We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the best free or priceless gift they've ever received. Here are the heart-warming results.
1. Submitted by ChristmasEvesSister.
"My little sister was born on Christmas Eve, and she's still the best Christmas present I've ever received, free or otherwise :-D"
2. Submitted by pehalvic.
"My boyfriend and I have been dating for a while now, and for Christmas he gave me a journal full of things he'd been keeping from little dates we went on. He had things such [as] movie tickets or Chinese takeout fortunes and captioned everything with cute little messages. He even tied the journal with a ribbon I wore on Halloween that he had kept! I don't know how he hid this project from me for so long but it [was] one of the greatest gifts I've ever gotten."
3. Submitted by Stefanie Dykyj (Facebook).
"My dad had gotten into a pretty bad accident a few days before Christmas. All I wanted was for him to be home on Christmas, doctors didn't seem too hopeful for that time frame. I had gone to my uncle's for Christmas Eve and when I came home, my dad was set up with a hospital bed in the living room. My dad came home for Christmas :)"
4. Submitted by davisalayna.
"My grandma gave me her Star of David necklace when I was 14. She got it when she was 14, and passed it on to me. To this day I wear it [if] I'm scared or stressed. I grasp it and know that I'll get through whatever is happening."
5. Submitted by kirstens47010795e.
"My best friend wanted to do something really meaningful, so she took a bunch of pictures we had together and made a huge collage which now hangs on my wall. She also wrote me a note telling me how important I was to her and how much she loves me. I honestly cried, it was so heartfelt and very moving."
6. Submitted by Katrinasaurus Folberg (Facebook).
"My 4 year old nephew drew me a picture, which was a big deal since he is super shy and had never even spoken to me before. I was touched, and still am, however on further inspection I realized it was a drawing of people burning up in volcano magma and their various stages of suffering. I immediately put it front and center on my fridge 😉"
7. Submitted by rachelf44de36803.
"A quilt my great grandmother handmade me. She's been gone for a little over a year now and I still sleep with it every night. I hope to get into quilting so I can do the same for my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren some day."
8. Submitted by Malia Shoupe (Facebook).
"We had to put our family dog, a 14 year old Golden Retriever named Koa, down a last month. It was the most devastating day of our lives. Fast-forward to Christmas morning and my parents unwrap a gift from my brother-in-law addressed to the whole family. It was a hand drawn portrait of Koa from a picture we took last Christmas. I'm crying as I write this, just like we all started crying when we saw it, but it was the most thoughtful and greatest gift we ever received. We got our Koa-loa girl back for Christmas."
9. Submitted by Beth Marie Cantu (Facebook).
"My dog, Coda :) she was adopted by my (now) fiance to protect the house and [me] while he was away for work. Even though she's a big weenie, aside from him, she's the best cuddle buddy, and gives a ton of love and kisses! Rescue is the best breed!"
10. Submitted by bethanne.
"By the time my nephew was almost 3, he still wasn't talking. Just before Christmas that year he got tubes put in his ears. When he toddled into my parents' house on Christmas Eve, I knelt down to give him a hug. He got a big smile on his face and called me "Mom-sis" (His mother is my oldest sister). It was the first real word I ever heard him say…music to my ears! To this day I still remind him that he gave me the best present ever!"
11. Submitted by jennymcgrathv.
"My 6 year old niece wrapped up about 15 pieces of her Halloween candy and gave it to me for Christmas. There were several pieces of her favorite kind so I know she sacrificed something she loved to give me a gift. It melted my heart!"
12. Submitted by Meaghan Hertel (Facebook).
"Cooking and baking has always been a "right of passage" within my family. Since my grandmother passed 8 years ago, we haven't had the same holiday staples. My mother and I spent an entire weekend experimenting and trying to replicate the cookies that my grandmother made every Christmas. I was able to bring them to my family Christmas this year which caused my uncle to tear up. He told me that this was the best gift he had ever received. The knowledge and quality time that I've received from learning family recipes is the best gift I have ever received."
13. Submitted by ncolemarie.
"This Christmas my boyfriend's father asked if there was anything we needed help with at the new apartment, I quickly responded "Yes!" I had been wanting a console table for the back of the couch. I showed him a few photos of ideas I had wanted to build and he immediately headed down to the basement and spent all of Christmas Day building a gorgeous piece. Not only do I have a unique table, I got wonderful quality time."
14. Submitted by maddys47d367ad1.
"One of my 2 best friends made a jar of pink, blue and green notes for each of us (me and the other girl in our group) since she's going off to college. Pink was memories, blue was song lyrics that go with our friendship and green was notes of appreciation. She made them so that when we miss her and she's at college [we'll] have the notes from her! Best gift ever, we all cried."
15. Submitted by melaniee47b878ecd.
"My boyfriend is really into metal working like welding and stuff. So for Christmas he made me this beautiful rose made out of metal. He spray painted it to make it look more realistic and everything. It was such a romantic present and caught me completely off guard because he isn't normally a super romantic guy. I keep it in a vase in my room and it's such a nice reminder of him every time I see it."
16. Submitted by dizzyizzy316.
[My Aunt Stephanie] was my mom's aunt so my great aunt. When I was 9 and struggling with all the turmoil in my life she took the time to teach me how to have fun again. My parents had recently divorced and I had a new baby brother. We were living with her while my mom got back on her feet so Aunt Stephanie would spend time with me. She would take me to the beach and show me how to explore tide pools (we had just moved from IL to WA). She found ways to challenge my mind, [since] she was a chemistry teacher. And in general she taught me that I didn't have to grow up so fast and it was okay to stay a kid a while longer. She taught me silly songs and dances and how to do fun science experiments. Her gift was her time. She died two years ago of leukemia. I will be forever grateful for the time we had."
17. Submitted by Tegan Hargreaves (Facebook).
"I'm in recovery from an eating disorder and last Christmas my sister painted me a beautiful picture with some of my favourite inspirational recovery quotes. I had no idea what it was at first, but when I realized I cried! It's beautiful and one of my favourite gifts I've ever reveived."
18. Submitted by Michelle Gazzard (Facebook).
"This was a gift from K-Mart: When my son was little, I was a single parent, struggling on the pension and I had very little money to survive on. He needed a pair of shoes and I didn't even have $5 to buy him some. But I found a pair that were perfect and would have lasted him at least a year. I picked them up to look at how much they were and the price tag said $0.00. I took the shoes to the checkout and the girl looked at them and said to me, "would you like a bag?" I said no and left with the free shoes! I'd never been so happy or shocked in my life and I thanked K-Mart and the universe for giving me the best gift ever!"
19. Submitted by Extraordnerary.
"I dated a guy in college who cut his hair into a rat tail for my 22nd birthday. It still makes me laugh and remains one of my favorite gifts of all time."