Today, while Christmas shopping, I went into the toy department of Sears. There's so many new toys out just in time for the holiday season. But I must say that I'm really disappointed in this years Christmas toys. They all talk, giggle, jump, sing and even swim, just by the push of a button. That takes out a lot of fun and creativity that kids could have with these toys. Half of the fun of playing with stuffed animals, dolls and toys when I was little, was making them have silly voices and say stupid things. I think that this was all started by our Sesame friends Elmo. It was Christmas of 96' when every kid had to have a Tickle me Elmo doll for Christmas. Now all of the toy companies have caught onto the idea and decided to make their dolls talk too. But again this year, Sesame Street is ahead in the game. They've made Sleep and Snore Ernie, Swimming Ernie, Cookie Eating Cookie Monster, Walking Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Elmo, and Toss and Tickle Me Elmo. When I was playing with toss and Tickle Me Elmo in the toy department, Elmo told me to toss him, so I did. I tossed him to the ground and he still said "weeee!". Yeah, I bet that's fun Elmo! The Winnie the Pooh toys are pretty cute. When you press Tiger's head he jumps up and down and when you press Winnie the Pooh's tummy, he giggles and wiggles his nose. Then there's the Teletubbies toys. As much as I hate the TV show, the dolls are pretty cute. Unfortunately, a lot of them have been taken off the shelves because the red one (I think it's Po?) was thought to be saying some pretty bad things. Really, I think people must be going deaf because I've heard the red guy talk and he sure doesn't sound like he's saying "faggot" to me. Do you remember a couple years ago when the Smurfs tried to make a come back and they brought out new talking smurf dolls? Well, I guess some people really did hear them say some nasty words too, so they were taken off of the shelves. I wish that they just washed the smurf's mouth out with soap and put him back in stores because I want a talking smurf doll! Another doll that you might remember as a kid that's been brought back and updated to suit the needs of today's lazy children are Cabbage Patch Kids. The new Cabbage Patch Kids giggle, sing and babble when you touch their lips. I thought they were kind of cute, but for $50?! I don't think Santa would like this doll on my list this year. Oh, and I didn't forget the new toy that's almost as popular as Tickle me Elmo was a couple years ago. It's called Furby. I've never seen a Furby before, but I've seen a commercial for them on TV and they look like Gremlins, but before they turned into the evil Gremlins. You know, the cute ones (I think they were called Mogwai). But don't be fooled by their cute appearance, soon they'll be farting and burping. Yep, they say over 100 words too. I guess the longer that you care for them, the more they learn to say. But don't feed you Ferby after midnight! hehe. All of these new toys make me wonder where the state of toys are going. Are all new toys going to be motorized and battery operated? Whatever happened to Cabbage Patch Kids, Care Bears or Glo-worms being the popular toys for Christmas? Simple toys can be the best toys. Sure Glo-worm need batteries because his face light up when you hugged him, but that toy helped me to get over my fear of the dark. I really doubt that swimming Ernie will teach kids to swim. I know that I sound like an old lady complaining about the good ol' days of toys, but do all toys today have to move or talk for kids to like them? I know, I'm a child of the 80's, and in the 80's toys where fun and simple. But I'm sure if I were a child today I'd love all of the motorized toys and if someone tried to give me a Care Bear, I'd probably push it aside for my Ferby!