-Dr. DRL
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Times Writers Group: Put classics at top of wish list
St. Cloud (MN) TimesThe holiday shopping season unofficially began last weekend as department stores demoted leftover Halloween merchandise to clearance racks and Christmas displays took center stage.
Though most department stores no longer publish the giant "wish book" toy catalogs that children poured over a generation ago, their advertisements in newspapers and television are busy telling kids what should be on the lists they send Santa: products linked to media campaigns, toys that work mostly on their own, and games that train them to be good consumers.
There's Dora for toddlers, Diego for preschoolers, pretend McDonald's food — and even cash registers — for grade school kids, and, of course, an endless supply of video-games-inspired-by-movies (or vice-versa) for older children.
So what's a parent to do? How can we chose gifts for our kids they will love to receive, that will provide lasting enjoyment, that counter the commercial hype of advertisements, and that might even offer some educational benefit in the long run?
Happily the answer is simple: look for the toys you, your parents and probably even your grandparents played with. Most of them didn't require batteries but did require imagination. Most weren't made of plastic, didn't come from China, and weren't even advertised much.
Instead they were made of wood and metal in American factories and were bought by generations of parents because they knew they worked. Kids loved these simple toys because playing with them was what play was intended to be: unscripted, imaginative and endlessly fun.
Parents need only think back to the things they cherished as children to be inspired. Board games really were better than today's meager fare, many of which are just repackaged movie scripts or are baldly intended to teach kids to shop.
Instead, why not revive the original Candyland, Sorry!, Chinese checkers, Monopoly, Scrabble, Life or Clue? None of them require batteries, none involve a simulated credit card, and most (with the possible exception of Candyland) are fun for adults as well.Or how about the classic toys of the 1960s and 1970s that are still part of our popular culture, like Play-Doh, Mr. Potato Head, Battleship, Hot Wheel and Matchbox cars, Raggedy Ann dolls and even the Easy-Bake Oven?
Anyone older than age 25 can easily make a shopping list of guaranteed hits. It would include basic items like blocks, doll houses and dress-up clothes for toddlers. Or musical toys, especially simple percussion instruments, for teaching rhythm and for group play. Trains, planes and automobiles or paints and craft materials for grade schoolers. Building sets, including Lego and Erector, for preteens. Age-appropriate board games (and adults to play them with) for all ages. And outdoor items from sports equipment to BB guns, bows & arrows, and even pocket knives for mature kids.
Remember when getting a kid version of a grown-up tool was a rite of passage and how good it made you feel? Despite our safety-obsessed culture, these "dangerous" toys still have a place too.
As you make your holiday shopping list skip the latest Bakugan movie/toy/video game tie-in and the Bratz movie/doll/video game empire. Why buy your kids things that only teach them to want more things, not-so-subtly training them to be better consumers?
Instead, remember what you played with as a kid. It's probably still on the market, if not in the holiday ads. If you're lucky, you can recapture a bit of the magic of your own childhood to share with the children in your life this year.-Dr. DRL
