Plastic Surgery: This Year's Hot Christmas Gift?
The gift of plastic surgery is in high-demand this Christmas
Dec. 20, 2011 -- Tina Franklin and Nicole Tuzzolino are each other's best friends and sisters, so each always knows what the other wants for Christmas.
"Clothes and accessories," Tuzzolino, of Ladera Ranch, Calif., said of what she usually gives her older sister, Franklin.
"Maybe some old pictures of us growing up," Franklin, from Costa Mesa, Calif., said of what she typically gives her younger sister.
But this year, even Tuzzolino, 33, was surprised by what was at the top of her 41-year-old sister's Christmas wish list: Botox.
"To be honest, I think she's a little crazy," Tuzzolino told "Good Morning America." "I don't think she needs it, but I know that she's been wanting it, and it makes her happy."
Franklin, the owner of a Southern California bridal makeup company, says she needed a pick-me-up after recently breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, and Botox was the perfect answer.
"I'm getting Botox done around on the crow's feet around my eyes," she said. "That's what I notice the most, between the brows, and then on the forehead."
Franklin is putting her face in the hands of Newport Beach, Calif., plastic surgeon Dr. Tenley Lawton, who says she is staying increasingly busy this year as women in the Orange County area she serves ask for, and receive, plastic surgery as Christmas gifts.
"For a simple injectable, it could be as low as a few hundred dollars," Lawton told "GMA" of the price range for the types of plastic surgery requests she sees over the holidays.
"If we're talking about a full mommy makeover, which could include a tummy tuck and a breast lift or a breast augmentation, it could be anywhere between $7,000 and $15,000," she said.
There were 11.5 million cosmetic procedures performed on women in North America in 2010, up 81 percent from 10 years ago, according to figures compiled by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons for its 2010 Plastic Surgery Statistics report.
All told, Americans spent $10.1 billion on cosmetic procedures last year alone, according to the report.
"I'm very open-minded about that [plastic surgery]," Franklin said. "Living in Orange County, which is the mecca of plastic surgery, you definitely want to do procedures, including Botox, to soften, but not freeze."
"You still want to look like yourself," she said of the goal of the Botox procedure, which Lawton says can last about 120 days, on her Christmas list.
Cynthia Holvey is another Orange County woman who, like Franklin, asked for, and has already received, a few cosmetic treatments this Christmas.
Thanks to her boyfriend, Gavin Greely, Holvey received two treatments from Lawton.
"I could have asked for shoes or clothes, but I just really wanted to get some injectable youth," the 49-year-old jewelry designer said.
Holvey's crow's feet around her eyes were injected with Botox, and her cheeks were made slightly plumper with Juvederm, an acidic wrinkle-filler.
"She really, really wanted it and I figured, 'Why not?'" said Greely, 48, who paid the $850 fee for the two treatments.
"I mean, I love her for the way she looks, so, if it's going to make her feel better," he said. "And, you have to remember, I didn't bring it up. She brought it up."
For Holvey, asking Greely to gift her the cosmetic treatments for Christmas, instead of another special occasion during the year, was a strategic move.
"I figured I could get the most out of Christmas," she said.
She also said the gift of cosmetic treatments from Greely this year is a big improvement from his gifts of Christmas past.
"Last year he gave me a bottle of perfume," she told "GMA." "This is a hundred times better. I think it's romantic."
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