My
daughter asked me what I wanted for Christmas, so I had to stop and
think. Of course I would like an end to war, suffering and world
hunger, but on the materialistic side, she got me slippers last year, a
camera the year before and I have enough handkerchiefs to accommodate a
lifetime of sneezes and sniffles. So I came up with towels – I need
towels because some of mine are ripped and tattered – you can hardly
make out the words "Baybank" on one of them. Then I thought about what
I really wanted for Christmas – a Corvette, a beach house in Bermuda
and all the toys I ever asked for and never got when I was a kid – the
toys that I never saw under that silver aluminum tree with the noisy
color wheel.

Tony the Pony was the first thing I recalled
wanting – I still remember the song in the commercial: "Tony the Pony,
the riding pony…Tony the Pony by Marx!" It was a battery operated
ride-on toy. When that commercial came on, I would go berserk – I asked
for it, but Santa didn't bring it.

Another great toy was
Gaylord the Basset Hound – Gaylord walked on his own – forwards and
backwards and he came with his own leash and bone. You would hold the
bone near his head and the bone would snap onto his magnetic snout. I
looked in all the usual places – under my parents bed, in the cellar
and in the closets – but no Gaylord. Santa let me down again. I
couldn't grasp the concept that my parents just couldn't afford these
high-end toys.

Today, one PlayStation 3 game costs about 60
bucks. Dad probably spent less than that for the aluminum tree, the
color wheel and all our gifts combined. I know we didn't splurge on
decorations, because we used the same few stencils year after year –
you remember those, don't you? I think it was Glass Wax or something
you would spray to get the white snowy effect. We still have the
plastic light-up window Santa Claus that we had when we were kids –
there are slabs of yellowed scotch tape holding it together.

Don't
you love those heirloom ornaments that have been in the family forever?
We also have a little wax choir boy that is as old as me – the face has
creases and wrinkles in it – just like mine. I remember buying a set of
those plastic window candles at J.M. Fields – to this day freshly
popped popcorn reminds of that store.

Back to the toys…Did
anyone else ever get silly putty stuck in their hair or a siblings
hair? I did, and it wasn't pretty – it had to be cut out, which meant
instant bald spot.

Everyone seems to have a story about how
their mother or father threw away all their comic books, baseball cards
or GI Joes. My parents never threw out my GI Joe because I never had a
GI Joe.

I had Whacked Out Willie, the hippie action figure –
it came with sunglasses, tie dyed clothes, sandals and a bong. I'm only
kidding, it didn't come with a bong. It did however have a VW bus with
a peace sign on it.

We always got those peel and stick
Colorforms, a Duncan Imperial YoYo and a Slinky. My favorite Colorforms
was a Popeye set I had. The slinky would always get tangled up. When
that happened, it became just a hunk of useless metal. Another "staple"
gift was Shrinky Dinks. You would cut out and color small hunks of
plastic and bake it until it shrank. I still remember the stench of
those things.

Speaking of old toys and odors, I wonder who the
first genius was that decided to take a match to a green plastic army
men? Not only did they melt and stink, but when the droplets of burning
plastic fell, it made a neat sound ! How bored were we that we actually
got a kick out of that?

I still have one of the best toys I
ever got. It's my Mattel Fanner Fifty cowboy pistol. It came with fake
gray plastic bullets that shot out and greenie stick-em caps. I still
can't believe my parents actually bought me something that shot
projectiles. Maybe it was my Godfather who bought that for me – you
couldn't argue with the Godfather.

I was about 13 or 14 when the
sting ray bikes came out. We just added the banana seat and wing "ape
hanger" handlebars and made our own sting rays. I would have loved an
original Sting Ray. Some of the cool toys I got were: my Erector set,
Vac-u-form, my Aurora Slot Car Racing Set and my first folk guitar. My
parents really came through on some Christmases.

We were
thrilled with whatever we got for Christmas back then – every Christmas
was the best day of the year. What excitement we had in those days when
we were kids. The smell of a real Christmas tree brings it all back. I
love Christmas and I love seeing the smiles on my family's faces on
Christmas morning. I know I will love my new towels but my daughter is
still asking what else I want for Christmas – she asked me if there was
any Red Sox or Patriots related thing I would like to find under the
tree on Christmas morning – and I said "Sure! How about Gisele
Bundchen?"