It’s that time of year again! Every year, I look forward to when Kohl’s releases its Kohl’s Cares line of gifts. As we’ve featured on this blog in past years, they’ve sold everything from Dr. Seuss books to Nancy Tillman books to Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals. I never fail to be impressed by the quality of gifts that they sell in this collection.
But even more remarkable is that the gifts sell for $5. If you look on Amazon and eBay, you’ll see that the very same merchandise usually retails for far more than this, but somehow they’ve managed to keep the $5 price point for years. And even more remarkable, 100% (that’s 100%) of the net profits go directly to kids’ health and education initiatives. Since 2000, over $231 million has been raised for the cause.
This year’s line of gifts feature my all-time favorite cartoon characters (and likely yours or a loved one’s)–Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Woodstock, and the whole Peanuts gang. Once again, they have a great assortment of high quality gifts, all at $5 (when’s the last time you bought anything for $5?). These aren’t watered down versions of the retail product–these are well produced products that match or even exceed the quality of what you’d find in any other store.
There’s a line of stuffed animals featuring Lucy, Snoopy, Linus, Charlie Brown, and Woodstock. And then there are books. There’s a picture book of the all-time classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. There are books to inspire kids, including “You Can Be Anything” and “Be Yourself”.
But my favorite gift (and grab it while it lasts) is a two-book set that features two Charles Schulz classics: Happiness is a Warm Puppy, and Christmas is Together Time. Both books come together shrink-wrapped at only $5.
Back in 1962, Happiness is a Warm Puppy landed on the New York Times bestseller list and sold millions of copies over the years. This is a brand new, hardcover version of the book that maintains the original book’s design, form factor, and even page colors.
While this would be a great gift for kids, I think it’s an even better gift for grown-ups, not only for nostalgic reasons, but because as with all of Charles Schulz’s comic strips, the pithy sayings in these books can be enjoyed from both a child’s perspective, but even more from a grown-up’s perspective. I’ve often said that Charles Schulz was one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers. Check out some of the pages.
This gift, along with the rest of the great selection, is available today at Kohl’s. I usually don’t start posting Christmas stuff until November, but because these gifts tend to sell out VERY fast, I’d suggest you stock up while you can!
