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Leanne Shirtliffe

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Christmas

The Elf on the Shelf…and Hate Mail

If you don’t know what the Elf on the Shelf is, you’re missing out on one of the self-publishing miracles of the decade. At the request of CBC Radio, I weighed in on this toy. Not surprisingly, I situated myself in the Grinch-y corner. Here’s the link to my five-minute radio spot that I did […]

The Worst Toys of 2012: The What-Is-It Award

Welcome to the fourth installment in the series of the Worst Toys of 2012. If you missed the first three, check out the Laugh & Learn Apptivity Monkey, the Razor E100 Electric Scooter, and Ari Roma, the Novi Star prostitute doll. Today, I am giving out the What-Is-It Award. This honor goes to a toy that is […]

10 Years Ago Today

I stood in a New Zealand farm kitchen, stomach full of barbecued lamb, sobbing into my brother’s arms. I closed my eyes, shutting out the blinking Christmas lights surrounding his mother-in-law’s window. Our grandmother lay dying half a world away, near the end of a battle with Alzheimer’s that left her too exhausted to eat, […]

The Quest for a Christmas Tree

  On a Saturday in December long ago, my dad and I drove into Winnipeg in search of a Christmas tree. The temperature hovered around minus thirty, and the wind, unimpeded from Hudson Bay, whipped through the Manitoba prairie. Driving east on the Trans-Canada highway, I was hypnotized by the snow swirling across the highway, […]

A Twisted Guide to the Worst Toys of 2011

If you’re planning to purchase toys for some darling children this holiday season, you might want to look elsewhere because my annual list of toys-that-suck is here. Without further ado, I present the worst toys from Santa’s workshop, where quality control appears to have taken an extended vacation. A 365 day one. Toys That Assault […]

5 Ways To Do Christmas on the Cheap

We don’t spend a lot of money at Christmas. Sure, our spending increases, but only slightly. There are many reasons why we do Christmas on the cheap: I’m far too practical to want to make our bank account hemorrhage more than it already does; I despise shopping; I grew up having simple yet intimate holidays […]

Five "Best of 2010" Toys That Really Suck

Black Friday approaches, like an SUV-sized pothole that threatens to eat our credit. Yes, the Friday following American Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year in the U.S., which means bank accounts will be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder before a single Christmas stocking gets stuffed. In honor of this retail harbinger […]

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