Stars Recall Fave Holiday Surprises!

Sure, their fame and wealth can buy Hollywood celebrities all manner of exciting toys. But nobody ever forgets the simpler stocking stuffers — and bigger gift-wrapped goodies — they truly yearned for as kids. Now, join TV Guide Online as we take the stars down Santa's snow-covered memory lane to recall their Yuletide jollies. What's the best holiday present you ever got growing up?

Jim Belushi (According to Jim ): "Well, I ask for it every year, and I never get it — a TV Guide cover."

Busy Philipps (Dawson's Creek ): "My favorite toy I received growing up was a Barbie dream house when I was 5 years old. My dad stayed up all night putting it together. A piece was missing, so we had to make another piece to replace it."

Jill Hennessy (Crossing Jordan ): "I remember one December, it was just before Christmas. My sister and I had asked our father for a toboggan or sleds so we could go sledding... We were at a gas station once and it was the middle of a blizzard and we got stuck. The car wouldn't move, and so I wanted to go help my father because he was out there pushing the car. And I saw he had these sort of round plastic discs, and he was putting them in the trunk. I said, 'Hey Dad, what are those?' And he said, 'Oh, these... will help get the car out of the snow.' Christmas morning rolls around and these plastic discs are under the tree — they're snow saucers! And I just love my dad so much that he just tried to cleverly mask the fact that these were our Christmas gifts."

Terry Bradshaw (Fox Sports commentator): "When I was a scrawny, no-account 7-year-old with no accomplishments and worse prospects, I begged my dad for a football. The answer was 'No, no, no,' but I kept on begging and eventually wore him out. Under the tree that Christmas was, sure enough, a Sears Roebuck genuine leather football. My dad told me it had better last a year, so whenever it started to show some wear and tear, I'd string new shoelaces through the holes and re-paint the stripes with house paint. By the next Christmas, I guess I'd thrown that ball a thousand miles, but it sure looked good."

Peter Boyle (Everybody Loves Raymond ): "My favorite Christmas present of all was the birth of my two daughters. One was born just before Christmas and one was born just after Christmas."

Danica McKellar (The West Wing ): "The one thing that stands out most was this do it yourself make-up kit called Fresh 'N Fancy... It was like a little chemistry set, only for make-up. I wanted this thing so badly. I don't remember wanting anything else so much before or since... and the stuff was awful. I look back at pictures, and I remember it was like turquoise blue gooey stuff that you would stir together and put on your eyelids."

Jean Smart (In-Laws ): "When I was 7, I saw this doll at the store that I really wanted, but I didn't think there was any way I would get it because it was too much money... She was very glamorous. She had a blue net sparkly dress and high heels and blond curly hair and bright red shiny lips and little pearl earrings that you just kind of jammed into her ears with a tack. My sister wanted it too, but my parents said, 'Oh, I don't know if we can do that.' We saw the boxes under the tree Christmas morning, and we just knew as soon as we saw the shape of the box what it was, and we were so excited. But my sister looked at mine and she said that the lips on mine were redder and shinier, and that the skirt was fluffier and poofier — so later that day she switched them, and tried to convince me that no, no, no, that [one] was mine."

Dennis Farina (In-Laws): "A red radio flyer wagon. And I got it from my brother Roland. It had to be about 1948 or '49... I had it for years. I was always tagging it behind me."

Jessica Capshaw (The Practice ): "I got a Cabbage Patch doll from my mom when they were impossible to get. She later told me that she had to buy it off the black market. That was the best!"
Read this week's TV Guide magazine for more of the stars' toy stories!