl was going to get it for Christmas. The library visits for the next few weeks seemed very flat.
Anyway, Christmas morning came, and the story has a predictably happy ending - there, in our living room, was the beautiful Japanese dolls' house. The only slightly less-than-perfect element was that I had to share it with my big sister, who had never read the books, and had very different ideas about how the dolls should be played with. Fortunately she lost interest quite quickly, so I was mostly left to my own devices.
Definitely my most memorable Christmas present - apart, perhaps, from ms#5 who turned up on Christmas Eve causing a lot more trouble than Miss Happiness and Miss Flower ever did
As a kid I loved reading. Rumer Godden's books about a dolls' house were a firm favourite. I desperately wanted a dolls' house - I think I've already shared the tale of the house my dad built for me out of Peter Stuyvesant cigarette cartons, lovingly spray painted submarine grey.
Some of Godden's characters were Japanese dolls - Miss Happiness, Miss Flower, and the baby, Little Plum. Can't remember the ins and outs of the tale, but these dolls ended up with a Japanese house - the descriptions in the book were vividly beautiful. Our local library acquired such a dolls' house - every week I would spend a happy hour or so playing with it when we went to change our books. I loved that house. I was devastated when we turned up one day and the house had gone. The librarian told me with that it had been sold - some lucky little girl was going to get it for Christmas. The library visits for the next few weeks seemed very flat.
Anyway, Christmas morning came, and the story has a predictably happy ending - there, in our living room, was the beautiful Japanese dolls' house. The only slightly less-than-perfect element was that I had to share it with my big sister, who had never read the books, and had very different ideas about how the dolls should be played with. Fortunately she lost interest quite quickly, so I was mostly left to my own devices.
Definitely my most memorable Christmas present - apart, perhaps, from ms#5 who turned up on Christmas Eve causing a lot more trouble than Miss Happiness and Miss Flower ever did
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