One of my holiday traditions is watching The Santa Claus with Tim Allen. There are tons of funny moments in the movie, but there is one section that brings back memories every time. It’s the point where Laura and Neil are discussing the point at which they stopped believing in Santa Claus. In both cases, the lack of belief came when they didn’t get the one Christmas gift they really wanted. For Laura it was the Mystery Date game and for Neil it was the Oscar Meyer Weenie Whistle.

I remember the Mystery Date game. It was my aunt’s favorite game and I can remember playing it with her often. I also remember several gifts that I practically begged Santa to bring me for Christmas.

The first was the Barbie Camper Van. I was big into Barbie as a 7or 8 year old, and my own family had the neatest VW camper van, so it stood to reason I wanted my Barbies to have one too. I can remember not only sending a request on my letter to Santa, I also passed it along when I sat on Santa’s lap.

The second gift that I remember feeling was the most important thing in the world for me to have was a bicycle. But not just any bicycle, a pink bicycle with a banana seat. Remember those? I was on my very best behavior from October through December in the hopes that being good would convince Santa Claus that I should be the proud owner of that bike.

Luckily, I didn’t suffer the same fate as Laura and Neil in the movie, they didn’t get their special gifts and stopped believing in Santa. Santa came through for me. In fact, I can still remember the excitement of seeing that camper van, left unwrapped under the sparkling tree with a live action barbie to go with it. A few years later my banana seat bike stood reflecting the colored lights of the Christmas tree. That’s right, I still believe in Santa Claus.

How about you, can you remember a gift or gifts you just knew Santa would bring you?