It is the time of year where toys, books and games have just taken center stage. Characters like Elmo, Barbie and the Teenage Mutant Turtles have graced our circulars, television sets and store shelves since...well, September!

As we recover from the contestant multi-media stream of holiday ads and shopping, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on a preeminent cartoon figure of holidays past. Little Lulu, creation of Chester Countian Marjorie Henderson Buell, first debuted on the last page of the Saturday Evening Post on February 23, 1935. From that day on, Little Lulu became an enduring American icon.

Buell was born in Philadelphia in 1904 but her Chester County roots were deep. She grew up on her parents 60-acre farm in Malvern, attended what is now West Chester Friends Schooland graduated high school from Villa Maria Academy in Malvern.