2018 Christmas Eve Gift Giveaway

I'm late on closing this, but the giveaway will close at midnight tonight CST. Check for the winner tomorrow AM; I'll be in touch.

Ed J
 
The winner of the 2018 CEG is Post #2 - Jody 744. I will need for you to PM your mailing address so I can send your gift. You must wait until Dec. 24 to open the gift. We would appreciate if you would post a photo of the gift so others that participated can see that it was a real thing and I know they will be curious.

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Ed, I’m in. I enter every year and IIRC I might have won once. Either way I’m in.

A quick Christmas story, (as if I could ever write a short anything).

My parents both came from Europe and so I was raised with traditional European holiday tradiditions. We celebrate Boxing Day, the feast of the epiphany and the feast of St. Nicholas.

That last one was the most important to me as a kid because it was a heads up, sort of preview of how Santa was gonna treat you.

The tradition goes.

December 6th is the feast day of Saint Nicholas the patron saint of children, which coincidentally falls during the Advent season. This feast day is an especially important one for us as kids as we’d just started counting down the days on our Advent calendar till Christmas Day. On December 5th the night before, we’d shine up our biggest shoes/boots and put them out on the windowsill before we went to bed in anticipation of his day.

The story I remembered as a kid was, if you were good St. Nicholas would fill your shoes with fruits, candies and other small gifts and treats as an indicator of how your Christmas was gonna be. Now if we’d been bad we’d get a lump of coal. I got my fair share of coal as a kid. :rolleyes: ;) :)

Now the upside to this was if I got a piece of coal, I still had 20 days to turn it around, prove I was a good kid, behave and still get some presents. It was a very effective parenting device, at least till Christmas was over.

Click here for the true story and tradition of putting out your shoes the night before his feast.

Now here’s the relevant part for a Knife forum like ours. When I was about 9 or 10 just a few years before the Old Man was killed in the plane crash he started putting a pocket knife in my shoe. Something my younger brother never found.

For at least the last 5 or 6 years he was around he’d drop in whatever $1 knife he’d get from one of the hardware store counter displays, (IIRC they were all Colonials).

I looked forward to lookin’ in my shoe the next morning. Mom watchin’ me dump out the candy, out went the Santa PezDispenser, out came the Hershey’s Kisses.

I’d shake the shoe till the tangerine rolled out like that giant boulder in the opening sequence to Raiders of the Lost Ark... I’d shake it some more till I heard the clunk and finally saw it spill onto the floor. I was such a happy kid. :)

Over the years I’d gotten a Barlow, Fishing Knife, Camper/Boy Scout Knife , a Stockman and a 2 blade Jack Knife if my memory serves me correctly.

Unfortunately it was so long ago and I was so young none of those cheap $1 knives survived. I’d give up any knife in my collection to have one of the knives he’d given me back in my hands again.

I’m sure one of the many Colonial or other tinshell handled pocketknives I own is just like the ones he gave me but it’s not the same if you know what I mean.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone, hope your New Year be better than your last year too.

Thanks for the GAW Ed and all the best to you and yours this Holiday Season.
 
I like your first move (or should I say opening move?) a lot, Jody; well-played!! :D:thumbsup::thumbsup::cool:

- GT
 
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