Making Your Children's Christmas Wishes Come True

It was early December, a dozen years ago, when 4-year-old Julia announced she wanted Santa to bring her "red sparkly shoes" for Christmas. You may be thinking, "That's easy, they are practically a staple in the shoe department at Target."  That's true today, but back then, it was NOT the case.

Before we get into the shoes, I have to say, despite her youth, Julia already had a history of challenging requests. The year before she asked for the yellow smiley face that used to bounce across the Walmart ads. It was part of the store's campaign about rolling back prices. Not wanting to disappoint we hit every store in town, desperately seeking a yellow smiley face ball. We eventually came up with a stress-relief ball that resembled the one from the ad, and that, along with lots of other balls and a few other gifts to distract he, we saved the day.

These were the years when our family was heavily into Santa. Our four kids, each spaced two years apart, covered the whole spectrum. If you didn't believe, you didn't admit it.  So, not only was coming up with the yellow smiley face ball or red sparkly shoes important to Julia's faith in Santa, but it also influenced the older kids' beliefs. 

When Julia announced her shoe request, unlike the previous year, this one was tangible. In fact, we knew exactly what she wanted and had seen them a lot during the Halloween season, as an accessory to the Dorothy costume. So, it wasn't out of the question to send my husband on a mission for red, sparkly shoes—size 4. But, he couldn’t find them anywhere. He found red sparkly flats in teenage girl size, red paten leather Mary Jane's in Julia's size, and even silvery sparkly shoes with a strap, but no red, sparkly shoes—size 4.

I joined the hunt, and after weeks of searching every possible place we were about to resort to glue and glitter when my husband, who was travelling out of state at the time, called triumphant.

"I found red, sparkly shoes, the kind with the strap, in a size 3.5. They are the only ones on the shelf. Should I buy them?" he asked.

I hesitated wondering, which mother would be worse? The one who disappointed her children on Christmas morning or the one who jammed her child's feet into the shoes of her dreams? When Christmas day arrived that year, it was like Cinderella meets Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Julia happily wore those red sparkly shoes all day long, and the next morning she said she'd outgrown them. And it didn't matter.

To this day, we can't get over the availability of red, sparkly Mary Jane's in all sizes and colors. There have even been times when we've seen store shelves filled with yellow, smiley-face, bouncy balls, and all we can do is smile at how hard we worked to make our children's holidays filled with magic.