Dear Santa – Please
bring me a gas-powered plane like the one on the back of Boys Life Magazine.
It’s ok if I don’t get anything else. I
did lose the football I got last year, and battery acid ruined my Voyage to the
Bottom of the Sea submarine but I really, really want that airplane.
Santa never
personally responded. Neither did my
parents. The response came on Christmas
morning when “the package” wasn’t an airplane. It was actually a Spirograph set
that lasted me for years but that wasn’t the point in 1966. I really wanted
that plane.
All of us have
experienced that moment of disappointment – even on the most exciting day of
the year.
Parents prepare
their children for many of life’s letdowns but when it comes to Christmas
morning, kids are pretty much out on their own.
After all, it’s Santa magic that brings all the toys. “Don’t look at me,”
they are thinking.
Almost everyone has
a tale of Christmas morning surprise. A New Jersey friend told of the year he
begged Santa for a NY Yankees jersey. Santa brought him a NY Mets jersey. My guess is that the Mets gear was discounted
because they were the worst team in baseball. That reminds me, Dallas Cowboys
gear is on sale at Kohls.
I deserve some
blame as well. For years my kids hoped
Santa would deliver a motorized ride-on car. Every visit to Toys R Us included
a trip to the car aisle where they would sit in every car and dream of the day
Santa deposited one in our living room. They never got one probably because we
regularly watched the dumb things do with them on America’s Funniest Home
Videos.
I don’t think any
of us are bitter. Every toy that Santa
brought and every gift our parents wrapped was bought with love. There was just a communications breakdown
somewhere along the way.
My suggestion would
be to create an online pdf form that kids fill out with wish list items,
rationale and budget estimates – just like their parents do.
I recently saw a Facebook
post of “The Sears Christmas 1963 Wishbook.” There was Mr. Machine, “the
comical walking robot who swings his arms.”
I really, really wanted one of those.
Scanning the page, I found many other items of 7-year-old desire. So
here is my unfinished Christmas list for 2020 with 1960’s prices.
Dear Santa – If you
have time, please bring me a Schwinn Stingray Bicycle ($49), Mr. Kelly’s Car
Wash for my Matchbox Cars ($5.99), a wood burning set ($5.89), the 190 piece
D-Day Combined U.S. Air and Ground Invasion Force with Exploding Mechanisms
($5.89), Matchbox City heat sealed and vacuum formed highways and overpasses
($7.99), G.I. Joe Splashdown Space Capsule - G.I. Joe not included – ($9.49)
and the Lost In Space Robot with Blinking Lights and Movable Arms ($6.88).
I’d give them all
up for a gas airplane though but the Spirograph was actually very cool. Thanks Santa mom and dad.
