The holiday gift giving season is the time of year when I have to make one admission to myself (and this year to the world). I love toys. And I’m not talking about video games as toys, that’s a given. I’m talking about actual toys. Geek toys that stem from video game, anime, comic book, and cartoon IPs and the random (but cool) tchotchke thrown in for giggles.
My office at school pretends to be professional so I limit the toys there to little figures from games and anime that completely fill two shelves on a book case, a Bakugan ball on my desk that was gifted by a colleague which is perfect for thoughtful fidgeting, and a llama plush from Harvest Moon that I keep for emergencies. My home office has no pretense of being so professional. Plush cartoon characters, animated Elmo dolls, and ceramic figures line the top of the bookcases. Smaller figures and beanie babies take up more room on my desk than my computer.
This love of toys is something that I share with my daughter (ok, with most children), we look longingly at plush toys that accompany our latest video game obsession, we scoop but multiple blind boxes to find that one longed for miniature figure of the one female character depicted from each series (they still need to do better with representation), and don’t even get me started on our new obsession with Pop! Funko figures. It often feels a lot like a treasure hunt.
This treasure hunting has become a great chance to spend some fun time with the kiddo. There is nothing like driving from store to store trying to find an elusive Popplio or Rowlet on the day that they hit the stores. Those moments that give us not only the chance to giggle excitedly about the prospects, but also to talk about who our favorite starters are in all of the games, and to wax poetic about the psychological import of adequate stuffy cuddling.
Having this shared love of beautiful, useless/useful things has made holiday gift shopping just that much more fun. Pairing character head pens with a copy of a favorite anime, wrapping a new game that is being held by a character plush, or stuffing stockings with actual character stockings. There is much joy in the tchotchke. And while one day we may have to build a storage facility just to hold all of this stuff right now there is much joy in searching for, collecting, and playing with these things…together.
And that togetherness is the most important part. As we enter the holiday season full swing and start to bring this political trashfire of a year to a close, let’s all remember to take some time for self-care, splurge on the Pokemon collector’s box (or not), and just spend some quality time playing with our toys…I mean kids. Happy Holidays, all!
