We Asked People How Their Parents Made Their Childhood Magical, And They're Sharing The Sweetest Stories
We recently shared a post featuring stories of heartwarming things parents did to make their kids' childhoods feel magical. At the end of the post, we asked the Buzzfeed Community to share their childhood memories, and they had so many lovely stories! Here are 20 of the sweetest:
1."My mother was an excellent baker. Our birthday tradition was to choose our dinner and cake, and she would make the dinner (which she did regularly) and bake our special cake. My special cake was a chocolate chip cake."
"When I left for college, she continued baking me the cake every year and mailing it to me on dry ice. My birthday is in January, so it arrived frozen. One year, I was writing a paper with friends, and we all enjoyed my delicious, frozen chocolate chip cake."
2."When I was in first grade, we had a special Valentine's Day craft that our parents could come and join. My parents told me that they could not come due to having to work."
"But on the day of the event, while I was waiting in line for lunch, my dad came down the steps. He ate lunch with me, and then we made a Valentine's Day card, which I still have."
3."My dad and I would play checkers together all my growing up years, and he'd sometimes let me win and make me think I was getting so good at it. Fast forward to 2006, Dad was working a side woodworking business. He decided to make me a high school graduation gift but was in a time crunch so he brought it home with the lacquer on it, still wet and fresh...."
"Well, that made him high while driving, and he wrecked his truck. But he still got that gift to me on time. What was it? A checkered table with a drawer so we could play checkers at any time, and I could store it in the table! 😭😭😭 He passed away from cancer in 2011. But I still have that table."
4."This was the '70s; we were poor, and my parents took us to Disney in Florida. Things were much cheaper, but my parents got all the loose change in the house for tolls, and we camped in the KOA all the way and back for $1.00 a night."
"I know my parents spent everything they had, and we stopped at McDonald's. We kids ate, and I found out later that my parents didn't, and we had no idea. Get this: a single ticket to Disney in 1974 was $4.50. I still have the yellowing photos. Not once did we kids ever consider ourselves poor."
5."My mom used to send me little care packages once I moved out at 18. Just stuff from the dollar store, but they were always seasonal/holiday-specific, and it made me feel like I had a little bit of home with me since my mom was always decorating for the seasons and holidays. I started sending them to my sister when our mom passed away."
"One of the things my partner started for my daughter, and both she and I adore, is an Easter Bunny hunt. He hides eggs all over the house, but also little prizes, and you have to follow the clues left by the Easter Bunny to find them. We're always a tiny bit too late to catch the Easter Bunny, but you can always hear him running down the hallway and out the front door, lol. He also throws rocks into the lake near our home when my daughter's not looking, and he claims it was a Lurmaid (a lake mermaid, obviously) popping up to look at her. She thinks it's just the greatest!"
6."My mom made reindeer hoof prints in the grass and dirt for Christmas, she also took a bite out of a dog treat we left the reindeer so my sister and I wouldn’t be sad they didn’t get their treat. Mom even made rabbit foot prints on the kitchen floor leading in from the back door for Easter and a trail of jelly beans around the house for us to follow to our baskets."
"I still laugh til I tear up when I think of her putting a handful of jellybeans in the toilet… God, I have the best mom. I love her so much. I can’t imagine doing the bare minimum with all she was going through at the time (college, work, and taking care of our aging great-grandparents), but she always went the extra mile to make our childhood fun and magical. I’m gonna buy her something nice on my way home and give her a hug! 🥹💕
7."My childhood best friend had a journal she would write in every night, and while she was sleeping, her mom would take it and write her a note back. They did it throughout her whole childhood, I believe even into high school."
"It was a great way of communicating in a special way and probably also a good way for her to talk to her mom about stuff she might not be comfortable discussing face to face because of puberty. I was always very jealous of it. What a great collection of childhood mementos they have now."
8."I had multiple tooth surgeries as a child and would ask if the tooth fairy would still visit if my teeth had been taken out instead of falling out by themselves. My dad said he would 'put in a call' so they know to visit me after the surgery."
"When he died in 2020, and I had to clear out his bedside table, I found a small bag of every single tooth I’d ever lost as a child. I miss him every day."
9."I was quite the budding chef as a young kid, and I once made 'pizza': ketchup and cucumbers on whole wheat bread, and my dad and mom ate it while I watched and praised me. Looking back, it probably tasted disgusting, and it’s so sweet that they would do that for me."
10."My mother made Christmas so magical. We were dirt poor, so Santa had to be real because how was I getting a Cabbage Patch Doll in 1983?! I have no idea how she did it, and it wasn’t just the gifts."
"She was invested in the Santa magic, so she did so much to prove Santa was real, even once leaving a beer for Santa (because my mom was sober by then), and sure enough, he drank some. Found out years later, she went to the neighbor's house to pour some out because she didn’t want me to maybe (not sure how I would have) smell it in the sink. She was committed! I still love Christmas because of it, even though she’s gone."
11."My mom and I were pretty poor and struggled financially. I never realized that, though, until I grew up. I never noticed a lack in finances because our home was full of love."
"She had to walk me to school because we didn’t have a car, and she didn’t want me to ride the bus. On the way to school was a little corner store, and we would stop there some mornings to get chocolate milk and a small pack of those white powdered donuts. That’s one of my most treasured memories."
12."My mom was a bad human. But every now and then, she would have good days and say, 'Let's get lost.' We would drive around for so long just taking it all in. Now I have a 'Let's get Lost' sticker on my back window, and my little family constantly goes for little adventures. So if you see me making a silly (legal) u-turn — just know we're getting lost."
13."My sister and I were very into animals and nature as we were growing up. My best memory is getting a hand-made voucher for a falconry experience one Christmas when I was about 12. My parents booked a falconer to meet us in the woods with a Peregrine and a Harris Hawk. My sister and two cousins got to fly the hawks; amazing experience!"
"Also, my Dad drove me to riding lessons twice a month for about 10 years. We lived in a big city, and he'd have to drive quite a long way to stay for the lessons. Even now, if I'm back in Blighty for a visit (I'm 34), he always asks me if he should book a trek...despite the fact I have my own pony here in DE. :-)"
14."My dad doesn’t like blue M&M's, and blue is my favorite color. He would save them up and hide them in my bag randomly. I remember my first weeklong trip without any family, and the first night, I was getting anxious. When I got ready for bed, I found a quart mason jar full of blue peanut M&M's."
15."My family normally doesn’t celebrate Christmas, so we never had a Christmas tree growing up. Despite this, on the night of one Christmas Eve, my parents decided to place a gift under/next to our pillows when we were asleep, so we woke up to gifts from 'Santa.'"
"Can’t remember what my siblings received but I got a complete toy tool set box. I don’t know why I was given that, but I still remember my excitement and the whole experience, so maybe it was a toy I had been begging for at the time. I don’t recall if they did this again, but I remember this specific incident for sure."
16."When I was little, I would wait at the head of the driveway for my dad to come home from work. He always brought me a piece of gum. He told me the gum turtle would crawl onto his shoulder and drop a piece of gum into his shirt pocket every day."
"After he passed, in 2020, I got a tattoo of a turtle, blowing a bubble, in honor of him. It is on the front of my shoulder, right above where a shirt pocket would be."
17."When my kiddo lost their last tooth I was totally out of cash or coins. I wrote a check and signed it 'Tooth Fairy.' They still have it. They turn 29 in a few weeks."
18."My cousin, who lived in a more rural area, was staying in NYC with my grandma and uncle when he was woken at night by lights flashing all over the ceiling. Not realizing it was probably from cars or other apartments, he ran into my uncle’s room to say there were ghosts in his room flying all around."
"My uncle didn’t dismiss it by saying there are no such things as ghosts. Instead, he grabbed a broom and started sweeping at the ceiling, telling the ghosts to get the hell out and leave his nephew alone. At the same time, the lights went out. My cousin suddenly felt safe and now had a way to get rid of any ghosts that showed up at home."
19."I made nightmare spray for my girls. It was essential oils and water, and it seemed to work every time. No nightmares!"
20.And finally, "When my siblings and I were little and still believed in Santa, my mom had my dad go outside one Christmas Eve night when we were all in bed to ring some jingle bells. We were absolutely convinced it was Santa heading towards our house. 40 years later, it is still one of my most magical memories."
These stories have totally brought a tear to my eye! I have to know — do these sweet stories spur any other memories from your childhood or inspire you to do something special for your kids to keep the magic alive? Let us know in the comments.
Comments have been edited for length and clarity.
