52 Ancestors: Holidays - Dolls

I don't have many memories of holidays as a child (that was a LONG time ago) but I do have a few memories that involve dolls.

My parents were raised in different faiths - my father Jewish and my mother Christian.  While "technically" we were not Jewish since our Mother was a Gentile, they agreed that the kids would be raised Jewish and Mom non-formally converted.  But one thing she said she could never take away from her kids was Santa Claus.  Which was definitely a bonus for us as we celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas - SCORE!

When I think about those long-ago holidays, the clearest memories I have is of dolls.  I don't remember specifics as to how old I was when I received which doll but as I was rummaging through my hope chest the other day, I came across some that I've held on to all these years.

Little Women was a favorite book back then and while I don't remember too many specifics of the book, I do remember that my favorite character was Jo.  I'm not sure what it was about Jo that drew me in but it must have been something for me to hang on to this doll all these years.  Boy, she has sure seen better days!

Her poor arms and legs are falling off - a sign of a well loved doll.

I seem to remember that my sister liked Amy and had a doll much like this.

And a few years later when Troll dolls were all the rage, I had quite a collection.  But these two seem to be the only ones I hung on to.

There were always dolls in our bedroom.  When my parents or grandparents were traveling, they would often bring home a doll or two to add to our collection.  There was a shelf in our room up by the ceiling where we could display the dolls and they could collect dust.  

I remember one very special doll that, apparently, I played with quite a bit as she is very beat up.  See her up above in the middle of the shelf?

But no doll was as special to me as Tiny Thumbelina.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to save her but I remember she looked something like this.

Tiny Thumbelina was not only a very special doll because she moved like a real baby but she is how I found out about Santa Claus!

I must have been about 8 or 9 years old when my cousin came for a visit from Kentucky shortly before Christmas.  She was right between my sister and me in age and we had a lot of fun playing together.  While we had a pretty cool play house in the back yard, we had sort of outgrown it so didn't play in it often.  But to my cousin, it must have looked pretty interesting so she asked if we could go out to play.  Sure, let's go.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the door and saw a bunch of toys stacked inside.  What was that?  So, of course, inquiring minds wanted to know so we quietly stepped inside to take a look.  And there amongst the toys was a Tiny Thumbelina doll brand new in her box!  I never said a word to my parents but when Christmas morning rolled around and that beautiful Tiny Thumbelina doll was under the tree with my name on it, I figured it out.  My parents were Santa Claus!

I don't think kids are as fond of dolls as we were but boy did we have fun playing with our dolls!