I won't be Home For Christmas, but.....

To no doing of my own, I will be spending Christmas on the solo in Charleston this year. I haven't really felt the Christmas spirit this year--see my previous blog here, but today I came across a little gem that, through the months of November and December became my religion. I think anyone who grew up from the 60's through the 90's can attest. Behold, the Sears Wish Book:

 Long before the Internet, facebook, and emailing Santa Clause, the Wish Book provided kids across the nation with the ability to circle gift favorites with big chunky crayons, and fold down page corners so that no parent was left unsure of what to get their kids for Christmas. The arrival of this book to my Grandparent's house marked the start of the season, and since I spent most of my afternoons after preschool, or regular school at my grandparent's house, flipping through the Wish Book, and the lesser J.C. Penney Christmas catalog was a completely legitimate, and exciting way to pass the time until my mom came to retrieve me. The only semblance of Christmas spirit I have found this season, has been my own flashback to my childhood as I remember all the cool gifts I got for Christmas. So in no particular order, I give you, my all time favorite Christmas gifts from days past--and yes, I'm sure I saw them first in the Wish Book.

1. Teddy Ruxpin: The first Christmas I remember celebrating was crazy awesome, and there were a lot of cool gifts present. One of my favorites this year was Teddy Ruxpin. The cool thing about Teddy Ruxpin, was that he could be hooked to pal Grubby--who my mom will always remember me lamenting not coming with Teddy. Apparently Teddy cost about $70, even way-back-when in the 80's, so I'm thankful I had him. By the way, my Teddy had a super trendy clothing line. Duh.




2. Firefly My Little Pony: That same Christmas--like I said, it was pure, unadulterated magic--pure--I noticed, first thing my favorite My Little Pony in a large stuffed form. I've always been whimsical, magical, and imaginary so of course the winged Pegasus, Firefly My Little Pony was my favorite.




3. Snoopy Plush: Somewhere between 4 and Kindergarten, I had a slight obsession with Snoopy. I realllllly wanted a plush snoopy, I mean really, really wanted one. Thank goodness Santa is in the business of providing miracles, and thank goodness my parents were able to find one after scouring all of Atlanta Georgia. I don't know where my original Snoopy is, and by the way, he too had a pretty kicking wardrobe thanks to my Granny, but my good ole' Pop still remembers my love for the Snoopy and I have two Snoopy plushes now.

4. Lavender Purple Unicorn Bike: Woah! Obviously, I had an obsession with all things magical, purple, whimsical, etc...etc...it only makes sense that this bike made it into my living room the Christmas
morning of my Kindergarten year.
Sadly, there are no pictures on the
Internet of this little charm.


5. Lil Miss Makeup Doll: So yeah, this doll looks like a little baby
 prostitute for reals--but, nothing brought me greater joy than taking
 the little makeup sponge and dipping it in water to wipe this doll's
 makeup on and off.





6. Three Story A-Frame Barbie Dream House: Was tha shit! I mean, way to live that American Dream Barbie--way to live it! This house could do so many things, and because it was in three pieces you could create multiple dream style homes for Barbie and friends.

7. Aladdin Bean Bag Chairs: Yeah--there were two. As it would happen, I got a brother along the way so those four years of baller Christmases where I got all the gifts were days gone by. Not to be sad though, because me and the brother got these bad boy bean bag chairs. As we got older, they became mechanisms with which to slide down the carpeted stairs on. Those chairs disappeared shortly after that trend.







8. Super NES: This has to be on most everyone's top most awesome Christmas gifts list. We had the NES and had just about killed our trigger fingers trying to kill that stupid Duck on Duck Hunt, when Santa did it again. He brought out the SNES and lots of games to go with it. And friends, this gift just keeps on giving, right on into the 21st Century. After years of bonding over Donkey Kong, and The Lion King, My brother and I finally beat the games in 2008. Much thanks to modern technologies like youtube that helped us defeat super difficult levels that no child should ever be expected to defeat on their own.

9. Mall Madness: The best board game EVER created. There's a sale at. the. sun. glasses. shop. It tried really hard to teach me about commodities and the dangerous of over spending--Bank Closed, and Sorry! Try again Later! were classic responses from the game's banking system.


10. Oh Jenny Dreamworld Play set: I'm not even sure kid's still play with doll houses or anything of the like with the modern advent of the Internet and games like the Sims, but I loved this little mini family set made by Matchbox. Placing this house and its components on the stone hearth we had in our house created extra magic.








11. NKOTB, AKA, New Kids on the Block stuff: You definitely had the right stuff if you were sporting anything NKOTB. One Christmas, I got a T-Shirt, a Cassette tape, annnnnd two NKOTB dolls. Whaaaaat.