Do children think about money when they make their Christmas lists? I did. I remember lying on the floor with the FAO Schwarz catalog and eliminating things that I realized were too costly. The item that tempted me for several years was a hollowed-out log, sort of a tree house triplex, with all sorts of woodland creatures and whimsical furniture. My memory is that this cost $89.95, which I just ran through an inflation calculator; in 2003, such a toy would have cost $431.33.
Instead, I “settled” for a stable of horses at $14.95 ($71.69 in 2003 dollars) — a blue structure with four horses, one black, one white, two chestnut. I saved a lot of my toys into adulthood, but the stable was not particularly durable. The horses’ legs tended to break and, well, what Horace McCoy said.
So make a list for Santa — of toys remembered and loved, and toys for which one actively yearned, but never got. (E-Z Bake Oven! Creepy Crawlers!) Also, did anyone ever get that one really hard part in “Operation.” Which part was that? The breadbasket? The wishbone?
Don’t know which was that hard one in Operation, but I should be able to get back to you on that one later next week, as this is one of the games we’ve bought to stick under the tree for our nephews this year (twin boys, aged 5). We also got them Kerplunk, and a Thunderbirds Tracy Island volcano thingy which their father chose. In fact, it will be interesting to see if the twins have even heard of Thunderbirds….they are also getting Scaletrics, another favourite of their father’s …and both his brothers. My sister-in-law is already predicting a Christmas morning fraught with trouble as the poor wee twins look on bewildered while their uncles and grandfathers get stuck in fighting over which toys to play with first.
But to answer your other question, I don’t think I ever thought about the money until I was a lot older. But my sisters and I did have an EZ bake oven, and reading your post brought back the strangely nostalgic cardboard chocolate flavour which can only be produced by those mixes.
i remember thinking about costs, yeah, but possibly only when I was older and my parents split up. Then again, I never did Christmas lists and Hanukkah, while I got stuff, was NOT the big deal; birthdays were the big deal. I don’t recall EVER wanting THE toy – whatever it mighta been; even though I got a Barbie, i don’t recall pestering for one. Never wanted or was even aware of those homemaker toys – an oven? No way! And catalogues ? Those were not part of my growing up either; we had STORES we went to in Harford. When i was a kid we went downtown for stuff, real downtown, then to discount and other stores later on. Those downtown stores, though, were department stores – never got toys there.
Things that stick? As a very small kid, a Shirley Temple doll and my mom MADE some fabulous clothes for it that I didn’t realize for years were homemade. A dollhouse – not the hot one, whatever it was, probably Barbieoid but a cheaper one, that I was very content with. Etch a Sketch, which I was lousy at; paint-by-number stuff, which I loved but don’t know why – I knew it wasn’t “art” – I think it was more the puzzle aspect of seeing it happen, if that makes sense. Oh, paper dolls. Loved ‘em, but again, more of the process – the cutting out stuff, was somehow fun. Books – big surprise. Board games – must have liked ‘em, don’t recall how they came into the house. Never even KNEW Operation existed though, until some years ago which it became a nostalgia item and I was aware of it for the firrst time; never played in my house, or next door or my friends’ houses. Scrabble, monopoly, Candyland, um, Chinese Checkers, checkers, yeap, but Operation, nope.
When I was a little kid during WWII, the big event of the year was the arrival of the Spiegel, Alden and Sears Christmas catalogs or “dream books.” I don’t remember paying much attention to prices, but I do recall that among the first words I learned to read was the semi-transparent “Not Available” stamped over most of the things I liked.
Mike
Barbara’s memories jogged my own — “The Lost Princess of Oz” in the wicker basket of my brand-new Schwinn on Christmas morning. Later in the vacation, I recall disappearing into my room with the book and not coming out all day.
One of the best Christmas stories ever written IMHO is Sally Benson’s “The Best Things Come in Small Packages,” a story in the collection ” Junior Miss.” Benson is best-known for writing the book that inspired “Meet Me in St.Louis.” But these stories, which appeared in the New Yorker, are lovely.
Nancy Drew books! I believe I read every single one and the Christmas of my 9th year was a bonanza — 5 books all at once! Nirvana.
A bell for my bicycle with a basket in front. Then I was able to make myself “heard” on the streets of Frankfort, Germany, on my way to purchase more Pez for my Pez dispenser.
A fairy tale dress from my parents which answered all my prayers to be “beautiful.” We were living in a stone farm house near Carlisle, Pennsylvania which had the most beautiful stone fireplace (I only appreciate its beauty in adulthood) and, unfortunately, my father must have burned the dress with the package wrappings in that fireplace. Sad day for me and my poor father
Operation is a mystery to me; never heard of it during childhood or now. However, I intend to investigate it.
Thanks, Laura, for helping me remember some wonderful times and best wishes to you for this magical time of the year.
The year I discovered there was no Santa was the year I got my Suzy Homemaker washing machine. There’s got to be some irony in that.