The Must-Have Toy Chase: Do Whatever it Takes or Avoid at All Costs?

It's that time of year again: the time when the coolest toys of the year also become the hardest to find. Your kids are no dummies. They know which toys are badass and which toys aren't. It is by design that the toys they absolutely have to have are the ones that you can't seem to find.

This has been going on for generations. Marketers design product launch programs to prey on chumps like us who will do anything for our little boys and girls come Christmas time. They flood the marketplace with key product placements and targeted commercials. Then they limit the distribution and deliver product in phases leading up to Christmas to build up demand and whet the appetites of your kids and yourself.

Which brings us to quite a big dilemma. Do you bust your ass to get that single must-have toy for your kid or do you take the practical approach and wait until January? There isn't an easy answer to that question. On one hand you may end up paying well over retail price to get your hands on this years Tickle Me Elmo or Cabbage Patch Kid. On the other hand you run the risk of all your kid's friends playing with their Furby's while your kid is stuck with a snowflake sweater from Talbot Kids.

Look on eBay and you will see the Nintendo Wii selling for $500-$600. Sure, you will pay twice the amount but your kid will be playing with it Christmas morning. Some say giving into unreasonable demands is wrong and against the Christmas spirit. "What would Jesus do?" one may ask themselves.

{mosnooad}Personally, I think Jesus might dig the Wii over the PS3 but that is beside the point. Our society, right or wrong, has turned Christmas into a materialistic free for all. Try explaining to your kid that they didn't get what they wanted because it's about Jesus, not about them. Jesus doesn't have to listen to them whine all day.You do.

Of course, I am exaggerating to make a point. You need to make a decision on what you are willing to do for your kids. You need to make a decision on what is most important to you. Sometimes the thrill of the kill can cloud your senses and the next thing you know, you have spent 3 times the amount it would have cost you December 26th.

Unfortunately, kids do not understand logic. I would be tempted to tell my kids that for the price it would cost me to get a Nintendo Wii on the black market, I could buy them the system and 5 more games come January. But they wouldn't understand that.

When I was a kid growing up outside Philadelphia, we use to go see the fireworks during the Fourth of July. I always asked for one of those glow stick necklaces which cost like 10 bucks. Even though my parents offered to take me to Toys R Us the next day where I could pick out something there, I wanted the stupid necklace that ended up fading away by the next day anyways. See, even though it made more sense to take the toy the next day, it didn't make it any better that night seeing every other kid with those necklaces around their necks.

So what do you guys do? Do you do "whatever it takes" to score that must-have toy every year or do you run the risk of your spoiled brat's unhappiness?