19 people share the most valuable Christmas present they ever received.

The chore of getting Christmas presents can feel like an exhausting exercise in wondering 'will they ever even use this,' but when you absolutely crush the family white elephant game, you have permission to brag for years...

Even if a gift isn't the most expensive or popular present in the store, a sentimental and thoughtful gift from the heart can be far more memorable. So, when a Reddit user asked, 'What's the best Christmas present you've received?' people started sharing the holiday gifts they're still grateful for to this day. Take notes, shoppers! Note: you can never go wrong with socks, cash, or snacks.

1.

I was probably 8 or 9 years old and I got this toy truck that would respond to voice commands. I played with that thing all the time because it was fun. It lit up, made noise and drove forward. Over time, it just stopped working, but my grandma wouldn't throw away any toys us kids had.

After my grandma passed away in 2017, I was trying to keep busy and decided to clean up the toy box. I opened up the battery compartment and there was a note in my grandpa's hand writing saying 'Mary-Lou, don't replace batteries, this thing is annoying. -Bill'

I replaced the batteries and it still works. Knowing that my grandpa took the batteries out and there was nothing wrong with it made me smile. I miss my grandparents so much. - acheron53

2.

I was seven years old in ICU with pneumonia. It was horrible timing because Christmas was that week. The nurses brought in a massive television with a Nintendo GameCube hooked up to it.

The only game I played was Mario sunshine the entire time I was in the hospital. I love that game so much! It was so colorful and just super exciting to play since I didn’t even know the game existed. It is still my favorite Mario game ever made but I’m biased.

Well I made it out of the hospital just a few days before Christmas and on Christmas Day we went to my aunties house. We started opening gifts and they got me my very own GameCube but it didn’t appear I had any games for it. They tricked me and hid the other gift they bought. It was Mario Sunshine.

I’ve never ever had tears of joy but when I opened these gifts I couldn’t help but cry. I was so surprised and so happy! I’ve still never experienced the same emotions I had in that day. - MoveToPluto

3.

When I was younger I was obsessed with the Spice Girls and my grandma gave me a poster of them one year for Christmas. My parents are divorced and we moved a lot with my mom but no matter how many bedrooms I had, I always had my Spice Girls poster hanging up on my door.

One of the last times we moved, my mom was packing up my room and was trying to get my poster down and she ripped it. Now not terrible, but then she threw it away without my knowing. I found out and cried and cried for days. Then with it being many years later, I couldn't ever find the same one for sale on eBay, Amazon, nothing.

I told my MIL the story like one time and 2 years ago she found it and gifted it to me for Christmas. It's the first time I've ever cried over a present like that. I still need to frame it, but it's one of my prized things now. - smoltown

4.

We didn't have a lot of money growing up, and one year my mom bought my brother and I those round sleds from the dollar store. We went to my grandmas house with them, (she had a lot of land,) and she took us sledding on the hills behind her house for literally the ENTIRE day.

So much sledding that one of the sleds got a hole in it. She finally convinced us to go inside, as I'm sure she was freezing, and made us hot chocolate. My brother and I bet her that she wouldn't wake up at 4 am the next morning and take us sledding while the sun rose...she did. I love her so much. - [deleted]

5.

Clothes and a gift card to a local grocery store worth $75 dollars. I was a broke college student, so this was the equivilant of having my wildest dreams come true. - [deleted]

6.

My mom bought me my real estate course with the little money she had left, she taped 100s into a real estate book of houses listed, I cried. 3 years later and I now pay her mortgage each month and help her buy her life saving meds. Without that gift she probably wouldn’t be alive. - WalkerJAdair

7.

A sketchbook with pencils, colored pencils and erasers from my dad. Drawing and making little comics has always been a huge hobby of mine and it felt amazing to have it acknowledged especially by my dad because he's always been supportive and interested in the things I come up with. A simple gift like that carried a lot of meaning for me. - Straight_Ace

8.

My grandmother and I have a very close relationship. When I was younger she would always read to me before I went to bed. Last Christmas she gifted me a family copy of “Anne Of Green Gables” from 1919 that she’s had since she was a little girl. It was one of the first books we read together. I cried like a baby when I opened the box.

Now that she’s getting older and is looking for projects to fill her time, I asked her if she could record herself reading it so that I can have both when she’s gone. They will be my most prized possessions probably until the day I die. - KourtneeBritney

9.

$5 when I was first settled in the US in 1982 working part time at the YMCA as a janitor for $3.35/hr. He was just a non-descriptive person who worked out regularly at the Y. The $5 was in a Christmas card with one line “I believe in you.' I am now having a comfortable middle class life with multiple houses all paid for and earning 6 figure income. Will never forget that $5 and “I believe in you” Christmas card. Thank you stranger for changing my life - tedtvo

10.

I'm adopted, my birth mom didnt remeber my birth father enough to include any info on heritage or anything like that. I've always been curious where the other half of me is from. My best friend has always known this so him and his girlfriend got me a 23andMe so I can find out more about myself and where I come from! - Funny-Tub

11.

I was 8 years old and my family was dirt poor. My family had just filed for bankruptcy and my mother can’t hold a job, so my dad was working overtime at his gas station job. My parents told me that they just couldn’t manage to buy Christmas presents that year so I was pretty sad considering I was 8, but I understood why.

Come Christmas morning, I don’t even rush out of bed because I knew nothing would be waiting for me, but I go out in to the living room and there’s a single hula hoop propped up against the tree with my name on it. I was so surprised and happy that I cried. I used that piece of plastic until it fell apart. - jraay

12.

The Christmas before my father passed away he gave me a necklace, which was very unusual. He normally just gave me cash. The necklace was three hearts intertwined, and engraved on the back was, “My little girl yesterday, my friend today, my daughter forever.”

He knew how sick he was but he never told anyone, and he died the following August. The pattern of that necklace is my first and only tattoo (I got it done a week after he died.). I plan on giving the necklace to my own daughter someday. - kikikiwi625

13.

I know you’re not supposed to give pets as gifts, but a few days before Christmas, when I was nine, my mum gave me a little kitten. She was the last one left and was small, skinny with runny eyes and runny nose. I adored her and for 12 years she was the light of my life. - Cocobean4

14.

One year my nieces got me a Pillow Pet. As a dude in my mid 30's I'm not exactly the Pillow Pet demographic...Two years earlier I had found Pillow Pets, and in a total win at Uncle-ing I was on the craze way before it got big. They loved them, everyone at their school loved them, big win.

So, a few years later when they found a Dragon Pillow Pet they insisted they get it for me. Their mother, my sister, was skeptical that I would want such a thing. I loved it, not because I need or want it, but because they wanted me to have it because they loved their own so much. I know I've recieved bigger gifts and others that were given with the same kind of love, but this one sticks out. - MrShortPants

15.

Conversation with my uncle, Christmas day 2001:

Uncle: So have you seen Lord of the Rings yet?

12 year old me: No, what's Lord of the Rings?

Uncle: Oh dude, you absolutely have to see it. I'm taking you to the theater to see it tomorrow, done deal. And that's where my Tolkien obsession began. - beneath_the_wheel

16.

RAM upgrade. I was a budding PC gamer but knew jack-all about how computers worked. My grandfather (retired computer engineer) gave me a RAM upgrade and taught me how to install it safely and explained what it was going to do for me. Now I work in IT and still find computers fascinating (and I still play a ton of games). - AwkwardVoicemail

17.

When I was a little girl (5 or 6) I was obsessed with ballerinas. My dad got me tickets to a professional performance of the Nutcracker. It was just him and me. I still remember feeling so grown up when we had dinner beforehand in a grown-up restaurant. The ballet was beautiful. It was just a wonderful day. - pghdetdencol

18.

My sister had a local artist convert photos of my 2 previous and 1 current dog into pokemon cards and then those cards beautifully framed. The cards were of supreme quality, the art was reminiscent of the old classics and the movesets/tiny details were amazing. To see my beloved family members immortalized in one of my favourite mediums was really touching. - 1stOnRt1

19.

My mom passed from cancer this year, she had been stage 4 for 11 years and passed at 55 years old, so pretty young. Last year Christmas was really emotional as things were taking a turn for the worse. My mom made me a large shadow box with ticket stubs she had saved from every concert we went to since I was a kid (both big fans of music). Mr. Dressup, Pearl Jam, White Stripes etc.

Not only had she saved these over the years, she went online and got post cards, buttons and patches from the specific tour dates we attended to go with the stubs. The moment I unwrapped it, and realized what it was, I burst into tears and cried for a good while. It was a very heavy moment and one of the best gifts I've ever been given. - neverw1ll