It's Happening: That Christmas Magic
By Julie Perine on December 21, 2014 via Connect-Bridgeport.com
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In the movie, “The Santa Clause,” Laura Calvin Miller’s Christmas obsession was a Mystery Date game. For her husband Dr. Neil Miller, it was an Oscar Mayer wiener whistle.
Most of us remember that special toy about which we dreamed while anticipating Santa’s Christmas Eve visit. For me, it was a Mattel Baby’s Hungry doll. For my four children, it was a variety of special items – some seemingly impossible to receive were it not for that Christmas magic.
I mean, we know the holiday sacrifices of parents this time of year. And if we moms and dads are willing to go to such lengths, well, just imagine what Santa – in all his North Pole splendor - can accomplish.
One year, my husband bundled up and braved a massive line at the David Weis store, which back in the 1980s was in the Terrace Plaza building now occupied by Family Dollar and Sherwin-Williams. His mission was to purchase a Cabbage Doll – a toy in very high demand, but one which also held a special place in the heart of our two-year-old daughter.
Many years later, I dressed three hours early for church so I could be at Target when they opened for the day with a fresh supply of Wii video game consols. Another year, I stressed when I realized I had become the target of an Internet scam while trying to order an Xbox 360. It all had a happy ending. Yep, it was Christmas magic.
In between those toy trends were many others – including the “Talkboy” made famous by the “Home Alone” movie, Magic Nursery Babies, Teddy Ruxpin, Puffalumps, Pound Puppies and Popples, Transformers, Creepy Crawlers and Turbo Twisters. Some of the special toys played a major role in my kids’ childhood; others were mere overnight sensations.
But all of them brought huge smiles to the faces of the kids which I love so. They danced through their Christmas Eve dreams and stirred that sweet feeling of Christmas morning joy; an emotion which prompted them to wake their parents at the wee hours of Christmas morning. That’s the kind of fuel which feeds Santa’s fire to please – and which keeps that Christmas magic alive.
Julie Perine can be reached at 304-848-7200, julie@connect-bridgeport or follow @JuliePerine on Twitter. More "It's Happening" HERE.
Merry Christmas everyone!
