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Show Here are some of Christmas games the editor's column By MARC HADDOC It's 24 days before Christmas, and already we've spent well into my 1990 paycheck - something that's getting easier to do each year. Of course, it's no surprise that as the kids get older, their Christmas lists get more extravagant -- and more expensive. But it's still fun to play all the pre-Christmas pre-Christmas games which have come to be such a tradition at our house. First, there's the Bet-You-Can't-Find-the-Toys game that most parents play with their youngsters. This is a toughie, because there are no rules on either side. Parents can be as creative as they wish in hiding the presents they accumulate as they prepare for the big day. The bigger the presents, the harder it is to find hiding places. But kids can be as inquisitive as they want to, as well, and when mom and dad are gone, you can bet they are going through every part of the house looking for the secret stash. We've found two ways to play this game at the Haddock household that has the kids Stumped. ' In the first place, we've found a marvelous hiding place which is hard to see and hard to get to. No kid would ever think of looking there. (Who am I trying to kid. ) It's hard for us to stash the goods, and it would probably be impossible for most of our kids to ever get into the hiding place, if they knew it existed. (They've probably been there a hundred times. ) There are some health hazards. The parent (or inquisitive child) risks inhaling fiberglass fibers that will make him or her wheeze for a week, and last year I took a spill that shook the whole house. But that just makes it harder for the kids to find the goods, and that's the object of this game from a birthday present, a brand new scooter I had assembled in my office. of-fice. I made a few sallies from the newspaper front door into Main Street to make sure the contraption was safe. And even though I wrote about the present before it was delivered, the conspiracy of adults in my neighborhood neigh-borhood helped protect the secret. (One mother refused to let her daughter play with my son until after his birthday once the little girl read about the scooter in the newspaper.) For two weeks I had to tell Seth he couldn't come in the office because his present was there, but on his birthday, I pulled a father's usual trick to keep his kids off their guard --Hied. We went to two football games together that afternoon, so he could walk along the sidelines with me as I took photographs. "My present's at your office, isn't it, Dad?" he asked as we drove to the first game. "No. I took it out of my office. Now it's in the glove compartment of the car." His just-that-day-7-year-oId eyes looked thoughfully at the door of the glove compartment for a few minutes. Then he said, "It must be small if it can fit in the glove compartment." com-partment." "It is," I lied some more. "It's just a teeny-weeny present, about this big." And I held my fingers really close together. And, trusting soul that he is, Seth believed me until we drove back to the newspaper, entered my office and he could see the shiny, black scooter parked in the corner. They say kids are innocent, but Seth has never forgiven me for that. I'm-Sorry-but-We-Can't-Af ford-It has some drawbacks, because kit catch on fast. That's because I pi, f this one every year. It goes like this. The kid makes, ! ridiculous request for some prese, that costs way too much. The parents, protesting thai h can't afford such a lavish gift x out and buy the thing, then 'the; l stash it in one of the places identify in Bel-You-Can't-Find-the Toys. " If they play the first game , enough, the poor kid goes clean Christmas morning believing , j, won't get what he really wants. Ar: $ t hen the pa rents get to see (he loot t joy in his eyes as the child gels h. u, wish and realizes his folks have bet- n, lying to him for a month. ,a We also play a lotofThis-ls th You-Want-Whether-You-Wanlk an Not, a psychological game in A- ab the parent tries to convince!'- pr child that he or she wauls!- 1 Christmas exactly what (he parr pe wants the child to get. se: You do this by pointing out the e shi in catalogues with a "Wow. Justin P at this!" A trip to the toy requires parent and child spew! ; dn few minutes with this toy untl stil becomes irresistible. m C This game is particularly usdi you have already purchased the ic- j pref era bly at a bargain price. f ! The main problem is, the sc ft kids can't be manipulated, t. 'a, Christmas Eve they will Mil fa kicking for that present your ft bought, and unhappy with the?- p you did. ,JL0 Yes, this is what Christmassi about - these traditional games fa teach kids they can't trust ' Jr. parents, and parents that tl)J' 2 trust their kids. ( Jr, Isn't it a wonderful time families? y parent's angle. Sure, a lot of kids know how to find this place. But ours never have -- at ' least . if they have they've never told us about it. We've found a second place for those big presents with limited access -- either my office, or the newspaper office's morgue in the basement of our building. It works well. also. In fact, it works too well. Already other employees em-ployees are starting to stash goods in the office. We'll probably have a hard time getting around until after Dec. 25th. But you have to be careful who you bring into the office. In fact, this hiding place helped ! provide an interesting variation of , this game and the second game we play, the I'm-Sorry-but-We-Can't-Afford-It game. In August I wrote about my son's |