Santa Gets Crafty

A few years ago, Bella's Santa list was short. Extremely short. All she wanted was the Princess and the Pauper Erica Barbie. Simple you say, just pop down to Toys R Us, dish out $20 and check that item off the list. But have you ever noticed how quickly Mattel cycles through those Barbie themes? Princess and the Pauper was sooooo last year - I couldn't find that Barbie anywhere.

I searched high and low for that Barbie. First I went to all the Toys R Us stores in the area, then I branched out to Kmart, Target, and even KB Toys. Not an Erica in sight. So I turned to Ebay and discovered an interesting phenomenon. Erica was actually part of a set - she was the pauper while Annaliese, a blond Barbie, was the princess. In a strange once in a lifetime Murphy's law kind of way, it turned out that the blond Barbie was less coveted than the brunette Erica. Dozens of Annaliese's were on auction and were going for $20. The Erica's were few and far between, and bids were over $120.

I tested the depths of Bella's desire by floating some comments about Santa making new different Barbies, but Bella could not be swayed. She wanted beautiful singing Erica who had hair just like her. But I couldn't justify spending over $100 on a Barbie. If she gave really good stock picks instead of just singing I could have swallowed the price tag, but the sexy hedge fund manager Barbie was not what Bella coveted.

In order to live with myself on Christmas morning, but not crush Bella's faith in Santa, I came up with a compromise. I bought a "gently-used" Erica doll for $30 on Ebay. Her hair was still glorious and shiny and she even had both shoes. I made a beautiful pink box filled with pink and silver tissue paper and placed her under the tree. I included a personal note from Santa explaining that he had looked long and hard to find the last Erica doll in the North Pole which is why she had a very special box. The whole subterfuge went down without a hitch. Bella's eyes lit up when she read the note and she was thrilled to finally have her Erica doll. I beamed with pride when she bragged to her little friends a few days later about the special box and note from Santa.

Parent Bloggers Network is having another blog blast - with a crazy Christmas in July prize to be won - courtesy of Hasbro for their Hasbro Toy Event.