Saturday, November 27, 2010

Christmas clothes

I'm trying to figure something out, something which honestly, truly, makes no sense to me and which I really do want to understand. And this is: people who don't buy toys for Christmas. I know probably half a dozen people who, when shopping for kids of any age, just absolutely refuse to buy toys. They buy clothes or bedding or maybe even a book, but not a toy. And it's not a coincidence, or even just a preference, it's a policy for all of them. Even if the kid had every single thing imaginable except toys, they'd buy something useless rather than a toy. And I don't get this. The first thing to jump into my head, which I'm pretty sure is wrong, is that they want to be sure to buy something that will NOT make the kid happy on Christmas. But again, this cannot be it. There aren't people out there - grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles - who are deliberately trying to fill a child's heart with disappointment, are there? No, it must follow some logic I don't understand. Perhaps they think that toys are frivolous and unnecessary, and that the children are naked and sleeping on bare mattresses at home and that it is up to them, the sole possessors of common sense, to furnish said cold and naked children with clothes and blankets. But surely these grandparents and parents and aunts and uncles would know that the kids have clothes, and blankets, and maybe even books. So why, when the only thing any kid wants for Christmas is a shiny new toy, do they just decide to take upon themselves the role of (S)He Who Will Not Buy Toys? I just, I don't get it. I struggle every year to find some toy, any toy that my (now) 12 year old daughter will like, just to try and put off for one more year, the Christmas where all she gets are clothes. I remember the year I went from toys to clothes and it sucked! Why push a kid into that early? Huh?

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