Thanksgiving marks the last day before the beginning of the holiday shopping bonanza. Driving home from Palm Springs late at night on Thanksgiving, my family and I took a restroom break at a passing fast food joint. We were a bit leary about getting out of our car. About 100 people, (who at the time we thought were local hobo’s), were camping out in front of a few large retail stores. My mother’s explanation was “Oh how sweet, it must be a homeless shelter. I’m sure the city will come and give them dinner later tonight.” My cousin, (who at the ripe age of 13 is assured he knows everything in the world), rolled his eyes angrily and said, “No, they aren’t homeless, gosh. They are camped out for Black Friday”. In his middle school wisdom, he was completely accurate, and so the holiday shopping frenzy begins.
I compiled my list of family members and friends who I needed to buy gifts for. Then I headed straight to the one place I knew I could browse stores without being hassled by salespeople: the internet.
My baby cousin was first on my list. So I hopped on www.toysrus.com. The number-one-selling item on this site changes daily, and that day it was “Play-Doh: Mountain of Colors”. I was pretty surprised that such a traditional toy was the top seller for the day, as I reminisced on the Furby and Tickle Me Elmo days. After getting a sense of what toys were out there, I headed out to my local Toys R Us store.
My cousin was insistent about getting a Mumble stuffed animal from the holiday movie “Happy Feet”. I found a nearly-empty rack with only two of the singing penguins left. The mother next to me gave me a smile. “One for me, one for you!” she said with a sigh of relief. We both pushed our carts to the cashiers. I guess I had gotten lucky because the Mumble doll was a hard commodity to come by. The mother I spoke with said she had been to three different toy stores to find one. I asked her why she couldn’t just buy a regular stuffed penguin instead of this particular one. I thought to myself, “After the first store was sold out, I’d just cop out and buy another toy.” I asked the mother why she would so adamant in her search for a specific doll.
“Kids are hard to shop for. My daughter always shrugs her shoulders when I ask her what she wants for any holiday so when she says she wants something, I will do everything I can to get it,” she said.
This sounded like a completely reasonable answer to me. But when I read the news later that day about the lengths people were going to get a Playstation 3, this same rationale turned sour. NBC reported that one man in Massachusetts opened fire in a local Wal-Mart.
I’ve never really been into video games but even I became a little bit intrigued. I asked a good friend of mine, Justin Carr, a game arts and design major at AI in LA, why this game system is in high demand.
He explained the large memory capacity of the Playstation 3, the cordless controllers and the motion detection of the Nintendo Wii.
“They (the new game systems) are the most innovative ones to come out yet, they are more interactive and really mark the next generation console,” said Carr.
What happened to the slinky days of the 1950’s, where a piece of industrial coil became the most popular toy for nearly a decade. I understand how vibrating game controllers may become more exciting for gamers, but isn’t the point of toys to spark the imagination? A stuffed animal doesn’t suffice anymore; a Barbie who can’t walk on her own or do flips is just a bore. Even Tickle Me Elmo, the 1996 hot Christmas item has received an update. This year its makers have come up with a newer version, Elmo now clenches his fists and beats them up and down on the floor while begging to stop being tickled.
I can understand searching for the right computer, or perfect pair of jeans – but the perfect toy? Kids play with a toy for a few weeks, get tired of it and leave it on the school bus. But still, year after year, some toy, some ridiculous fuzz-covered squeaky toy, hits the store shelves and it’s the next thing every grade-school kid wants.
I’ll admit it, I remember being a kid, I gave into some fads. I always wanted a Tomogatchi, and I, too, drove my mother to search four different towns for one. Nothing says holiday spirit like standing in long lines, camping outside over night and driving around town for a gift.
