What Santa is Bringing

I have a curiosity about what current kids want these days for Christmas -- so unlike the simple things we wanted. I asked my stockbroker who has four kids what they want -- and he really couldn't come up with any particular fad toy of the year -- no Tickle Me Elmo or Cabbage Patch (Ok, I know I'm dating myself) so I said, "The kids probably all want iPads."

He laughed and said he used to complain about paying $50 for "a frigging doll" but now he said with the price of electronic things for kids, he'd be "thrilled to pay $50 for a frigging doll."

When I told that story to a client this morning who has a sixth grader and twin first-graders, he said that when they take the kids to Target, for example, they'll look in the toy aisle and then he takes a photo of what they want with his phone so he gets it right.

Wow, that really struck me as modern times. Well, in my day, back when the surface of the earth was cooling, I remember my mother letting my sister and me mark things in the Sears Roebuck catalog that we wanted for Christmas. Really. That seems ancient now. But really back then, there were no Targets and Walmarts -- we had Woolworth's (which I still miss), but just the toy department of a department store.