Collect 'em All!

Remember when that phrase used to adorn the cereal boxes that contained fabulous "collectible" prizes? 3-D baseball cards, figurines of all sorts, little pennants, spinning tops and more.

The urge to collect (and to complete a collection) is fostered in children from a very young age. With my first-grader, it's Pokémon ("Gotta catch 'em all!). My daughter collects decorative pillows for her bed. Pretty soon there won't be any room for her in there. And how many of us (or our children) were overrun by Beanie Babies a few years back?

With three children and all their stuff, I really don't have room to build a collection of anything other than dust bunnies around here, unless you count all my cookbooks. I have over 100 of those!

So I have decided instead to focus my collecting energies on Christmas ornaments. We have many handmade ones that were given to use as gifts, and of course the kids have made some in school. Who can resist the cuteness of those "doily on a toilet paper tube" angels that kids make in pre-K? Or how about the "framed in a popsicle stick square" picture of a child dressed as Rudolph?

I have some ornaments that were given to me when I was a child, and so does my husband. What I'd love to have had, though are some of my grandmother's old ornaments and decorations. She used to let us help her decorate the tree, which was a big deal, because in our house, Santa decorated the tree on Christmas Eve! That's right--he took time out of his very busy delivery schedule to put up all our decorations. It was a magical moment when we'd run down the stairs and around the corner into the living room to see the tree for the first time on Christmas morning.

But Nanny let us decorate her tree, and even to choose some ornaments at one of those Christmas-ornament stores that has miles of beautifully-dressed trees and baskets of ornaments to buy. I remember choosing some birds. I think I was 4 or 5. To me, it made sense that birds would want to sit in a pretty Christmas tree. Nanny rolled her eyes for years every time she unwrapped those birds, but she always put them in the tree (in the back, but they were there! I checked!)

Unfortunately she stored her decorations in her attic, before the days of the Rubbermaid Tote, and the cardboard boxes and most of their contents were destroyed when a leaky roof and invading squirrel joined forces to wreck her storage area.

COUPON TIME

Need to fill out a collection for yourself or someone on your gift list? Find some great deals here--but don't store your stuff in cardboard in the attic. Your grandchildren will thank you later!

Free Shipping on orders of $100 or more at The Franklin Mint
Use coupon code LSFS1.
Valid through: December 31, 2008 11:59pm ET
Cannot be combined with other coupons.

Free Shipping AND 10% off $75+ at San Francisco Music Box
Use this link and enter coupon code SFMBAFDEC during checkout.
Valid through: December 31, 2008

Free Shipping on orders over $39 at FansEdge.com
Use coupon code FESHIP39 during checkout.
Valid through: unknown

Free Shipping on orders of $89 or more at Disney Shopping.com
Enter Promotion Code SHIP89. Click "Submit".
Valid through: December 17, 2008 11:59pm PT

15% off online orders over $50 at Collections Etc.
Use Promotion Code 3EZZA6 during checkout. Instead of seeing the 15% off
separately, the prices of the items in your cart will be reduced. Valid
through: December 31, 2008
Online orders only. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Continental U.S. only.