Over the last month, I've been seeing images on Facebook of old Christmas catalog covers. This definitely brought back memories for me. I remember the ones from JCPenney the most. Every year, the catalog would arrive in the mail around September and I would peruse the toy section, wanting some of the new and hot toys of the year. I eventually got some of the ones I'd wanted, if not every single one. I would do this every year till I outgrew playing with toys. Here is a similar post I made in December 2010.
I chose this image since Strawberry Shortcake (the original) was among the may toys I had as a child. Holly Hobbie was a favorite, too. And there are just too many others to mention, let alone search for an image.
At the bottom of the page, you will see the note that toys are not just for Christmas and that any of the toys may be ordered from the catalog until sometime the following summer.
And many of you will remember this Christmas phenomenon from 1983. It has now been 35 years since parents were scouring stores for these dolls and most of them were unable to obtain one for their child. Amazon and the Internet in general didn't exist then, as you all know, so going to stores and ordering by catalog were the only options people had at that time.
And now the Christmas toy craze of 1983 has become a miniseries on HBO. It has already been parodied numerous times on TV shows and in the movie Jingle All the Way.
As I said yesterday, I began notes for the next chapter in my book sequel. The book's timeline is now December 1983, so it was time to mention Christmas. The protagonist is now 12, going on 13, so he decides he's too old for toys (and he can't have candy with braces). He sees the Cabbage Patch Kids on the news (I too, recall seeing this on the local evening news at the time), and thinks that his mom must be glad she won't have to search for one for him.
I've wondered for some time now if kids still lust after hot toys each Christmas or are they more after electronic devices these days? Either way, if an item is so sought-after for the holidays, it probably sells out fast both in stores and online. Again, online shopping was not an option during the CPK craze of 1983, so the stores must have been crowded with people pushing and shoving one another trying to find one of these elusive toys.
Speaking of shopping online, I won an Amazon gift card for being the first participant to finish this reading challenge. And I won a gift card for Target in a raffle at our work party on Friday. I will likely go in store to use that one, but not till after Christmas, of course. Target's closed today, but I'm not sure how crowded it will be in the days following Christmas.
What are some memories you have of Christmas?
1 comment:
Hooray for winning gift cards.
My Christmas memories all relate to heat. It is almost always hot here for Christmas and sometimes very hot. Definitely too hot to eat a large meal. Which was always served. To go with that Christmas meal my mother made fruit salad - a tradition I continue (and these days that fruit salad replaces the meal for me).
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