Toys of Christmas Past

By: Comedienne, Kate Davis

By New Year I’m glad to put away the Christmas decorations throw out the tree and know that the next holiday isn’t coming for a couple of months. There are definitely a few beefs I have with Christmas, OK not so much the holiday, but for sure the toy companies.

I love Christmas morning, the kids opening up their presents and the look on their faces. But the rest of my morning is spent opening up the toy packages, twist tie after twist tie. Cutting thread after thread only to have one Barbie or Transformer freed, just twenty more toys to go and that’s not even putting them together. Not to mention the little pieces, you know the small cell phone that Barbie holds, I usually end up stepping on them. My husband’s pretty tough but I’ve seen him be taken out by a piece of Lego. Man Down! I should start a business called “Will un-package Toys for You.”

So lets fast forward six years later, I am walking to the curb with two garbage bags of broken toys. The toys of, “I have to have!” Bade Blades, Pokeman cards (I have thousands), Cabbage patch dolls, Simon, Mario, whatever Disney movie is popular that year, you get the point and six months later they don’t want to even admit they were into them. Yes, the latest trend; soon to be replaced with the next hottest toy that everyone has to have. They say history repeats itself well so do toys. I wish I had kept my Barbies and Star War toys from my childhood and saved the money and the time opening up the new ones. When my kids were toddlers they were happier playing with the box rather than the toy.

I look back on my childhood and we didn’t have computers or video games or even videos, we had to be creative. Hey maybe next Christmas I’ll buy them a 9volt battery that they can lick. All of them sitting around the Christmas tree; licking batteries. At least there would be no twist ties.

Kate Davis is a clever and candid comedienne and mother of three. From that she has developed her popular workshops “Parenting With Humour” where she helps moms to find funny alternatives in communicating with their kids. Find out more at www.funnymommy.