The Sears Christmas Wish Book and JC Penney Christmas catalog were once front and center for every kid in America. I was one of those kids. I had learned the art of perusing mail order catalogs from my great grandma who sat down each spring and summer and ordered three dresses per season- the Montgomery Ward catalog being her favorite resource. She would sit on her front porch rocking in her favorite chair, prop one foot up on the screened edging, and shop ‘til she dropped...so to speak. Back then catalogs provided shopping opportunities for the home shopper, opening a whole new world of goods that would otherwise have remained hidden. It also gave a kid a hundred new ideas of what Christmas could be.