My favorite books growing up were the Little House on the Prairie series, featuring the adventures of Laura Ingalls and her pioneer family. In one book, she described a particularly memorable Christmas where she received a penny. On another Christmas, she was supposed to get some candy, but Pa got trapped in a snow storm and had to eat it, or something like that.

Either way, Laura’s Christmas would be less than slim by today’s standards. I don’t know a single child who would say “Oh boy! A penny” today, unless the penny was taped onto an X-Box 360. That X-Box, plus the penny, will set you back about $850.01 on Ebay right now, by the way.