Gift giving played no part in Christmas in our home when I was growing up in the 1940s.
My parents had immigrated to Canada from Ukraine and for them, it was a time for celebrating the birth of Jesus.
We loved the food that Mother prepared for the traditional Holy Eve supper and the visiting during the three days of Christmas.
But one year, our family was surprised by a gift delivered to our home for our youngest sister, Helen. Her godfather from North Battleford, Sask., had crafted a lovely wooden rocking horse for her.
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We admired the toy, painted red, green and white, and begging to be ridden.
Our two-and-a-half-year-old sister would have nothing to do with it.
Our mother encouraged our middle sister, Olga, to ride it to show Helen how much fun it was. My six-year-old legs also gave the sturdy toy a great ride.
It wasn’t until Helen reached her third birthday that she rode the horse. As we all grew and lost interest in it, Mother put it in the garage.
When I went to my first teaching job at Ollenberger School near Denzil, Sask., I boarded with Ben and Verna Kletzel, their six-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.
When Dad came to pick me up for the Christmas holidays, he brought the rocking horse. Their little boy loved it and the toy had a new home.
Several years later, I married and started a family. The Kletzels visited one day with the rocking horse, which was still in great shape.
Now our growing family enjoyed this heirloom toy. Our four sons and four daughters all took their turns riding the horse.
The rocking horse became a rodeo steed sliding across the linoleum floors and even bucking off the riders.
Eventually they lost interest in it and I stored it in the basement.
Our children grew up and married. In doing a basement cleaning, I again found the rocking horse. I took it to our woodworking teacher at Denzil Sacred Heart School who said it was now beyond repair.
He made a pattern of the pieces and created a new rocking horse. He eventually made several of them as gifts for our grandsons and later, his father-in-law used the pattern to make another heirloom toy.
The rocking horse lives on.
