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Posts Tagged ‘Holidays’

American Girl dolls – the icon of overspending for our kids – tries to get a reality check this Christmas season, but is it too little too late? I think so. Gwen can’t change the fact that American Girl dolls are out of reach for most American families.

This morning I was watching the morning news and both CNN and my local news channel ran a story about American Girl creating a homeless doll for this Christmas season. Gwen, the new doll, is hitting Michigan Avenue, although she will not be out shopping and having tea.

At first, I admit, I thought it was a good thing. But then I thought about it a bit more. This is a company that has fostered overspending on our kids for years. It has created a product that few American families can actually purchase. It has helped to create very unrealistic expectations for our children and made it difficult for parents to explain the financial restrictions many of us face.

So why change now? Because America has gone through the worst economic period since the great depression and spending is on the decrease. Because parents are tired of spending more then they are actually making. Because credit card debit is no longer acceptable and consumers are starting to revolt. Because we have wised up and frugal is now “in”. Because not every family can take a trip to Chicago and have tea on Michigan Avenue with their child.

As we have experienced our own personal financial struggles, the American Girl brand has too. Their web traffic is down and their sales are flat. Mattel is trying to balance the changing consumer views on spending with their overpriced and utterly unrealistic priced dolls. Good luck with that.

We Americans have changed or at least many of us have altered our spending habits and they will most likely not return to the levels once seen in years past. Gwen may be giving you media buzz, but I doubt she will turn American Girl sales around.

This whole story leaves me wondering one thing. Did Mattel include instructions for turning Gwen’s product box into a house for her to sleep or did they include directions to the nearest shelter? That is the reality of the real homeless this holiday season. I wish Mattel had saved the money spent on developing and marketing Gwen and instead, given it to a homeless shelter to feed and cloth those who are struggling this Christmas season. That would have given our children a much better message than an overpriced doll that comes with only one dress.

Each year we flock to the stores or the Internet to buy Christmas presents for friends and family. This year, the 2009 Christmas gift list will be filled with technology presents as it was in years past. While I try and push non-technology presents, I lose to my tech-savvy family who grave iPods, cell phones, Wii games, and the like.

While I cannot say every gift I have received was perfect, I will say my husband and children do a very good job in providing me with gifts I will love and cherish. For all of you last minutes husbands and boyfriends, my favorite gifts are listed below. A few of these gifts are things I purchased for myself, however they are important, so they must be listed.

My 2009 Christmas Wish List for Every Mom

• Snow Village Christmas houses, stores, churches, and people
• Dyson vacuum (two cats and a dog require it)
• Blackberry
• MacBook Pro laptop
• Sony a300 digital camera
• Roku
• NetFlix subscription
• Tivo DVR
• Spa gift certificate
• Victoria’s Secret PJ’s (long ones because I am tall)
• Yankee Candle Christmas scents (double wick jar required)
• Royal Copenhagen’s annual Christmas plate

I was raised by my grandparents who were 100% Danes. My Christmas holidays were filled with longstanding Danish traditions, although I did not realize this until I was well into my thirties. It was then that I learned that my Christmas traditions were not the American Christmas traditions thought I believed they were for so many years. And honestly, I didn’t care.

My family Christmas was based on Danish traditions that were carried on by my grandparents. They formulated my beliefs in the holidays and cultivated my love for Christmas and everything it represents.

My husband, being the wonderful man he is, continues the one of the most important Christmas traditions for me.  Each year he hunts around Michigan for Royal Copenhagen’s annual and limited edition Christmas plate.  This task is not easily accomplished and takes much work and planning, which I might add, he does not like or do well.  But for this task, he does do it, as he knows it holds a great deal of importance to me.  This plate will hang in my dining room and will join my growing collection.  It is a reminder of my past, of my Grandmother, and of the home she welcomed me into some twenty-five years ago.  While my matriarch and lifelong hero is no longer with me, she will remain in my heart forever.  The Christmas plates returns a little bit of her to me each Christmas Eve as I open the gift.

My Christmas Traditions

• I believe in opening presents Christmas Eve night, although my husband forces Christmas day.
• I believe in performing in the annual Christmas show prior to opening gifts, although my children think this is crazy. The Christmas show was the best part of my childhood.
• I believe the door is always open for Christmas dinner and that anyone in attendance should receive gifts. A gift can be a pair of socks or an iPod, but there must be a gift.
• I believe Santa Claus can shop in her pajamas at ten o’clock at night and I am thankful to the Internet for making this possible.
• I believe in Santa Claus and stockings hung on the fireplace. I believe overnight guests must also have Christmas stockings waiting.
• I believe in reading the Christmas story, even if this is a children’s book that is at the level of a three year old.
• I believe Christmas should be an all day event spent with those you love.
• I believe the wrapping of a gift is as important as the gift itself and that wrapping is best done with a glass of wine.
• I believe a Christmas requires snow and I continue to live in Michigan so that I will receive my wish each year.
• I believe in watching Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and The Year Without Santa four hundred times.
• I believe in bringing family together, and that if you can help you should, even if this means gifting your coveted frequent flyer miles do so.