Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Christmas Past


This weekend The Boy came home from a Christmas party and told us about a "cool gift" he saw during the gift exchange.

He described it as a sculpture of Spongebob that you spread seeds on so grass will grow.

The Mister and I smiled at each other and sang at the same time: ch-ch-ch-Chia Pet!


I told him that those had been around for ages, only back in the day we didn't have the fancy characters as-see-on-TV. We just had plain old terra cotta animals of unknown origin.

I remember the year I got one for Christmas. Unfortunately, I killed it. I wasn't much of a green thumb back then.

Anyway, this conversation led me down a long walk through memory lane...

There was that Christmas all I wanted was a pair of Keds and a Swatch watch. Oh! and a crimp iron to fix my otherwise straight-as-a-board hair. It knew it would take me hours to crimp my hair, but I didn't care because I just knew I would look amazing with teased-out bangs and a banana clip.

I'll never forget the Christmas my mom and I decorated a bunch of sweatshirts in iron-on holiday decals and puff paint. Oh puff paint! I loved that stuff.

In the years that go way back, I asked for Blueberry Muffin to go with Strawberry Shortcake, and felt a Care Bear was just what I needed to go with my stuffed animal collection... I won't even mention the year I wanted a Cabbage Patch doll but there were none to be found at our local Kmart (Target? Walmart? What were those?) I quickly got over my sadness as I played with my Simon (bought from the Radio Shack) and watched my brothers play Frogger and Donkey Kong on the Atari.

I will admit that the year I got a Rubik's cube I was pretty excited, until I figured out that that puzzle was really difficult to solve, and it was easier to just pull the stickers off and place them back in order. Except you never really could get the stickers to look new again... which was a bummer.

There was the year when I got the Debbie Gibson album, and Tiffany, and Wham!, and spent the rest of the year singing Bangle's Eternal Flame, in between rounds of Walk Like an Egyptian and Just Another Manic Monday. I'm not talking downloads here... I'm talking genu-ine tape cassettes that you had to flip over to hear Side 2.

 I could go on and on... so instead you tell me: What do you remember, from back in the day, that you wanted from dear Old Saint Nick?

Happy Tuesday!



6 comments:

Jenster said...

Love this!! I'm just the teensiest bit (or maybe more than that) older than you so I was past some of your list and yet it's all so fresh. The sweatshirts with cutouts and puff paint make me think of the very early years of my marriage. I felt so domestic. :)

whimzie said...

Baby Alive. I still remember those little nasty packs of food I made for her to eat.

Kim said...

You are obviously my soul mate. We would have been total B-F-F's back in the day. Our Christmas lists look....IDENTICAL! Love this post! Thanks for the memories!

Heather said...

Just yesterday, my Mom and I were in Kohl's waiting for someon to help us and she said, "I remember the the christmas where all you wanted was a teddybear." She had to stop talking because she got choked up. By the time the lady returned, we both had to wipe tears away...it was the the best teddy bear.

Becca @ My Crazy Good Life said...

Chia Pets!! How funny!!

I remember wanting a Cabbage Patch kid. Mom and Dad did the early morning black friday Walmart trip to find one:)

Gretchen said...

Oh, I was a puff paint goddess, back in the day. A lot of people were victimized by presents from me. :)

I liked the dancing ballerina doll with a ponytail that grew out of her head. Of course, I cut it, because I wanted to see if it would grow back. It didn't. She had a pixie for the rest of her dolly life.