…and this is a 
You've got a whole 66 shopping days until Christmas, but as you all know, the War on Christmas is fought all year 'round. I'm already getting email from people who have started their Christmas shopping (I hate you all) and who toys and games to educate and introduce kids to science and learning (OK, you're forgiven.) This is a tough call, especially if you want something to do with evolution — it has been deemed 'controversial', you know, so there has been a kind of de facto self-censorship going on among those manufacturers who want our money, but want Christian money just as bad.
One suggestion I've been sending to parents of young kids is to check out Charlie's Playhouse, a place that specializes in evolution toys and games.
Notice that my cunning plan to undermine Christmas is to encourage secular people to celebrate it…bwahahahahahaaa!
Comments
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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October 20, 2009 11:31 AM
Damnit, you mean Christmas hasn't been destroyed by us yet?
Time for more and better plans to utterly destroy it. As long as it's not destroyed, though, I'll keep on observing it. You know, only to throw people off from the fact that I hate it so desperately.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: DJ
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October 20, 2009 11:33 AM
They Might Be Giants new album, which you have already covered, is the perfect sciency gift. I think that's what I'll be buying for my family and friends.
Come fight my brute, I need my fix of flash game butt kickin':
http://killa-jigg.mybrute.com
Posted by: Scott H | October 20, 2009 11:34 AM
Oh no.... I think PZ has killed Charlie's Playhouse. It's a dangerous thing to wield so much traffic.
Posted by: vanharris
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October 20, 2009 11:35 AM
I'd like something with an evolutionary aspect to it for my grandson, who's nearly two. The religious goobers are getting at him already!
Posted by: DJ
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October 20, 2009 11:37 AM
On second thought.. those evolution toys would be just the thing for my nephew! Maybe I'll buy some toys for me too.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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October 20, 2009 11:42 AM
"Keep the evo-devo in Christmas" has always been my motto.
Hey, it explains Jesus' and his birth. So I figure it's something Donohue could only support.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: raven
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October 20, 2009 11:43 AM
Don't forget the War on Halloween. Every year the fundies demonstrate that they can't tell reality from make believe. And also attempt to deprive kids of their own sugar soaked holiday.
It is an important anti-holiday. Second only to the War on the War on Xmas and ahead of the War on Easter.
Last year was a bit of a disappointment. It may be that the general population is getting past sick and tired of the religious kooks and well into boredom. Or maybe the fundie's kids are getting tired of their kooky parents trying to take away their candy.
Posted by: Matt Penfold
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October 20, 2009 11:46 AM
if the person you are buying for is into books, you could always buy then Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True" or Richard Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth".
Both are excellent. Hell, buy them both.
Posted by: Carol Blanchard | October 20, 2009 11:50 AM
Love the products, but the items are pricey!!!! 30 dollars for a toddler T is beyond my means!!! Great Idea though.
Posted by: cturtle
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October 20, 2009 12:00 PM
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I don't celebrate x-mas, but the one gift I was planning on buying was for my young nephew. Now I know exactly what to get him without feeling too bad. :)
I should also say, I'm a longtime reader, but first time commenter. I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to sign up, but I'm going to blame laziness.
Keep up the good work, professor!
Posted by: DaveX | October 20, 2009 12:09 PM
Glen-- I've long proposed a "Keep the X in Xmas!" slogan myself!
Posted by: Desert Son
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October 20, 2009 12:16 PM
T-shirt I saw once:
"Axial tilt is the reason for the season!"
Complete with holly leaf and snowflake imagery. Excellent.
No kings,
Robert
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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October 20, 2009 12:34 PM
Bless you. I think that it's very important for the sake of the children.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: SimonG | October 20, 2009 1:00 PM
Surely any decent biology toy is inherently an evolution toy? (Although I suppose one could also argue that it's also a chemistry and physics toy.)
There do seem to be a number of decent books about evolution and the like, fortunately. Obviously not so great for toddlers, but I doubt that they'd notice the difference between a cuddly trilobite and a teapot.
Posted by: Lisa | October 20, 2009 1:10 PM
I like the saying, "Keep christ in christmas, where he can't do any harm. It will keep him out of the schools, government and reproductive decisions."
Posted by: Andreas Johansson
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October 20, 2009 1:14 PM
A cuddly celestial teapot!
Posted by: woozy | October 20, 2009 1:28 PM
Cute music.
I like the time-line of life.
Um, but do they have anything else (other than t-shirts)?
Posted by: bernarda | October 20, 2009 1:44 PM
For older children, one could get the DVD's of Jonathan Miller's "A Rough History of Disbelief", aka "A Brief History of Disbelief".
Posted by: Logan | October 20, 2009 2:09 PM
Definitely check out etsy.com for excellent science/math/bio-based gifts direct from science artists themselves, here's some examples:
http://www.etsy.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5002595
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9508253
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32266737
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5165490
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11419614
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9579285
Every year I load up on these to give to the kiddies in my life, and they are always loved!
Posted by: Trug
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October 20, 2009 3:01 PM
It's a great idea, but they could use a little bit more selection. Perhaps hook up with the guys who made Transformers and get a pterodon that can transform into archaeopteryx, etc.
Or something with laser beam eyes and chainsaw hands! That always gets the kids interested. :-)
Posted by: jpf | October 20, 2009 3:22 PM
Ironic since Christianity's cunning plan was to undermine Dies Natalis Solis Invicti by encouraging Christians to celebrate it as Christmas.
Posted by: Roosh | October 20, 2009 3:25 PM
You forgot about Pokemon ;)
Gotta catch 'em all!
Posted by: Kagehi
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October 20, 2009 3:52 PM
I think a, "Keep the X in ΧΡΙΣΤ-mas!", would be even better. It gets the point across to anyone who actually knows what the hell chi is, and leaves the idiots wondering what sort of satanic language you have printed on your shirt. A win either way. ;)
Posted by: AnonymousCoward | October 20, 2009 3:52 PM
Anyone else notice how The War on Xmas starts earlier every year?
Posted by: The Chemist | October 20, 2009 3:56 PM
But I like toy dinosaurs!
I especially like demonstrating natural selection by having my plastic T-Rex get fought off by triceratops only find that- um, the brontosaur is having a swim? No bro! You can't play with my toys!
I think evolution toys need to be a little more dynamic than flash cards and posters- but I can see how that might be hard.
Posted by: Nebula99
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October 20, 2009 3:59 PM
I'm new to the whole "War on Christmas" thing. What is it really?
Posted by: daveau
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October 20, 2009 3:59 PM
AnonymousCoward@24
I try to keep the War on Xmas going year 'round. Can't start earlier than that.
This helps. I like to get stuff for my Texas religious hypocrite brother's kids to widen their point of view and subvert their indoctrination.
Posted by: pelican6666 | October 20, 2009 4:00 PM
test
Posted by: pelican6666 | October 20, 2009 4:04 PM
I love how the cristians had co-opted a pagan holiday and now the secularists have pretty much co-opted their holiday. Poetic justice. I guess there's something genetic about a festival on the shortest day.
Posted by: shatfat
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October 20, 2009 4:19 PM
@29
And how the christians have come back with "well, if you're going to have it, we don't want it anymore!"
Posted by: shatfat
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October 20, 2009 4:42 PM
Xmas will never be totally secular in the US because it is a holiday from gentile Europe (with or without the Christian trappings). Jews don't celebrate it, nor Muslims, nor East Asians. If it has spread to the Americans and Africa, it came on the coattails of Christianity.
I just got into a bit of a tussle on LJ about this very issue with a sois-disante Pagan-Wiccan who was whining that Xsters get their holidays off but Pagans don't. I had to point out that there was an entire schedule of Xtian *religious* holidays which are not official holidays in the US--whereas Xmas is as Pagan (European) as they come, so ... really. (She didn't say it, but given past intereactions with Pagans, she was probably whining about Sabhain--Halloween--not being a holiday. I've never gotten Nov 1 off either, when I was a Catholic, so suck it up, baby.)
Most of the national holidays in the US have nationalistic underpinnings: MLK Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, Indepedence Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving. Then there's Labor Day, which is one of those "celebrated in the breach" affairs. (We don't celebrate May Day, even though the Haymarket riots happened in Chicago.) And there's New Year's Day, which is neither religious nor nationalistic--it's like a national day of laziness and nursing hangovers. It's an odd way to start the year. I don't get it.
Pretty much that leaves Christmas & Christmas Eve and Good Friday, and the latter is only a shutdown day in very Catholic places, from what I understand. Christmas is pretty much the only national holiday where you can say it belongs to a certain ethnic group (*cough* Columbus Day, but most businesses stay open for it now, and they'd have to fight the gubmint employee's union to take it off the schedule), and excludes others.
The war on Xmas is really an attempt to ignite ethnic conflict between non-Jewish European-Americans and everyone else. (Witness Garrison Keillor stepping into it last year with his "Christmas if for everyone" rant.) It's the one time of the year that right-wing Xristers can drag secular people of Christian European descent into a battle royale with every other religious and ethnic group in the country. It fails when those secular people of Christian descent have Jewish, Muslim, Chinese, and Black Nationalist friends. Hello, most cultures have some sort of festival of lights around the darkest day of the year--Christmas is just one narrative from one culture.
The Babylonians had a better way. They took off the last five days (six on leap years) of the year and partied. They had a 360 day calendar, so the last five days were extra. F*** fighting over whose festival to favor, let's have a frigging week off to partay and start the year fresh, on the first, like Ishtar intended. (whoa, too many fricatives)
Posted by: shatfat
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October 20, 2009 5:12 PM
A little OT, but Donohue got name-checked, so he might be lurking, so I figured he would enjoy this comment from Prommie on Wonkette:
QFT!
Posted by: Zarquon | October 20, 2009 5:26 PM
That's not a war on Christmas, this is a war on Christmas.
Posted by: Mike | October 20, 2009 5:28 PM
Does anyone know where I can find 'modern' dinosaur toys? Specifically ones that show feathers or any other recent discoveries. The dino toys I see now are mostly the same as they were when I had them 30 years ago.
Posted by: shatfat
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October 20, 2009 5:44 PM
@Mike
What about those plastic resin models they sell at science museums? AFAIK they were up to date 10 years ago, eg, Maiasaurus (-a?) with egg clutch, raptors and t-rex with the short, raised tails, Apatasaurus rather than Brontosaurus, etc.
Posted by: shatfat
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October 20, 2009 5:46 PM
Okay, just googled it--the models are from the "Carnegie Collection" and they do call the model "Maiasaura". Neat.
Posted by: crisw | October 20, 2009 6:00 PM
That list of evolution books for kids- http://www.charliesplayhouse.com/Bibliography.pdf - is great! A fun project would be getting people together to buy a few of these and donate them to local school libraries...
Posted by: Peter G.
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October 20, 2009 6:08 PM
I'm not sure I'd want the kids playing with the influenza gene reassortment culture farm. They have some other nice stuff though.
Posted by: Robert Madewell | October 20, 2009 7:59 PM
Go Sam Bush! Rock that mandolin!
Posted by: Jack Wilde | October 20, 2009 8:34 PM
Growing up in a secular family, and a largely secular culture (Canada) I never felt Christmas was really a religious holiday at all. I know there have always been festivals at this time of year, and none of the typical traditions associated with Christmas are religious anyway. Some of the carols maybe, and if people want to go to mass or whatever on that day, fine. But that doesn't make Sunday a religious holiday either: it is a day off.
So to me a war on Christmas, for the sake of atheism, secularism or just spite seems silly. Despite what people in power or in search of power have said about him, and done "in his name", if Jeebus existed, he was a pretty cool guy. So as a secularist, I don't even have a problem trying to think about peace and love and being a better person once a year. War? A war on being nice? A war on giving, cvelebrating, being with family? Not for me, thank you. If you want to battle the Xtian fundamentalisation of Christmas, fine. But don't throw out all the lovely(mostly pre-Xtian) traditions, just because the xters want to own it all. Own a piece of it your own way.
Posted by: Carlie
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October 20, 2009 8:44 PM
I like the idea, but I don't see any actual toys. I see a floor mat, info cards, and t-shirts.
For a game that's geared to slightly older children, try Bone Wars: The game of ruthless paleontology. Be Cope and Marsh, steal fossils from each other, prematurely name species, and all! http://www.zygotegames.com/bw.html
Posted by: Trixie | October 20, 2009 10:19 PM
"The Story of Everything, From the Big Bang until now in eleven pop out spreads" by Neal Layton is a great pop up book for the eight and under crowd. I got it for my daughter at Chapters. Moveable, cartoon prehistoric creatures and a huge Big Bang pop out page make this book on evolution a lot of fun. He also writes "Mammoth Academy", also recommended.
Posted by: shatfat
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October 21, 2009 4:19 AM
@40 Jack
The "War on Christmas" is a yearly crapfest inaugurated in by conservative preachers and bloviators (Billo--as in O'Reilly--is a perennial offender) in an attempt to divide and conquer by pitting religious Christians against non-Christians against secularized Christians against atheists and agnostics who still celebrate Christmas. It succeeds because believing Christians are self-righteous thugs who have no qualms about insulting and oppressing non-Christians, and because secularized Christians and those who have "fallen away" from Christianity are easily befuddled because they haven't been following all the lawsuits pressed by Jews for equal space on the town green holiday display or because they unwittingly believe some of Billo's crap about how "happy holidays" is conspiring to take their beloved xmas away, even though, of course, it's not.
It's nothing more than attention-getting, divisive antics with a xtian dominionist agenda at its core. The ultimate victims are not atheists (who really don't care one way or another) but Jews, Muslims, and other adherants of minority religions.