The small children in our lives live a very long way from us, so today we got our gifts for them into the mail. Getting the things ready to send to them is usually the first Christmas related thing we do (though this year I began the season by making a wreath and hanging it on our door.)
I like to imagine how the young ones will feel when they see the packages, and try to make them look as fun as I can, though most ribbons and bows are out of the question as they would get totally crushed before they arrived under their trees. And since these packages are for children, I don’t part with any really precious bits from my vintage paper collection, knowing that they’re not old enough yet to appreciate the rarity of having a gift sealed with a vintage sticker or tag. That’s not to say that my wrapping for them this year is not special though because the tags I used are ones that can never be bought again because they were dusty old stock in a dusty old shop that was in this neighbourhood for years but that has since moved along due to sky-rocketing rents in the area. Also to further fancy things up this year I included a plush ornament for each of them too.
My siblings and I grew up far away from family and one of my fondest memories of the holidays was when the Christmas package arrived from my maternal grandmother. Those gifts were the first ones under the tree, and really got the anticipation of Christmas going. The self restraint required to not take a little peek was intense!
For the past five years we have bought the presents for our loved little people at a wonderful independent toy store in our neighbourhood, called The Toy Space, located just north of the intersection of Bathurst and King. They specialize in unlicensed, high quality and environmentally friendly toys, which to our adult eyes also look to be a great deal of fun. Aside from the fact that they have terrific things, we like to give them our business because they are located in such an odd, non-retail oriented spot, and we’re concerned on their behalf, that not many people know about them. An added bonus is their complementary gift wrapping, which this year included some charming polka-dotted paper.
One of our nieces is too old for a toy store gift this year though, so for her we popped up to the Queen Street West boutiques, where we got this book “The Daring Book for Girls”. Nick actually found it, and I quickly agreed that it looked like the perfect gift for a soon to be 12 year old girl. I took a tiny careful look inside and can guarantee that I would have loved this book when I was that age. I think if we had done our shopping earlier though, we may have found this book at the toy store too because they had the partner book “The Dangerous Book for Boys”.
So earlier today, I wrapped the remaining gifts and Nick took the things straight to the post office. With much love attached, the presents are on their way!
[Aside: Being Canadian, my title should be “Sending Love Across the Kilometres”, but really that just doesn’t have the same ring to it!]
Thank you very much for your visit.
xo loulou
