Making a list and checking it twice

By Staff
Leada Gore, Editor
When I was a child, there was no greater thing than the Sears catalog. The arrival of the Sears catalog signaled that it was almost Christmas time.
There were other catalogs, of course. We would receive a Service Merchandise catalog and it always contained a few toys. It was followed closely by JC Penney, which was good for a few as well. But the granddaddy of them all was the Sears catalog. We would flip through it, using it as inspiration for making our lists to Santa.
When we got older, we even began circling the toys we wanted. We would even look through the clothing section, too, as we knew our grandparents would buy us clothes and we figured we should at least let them know what we liked.
The Sears catalog was full of all types of wonder. There were microscopes and telescopes and, my favorite, the dolls with their fancy furniture. There were also the musical instruments, including the often-requested but never-received drum set.
Once we had selected our items, we would list them, sometimes with corresponding page numbers, and take our lists with us when we visited Santa. Santa, who of course already knew what we wanted, would look at our lists and ask us if we’d been good or bad. Sometimes we answered, sometimes we didn’t.
Christmas lists and letters to Santa are traditions. Almost every little child takes the time to write down their wishes, though I don’t think many use the Sears catalog anymore. Now, children see what they want on television or, as in the case of my two nephews, a barrage of toy catalogs sent to their house.
I saw their lists the other day. They didn’t do the simple written lists for Santa. Instead, they cut the photos of the items they found in the toy catalog and pasted them on paper to create their own personal wish list magazine.
Some of the items were pretty simple. There were trucks and games, chemistry sets and bicycles. Then, there were those items that I think even they knew were a bit of a reach.
There was the 6-foot tall model of the Eiffel Tower that rang in at $123. That was nothing, however, compared to the life-size fortune teller mannequin, complete with booth, that could be yours for only $8,000. But they didn’t stop there.
They also cut out a photo of a robot they had found in a catalog. The robot did all sorts of things for you and could walk and talk. The price? $24,000.
They both smiled.