Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand. Dr. Seuss
Over the weekend I was thumbing through the AARP Bulletin. There on the top of page four, above the headline of Medicare 2018, on the In the News page, was this little note:
“Looking to connect with boomer nostalgia, Sears is publishing its holiday “Wish Book” for the first time since 2011. Launched in 1933, the catalog let generations of children dream of their perfect Christmas morning. In 1991, the “Wish Book” totaled 806 pages; this year it will be 120 pages.”
I had to laugh since I’d just written about catalog dreaming and shopping. I’d forgotten it was called the “Wish Book.” When I read how small the “Wish Book” will be this year, I could feel my smile slipping away. My first thought was, guess Sears made the first list edit for me. Then I thought how just the sheer size of that catalog was part of the thrill and the excitement of the whole thing. Really. It was gigantic. I had to use both hands to carry it around. When I was very young, the Christmas catalog was one of the biggest books I’d ever seen–for sure the biggest book I’d ever held in my hands.
Maybe finding that little note was not such a great find? Maybe we all would have been better off not knowing the revival of a beloved tradition was done on such a small, sad scale.
Maybe it’s better for us all to remember:
Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. Mary Ellen Chase.
I am…
B…simply being…
Sending you all love.
Peace
B...simply being... 