When I was little, it was the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalog that started us dreaming of the pending gift-receiving season and all the wonderful opportunities that went with it. (I think they still called it a Christmas catalog back then, rather than today's politically correct "holiday catalog".) Sure, the JCPenney catalog was nice, but it just showed clothes. The Sears catalog had toys! Pages and pages of toys!
Today, the stores have changed. The catalogs have changed. And so has the complexity of the toys being marketed. But one thing that I doubt (and hope) will never change, no matter how sophisticated this or the next generation of kids becomes, is their excitement when this book of magical possibilities arrives, inspiring fantasies of all the fun that is to come.
It was late September, earlier this year than in years past, that I maxed out my tollerance level for AJ's never-ending requests each time he got excited about some new toy he'd seen in a commercial or on a store shelf."Put it on your list."
Translation: no more impulse toy buys for the next few months. He'll have to wait - and hope - for Christmas.
So the arrival of the toy catalogs from Target and WalMart just a few days after Halloween serve as a tease that maybe... just maybe... Christmas is no longer so far away.
Next year, I think I'll make him actually write down the names of the things he wants. Making him work a little just might shorten the list. But for now, I let him get away with circling the items he likes. It probably would have been faster to have him cross out the items he doesn't want.
When he pointed out the $219 mini-ATV, I told him not to hold his breath. Classic AJ moment - he responded looking perplexed, "Do we have to pay Santa for this stuff?"
I covered quickly, telling him Santa usually brings smaller presents, because if everyone asked for something big like the ATV, it wouldn't all fit in the sleigh.
A kid can still dream...
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