Revision Wonderzine recalls the brightest gifts in your life

New Year is also a mandatory series of gifts. You can relate to the tradition in different ways: someone is sincerely happy to give presents on New Year's Eve, while others, on the contrary, do not like congratulations on a schedule. But those and others almost certainly will have a story about the most memorable gift in their life — the most beloved and dear or, on the contrary, strange and incomprehensible as being under a tree. We in the editorial office remembered several gifts for the New Year and not only that impressed us the most - and we share them with you.

Dasha Knyazeva

Editor section "Style"

As far as I can remember, every year at the beginning of December, we dressed up a Christmas tree and the whole family laid all the gifts already packed for December. Almost always it was a surprise - I think I never once guessed what was hidden in the box. Memory erased almost all gifts from childhood - except for one. I was eleven or twelve years old, and at this age you are hardly able to enjoy practical gifts (at least I did not always succeed). Expanding the festive packaging, I found snowboard gloves - neon yellow, with gray accents and special protection. Then I was just starting to ride, but the outfit and appearance for some strange reason did not bother me at all. I couldn’t hide my disappointment - the shameful “Is this all?” Seems to haunt me all my life. Now I understand how progressive and cool that gift was - real proof that the family supports what you do. I am grateful to my mother for a calm and wise reaction - she endured my words with dignity. And I still remember the present!

Ksyusha Petrova

editor of growth and distribution

I adore choosing and giving presents: I’m keeping a special list in Google documents where I write gift ideas for friends throughout the year, and I also regularly update my wishlist. But most of all I like unexpected gifts that I would never have thought of asking. Perhaps the champion in such gifts is my friend Diana Kostina, a very serious lawyer who in 2014 gave me a birthday rap. Rap about me. It was like this: we were in a bar with a group of friends and acquaintances, where every Thursday we drank a near-poetic party - everyone who wanted could go to the microphone, freestyle or read poetry, improvise on different instruments. At some point, Diana came out, asked friends to portray the beatbox and read a rap about me - unfortunately, I don’t remember the text exactly, but on the whole it was about how cool I am and how great I am. The best congratulations for a person who loves to lie down and cry on his birthday can’t be imagined.

There were other strange and cool gifts - for example, on March 8, a former guy gave me a pink kitchen knife, for which I had to go through a small quest with the participation of friends. I love it when friends give me their pictures (Sasha and Masha, draw more!). It seems that I have never been disappointed with a gift - first of all I am pleased with the fact that a person chose something, thinking about me. And if this is also a useful thing, which is nice to see - generally super.

Anya Airapetova

Editor section "Entertainment"

Probably, I have a very bad memory, and it is quite possible that in twenty-nine years I have been given much more unexpected, chic or, on the contrary, terrible gifts, but for some reason this one crashed into my memory. It was difficult to call me a diligent student, but when in May, when I was in my second year at university, I began to meet with a skater, my studies were under threat. The logical outcome of this, undoubtedly, the "most important" novel of my life was the expulsion from the university. I was eighteen years old. For my mom, this was a huge blow - is it worth saying what kind of atmosphere reigned in our home until I recovered.

My birthday was coming up. Each year, parents, as a rule, gave me what I wanted, but then no one even became interested in my desires. As a result, on the nineteenth anniversary, I unexpectedly received not one, but two gifts. The first was a checkered wool scarf - why not, it was quite beautiful and warm. But here is the second gift ... I still don’t know if it was a gift of revenge - or my parents really for some reason decided to make me happy that way. The second gift was a porcelain doll - from the category of those who are given passports with the names, mine was recorded by Elizabeth. She had amber blinding curls, a half-Victorian outfit, and an absent look.

Understand me correctly, I know that there are people who collect dolls. And I do not even have anything against it. But in my life I was not fond of porcelain dolls, I never gave a reason to think that they were interesting to me, and just in case I want to remind you that I was already nineteen. When you are given something of fashionable technology every year, a porcelain doll scares in earnest. As luck would have it, mom put her in the most prominent place in my room - on the dresser in front of the bed. Every day I woke up and fell asleep under her gaze. Every time when I hid her in the closet and left the apartment, on returning, she was back in place and eyes being drilled on my bed. It was a horror movie.

I have not lived with my parents for a long time and I do not remember when I last saw Elizabeth, but I think that if I open the closet in my former room, I will again find her there.

Anastasia Narushevich

Editor section "News"

Once upon a time, when good cartoons were shown on TV, and I had not yet gone to school, my parents decided to celebrate the New Year with the family of my father's colleagues. I don’t remember the details and locations, but in my memory there was a clearly preserved moment of presenting gifts, which, despite the senselessness of the situation, finally spoiled my already not very festive mood.

The family of this colleague consisted of four people, two of them were brothers of the same age as me. When the clock struck twelve and we together began to look for gifts under the Christmas tree, the boys found a large box, inside of which was a real trampoline! No kidding, this is the best gift for a child of any age, and what to hide for an adult too. While they were building the design, I finally found a gift meant for me. What was my disappointment when, when I opened the package, I saw a Chinese plastic nurse kit.

Of course, one must be grateful for any gifts, whatever they are - after all, the person found the time and money to make a pleasant gesture. But we have gathered here not for the sake of moralizing, so let's go straight to the final. The rest of the holiday, I sat with a face red with tears and thought only about why I was so unfairly branded with the “for girls” toy stamp, which I had successfully exchanged for all my childhood for Lego cars and the designer.

Olga Lukinskaya

Health section editor

I love holidays and presents very much, I never feel sad before the New Year, and I always count months, weeks and days before my birthday. In my childhood I found gifts hidden by my parents several times (not by accident, but because I was actively looking for them); if they were books, then I started reading them. I remember well how my parents gave me the Guinness Book of Records and I immediately began to show them the coolest records, already knowing what pages they were on!

I believed in Santa Claus for a very long time, because mom and dad created a real fairy tale: once, for example, there was a knock at the window (and we lived on the fourth floor). When we went to the balcony, it turned out that there were gifts attached by clothes pegs on the clothes dryer. Another time, a doorbell rang for us - and a fresh Christmas tree appeared behind it! I try very hard to create the same fabulous atmosphere for my family, because this childish feeling of happiness is remembered for a lifetime.

I don’t like and don’t understand when they donate money - it seems to me that a person has not made an effort to find out about the desired gift. But there is an intermediate option when people find out what you want and give money for it, because it is physically difficult for them to buy it or there is a risk of being mistaken. On the last birthday, I wanted to subscribe to Audible, and my parents gave me money for it, because it's easier for me to arrange it.

This year we have already exchanged gifts - we begin to do it on Christmas by the Gregorian calendar, when the husband celebrates it. I got tickets for Michael Buble’s concert in September of 2019, Christopher got scooter and even little things, and her husband had a sports uniform “Barca”. It was very funny when he measured his pants, and the child happily shouted: "Es pantalón de Carlos!" Carlos is someone like a fizruk in their school, and, apparently, he has the same sweatpants; I think now they will always pass under the code name "pantalon de Carlos".

Sasha Savina

editor of the "Life" section

I have to admit that I am not the most conscious person in terms of gifts - I try to be better, but most often frantically I think what to buy, a week before the holiday. But many of my friends and relatives throughout the year write down what others would like to receive as a gift in order to buy at the right time what people will definitely be happy with - so I'm very lucky.

There were a lot of memorable gifts during life and on various holidays - for example, once in my childhood on my birthday dad presented me a box of Kinder surprises. Then I collected a collection of toy penguins and managed to get tired of chocolate (although, it seems, only half a day, and then continued) - in general, it was cool.

From a more recent memorable twenty-seventh birthday. On the eve of the summer I managed to get married - everything was fine, except for the fact that we never tried the wedding cake. At the event itself was not up to it - we put aside a couple of pieces, but did not realize to put them in the refrigerator overnight, so everything was gone. In general, on the twenty-seventh birthday, my husband ordered me a cake with the exact same filling, only smaller and with a different design - with a bow and the Wonderzine logo. Photos are not particularly preserved - except that I am crying next to him from the touching moment. In general, the matter is not at all in the cake - of course, there is nothing terrible in the fact that I did not try it at the wedding (most of my acquaintances of brides and brides basically forgot to eat), and this was not my greatest desire. The main thing - the attention and sincere desire to make another nice. This is probably the most important thing in any gift.

Julia Taratuta

Chief Editor

I can’t complain, my Santa Claus worked in an ambulance, like my best dad in the world. Therefore, with tangerines and toys came to me immediately after the rescue of people, in a white robe, knocked out from under the red velvet, and with a stethoscope on his chest. Every ten years, my friends make an incredibly touching film about me to my next anniversary. And when the publishing house, where I made a pretty women's magazine, the good owners changed into evil ones and I was left without work, my another half bought tickets to California, and there is no better gift for a person without work than the ocean and a quick ride.

But we know that for some reason gifts are remembered as incidents. Every year, my grandfather was given a wooden eagle at work — I remember a whole flock wintering at his entresol at his home. And I also had a professional gift that is hard to forget. It was in a large Moscow newspaper, I wrote about politics and social structure - it is clear that neither the first nor the second suggested a reporter's defaulting. And when, in the last week of December, real gifts — ice cream carts, champagne boxes, candy boxes, and colored bags tied with silk ribbons — were brought to the consumer departments - I had to joke gloomily: “If they were sent chocolate Santa Claus in uniform” At about this minute, the courier came in with a small box signed by my name. Asceticism seemed to make me the most appreciative addressee, ready for any development of events. But the contents of the box turned out to be a real surprise and a test of humility. It was a spoon stand. Not even a spoon, but a stand for it. A curtain.

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