Tell Us When Santa Disappointed You

[Dan Gould]

One more thread idea before I get my butt in gear to finish my travel preparations ... since we're talking about Santa, anyone care to recall a time that Santa really disappointed them? When you had that certain something you were dying for and it wasn't under the tree ... or it was there, but broke or was broken as soon as you started playing with it?

In memory of the "recent" classic film, A Christmas Story, anyone have their own equivalent of the Red Ryder B.B. Gun?

My one great disappointment was when I was dying for one of those electric race car tracks - a neighbor had one and I desperately wanted one, too - only the one Mom bought didn't work, and when we brought it back to exchange, they were sold out (anyone else remember Consumers Distributing? I think that was the name - discounted merchandise you ordered out of the catalog at the showroom (only the cheap jewelry was on display).) That was where we got the toy, and they didn't have one to replace it - so I got a Chuck Connors Shooting Gallery toy. You put empty cans on top of this box, the shotgun shot a red light and when it hit the "eye" just right, a plastic piece popped up and knocked the can off, just like it had been shot.

That was fun for about two minutes, but I never did get the electric race car set.

[AndrewHill]

Yeah, rolling skating was the rage when I was growing up (I grew up in 70's) and I wanted a pair of Classics roller skates that were jet black. Well Christmas rolls around and I see a box under the tree from "Santa" and when I opened it up, there was a pair of "generic" black skates, with no Classics label on it or nothing. Maybe that was the first time that I bacame really irritated with Santa's cheapness.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I know I was disappointed many times - but I can't remember over what, so it couldn't have been terribly important

MG

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

This is a good thread! It was 1971 and I wanted a G.I. Joe and either a 'Wild, Wild West' or 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' lunchbox..... wound up instead with this ecology kit! Still has the $6 Jordan Marsh price tag on it!! Huh? Oh brother! I can remember it like it was yesterday!

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

.....though, while I was irked that my Mom didn't go for G.I. Joes and all of that Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots kinda stuff back then, I have to give her credit for not tossing my baseball cards. I still keep a bunch of 'em in that box.

[DTMX]

When I was in the first grade, I got a BB gun for Christmas. I had asked Santa for a file cabinet. Don't remember why. About a year later I shot out one of the windows in my father's truck with the BB gun. Shoulda gotten me the file cabinet.

[Christiern]

I wasn't really disappointed, but when he showed up in civies and told me that he was my mother's second husband...

[BERIGAN]

You know, Santa was pretty darn good to me as a kid! If there was something I wanted and didn't get, I have since forgotten. Getting old has it's rewards.

I do remember a special Christmas were Mom, Dad and I were all really, really sick. Of course, I would still get up around 4 AM , even if I had been shot a few times....so, everyone got up, opened gifts(I remember getting Smash up derby, just about the best gift ever) Then I projectile vomited all over the living room! Soon after that, we all went back to bed, sicker than dogs. Ah, memories......

Here's a clip of smash up derby and other very ancient looking ads from the early 70's.

[BERIGAN]

.....though, while I was irked that my Mom didn't go for G.I. Joes and all of that Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots kinda stuff back then, I have to give her credit for not tossing my baseball cards. I still keep a bunch of 'em in that box.

Sounds like your Mom was a liberal! :rsmile:

And put those cards in an album, before the corners get all messed up!

[DukeCity]

I remember one Christmas when I was really little, maybe three years old. There was a large box under the tree for a few days before Christmas, and they told me it was addressed to me, so I was just obsessed with it. Came time to open presents and that's the one I went for first. Ripped it open, only to find that it was just full of crinkled up newspaper. I FREAKED!!! and threw a tantrum at having been so duped. Apparently there was also a note in the box "from Santa" saying to look in another room for my present, a shiny new tricycle that they were hurredly wheeling out. Of course, being three, I had no use for a note, and the whole schtick was a flop.

Thanks for asking. I need a drink...

[sidewinder]

This isn't so much of a disappointment as a Santa-disaster one year when I was a youngster - sneeking a peak from the ladder in the attic before the day to check out what pressies had been bought (Subbuteo, Scalectrix, model railway etc) when I dislodged a huge great (and expensive) bottle of "Oil of Olay" that my mum had bought for one of my aunts. Took ages to clean the pink gunk from the carpet (which left a major stain) and explaining the whole thing to my folks was tortuous.

Of course, I can look back on it all now and laugh !

Edited December 23, 2007 by sidewinder

[mikeweil]

Santa never brought me the things I really wanted, but I got plenty o' nice things from my wife on the way ...

[Achtung Dr. Freud Calling]

terribly disappointed when we knocked off that liquor store and Santa only got half of the cash out of ze register!

[JSngry]

http://www.samstoybox.com/toys/LieSpyDetector.html

Every year for about 5-6 years, I asked for one of these things. Never got it. Never. Got pertnear everything else I asked for except this.

I still don't understand.

[Herb]

Santa never really disappointed me as a kid. The first disappointment was when I had my own kid and I had to BE Santa! It can be expensive!

[Christiern]

http://www.samstoybox.com/toys/LieSpyDetector.html

Every year for about 5-6 years, I asked for one of these things. Never got it. Never. Got pertnear everything else I asked for except this.

I still don't understand.

They obviously didn't believe you when you said you wanted a lie detector

or

they feared overload.

[JSngry]

I think it mighta been too hi-tech for them.

My dad was a bit of a technophobe 'til the day he died. Even reading assembly instructions was enough to get him all fired up. Mom's less of one, but anything that requires more than one level of input gets her dander up.

I met a kid who had one of those games one time, and played it at his house. It was cool! Heavy plastic, thick-ass hard cardboard, a loud buzzer, and a needle that moved!

Things don't always go the way we want them to. Yet we can still be happy anyway. I doubt that was their intent, but that was the result.

But the Lie Detector game & a 1966 Topps Willie Mays card are the two great voids of my childhood. And I refuse to fill them by paying inflated "collector's" prices just to resolve some out-of-balance childhood nostalgia. I guess they're my Rosebuds.

[Christiern]

Apropos AWNG (always wanted, never got), I used to dream of having a toy car that one could ride around in. There was a time when my mother was having a secret affair with a golf pro who periodically lent legitimacy to a Copenhagen department. store's (Magasin du Nord) sports dept. She used to take me along when she went to see him, and park me in the adjoining toy dept. I think I made a nuisance of myself when I rode around in one of their cars. The hint was never taken and I remained a child pedestrian.

[rachel]

When I was in the first grade, I got a BB gun for Christmas. I had asked Santa for a file cabinet. Don't remember why. About a year later I shot out one of the windows in my father's truck with the BB gun. Shoulda gotten me the file cabinet.

I love this story!

[Dave Garrett]

But the Lie Detector game & a 1966 Topps Willie Mays card are the two great voids of my childhood. And I refuse to fill them by paying inflated "collector's" prices just to resolve some out-of-balance childhood nostalgia. I guess they're my Rosebuds.

1966 Topps Willie Mays #1

Not a card collector (although I used to be as a kid), but this one seems to be very reasonably priced compared to all of the other "collectors' priced" ones that a quick google turned up.