Santa came to town

As women arrived armed with gifts for a member of the Herbert family, I was touched by their generosity and the care with which they had picked presents, not just for the children but mom too. 

A couple of us shared that we hadn’t gone shopping for children in a long time, and I know I for one was somewhat horrified at the price of toys! I also learned that you can buy toys at Chapters, who knew.  Mind you by the time I had reached there, I had made my main purchases so I would have been annoyed if their prices were lower – whew, they weren’t.

My girls were chuckling because one of the items Savannah wanted was a Barbi type doll, which I got, albeit reluctantly.  You see when my daughters were growing up, I was at the height of my feminism, so I would never buy Barbies for them.   

My father was a toy buyer when I was young, so Christmas was always amazing as I got the latest and the best.  Yet it was the board games that I enjoyed the most, perhaps because it meant that my parents had to play with me. And in my recent search for gifts for the children I was pleased to see that Scoop, Clue and Sorry are still around.  What did you like best in your childhood?

There are so many choices now, how do children pick what they want from Santa?  And how do families afford it, especially if there is more than one child?

Sticking to the Santa request can be tricky too, especially when the child keeps changing her mind, and you’ve already made the purchase based on a previous choice.  That’s when I used to say that “Santa shops early because he has so many children to get toys for.”

Then one year, in our wisdom as parents, we decided to ignore one of the requests, believing our daughter was getting too old for dolls, and we bought something else.  That gift stayed in the box and was never used, and there were lots of tears, especially when her younger sister got a doll.  Not one of our finer moments. 

But it is a fine line and hard when children want something that is a “flash in the pan” or just not appropriate or worth the money.

Then there’s the Herbert family, and what do they really, really want for Christmas?  To have Savannah and their mom home.  Now that’s when you get a real perspective on what is important for the season.  Let’s hope their wish comes true.