It was almost Christmas in 1868 and David Linsley was a 6-year-old boy looking forward to the holiday.

David would receive only one gift, and he knew exactly what he wanted, a brass top.

On Christmas Eve, David spun his small top for the first time and unknowingly began a family tradition that continues to this day.

This Christmas, Linsley’s descendants will celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Christmas top by spinning it Christmas Eve in Deer Park, Wash.

The tradition began in Red Wing, Minn., where Dolph Linsley bought the spinning top for his young son, David. David treasured the toy so much that he began a personal tradition of spinning it every year on Christmas Eve.Christmas 1964

“Reflecting the sturdy workmanship of another generation, the small top is mounted in a heavy steel wire frame with a wooden handle,” a writer describes the top in a Dec. 24, 1964, Oshkosh Daily Northwestern article. “The spinner pulls the string and releases the toy from its frame for a merry spin.”

Today, the Forman family continues David’s tradition, carrying the top to wherever they may be celebrating Christmas.

Even Litchfield has a place in the top’s history.

In 1969, Dorothy Harmon of the Independent Review wrote about the top in her “On the Home Front” column after receiving a clipping from the Oshkosh newspaper about the top. Harmon contacted the then-keeper of the brass top, James Linsley, who returned a letter.

“This top was a Christmas present to my father when he was about 6 years old,” wrote David’s son, James. “It was a family tradition to spin this top at Christmas time, and the only time we know of that it was not spun was the Christmas that my father and our hired man arrived in Litchfield on the way down from Morris, Minn.”

According to family history, 1904 was the first year the top did not spin since the Linsley family was completing its move to Litchfield on Christmas Eve and the top was packed deep inside the wagons.

Read the full story in the Dec. 25 Independent Review.