Tea Sets, Toyland & Trivia!

It's been on my bookshelf for several years now, but I just got around to actually reading "Under the Tree: The Toys and Treats That Made Christmas Special, 1930-1970," a 2007 book by Susan Waggoner. You don't *have* to be a fellow Baby Boomer to enjoy looking at all the fun photos and reading the fascinating history and trivia about toys, but it sure helps!

I was not a bit surprised to see so much about tea sets in the book. It said that one of the Shirley Temple doll's accessories was a Shirley Temple tea set, and this photo shows that the famous Chatty Cathy doll is seated at the table with a teacup and saucer. I am told I had a Chatty Cathy doll as a child, but I must say I don't remember her. I do, however, remember getting quite a few of the fancy for-display-only dolls the book mentions as well as the pocket-sized Liddle Kiddles it shows. (I also remember Dancerina, the dancing ballerina doll which came out in 1968. You held down the crown on her head to make her dance, and I loved that! I also remember the Crissy and Velvet dolls, whose belly buttons you pushed to make their hair grow. Interesting concept, that.)

"Under the Tree" also talks about the popularity of homemaking toys, and I remember having a number of kid-sized furniture pieces. In fact, I felt a little guilty reading this book as I realized what an indulged child I was! The ads for such pieces are so fun to read today, like this little steel hutch, made to look like wood, that came complete with teapot and dishes ($6 for all in 1954).

And if I could time travel, I know I would go back and buy mint versions of all the tea sets, the ones for adults *and* the ones for children. This plastic tea set from 1944 even came with little Scottie dog napkins, and at $1.59 I'll bet that was a good buy even then. I could go on and on about the fun facts in this book, but here are a few of the highlights I found:

• A little boy named Joshua Lionel Cowen, age 7, made his own miniature train out of wood and gave it a steam engine, and 13 years later he made one with a real working fan, creating an electric train that ran on a brass track. A store in New York used the set in its display window, causing customers to clamor for sets of their own, and the former "little boy" used his middle name, Lionel, to form his own train company. (There's loads of fun stuff on trains if you're a train aficionado, or married to one!)

• What really made the Madame Alexander doll company a household name was the creation of the Dionne Quintuplet dolls after the birth of the quints in 1934. And "Madame" Alexander's real name was Bertha. "Mommy, may I please have a Bertha Alexander doll for Christmas?" Just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

• In the early 1900s, a woman named Elizabeth Magie created the Landlord Game, which "was supposed to demonstrate the ills caused by unequal distribution of wealth." To her dismay, the players not only didn't learn to have compassion for poor people, but instead they loved winning big piles of money and enjoyed watching the other players fall into bankruptcy. No one wanted to manufacture the game — until 30 years later, the game came out with a new name, Monopoly, and became a hit toy during the Depression. Who knew!

Finally, I thought I'd share one more detail from the book, which I first noticed because of the great variety of tea sets at the bottom, but then I zeroed in on the Little Hostess buffet at top left and went in search of an old family photo.

Yes, I apparently got that Little Hostess buffet myself for my second Christmas in 1965 (the same year my parents decided for some reason to dress me in a striped dunce hat), and I would not be surprised if I got a tea set to go with it as well. "Under the Tree" was quite a fun trip down memory lane, and some of you might enjoy reading it as well. If you have a memory of a favorite toy, I'd love to hear about it!