Traditionalists will sneer, but gadgets have dominated Christmas lists for so long that they are practically traditional themselves. Tomorrow morning (or, for our German readers, tonight), when presents are opened, the odds are good that iPads, Xboxes, Playstations and smartphones will appear.
To that list of boys’ (and some girls’) toys, add clackers, another remnant of the 1960s and 1970s that refuses to go away. These fad toys – two plastic balls on a string – are, as The National reported yesterday, making a comeback and can be seen in parks and on pavements across the UAE.
Seen and, especially, heard. For it is not for nothing that clackers are so named, with a head-splitting clack-clack-clack the price of boys grinning in small circles. And therein lies the one silver lining in an otherwise concerning development. For while clackers may be dangerous – just the right size to strike an eye – and while many things from the 1960s and 1970s have thankfully stayed in those decades, clackers at least take young children out of the house and into the fresh air. Boys will always enjoy things that make noise, and maybe better that they do so outdoors rather than huddled indoors around a glowing screen. Better for the parents, too.