No, I’m not selling anything. I received my first e-vertisment, though, to buy some Harry Potter themed Christmas gifts which got me thinking. It’s two weeks until St. Nicholas Day on the Church Calendar and, yikes, tomorrow for you Gregorians out there. Did anyone see any great Harry gifts (other than ‘Hairy Heart’) during your Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping? Please share the “where” and “how much” for your finds.
My eight year old son’s favorite plate is the Harry Potter momento I bought for him at Nimbus 2003. My daughter at VMI refuses to relinquish the Whirlwood Wand she received at the same time (though she isn’t even allowed to bring unregistered weapons into her barracks room so it sits on a shelf at home). We also have a Sorting Hat, and, as you’d expect, quite a few books about Harry. What accessories do you own? Do you feel like an idiot when you buy “licensed products”? Outside of the wand (which a friend makes) and the books (which are life-essential), I sure do.
But my son might stop eating if his Potter plate disappeared; I certainly remember the Dennis the Menace, Huckleberry Hound, and Fred Flintstone headed spoons I used as a boy and how attached I was to them. Is there a tie-in between these real world objects and our experience of story? How does owning a piece of Potter paraphernalia compare, say, with watching a Potter movie? With reading Beedle? Is positive association and reinforcement part of imaginative experience and integration?
http://www.alivans.com and http://www.noblecollection.com/catalog/catalog.cfm?catid=21 is where I normally get my Harry Potter merchandise
good hunting