December 18, 2015

Christmas Memories

A Christmas gift that is still treasured

By Dolores Francis

When we were little, my sister and I each received a doll for Christmas.

In our rough and tumble everyday play, they usually lasted less than half the year. Mom would then make us rag dolls, which held up until the next Christmas when our present was a new store-bought doll.

Then, one year, Mom decided I was too big to be playing with dolls, and I did not receive one for Christmas.

I still wanted a doll, and took the money I had received for Christmas and went to town to buy one for myself. The manager of the dime store waited on me, and showed me a doll much nicer and prettier than any I had ever had.

She wore a blue dress with a white pinafore, black shoes and white socks. Her eyes opened and closed, and her hair could be combed and styled. I asked him the price, and when he told me, my face fell. “I don’t have that much money,” I said.

He asked me how much I had, and I told him “$5.” “You can have it for five dollars,” he said.

I played with my new doll, but much more gently than I ever had before. The original pinafore and her shoes and socks are gone, the eyes still open and close but are a little dull now, and her complexion is not as bright as it once was; but I still treasure my doll.
 

(Dolores Francis is a member of St. Agnes Parish in Nashville.) †

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