By Nathan Marchand
December 18, 2014
Tim tackled Christmas trees, and Natasha conquered Santa Claus (like a Martian), so I’ll talk about another Christmas tradition: toys.
I’ve been known to sometimes wander through a Wal-Mart toy aisle just to see what kids are into these days. I smile when I see that some of my old favorites like Transformers are still around. I remember a few years ago when I looked at one and thought, Kids today have it easy. Most of the toys were pre-assembled and had pre-applied labels/stickers.
I remember one Christmas when I was 11 or 12, all my younger brother Josiah and I asked for were toys for the Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad (an over-marketed Power Rangers knock-off). But it wasn’t the normal-sized action figures we wanted: we asked for the huge 13-inch figures that split into three vehicles. Josiah wanted Drago, a robot dinosaur, and I wanted Zenon, a robot who looked so much like Optimus Prime, Hasbro could’ve sued. (Yes, I’m a nerd with a remarkable memory).
That Christmas Eve, for whatever reason, we opened those gifts early. We unboxed the figures and found they were in pieces—many, many pieces. We had no idea we’d have to do this much assembly! But we weren’t angry. We spent hours carefully poring over the involved instruction manuals, building each vehicle and applying decals to give them proper demarcations (and flair). But it still wasn’t over. Then we had to assemble the vehicles just right to form each character (if you grew up with Voltron in the 1980s, you’ll know what I’m talking about). By then we had two huge robots ready to battle evil monsters.
But it didn’t stop there. Both Zenon and Drago could be combined (or rather, used as armor) with their leader, a superhero named Servo, to form new characters! So, we had to deconstruct them and follow a new set of instructions to combine the toys. Since we only had one Servo figure, we had to disassemble one before assembling the other.
Once we enjoyed our handiwork, we returned all the toys to their original states. It was close to midnight, and we needed to go to sleep to enjoy Christmas morning. (I wanted to say, “So Santa could deliver us more gifts,” but after reading Natasha’s blog last week…). 😛
None of this was drudgery for us. On the contrary, we enjoyed every second. It was a challenge, a puzzle to solve. In a way, we had to “earn” the toys. They couldn’t simply be opened and played with. There was work involved, but the reward of having two butt-kicking super-robots was worth it. Those old Syber-Squad toys were gifts that taught lessons about hard work, patience, and perseverance. They were more than playthings: they were art projects, in a way. My brother and I took pride in our handiwork. It made playtime sweeter.
Nowadays, though, unless a kid gets something like Legos or a model kit, he doesn’t get to experience that. Everything is pre-built. He has instant gratification. (If I’m wrong, please tell me since I’ve not bought toys for years). All he has to do is open the package and there’s the toy. It saddens me.
Am I saying new toys are stupid and modern kids are lazy? No. But I do think toys, or just gifts in general, can be used for things other than play. They can teach morals. In fact, the tradition of gift-giving at Christmas started as an echo of the Wise Men bringing toddler Jesus (not baby Jesus, despite what the Nativity sets tell you) the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They were thoughtful, symbolic gifts that illustrated truths about Him. These gifts themselves were echoes of God the Father giving salvation to mankind as a gift through Christ.
So, this Christmas, give thoughtful gifts to those you love, especially if some assembly is required.
And just for fun…
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