Guess what holiday is coming up. Go ahead, guess.
There have been candy canes hanging around since somewhere around July Fourth, Santa Claus began flying in earnest somewhere around Labor Day and the lay-away departments must be stuffed to overflowing by now. Speaking of something similar, what’s this latest scam, “Buy now, Pay later? Like they always say, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” What is going on? Halloween was pretty festive, even with the rain that began just about as the time allotment came to an end. Funny and outlandish costumes all over the place in our neighborhood, even though I did not get to hand out all of the candy myself–football game, you know–and was able to recruit some substitute goblins to do the honors. Don’t know how many of the costumed critters showed up but most of the treats were gone when I got home; we won the game, by the way (in the pouring rain), so we will be back at it next Friday, still on our home field (Drier, we hope). The T-Rex was particularly fetching; waddling around he looked sort of like a toddler with a full diaper.
But about Christmas. I launched my annual foray into charitable pursuits with the Operation Christmas Child organization; they send shoeboxes of Christmas stuff to kids all over the globe, in the U.S. and everywhere–a worthy cause, to be sure. So I go out looking for things to put in the boxes ( plastic ones from Wal-Mart, used to be $1, now they’re $1.29). The items that they suggest are well-nigh impossible (a soccer ball in a shoe box? Not happening) and the age classifications are a little off-kilter (2-5, 6-9, 10-14, both boys and girls). The middle group is easiest but two-year old and five-year olds are sometimes problematic, while the differences between 10-year olds and fourteen-year olds is often monumental; take a look at them sometime. Wowza! Listen to them too, you’ll get the picture.
Anyway, I went off shopping, hitting the CLEARANCE racks pretty hard (a reduction of $1 doesn’t impress me much on a $15 item). So as I went along, picking up school supplies and games and T-shirts of various sizes and colors, I get to wondering, why people seem to be interested in having little girls look like kind of risque teenagers (“hooker fashion”) and young boys like racecar devotees or sort of power-mad gamers. Lots of the toys with faces–dolls or “action figures” –have the most appalling expressions. Why would a kid want to play with a creation that looks angry or–God forbid–flirtatious? Isn’t this pointing them in a not-so-good direction? I scour lots of shelves looking for small stuffed animals, even big kids like to have personal mascots to cuddle or play with sometimes. Not easy to find
To complicate this shopping errand even more, I will hardly ever purchase anything that’s “branded” or associated with a movie series or a television program. Let ‘em use some imagination, I say, instead of having the template right before them all the time. Disney will be making very few dollars from me. (Peanuts cartoons are my one weakness in this regard.
Everybody there–with the possible exception of Lucy–is usually pretty kind to others. Even Lucy only charges a nickel when “The Psychiatrist is In.”) I’m a big fan of crayons and pencils and drawing paper, not to mention imagination teasers like kaleidoscopes. Have you any idea how hard it is to find a reasonably-priced ball–nothing fancy, just a plain rubber ball, that kids can just throw around with another kid or with Mom or Dad, or make up a game throwing it at a wall or something? Matchbox cars are usually pretty good–great colors and really imaginative styles/models that “vroom, vroom, vroom” fits just fine. Real little boys…or girls…just like anything with wheels
Buying clothing is tricky too, given the age ranges listed. Even socks are often so gender-normed (Pink-n-flowery for girls, blue-with-trucks for boys) that they bug me. And who knows whether the recipient of the box has big feet or plays Rugby. Maybe some little girl would like a lumberjack jacket and a boy could go for a set of cooking utensils. I tend to be sort of utilitarian and buy stuff that a kid could use for everyday life–toothbrushes, toothpaste, face towels, soap, hair ribbons, shoe laces, even the box itself. Lots of kids would probably like to have just a place, a container, of their own to put their own things in, something a little sturdy that can be carried from place to place–as the kids themselves sometimes are.
So I’ve got another week or so to get this project done. Any suggestions go to ELVES UNLIMITED, North Pole Annex. If a reindeer answers, it’s a wrong number
