The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for December 26, 2022

If ya don’t ask, you never know for sure, Wilburforce. Kind of like Brutus asks for raises occasionally.

It’s difficult to return gifts to the North Pole.

Next year, ask Santa for clothes made of rubber and leather – I’ll bet you get more toys ;)

Good parenting from Brutus on this occasion. Sometimes you have to lay down the law.

You aren’t supposed to get things you needed for presents; parents should supply clothes all year around.

From around the age of seven, I noticed my mother always gave me a package of three pairs of socks. Every year. After I moved away, every time I visited for Christmas, I got a package with three pairs of socks. This went on for the next 55 years until my mother passed.

Baa, humbug!

It was a clothes call but they made it through Christmas.

I would get clothes and a few toys at Christmas. The only clothing I got excited about were the Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers button down western shirts.

well nuts… guess he’ll have to give last years clothes instead. ;)

if it’s something you needed it’s not a gift as it would have been purchased anyway.

Nice try though Wilberforce. I never would have thought of that when I was a kid. However, we were so poor back then that a new pair of pants, especially jeans, WAS a treat…..

Tube socks. The bane of every child’s Xmas.

There are worse gifts than clothing for kids, just look at poor Ralphie and his Pink Bunny Suit.

Based on Brutus saying “more” I have to believe the kid got plenty of toys. Note to Wilberforce- trying to beat Dad in the stink-eye gambit may come back to bite you in the rear. Nice to see Mom and Dad working in sync!

He should have asked for a Red Ryder carbine action range model 200 shot air rifle with a compass in the stock.

Some people like practical presents, but those people usually aren’t kids.

My daughter, when she was 5 or so, would get clothes for Christmas. She LOVED them (still does). She would stop opening her presents, run to her room to try on whatever we gave her, and come back to show us. I had to tell her to wait and open her presents first, and then she could do a fashion show. She did this until she was a teenager.

Kids are different. Some want only toys, some want anything they can open, as the fun of opening a present is as much fun for them as the actual gift. Some are probably happy with one large gift they asked for all year long, maybe a bike. We should know our kids and try to arrange their day as best we can to make them happy. They don’t stay little very long.

we were just so happy that the parents let us out of our cages to open presents that we were satisfied with whatever we got…

I’ve heard tales of people years ago receiving an apple and an orange for Christmas and being happy with that. I wonder how Wilberforce would react to such gifts.