Strollerderby : christmas

Babble Talk: Fighting Around the Christmas Tree

Amy Kuras — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:31:00 GMT

Yes, they believe we can change the color of traffic lights by blowing on them, that we can make whatever they want to eat magically appear, and sometimes even fall for our explanations of why the sky is blue or why water is wet – but you can’t BS kids on the really important stuff.

And never does this become more apparent than when they’re sorting out family relationships. Let’s just say I’ve learned to be verrryyy careful when I complain to my husband about certain people.

That may have been what the little one who’s my pick for the Babble kid's quote of the day had in mind – although it was most likely adorable toddler mispronunciation:

"Mommy I love all the Christmas arguments," while looking at our ornaments!

At least someone does, kiddo.

Got a sweet little quote machine in your house (and really, who doesn’t)? Click on over to our “Kids Say The Cutest Things” feature and you might see us highlighting your kid’s brilliance in a post.

Freaking and Shrieking: Christmas Morning Video

JeanneSager — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:32:00 GMT

There's nothing like those wide eyes on Christmas morn, the sweet smile spreading across that little face, the exclamation of "this is what I always wanted!"

Warning: this video of a Canadian kid getting a Wii on Christmas morning is nothing like that that. The boy's parents pull his present out of a bag, and apparently unwrap it (the lack of tearing noises made me wonder if this was staged until I realized they didn't bother really wrapping it - no wonder the kid freaks out!) and Dad does the excited "it's the Wii!" pronouncement.

The son, on the other hand? He looks shocked for a handfull of seconds before he starts shrieking. Not screaming excitedly. Shrieking - like some bad Meatloaf album title.

All of this is followed by maniacal laughter and a relative asking "are we on steroids buddy?" About the only thing that screamed normal kid about this video was the over-the-top grin on command at the end.

My daughter's three (and thus too young for a Wii), but if she acted like this, I think I'd be more tempted to send her to her room to blow off that steam than to keep filming. But then, we're still at the age where the mere fact that Santa came is enough.

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Time for Post-Holiday Gendered Toy Balancing?

Miriam Axel-Lute — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:30:00 GMT

I never really understood people who wanted to go shopping right after the winter holidays, except maybe for the very thrifty stocking up on cheap wrapping paper for next year. But suddenly I find myself contemplating it.

I blame it on my fellow 'Derby blogger who wrote about recent research arguing that traditional "girl toys" discourage the development of problem solving skills useful in science and math: "The toys reported [by parents] as girls' favorites didn't teach anything specific, allowing, rather for imaginative play mostly related to childcare. Boys' reported favorite toys, on the other hand, encouraged action, learning of new things, use of reading and problem solving skills as well as imagination."

See, I keep thinking of that post now, because it's striking, after all the grandparents have weighed in with their prezzies, how heavy my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter's haul is on the tea sets and dolls. Now, I'm not complaining. It's not like anyone was on a mission to make her a little princess. The personalized map of her neighborhood made for her by her GIS-enabled uncle is awesome and all about the abstract thinking. The just-like-daddy's painters' jeans and the red leather jacket are anything but prissy. And she adores each instance of the dolls (some of which came from us) and tea sets and jewelry. I don't have a problem with anything she got (even the pretty sexist Richard Scarry classic What Do People Do All Day? because it's awesome in so many other ways and such a nostalgia trip for me). In fact, it's all pretty great.

But I'm nonetheless finding myself aware of the gaps, aware that intentionally or not, the balance of her new possessions is clearly on the "caring and nurturing" side over the "making things, using their hands and solving problems" side. This is leading me to fantasize about spending money I don't have on a tool set or TinkerToys or Montessori counting rods (or the Free to Be reissue).

I am, of course, probably overreacting and should just take a deep breath, let life return to normal, and keep my eyes on the garage sales. It's not like imaginative nuturing play will limit her ability to develop other skills. It's more that I'm concerned about her getting to the age of developing a gender identity, which isn't far off, and deciding that based on the evidence so far, these are girl toys and she should eschew the others. Any other parents of daughters feeling the same way? (Or, for that matter, parents of sons having the reciprocal problem?)

Photo by Doeth, via Flickr.

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New Babies Wrapped in Holiday Stockings

JeanneSager — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:46:00 GMT

If I had a Martha Stewart bone hidden somewhere in my body, this story is the one that would make it come busting out.

Volunteers have been showing up every holiday at a Houston-area maternity ward, their arms full of Christmas stockings to wrap the newborn babies in.

The ward invites Santa along, and every infant gets a chance to have his or her first visit with Saint Nick, bundled up tight in their bright red bunting, er, stocking. It makes me want to make my own pile, just so I can show up for the delivery! This year, eighty stockings were sewn up by the nuns and volunteers at St. Joseph's Hospital, and the new parents were allowed to take them home to hang for future Christmases.

The decade-old practice is adorable; and so are the little old ladies in this video. Especially the nuns (who we'd assume don't have any kids?), who are just as baby-happy as the rest of us!

Image: Houston Chronicle

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Stranger Comes out of Family's Attic on Christmas

JeanneSager — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:28:00 GMT

Here's another reason to stay home for the holidays: you never know who might be dropping in when you go out. Like the strange man living in the attic of one Pennsylvania family.

The Luzerne County family woke up, opened presents and then went out to visit family on the holiday. When they came home, they noticed a bunch of items missing. Cops came, took a report and left, and the family went out for some more Christmas celebrating.

But when they came home, there were more items missing - among them Mom's toothbrush, their young daughter's purple blanket, candles and a laptop. It was Grandpa, who owns the duplex where the family lives, who suggested police check out the attic crawl space. That's how police found Stanley Carter, the twenty-one-year-old who was supposed to be staying with friends next door. Police say he had been living in the family's attic for at least week, slipping downstairs to steal clothing, food and other items from all rooms of the house.

He's now in jail, and the family is relieved that Goldilocks is gone. I'm still creeped out that this guy was slipping down into the little girl's room - by looks of this video interview with Mom, she couldn't be more than six or seven. The girl's room looks like a typical messy kid room though - so who knows how long it would have taken to notice anything was gone if he hadn't gone for the big stuff!

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Another Jesus Born on Christmas Day

Jen Chaney — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:02:00 GMT

A baby Jesus was born this Christmas Day, but this time it wasn't in a manger. Little Jesus Emanuel Huaman came into the world on Dec. 25 at the National Perinatal Institute in Lima, Peru, the BBC reports. And if that doesn't sound Biblical enough to you, wait until you hear about Jesus's parents.

His mother's name is Virgen Maria Huarcaya Palomino. Yeah, that's right. The Virgin Mary. Naturally, she's married to ... wait for it .. a carpenter. But his name isn't Joseph. I mean, come on. That would just be too coincidental. Dad's actual name is Adolfo Jorge Huaman.

Young Jesus and his parents seem to be happy and healthy. But I have to think they should be preparing themselves to receive visitors from believers around the world, many of whom will undoubtedly see this child as evidence of the Second Coming. I mean, if someone would pay $28K for a cheese sandwich bearing an image that vaguely looks like the Virgin Mary, I can only imagine what lengths people will go to for a baby Jesus born to a carpenter and an actual Virgin Mary, even if he did arrive in a decidedly non-immaculate way: via C-section.

Image: BBC.com

Baby Born on Mom and Dad's Birthday

JeanneSager — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:26:00 GMT

I used to think I had it bad - birthdays in my family and my husband's crop up in nearly every month of the year. There's no time off from gift-buying and card-choosing.

Then I heard about Tyler Nash and fiancee Erika Cherry. They just welcomed home a new baby girl - born on Tyler's birthday. Erika's too. Every member of the Cherry/Nash family has the same birthday.

The parents are, of course, ecstatic - and they should be. They just had a baby (and she's a cutie too - check out the picture). But I've got to feel a teensy bit bad for little Faith Nash.

She's got to share Dec. 23 with Mom and Dad - one birthday cake, three names. AND she's got to share her birthday-week with the big J.C. Fortunately, her parents are well-schooled in how to keep Christmas from crimping your birthday-style. As they've been there, done that, they're planning a lot of half-birthday celebrations.

Image: Colorado Springs Gazette

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Babble Talk: Would Your Kids Notice If You Put Their Toys in Storage?

Jen Chaney — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:28:00 GMT

We may be in the midst of a recession, but Americans still know how to accumulate a whole lot of stuff. If you've spent the past couple of days staring goggle-eyed at the mountains of toys under and around your Christmas tree, you surely will relate to Kevin Keck's Babble essay, in which he bemoans the endless number of playthings his children have amassed.

Being a forward-thinking father, Kevin tried to attack the problem by conducting a little experiment. After his son's fifth birthday -- a day when people showed up bearing more gifts than the kid could possibly ever need -- Kevin packed up all the presents and put them in storage. He says his boy never missed them. So over the years Kevin continued to place many of the toys his children received into storage. Consequently, he now has a palace of unused (dare I say misfit?) toys, a tribute to the generosity and, let's be honest, consumer-crazed tendencies of his friends and relatives.

I applaud Kevin's actions. And the reason I applaud them is that I know I could never do the same thing. You see, I come from a long line of hoarders, people who hang onto objects they didn't need in the first place and certainly don't need now but nevertheless can't bear to give up. I am sure that if I stowed away some of my son's Christmas presents, he wouldn't notice. In fact, I could probably bury several of them in the deepest depths of our basement shelves and that little boy would continue living happily, without developing even the slightest emotional scar.

But I would feel mean, probably because of all of that hoarding DNA. So I can't bring myself to demonstrate Kevin's bravery. What can I say? I'm a weak, weak mother with an unnatural attachment to Legos and Fisher Price playsets.

As you watch your kids playing with their new PS3 games or leaving Barbie accessories strewn around the house, are you considering the storage experiment? And if so, do you think you could go through with it?

Image: Maarten Wouters/Getty for Babble.com

Lego Santa Crab Will Frighten Children Into Being Good All Year

Brett Singer — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:30:00 GMT

Radio host Max Kellerman once joked that Santa was just a story goyim children were told so that they would behave themselves. (Or something like that.) So from Gizmodo (originally from someplace else, see below for the link trail) we give you – THE EVIL LEGO SANTA CRAB!

Hide the children! Unless they've been bad this year, in which case you could use THE EVIL LEGO SANTA CRAB as a deterrent to next year's bad behavior. Because wouldn't you behave if you thought this thing was coming after you?

It kind of reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer makes a clown bed for Bart, but the clown is a hideous and frightening image that gives Bart nightmares. (According to Wikipedia, the "Can't sleep, clown will eat me" thing was based on an actual incident from Simpsons writer Mike Reiss' childhood.) In other words, don't show this page to your kids. Unless you want to frighten them into behaving. If that's your goal, give it a shot – I mean, look at that thing. I'm a little scared.

Source: Gizmodo via Andrew Colunga via Neatorama

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Why Doesn't Hallmark Care About Nanas?

Jen Chaney — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:28:00 GMT

Christmas is over. The eight days of Hanukkah are about to wind down. But there's still plenty of time to air some Festivus grievances. So here's one from me, which can be summarized thusly: "Hey, Hallmark. WTF?"

No, I'm not mad at the good people at Hallmark because I bought one of these $100 snowglobes that sometimes sets things on fire and had to be recalled. (God knows what it does if you actually dare to shake up one of these overpriced snowmen.) No, my issue has to do with the company's greeting cards.

Specifically, why the hell don't they make more cards for Nanas? They always have more than a few Grandma cards, at Christmas and on other occasions. I even found a decent Granny one for the holidays. But the one and only Nana card I located -- after visiting two Hallmark stores and a CVS that carries Hallmark cards -- appeared to have been written by an overly sentimental 45-year-old woman. Which just doesn't work when the Nana card is supposed to be for your mother, from her two-year-old grandson.

Now, it's not that Hallmark doesn't get specific enough with its cards. On the contrary, I spotted a Christmas card for "a son and daughter-in-law expecting their first child." And there's always my favorite extremely targeted card, the one that says "You're like a mother to me..." I have often considered getting one of those for my mom, if only to time how long it would take before her head exploded.

But back to the Nana situation. I have done no formal surveys on this subject, but I bet if I asked 10 people what their kids call their respective grandmothers, Nana would rank pretty high on the list, probably second to Grandma. So what's up, Hallmark? What, I ask you, is up??

And another thing: where were all the son Christmas cards this year? I saw a couple of cards for daughters that were appropriate for children under 10, but not one -- not a single one -- for a little boy. Were they all sold out? Am I rapidly going blind? Or did Hallmark take the "less is more" route that so many corporations are forced to adopt in this economic climate and not make as many cards this year as in years past?

If this keeps up, I may have to do the unthinkable: Make my own cards.

Image: Scarborough Town Center

Best of FameCrawler: Week of December 26th

Whit Honea — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:00:00 GMT

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Lost Dog Makes it Home For Christmas

JeanneSager — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:05:00 GMT

If you think a nineteen-hour holiday drive would be tough on a family's three-year-old, how about the family dog?

Nine hours into the trip home from the Freeman family Thanksgiving, Australian shepherd mix Bentley slipped his collar in a hotel parking lot and took off. The Freemans were ten hours from home, and couldn't find their pooch. But three-year-old son Jonathan wasn't worried. Turns out - he didn't need to be.

Bentley was picked up and taken to the Wichita Humane Society in Kansas, who scanned his microchip and called the Freemans in Texas on Sunday. Jonathan was right - his pup made it home for Christmas.

It's one of those awwwwww stories that fills even the grinchiest with holiday cheer. It's also made me start thinking more seriously about taking my menagerie to the vet to be microchipped. All rescues, my pets never came through a store or breeder who chipped them as kittens/pups. Nor did they come from shelters - which have slowly started to invest in the microchip technology (funding his short at most shelters, so it's still hit and miss).

It will mean an expense on my part, but watching my own three-year-old "share" her Christmas cookies with the dog and plop her new crown on the cat's head, I realize I'm not the only one around here who needs the four-legged part of the family around. So I guess we'll be making the investment soon - as much for the kid's sake as the animals'.

Image/Source: The Dallas Morning News

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It's a Christmas Miracle!

editors — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:33:00 GMT

Didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas? You say, what you really wanted was a well-designed stroller? Like the Quinny Buzz 4 with Maxi-Cosi Mico car seat, perhaps? The Babble Playground is here to make your Christmas wishes come true. If you’ve got a camera and kids – snap away and enter your best winter or holiday photo here. Look at these little ones – don’t they look festive?

Enter today and win over $1,000 in prizes from Quinny and Maxi-Cosi. Happy Holidays! - April Peveteaux

No Christmas Specials for Some Jewish Kids

Brett Singer — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:30:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick has a piece over at Slate that discusses which Christmas specials are OK for Jewish kids to watch. Not according to the Torah, which was written pre-TV, but based on her discussions with a few families.

She found that her generation's Jewish kids were allowed to watch "one or all" of the following: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and The Year Without Santa Claus. Two of these are among my personal favorites, but I would include Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer in that list. Apparently that one didn't make the cut for the Jewish now-grown-up kids that Lithwick spoke to.

The reason surprised me – a "no Santa" rule. No Jesus, I get. Jesus is religion. Nothing wrong with religion, but if it isn't YOUR religion and you choose not to watch shows that feature religious elements, that's your choice. But Santa? Was he in the Bible? Frosty was also banned from some Jewish households, according to Lithwick, because of a "no resurrections rule", which I think is pushing it.

Here's the thing – I like Christmas specials. I even like Christmas music. And I'm Jewish. Obviously Christmas is a religious holiday for millions of people. But last time I checked, Rudolph wasn't one of the apostles. So I hereby give permission to all Jewish parents — let the kids watch Rudolph! Why deprive them of the joys of Rankin and Bass? The Island of Misfit Toys? Yukon Cornelius? Hermey the Elf who would rather be a dentist? This a great show! And The Year Without a Santa Claus? Heat and Cold Miser! This is good stuff, people!

Interestingly, A Charlie Brown Christmas does feature religion prominently. Somehow that made the cut in many Jewish households, according to Lithwick. Why? In my opinion, there are a few reasons. First, Linus says it. That makes it automatically more OK than if the same words come out of some claymation dog (Davey and Goliath, anyone?). Second, it's done in the context of "good will towards men", which is hard to argue with. Third, it isn't presented in a way that says, "If you don't believe these words, you will burn in Hell for all eternity." It's actually quite lump-in-the-throat inducing, in a good way. Last, after Linus says his piece, everyone finally starts being nice to Charlie Brown, decorating his tree, and making nice warm and fuzzy holiday feelings. That's my theory, anyway.

Anyway, whatever your faith may be, or even if you happen to faithless, don't ban Christmas specials just because they happen to be about Christmas. Give 'em a chance. Maybe the kids will like it. You might enjoy it as well.

Oh, Merry Christmas. And Happy Chanukah.

Source: Slate

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Packaging SOS: How to Open Those Blister Packs

Miriam Axel-Lute — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Merry Christmas! Or have you already progressed from merry to frustrated-plastic-package-opening warrior? It happens so fast...

Blister packaging has evolved from stupid to downright evil. Sealed shut with no breaches, too thick to rip even if you get a pair of scissors in there, as sharp as glass once you do start cutting . . . . I'm sure I'm not the only one who has severely injured myself trying to open these things. People get master's degrees in package design, and they come up with this?!

OK. Rant aside: The people at Wired, gadget fans that they are, have the answer, my friends: A can opener!

You're welcome. Now go back to making merry!

Photo by Papalars.

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Stop Sending Palin Baby Presents

JeanneSager — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:03:00 GMT

So the economy's in the crapper, and parents are cutting back on everything from Santa to travel. So why are gifts pouring into the Palin household?

The former (so happy to say that) vice presidential candidate's father, Chuck Heath, told Grandparents.com that gifts for granddaughter Bristol Palin's soon-to-be born baby boy have been piling up from around the world. Really, this is what people are spending their money on?

In case none of you remember, the Palin family isn't exactly hurting. Mom just got offered a raise by one of the commissions she helped appoint (OK, OK, she turned it down - but who is actually getting offers for EXTRA money in their paycheck this year?). Then there are all those RNC shopping spree clothes (including that Ramones tee for a tot).

Bristol Palin does not need our charity. But at last count, Chuck Heath says there are one hundred thousand gifts waiting for baby boy Johnston. Yes, you read that right - one hundred thousand.

He admits she'll probably never use them all (ya think?), but I've yet to hear any offers to give these things away to a pregnancy center or maybe make some Christmases brighter around Alaska.

We get it, some people actually liked Sarah Palin. If you really want to pay tribute to her, how about donating some gifts in her name to someone who could actually use them?

Ooh, I know, how about one of those centers for pregnant teens she cut funding from? Just a suggestion.

Image: Reuters Via ParentDish

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Is This Why We Escalate the Holidays?

Miriam Axel-Lute — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:01:00 GMT

Is some of the holiday excess we see a symptom of parents trying to recapture the thrill of introducing a special time to their youngest kids?

I ponder that in my biweekly column for the local paper this week:

"If you enjoy the winter holidays, as my family decidedly does, introducing them to a toddler is a blast. Our daughter wakes up each morning (and after each nap) asking "Is it a new day?" because she wants to snap another felt ornament on our advent calendar ("alendar calendar" to her). She hugs the Christmas tree. She wants to take walks to see her favorite moving lit-up reindeer contraptions in neighbors' yards. . . .

Right now it's so easy. She's full of wonder anyway; everything is new and exciting. . . . In fact, if we act excited about something, we have an 80 percent chance of her being excited too. I remember clearly how last year, when she was one and a half, getting to eat a cookie first thing in the morning and getting a gift of a container of raisins that was under her control, to be eaten at whatever pace she wanted, was enough to make a red-letter day.

This year, the simple little idea of shining our shoes on Christmas Eve is so exciting she can barely wait and keeps lobbying to do it earlier.

I think it was the shoes thing that made me realize: I am in grave danger of trying to recapture this thrill, this sense of being able to effortlessly offer my children wonder, every December. I know that no matter how much she might continue to like the holidays, it won't be like this again. But who wouldn't want it to be?

Suddenly I had a flash of compassion for the parents escalating their purchases each year or fighting to hold on to their kids' belief in Santa one more season. Even if you're not facing peer-instigated disappointment from older kids who didn't get the latest whatsit, who wouldn't feel the urge to keep reaching after the irreplaceable delight of a kid facing her first snow, first menorah, first stocking?"

Here's the rest. Does it ring true, or am I off base?

Photo by OctopusHat.

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They'll Know It's Christmas Without the Inflatable Nativity

JeanneSager — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:31:00 GMT

I haven't gotten the courage to ask my neighbors where they found the blow-up nativity. I'm kind of curious. Do you have to order them specially-made off of the Internet? Does the blow-up baby Jesus come separate so you can stick him in on Christmas morn?

Do you think the kids will respond better to the virgin birth of a living God through giant plastic and an air compressor?

Egging me on to ask these burning questions is one of my favorite ~~time wasters~~ blogs, the ever-hiliarous passive aggressive notes, which this week shared the giant yard sign erected by a mom fed up with those holiday grinches who dare sneak into her yard and steal one of the approximately seven trillion towering plastic candy canes.

Allow me to present Exhibit A (courtesy of Passive Aggressive Notes, natch):

As they at Passive Aggressive so wisely (OK, so snarkily) put it, "poor little boy. now he’s not going to know it’s christmas.”

Yes, poor child indeed. His mother spent her whole holiday vacation decorating the yard with tasteless junk, and all he got was this damn letter in his defense. Do parents really think their kids care as much as they do about the holiday hoop-la (gifts aside)?

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Holiday Rich or Rehab: Whatever Happened to Margaret O'Brien?

Jen Chaney — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:33:00 GMT

In need of a good Christmas cry? Grab a box of tissues and watch this:

Of course, that's the famous scene from "Meet Me in St. Louis" that gave us one of the most enduring holiday tunes of all time, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." But that's only part of the reason that scene is so wrenching. A lot of its sadness emanates from the performance by the talented Margarent O'Brien, who plays young, trouble-making Tootie in the film and more than holds her own opposite Judy Garland and every other adult star in the picture. So whatever happened to O'Brien, one of the most famous and well-regarded child stars in cinema history?

First, a little background. In the 1940s, O'Brien was one of the best known young actors in Hollywood. She appeared in numerous films, from "Journey for Margaret" to "Jane Eyre" to "Tenth Avenue Angels" to "Little Women." But her work in "Meet Me in St. Louis" was undeniably her most outstanding, and it won her a juvenile Academy Award, back when the Oscars honored the performances of child stars.

But like many young actors, once she got older, the movie roles dried up. In the '50s and '60s, she turned her attention to television, guest starring on a wide variety of shows, including "Studio One," "Rawhide" and "Perry Mason." During the '70s, '80s and '90s, she acted on television only occasionally, reportedly worked the dinner theater circuit and, according to several Web sites, served as a civilian aide for Southern California to Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander.

O'Brien, a close friend of fellow child star Elizabeth Taylor, married twice and has one daughter. Next month, she turns 72. And apparently, she has made a small scale return to movies, recently appearing in two independent efforts: "Dead in Love" and "Frankenstein Rising." I think it's safe to say that neither of those will reach Turner Classic Movie status, but it's heartening to know that O'Brien is still working and making use of the talent that was so evident 64 years ago, when Garland urged her to "have a merry little Christmas now."

Image: Fest21.com

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Gifts I Want That I Can Pretend Are For The Kids

Brett Singer — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:00:00 GMT

One of the things I like about being a parent is the fact that it allows me to regress with impunity. For example, a childless man who plays with Legos? Creepy. A father who plays with Legos? Aw, that's so sweet. He's such a good dad. With that in mind, here are a few gifts that I want this holiday season that I can pretend are really for the children. If they're lucky, I might even let the kids play with them.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – when we got a Wii, one of the first things I thought of was, "I want a game that lets me use the WiiMote like a sword." When I heard about a new Star Wars game that would allow you to use the WiiMore like a LIGHTSABER, I realized that this was potentially a dream come true. A dream I didn't even know I had. Namely, that I could use the WiiMote like a lightsaber. Hello? How many times did I imagine that I was Luke Skywalker, battling Darth Vader, denying he was my father as I swung my lightsaber in defiance? (Yes, Han Solo was cooler but Luke was a Jedi and was a more attainable goal – you weren't going to be as cool as Han, but you could definitely be like Luke. OK, I was a kid with self-esteem issues.) The idea that I can do this as an adult and get away with it because I have a son is almost too cool to imagine. Reviews of the game on Amazon are mixed, ranging from "pretty good" to "Worst. Game. Ever." There are a few "all my childhood dreams realized" comments on there. Until I actually play the game, I'll stick with those.

To make the nerdy experience truly complete, there is the Thrustmaster Glow Saber Duo Pack, which sounds like the name of a sex toy from a Woody Allen movie but is actually a Wii accessory where you insert the WiiMote into a glowing piece of plastic and wave it around like a lightsaber.

Peanuts Holiday Collection (It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown / A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving / A Charlie Brown Christmas): This one isn't as embarrassing as the other two. The various Peanuts holiday specials have, in my opinion, stood the test of time better than any others. The animation is pleasantly low-key, the voice acting isn't obnoxiously loud and the kids actually sound like kids, and there are no stupid adults around. It's sentimental without being saccharine, funny without resorting to lowbrow comedy (nothing wrong with that but it's nice to see something different everyone now and then), and its great when you can enjoy something from your childhood with your kids without being forced to explain to them why you like it.

Marvel Transformers: It's unclear how I managed to not hear about these amazing new toys. It could be because I'm an adult. But I don't like that explanation. How can something as unbelievably cool as an Iron Man Transformer action figure not have been on my geeky radar? I might have to turn in my Platinum Nerd Card. In all seriousness – well, not ALL seriousness, this isn't a very serious topic – these look cool, appear to be in stock at Amazon, and would provide hours of fun for me, I mean MY CHILDREN. So come on. Fill my stocking with superheroes!

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Most Tasteless Tree Ornament Ever

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT

"Protect our troops - from the womb to the war. What if the fetus you were going to abort would grow up to be a soldier bringing democracy to a godless dictatorship?"

I think it says something about the general state of the anti-abortion movement and who they have let speak for them that when I saw this unborn soldier ornament, I was fully prepared to believe that it was in fact being offered by a pro-life group in all earnestness.

In fact, as the site kindly explains in a "note to confused": "This is a real product, from a real site. The product is a satire, but it is also a real product - FOR SALE." Roger that. Ixnay on the free unborn soldier ornaments. And satire. Right. Of course.

Not a statement for the parental set to make though, I figure. Try explaining to your kid why this particular bit of satire is hanging on your tree between the snowflakes and little drummer boys . . . Ouch.

The only question is whether anyone who misses the satire is buying them in earnest. I guess they wouldn't likely be shopping at MissPoppy.com, purveyor of "the finest alternative Christian products to the saved and unsaved alike," including buttons that say "Jesus was so gay!" holy family rubber duckies, and bible tracts disguised as dropped wallets with cash sticking out.

(hat tip: Boing Boing, via Mind Pollution).

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Are Email Holiday Cards Tacky?

Brett Singer — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

You know the drill. The holidays are coming and you need to get the family card ready. In my house, my wife takes the lead on this, mostly because I'm not inclined to do it. Some people are tremendously organized and take the whole process very seriously — photos taken by a professional no later than the 1st of November, cards printed by Thanksgiving, in the mail by December 1. Most people (our family included) use Shutterfly or another online photo service to get their cards made, which is a little boring but very easy.

Even easier, though, and certainly cheaper since there's no printing or postage, is the email card. I've received many from acquaintances and merchants, but I've only gotten a couple so far from family types. I'm not knocking anyone for doing it, especially if the reason is financial. At some point its fair to call The Annual Holiday Card a luxury item, even if it doesn't cost that much. I haven't priced them out so I don't know how much the cards will set you back. But they certainly aren't free, nor are the stamps. So if someone chooses to go this route, whatever the reason, that's your choice. (That's a disclaimer meant to make up for what I'm going to say next.)

Still, it's not the same, is it? The email card? Maybe I'm just old-fashioned but I still like to get regular mail (when it isn't a bill, catalog, or junk), and I enjoy hanging the holiday cards I receive on my door for everyone to see. I suppose you could print out the email card, but that seems a little silly.

So what do you think? Are the email cards tacky? (The Obamas did one in 2006 [see image at right], but I imagine that was for general supporters, rather than family and close friends.) And have you gotten/sent one yet?

image: respublica

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Gramps Goes Christmas Crazy with 20,000 Santas

JeanneSager — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:58:00 GMT

Jean-Guy Laquerre really likes Christmas. No, we mean he REALLY likes Christmas.The grandfather from Boucherville, Canada has cornered the market on Santa spirit with more than twenty thousand of them.

The retired teacher has been named as the biggest collector of Santa Claus memorabilia on the entire planet, earning his place in the Guinness World Records for 2009.

It all started with a papier mache Santa, to this day his favorite in the collection. But Grandpa Jean-Guy has moved on to inflatable Santas for the outside, Kriss Kringle shower curtains and Father Christmas pie plates (check out the photo gallery of some of his favorites at the Mirror). There are stuffed Santas and Santa statues, Santas for the tree and Santas set up in front of the TV.

And somehow, his grandkids aren't embarrased by all this Father Christmas fervor. Perhaps the craziest (and sweetest) piece of this Christmas story is the response of Jean-Guy's sixteen-year-old grandson and nine-year-old granddaughter. They invite their friends over to check out Grandpa's collection!

Image: The Mirror

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Babble Talk: When Even Your Kid Has That Grinchy Spirit

Jen Chaney — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:33:00 GMT

Bluntness. Kids can get away with it in a way that we adults -- with our political correctness, sense of etiquette and general awareness of what it means to be nice -- cannot.

That explains why four-year-old Griffin, recently quoted in Babble's Kids Say the Cutest Things! feature, is able to cut right to the heart of the matter when it comes to people who get too sentimental during the holiday season.

"Why was your friend crying during the Christmas show?" Griffin's mom asked him. Griffin's response?

"I don't know. Maybe he's just annoying."

Dang. As the person who recently wrote this blog post, I'm glad Griffin doesn't hang around me very often. And yet, I salute the young boy's honesty. Candor, Griffin. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Has your child said something especially witty or wise about the holidays? Add it to the Kids Say the Cutest Things page and see what kind of an "awwwww" rating it gets.

Babble Talk: Staying Home and Skipping the Santa Myth

Miriam Axel-Lute — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:10:00 GMT

All around me it seems, my peers and my fellow Babble writers are exploring putting their collective feet down about holiday traditions. Perhaps it's that we feel emboldened to declare our own rules once our kids start getting older, or maybe it's just time for a little generational power shift. Who knows.

One of the major issues is who goes where when. Jeanne Sager, in her bad parent column "Sorry Can't Make It" has a firm answer: We're staying put. I seem to be luckier than Jeanne in that I generally enjoy the family holiday gatherings I'm expected to attend, but I know plenty of people in her boat, and I recognize all of her other points: The non-festiveness of travel, of being in company mode, of being expected to dress up the kid. I would add to that the sheer exhaustion of decisions and logistics, since in my extended family we've never settled on a default plan—I think we've spent Christmas day in five different places over the past eight years.

So we, too, have decided to make it our new default to stay in our very own house for most of Christmas day itself, with a drive to nearby grandparents for dinner. It feels like declaring a center, and lets us create a Christmas tradition that is our family's own, instead of trying to awkwardly re-create the childhood Christmases of one of our families of origin.

We're still getting in the car on the 26th for a long drive, it's true, but somehow that feels different.

Meanwhile, Sasha Brown-Worsham won't let her child believe in Santa, and commenters seem to think she's taking an extreme and Grinchy stance. I never would have expected it, having been a believe-until-late kid myself, but as a parent, I'm with Sasha. For me it doesn't have to do with trauma from mall santas, or even wanting to avoid waiting in line to see one. Nor does it have to do with being a humbug or a Grinch—if anything we go a bit overboard with emphasizing the magic and stories of the season. If my daughter decides for herself to believe in Santa, as some kids who are explicitly told otherwise do, that won't bother me.

Nor I don't mind telling the story. I've read Rudolph in the original rhyming couplets a dozen times in the past week. In fact, the way we've decided to handle Santa's omnipresence is just to add a bunch of other stories about gift-giving figures (La Befana, Holle, St. Nicholas) to my daughter's repetoire of seasonal tales.

The thing that gets me is how people suddenly get seriously invested in our children really believing something that isn't true, as if that's required in order to have a sense of wonder about the season. Not just telling a fun story, but going to major contortions to make it seem plausible (different handwriting on the tags etc.) and having hysterics if another kid lets the truth slip (or a parent opts out of the game). I am also pretty creeped out by the idea that some random old guy is keeping track of your behavior and is going to judge you worthy of gifts or not a year later. How very Calvinist. Besides, no parent I've heard of actually withholds gifts for bad behavior any more.

There's also the story I remember hearing of the girl who kept asking Santa for things she knew her parents couldn't afford, and kept getting them. When she learned, she was consumed with guilt. Yippee! There's the Christmas spirit for you!

So, while I won't be on a crusade to spoil other families' Santa charades, we're not playing, thanks.

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