Christmas always memorable for Sale family

Chris Sale is a four-time All-Star. Sale holds the White Sox record for strikeouts in a season. Sale is a no-hitter waiting to happen.

But the White Sox ace's resume clearly was missing one distinct honor: Being the subject of the MLB.com Holiday Q&A. That issue has been rectified in 2015, with the always-good-natured southpaw looking at holiday memories past, present and future.

MLB.com: What was your favorite Christmas moment growing up?

Sale: I have two of them, actually.

One of them when I was younger. I was probably 6, 7 or 8 years old, somewhere around there. My uncle got me, the same uncle who took me to my first baseball game at Tropicana Field, it's my dad's youngest brother, he brought this fire truck for me. It's probably three feet long, it ran at the time on 14 D batteries. Just something ridiculous. Lights, sirens, remote control, ladder went up and down. And that thing was awesome. I remember that, over at my grandparents' house.

The next one was I was 13 or 14 years old and my bike got stolen. It got stolen relatively close to Christmastime. I don't remember exactly when. I didn't have a bike until then. My parents kept telling me, "You are going to be driving in a couple of years. Don't worry about it. You don't need a new bike, they are expensive, yadda, yadda." Kind of giving me the run-around.

I come out Christmas morning, and usually all the cool gifts get laid out at night. So I'm coming out, just expecting to see this new bike sitting in there because I thought they were [teasing] me and … no bike. Nothing. I was like whatever. It's Christmas. I still have other gifts. I'm not going to be a little stinker, whatever you want to call it.

So we get done and we are cleaning up and my parents are like, "Christopher, you need to take the trash out." Trash was kind of my thing when I was growing up, so, all right, take the trash out. I walk out to take the trash out, and my bike is sitting in the garage, in between my parents' cars. And I lost it. I started screaming. I was so excited.

MLB.com: How has Christmas changed since you became a father?

Sale: Christmas is more fun now that I'm a father. I love playing Santa Claus, especially since my son is at the perfect age. He's 5 years old and he still loves Christmas, Santa, the whole nine.

To see the excitement that he has and remembering when I was around that age and having that same excitement, seeing him. I love having our whole family together. It's nice to have my parents, my in-laws, my brother and sister-in-law, my sister and brother-in-law. We all get together and we all have a really good time together. We play yard games, ping pong, go swimming in the pool. It's fun.

MLB.com: Who is more difficult to shop for: your son (Rylan) or your wife (Brianne)?

Sale: My wife is easy to shop for. Really easy to shop for. I would say, neither. I'm good at getting gifts.

MLB.com: Describe any traditions or a typical holiday celebration for your family.

Sale: On Christmas Eve, we always go to a candlelight service at my wife's grandparents' church. We come home and Rylan gets to open one present. That's what I did, my sister and I, we got to open one present on Christmas Eve, kind of as the tester. My parents picked out the gift, so you don't get the cool one right out of the gate. Then usually we just sit around as a family. We all just kind of hang out, sit around, play card games or hit golf balls in the backyard. We find a way to stay busy and have a good time.

MLB.com: What's your favorite holiday-themed movie?

Sale: You got to go with the classic, like "Home Alone." That's hilarious. I really like "Elf," with Will Ferrell. I actually watched that [recently]. And [White Sox Minor League conditioning coordinator] Dale Torborg, Demon, has given me a list of movies, because I haven't seen "A Christmas Story."

He said my homework for the offseason was to watch that movie around Christmastime, and he said he was going to quiz me. He told me I had to watch "Christmas Vacation" and "Elf," and they were hilarious. "A Christmas Story" is the only one I haven't watched.

MLB.com: Do you have a favorite holiday song?

Sale: I'll be honest with you: we have Christmas music that plays around the house when the family is here to get in the spirit. But I don't pay attention to it that much.

MLB.com: Let's close with gifts you would give for some key baseball people. How about White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf?

Sale: A signed bat from me, because he got more than he bargained for. He thought he was just getting a pitcher, and I got a hit [in St. Louis].

MLB.com: And White Sox fans?

Sale: Clearly the World Series trophy. I don't know if I can give that to them, but I would like to get one for them, put it that way. We'll just call it a Christmas gift. It's more like an all-offseason gift.