A Good Gift Doesn't Have to be Expensive

Santa doesn't always give kids new toys for Christmas. He gives the best gifts. At least he tries to anyway. This year, I think that I got really good gifts for my two sons this year for Christmas.

A year or so ago, my youngest son got an old digital camera from his aunt for his birthday. It was a very simple model, low resolution, but he loved it. He takes pictures all the time. It also takes videos. He took a lot of those also. But a few weeks ago, he started trying to make his own movies. He would set out some of his army guys in front of the camera, press record and begin moving around his actors and engage them in an epic battle. Once, I saw him tie strings to a small stuffed dinosaur and try and recreate a Godzilla movie. I couldn't help but laugh and smile. He had the right ideas, but not the right tools.

I wanted him to have a good camera so that he could make his movies that also contained sound. We couldn't afford to buy him a new video camera and used ones would be too complicated I thought. I searched eBay with no luck. Then I remembered a digital camera that I was interested some time back that seemed to fit the situation.

The camera of note is the Kodak MC3. It is actually a bit more than a camera. It wasn't really well received when it came out and didn't have a very long production run. But, the features that it had appealed to me and what I thought would be good for my son. . It isn't big on resolution, but it does take movie clips with sound, pictures, and it is even an MP3 player. It is very easy to operate. No problem for my son, allowing him to concentrate on making movies. I also like the fact that it uses Compact Flash memory cards.

After another search on eBay, I found on for $14 and purchased it. Afterwards, I saw my two sons making another movie. My older son was running the camera at the direction of his younger brother. They made several "movies" this way, both enjoying it immensely. They even made papers with the title and credits on them.

I got to thinking and searched for another Kodak MC3 for my older son. I found another one cheap and ordered it. It came with a case so I found a case for the one I ordered previously plus two high capacity memory cards to hold lots of "movies" and pictures.

They finally came in the mail. I tested them, put in fresh batteries and wrapped them up. I also included a small tri-pod for each that I had purchased for my digital cameras but never used.

I am really excited to see them open their gifts on Christmas and see the look on their faces. I think that they will really like them.

A good Christmas gift doesn't always have to be a new one. Just the right one.