Best Christmas Gift Ever

By Dan Yates





“What’s the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?” just might be the most often asked question posed at informal gatherings in December.  Everyone seems to have answer, ranging from something very expensive or romantic to something that they had longed for for many years and finally got.  For me it was none of these.  It was something I never expected to get and from someone I never expected to get it from.  In fact, the giver of that gift never knew they gave it to me at all, but I think of it every December.

In the summer of 1972, I was assigned to a small base in Herbornseelbach, Germany.  We had no American support at this base due to its small size.  All transportation was provided by a German unit stationed in the same town.  There were fewer than 100 soldiers based there and half of them were married and lived on the German economy while the single GIs lived in three barracks on post.

Because this was the largest U.S. base within 50 miles any direction, it was the site of the grade school (grades 1-8) for all of the smaller detachments in the area.  Every day staff cars or vans would bring children to our little town where a one-story building served as a school for the dependents of the servicemen in the area.  There were three teachers, one teaching grades 1-3, another grades 4-6 and the third teaching grades 7-8, as well as acting as principal.  A separate building served as a kindergarten.

During formation one day in October 1972, the First Sergeant asked if any of us were willing to go to the school later that week to help the teachers during a Halloween party.  I raised my hand along with one or two others and we went to the school to help in any way we could.  Things went well and a good time was had.  Similar calls for help came for their Christmas party and Field Day the following May.  I was 20 years old at the time and saw the children as younger brothers and sisters and they seemed to adopt me as an older brother.

The following year I did the same and in anticipation of Halloween I asked one of the American wives if she knew how to make popcorn balls.  I told her that I wanted to take them to the school for the kids.  She said that she did and sat down and figured out how much of the ingredients it would take to make that many popcorn balls.  We spent an evening up to our elbows in one big sticky mess, but we got it done and I had a popcorn ball for each child that year.

In May of 1974, the seventh and eighth grade children were going on a four-day class trip to Luxembourg and Trier and two male and female chaperones were needed.  Two of the teachers were husband and wife, while the third was a lady.  The school asked the fathers of the students going if any of them would volunteer to chaperone, but none would.  With the possibility of the trip being cancelled, the students asked if I could be the second male chaperone.  The principal asked if I was interested and I agreed.  A strong bond had developed between the children and me.

December came around and my enlistment was ending.  I was due to leave Germany the last week of December and the Christmas party was going to be my last time together with the kids.  I wanted to do something for them to show how special they were to me.  I got the class roster from each teacher and went to the PX and bought each kindergartener a gift and wrapped it.  For each child in grades 1-8, and there were 88 of them, I bought several boxes of Christmas cards and sat down on the floor in my room at the barracks.  It was there that I wrote a personal note to each student and put a $1 dollar bill inside each card.

On the day of the Christmas party the first room I visited was that of the first through third graders.  We played games, had refreshments and then I handed out the cards to the children, telling them that they couldn’t open them until I told them to do so.  Once I gave them permission, they tore open their cards and began running around the room, out of control, waving their one-dollar bills in the air.  I had never seen their eyes open so wide in the two and a half years that I was there.  They were hollering at each other and showing the teacher what they had, a one-dollar bill.

The teacher looked at me and there were tears in the eyes of this 22-year-old man.  I had never experienced such genuine happiness in my life.  I may have given them each a dollar, but the spontaneous joy that they gave me was beyond value.  It was unexpected, priceless and something that has remained fresh in my mind and heart, still fifty years later.

A few weeks later, back in the States, I received a package.  Inside it was a plaque of appreciation from the principal and teachers.  I’m now retired and have a large bookshelf in my office.  On that bookshelf, proudly displayed on the second shelf, is that plaque.  It reminds me of the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received, the joy of a child.