A Wish (Book) for Christmas
An enterprising catalog-phile has put most of the Sears Christmas Wish Books online. With a few clicks, you can scroll through your childhood holiday memories. So I did, and then I found it.
My dream outfit was right there on page 23 of the 1975 Wish Book, a one-piece Perma-Prest long dress with a pleated skirt and lace-ruffled sleeves.
I remember wanting that dress, or one nearly like it. I didn’t get it.
At $11.99 it was an extravagance, particularly when the catalog brazenly noted that “chubby sizes” — they actually called it that — were $2 more, therapy not included.
Self-esteem issues aside, I’m glad Sears is bringing back its printed Wish Book this year after a six-year break. The thin catalogs that pile up on my dining room table are poor substitutes for the inches-thick classic. It was an event when Mom brought one home from our local Sears store, the most reliable indication that Christmas was just months away.
I imagined wearing that dress to holiday parties and to interesting events. The reality was that in 1975, my social life consisted of sleepovers at friends’ houses or an evening with neighbors, us kids relegated to a basement rec room with ginger ale in Tupperware tumblers and a bag of potato chips.
As for an evening event? At Christmastime, it was a much-anticipated ride to downtown Akron to check out the holiday displays in the Polsky’s and O’Neil’s department store windows. Fun, but not really Perma-Prest-worthy.
When I was young, it really was a wish book. In addition to the maxi dress, I turned down pages to mark pleather lace-up boots, toe socks, smock tops and light-up makeup mirrors. My brothers had their own turned down pages, usually ones with Evil Knievel figures, NFL jerseys or weapons to use on me. Christmas, in many ways, was a painful experience now that I look back on it.
The Wish Book painted an idyllic world of attractive families in tidy homes with toys that never broke, board games that never caused arguments, and holiday decorations that never looked tacky.
Sure, it fed my selfish nature, but it also gave me something to work toward — and that’s not such a bad thing when you’re 15.
Something that I want to work toward today is being more generous. The people featured in our annual volunteer salute on Page 22 are terrific role models. What is noteworthy is that there are thousands of others like them throughout Northeast Ohio, people who generously give their time and talent to help others. We salute a few of them in this issue.
We also have a story on Page 18 about developing a generous spirit and why it’s good for your health. We follow it up with ideas for holiday gifts with a local flair to up your giving game. That story is on Page 12.
I hope you have a weapon-free holiday season filled with good wishes, generosity and a bit of magic. It’s been a long year. We all deserve it.
