A Bit of Christmas Fun

Can you tell I am a child of disco? This is a Tiffany Taylor doll. When I was eight or nine, this was my favorite Christmas present. Now, in the picture, she looks like a brunette. But flip the top of her head around? She's a platinum blonde!

Other favorite dolls included the Chrissie doll. Push in her belly button (I can't make this stuff up) and pull on her hair and it magically grows. I also had a Cher doll, a slew of Barbies. I even had the three-story Barbie townhouse with an elevator. Pink townhouse, of course.

But, despite all of the wonders of dolls with rotating heads and hair that you pull on and working elevators, most of the time I asked for books. Yes, a kid who asked for books and not toys.

One Christmas, I asked for this book. My parents kept asking me, "Are you SURE this is what you want?" Because it was a coffee table book, and at the time not cheap, I wasn't going to get a lot of other things. I was POSITIVE I wanted it. And when Santa miraculously left it under the tree (Yes, Erica, there IS a Santa Claus), I remember sitting on my grandmother's couch, just touching the cover. I was afraid to READ it. It was the single most wonderful book in the whole wide world. I kept it pristine for 20 years until a flood in a basement destroyed it--along with a teeny tiny piece of my heart.

I also asked for just about every Nancy Drew ever published. I remember in second grade, learning what "titian"-colored hair was from ol' Nancy.

I remember getting this book. I couldn't find the ancient edition I had--and still have somewhere. I remember my mother reading me Snow White and Rose Red . . . and having this strange sort of revelation that the Disney version of fairytales were nothing like the violent Grimm brothers. In the Cinderella by Grimm and Company, one of the ugly stepsisters CUTS OFF PART OF HER FOOT to fit in the glass slipper and the blood gives her away. How sick is that?

So this year, my oldest daughter wants a Juicy Couture purse. Oldest son wants video games. Baby Girl wants a sewing machine (and sent Santa an EMAIL reminding him, in her words, "I think I’ve been well behaved this year."), and Demon Baby wants anything that makes noise and has a commercial. No Tiffany Taylor slutty disco dolls. No books . . . but they'll probably get a few anyway as they all like to read. Or in Demon Baby's case, be read to.

So how about you? What was on your childhood Christmas list . . . and did BOOKS make the cut?