Cool Stuff: For the Mod Tot

Modern Gingerbread House, $78 from Red Envelope

Aren't gingerbread houses basically made from graham crackers, tubs of store-bought cake frosting, leftover Halloween candy, and paper plates? (Not that I've ever made one with my own kids, mind you -- I told you I'm not crafty. But when they bring them home from school, at least that's what they appear to be constructed from.)

If you're looking for an actual fancy gingerbread house kit, though -- and if you're the kind of strict modernist who insists that your offspring or other young 'uns in your life be reared with the proper reverence for your chosen aesthetic -- then the gingerbread house above is most definitely the one for you. (Thanks for the tip, hansfamily!)

While we're here, a couple more kids' modern stocking stuffers that may be up your alley:

M is for Modern Alphabet Cards, $25 from Jargon Boy

Forget "Apple," "Banana," and "Cat" -- try flashing "A-Frame," "Bauhaus" and "Constructivist" with these clever alphabet cards. Because it's never too soon to start schooling your mini in the basic tenets of Midcentury design.

Villa Sibi Dollhouse, $690 from Sparkability

Hey, they've got to learn sooner or later that good design doesn't come cheap.

eBay Find of the Day: Aluminum Christmas Tree

When I was growing up, our next-door neighbors had one of these aluminum Christmas trees, which they'd haul out every year and set up with a lighted color wheel turning its sparkly silver branches from neon red to yellow to blue to green and back again. I'm pretty sure my parents considered it the height of tackiness, but I thought it was absolutely magical.

I'd forgotten about it for years, and Christmas after Christmas my own family would drive out to the country to chop down a farm-grown tree -- or, if our December weekends were especially packed, simply pick one up at a local lot.

I do love the smell of a fresh evergreen, but I don't love vacuuming up its endless supply of fallen needles. And I always feel guilty and wasteful around January 2, when we toss the dried-out tree onto the curb for the trash pickup. (A living tree isn't a good option for us, since we don't really have a place to plant it once the holidays are over.)

I recently remembered our neighbors' space-age-style tree, and decided that I simply must have one. Not only will it work nicely with my favored holiday color scheme of silver and chartreuse with black accents -- it turns out that, despite its glorious artificiality, a vintage aluminum tree (as opposed to a new, nonrecyclable fake evergreen, which uses all sorts of toxic chemicals and petroleum products in its manufacture) is actually a fairly Earth-friendly option.

Plus, while new aluminum trees cost $300 or more, there are hundreds of vintage models on eBay starting at just 99 cents.

I'm quite taken with the circa-1960s tree above, for instance, which stands 6 feet tall and comes with 46 pom-pom branches.

Current bid: $10.

(P.S. Don't forget the color wheel!)