Years ago, the commercial Christmas season was heralded not by the terror of hearing a certain Mariah Carey song-that-shall-not-be-named, but by the arrival of the department store Christmas catalog. Within its glossy pages were sparkling images of smiling children and all the best toys one could request from Santa. Pages were dog-eared and bookmarked, descriptions of all the goodies that came with a baby doll set or a racetrack read and re-read.
Enter adulthood, when…