I know you have been so busy this past week you haven’t had a chance to glance up from your myriad holiday tasks, but here’s what our 2025 holiday season economy boils down to this year: dolls and pencils. And, oh yes, steel.

In a speech in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, the president recently defended his use of tariffs as necessary to protect the American steel industry, even if it raises prices in other sectors this Christmas season.

“You know, you can give up certain products. You can give up pencils … under the China policy every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two … they don’t need that many. But you always need steel,” he said.

Speaking of Pennsylvania: The White House will soon come up with a new name for the state in order to avoid confusion with pencils, a product the president doesn’t want to endorse. Any suggestions?

“You don’t need 37 dolls” for your daughters, he went on. “Two or three is nice, you don’t need 37.”

Mattel manufactures Barbies in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico. More than 80% of the toys sold in the United States are made in China. The president is proud of the steel manufactured here in the USA.

Dolls aren’t important, the president has proclaimed: Steel is important.

When I think of the many beloved dolls in my extended family over the generations, some of whom my sister and I were pretty sure came alive at night, I feel a sense of outrage. How would Tiny, Teeny-Tiny Baby, Pink Boy, Christmas Carol, Snookie, Suzanne, Sweet Sue, Benny Wexler, Blue Baby, Abby, Brown Baby and innumerable Barbies and the odd Ken have felt if they had overheard the president announcing that they weren’t important?

I was surprised to learn that Ticonderoga pencils are no longer made in Ticonderoga, New York, although the graphite for them was originally mined there. These pencils are now owned by an Italian company and manufactured in China, Mexico and India.

Pencils are not a customary item in Christmas stockings anyway.

When I learned of the restrictions on dolls I texted friends of mine who have a new baby daughter.

Dear Mandy and Charles, I typed, have you heard the president’s edict that 2 or 3 dolls are enough for a little girl? I wonder if stuffies count? I wonder if we can get a special dispensation for Lily. I am in a snit about this.

Mandy: It’s not reassuring when the leader of the free world is simplifying our economic situation into dolls and pencils … We want to make sure we don’t exceed the doll limit. We wouldn’t want to seem like we are trying to be part of the 1% by buying more dolls than we are allowed.

Me: Yes I know you and your family are patriots.

Mandy: Very much so. (flag emoji) Me: And not trying to rise above your station.

Mandy: I have to say China seems a bit excessive with 37 pencils.

Me: Well, that’s exactly what the president said.

Mandy: I wonder how he settled on 2. Is it in case you lose one?

Me: IDK. It seems overly austere to me, because when you sharpen them they get so stubby and the erasers get worn down and then they are apt to roll off your desk and get swept up by the au pair girl.

Mandy: And what if you get two of the kind with those horrible erasers that don’t work? Is there a separate eraser ration?

Me: Since the president prefers to use a big felt-tip permanent marker he may not be familiar with pencil use. Sharpie pens are made in Tennessee.

Mandy: You would think he’d use pencils more. It’s easier to erase lies written in pencil.

Me: Yes but easier to double down with black wide-tip marker.

Mandy: Maybe we can find Lily a doll of steel.

“I have 6 or 7 daughters and at no time have there ever been 30 dolls in our house!” bragged Patsy Comstock of Tallcorn, Iowa, on some social media site I was on the other day.

But that is NOT THE POINT, Patsy. Dolls are not, nor have they ever been, the enemy. Furthermore, I find it telling that you claim to keep an accurate count of the dolls in your household over the years but not so much how many daughters you have.

Have a good week!

(Martha Allen, of Keene Valley, has been writing for the News since 1996.)