Santa still comes to our house on Christmas. My son remains a firm believer and I like it that way – belief in a good, generous, friendly soul is something to be fostered for as long as possible, in my opinion.
That strong belief, however, has gotten us into a pickle or two over the years. Take, for instance, his wish list from last year (note his only non-hockey request – fruit punch flavored candy).
He collects NHL figures, particularly every goalie he can find. He has quite a few, but his collection is far from complete. His list included some of those he wanted to add. For those not familiar with how this works, the company makes figures of certain players each year and not every player has a figure yet. You have to have earned it, so to speak, by being a player “worthy” of a figure. So not every player is available (and those who have been out for awhile can cost quite a bit on the resale market).
Thus our dilemma – a number of the goalies on last year’s list were not actually available or affordable. No problem, he says, Santa can make them.
Uh-oh.
Some quick thinking was in order and I rambled something about how Santa can’t make just one toy. He has too many kids to provide for and he has to make things in bulk. Don’t judge – it worked.
I did find people that make custom-made figures in my searching, but we weren’t going to go that far. Customization appears to involve taking an existing figure and repainting it so I decided to try it myself and made a custom figure of my son. He got quite a kick out of that.
Not too shabby, if I say so myself. I’m not getting in the custom-made business, however; painting all that detail is a killer!
Here’s hoping that what you want most is under the tree on Christmas (and is available in bulk).
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Tending the Goalie 