The fall of the toyshow

When I was a child the Late late toy show marked the beginning of Christmas. It was where you got your ideas for your Santa letter because God forbid you sent your letter and then saw the best toy ever on the show. If you did not grow up with the the toy show as a part of every Christmas then you might be a little confused about this entire blog post so I'll take a quick moment to explain in case some non Irish native has gotten lost and finds themselves on my blog by mistake. The Late late show is an Irish chat show we all grew up on as many of us got by with two tv channels for many years and it didn't give you a whole lot of choices about what to watch. Now Ireland is not completely backward, Sky tv did become available in Ireland when I was growing up but my father didn't watch a lot of tv and by that reasoning we did without and I suffered through primary school hearing secondhand information about tv I never got to watch. Every year, the first Friday in December (or Last one in November this year) the late late show would dedicate a full show to toys .Hence the name. The late late toy show of my youth featured demo's of all the must have toys, reviews of the books everyone wanted to read and entertainment from the only children's dance group in the country (at the time- Billy Barry kids anyone). The toy show was the reason that I asked Santa for Zuppy (the dog puppet from the den) and the idea of it still makes me feel rather Christmassy.

 Over the years many things have changed. I have grown up and would not sit through the Late late show without some form of coercion. I have access to more channels and a whole host of other forms of entertainment thanks to the miracle that is the internet. The man who hosted the Late late show for what seemed like forever (Gay Byrne) has long since retired and been replaced by Ryan Tubridy, a man best described as being tall and skinny with a face for radio. The toys have gotten fancier and more exciting and there's more than once dance group competing for the lime light on the Toyshow now but it feels to me like some of the magic has been lost. I am aware this is largely because as a grown up I am not going to get the same level of excitement about Christmas (despite repeatedly being teased by my family for being a big child when it comes to Christmas) but I found myself cringing as I watched Stick man Tubridy stumble his way through a show that hardly bore any resemblance to the toyshow I remember. His awkward manner with kids hovers uncomfortably on the edge of every interaction as he struggles to make conversation and hurries through each demonstration. Giving off the distinct impression this is the last conversation he will have with a small child until this time next year. It seemed to me that a lot of what they were pushing was the kind of tat I couldn't imagine getting excited about as a child and disappointingly they rushed through the book segment perhaps reflecting our overall attitude to books as a Christmas gift. Now perhaps I just need to rediscover the shadow of my younger self but I found myself feeling disillusioned.  I may have been looking for a more innocent version of myself and last night I didn't find it 

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