Kids Want Toys, Maybe a Job for Dad

They want Barbie Dolls and video games for themselves, but kids waiting in line to see Santa at the Glendale Galleria over the weekend had a host of holiday wishes for their parents too:

“I want my dad to get a job,” said one girl.

Clean socks, offered a boy.

A wallet for Dad with a few bucks in it.

The youngsters were responding to a survey handed out by Galleria officials. “We just thought we’d find out from the kids directly,” said Nicolette Abernathy, the Galleria’s marketing director.

Abernathy said mall officials surveyed 67 girls and 48 boys age 1 1/2 to 12 years while they waited in line to see Santa.

“You see a lot of different things advertised and we really wanted to know what kids were thinking,” she said.

The survey results, which will be distributed to the mall’s toy and electronic game stores this week, revealed that 34 girls and seven boys--or 36% of the 115 children polled--wanted dolls, doll accessories and action figures.

Only 18% said they would like to have video and computer games for Christmas. But that percentage consisted of more boys than girls--15 boys and six girls.

Five boys and seven girls asked for bicycles, while three girls wanted Christmas puppies, according to the poll results.

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, featured in a live-action television series, scored the most points for being the hottest toy this year. The multicolored figures beat out Barbie Dolls and stuffed Barney dinosaurs.

And from one middle school-aged child came a wish for Los Angeles and the world.

“I like this world to be clean,” the girl wrote. “No gang,” she added. And, spelling it the best way she could, “Or vilets (violence).”