As an adult, I’ll admit that sometimes it’s hard to remember gifts I’ve gotten for Christmases past. These days, I have clearer memories of gifts I’ve given to friends and family than gifts I’ve received.

But, to me, the best Christmas gifts are the ones you don’t expect; the ones that are truly surprises that elicit the biggest smiles and the cheers (or tears) of joy.

I got a lot of great gifts as a kid and I was always excited for Christmas Day to arrive. Whatever my interests were during a particular year, Santa Claus always delivered on Christmas Day, whether it was sports apparel or wrestling and Star Wars action figures.

When I was 8 or 9, I got one of those surprise gifts from my Dad: a BB gun. I don’t remember making it my mission to get one for Christmas like Ralphie Parker did in ‘A Christmas Story’, but when I opened it, I was definitely in awe and it’s a gift I spent many hours enjoying.

Three years ago, I got another surprise gift when my wife got me a record player.

It was truly a surprise because it really was unexpected. During a trip downstate that fall, we stopped at a bookstore where several record players were on display and I stopped for a few minutes to look at them.

As wrapped presents accumulated under the tree in the days leading up to Christmas, a big box appeared with my name on it. I was certain I knew what was in it, but I was proven wrong when I unwrapped the gift I thought was in the box earlier in the night.

That left me wondering just what the heck was in the big box and what was in the flat square packages my wife had instructed me to open last. When the time came, I tore off the wrapping paper on the big box to reveal a new record player and bluetooth speaker. The flat, square packages turned out to be records and I spent a few weeks rotating albums by The Beatles, Greta Van Fleet, and Metallica.

Listening to music has always been one of my favorite ways to relax and growing up, I would often listen to my parents’ record collection, spending time listening to The Beatles or Led Zeppelin. But as a kid who grew up listening to music on cassette tapes, CD players and then iPods, vinyl albums, while interesting, seemed a little antiquated.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that surprise gift I received three Christmases ago made me give vinyl another look. That gift began an interest in vinyl and a quest to add to my collection whenever possible.

Within a month, I visited Noise and Toys in downtown Alpena and walked out with at least a half dozen new records. I shopped online and stocked up on brand new copies of classic albums with gift cards. After a long day of work – which sometimes meant getting home after midnight – I’d put on an album or two to unwind.

Vinyl has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years, but I like that I can visit a used record store and find great music at a reasonable price. Since then I’ve made a point to stop in to Noise and Toys about once a month and I usually leave with at least one new record.

Any time I’m traveling and there’s a record store nearby, I try to stop if I can, if for no other reason than to browse for a few minutes. In almost three years since being gifted the record player, I have a couple of crates full of albums. Streaming services are incredibly convenient – and I use them frequently – but I’ve come to appreciate the rich, full sound of an album on vinyl.

I’ve gotten a lot of great Christmas gifts through the years, but that record player is one that I appreciate each day and one that I’ll no doubt enjoy for many years to come.