What I got for Christmas - throwback!
Hello and a very Happy New Year to you all!
This time of year, a very popular post is 'what I got for Christmas' and as much as I absolutely love finding out what everyone got for Christmas this year, I've decided to change it up a little and do a 'what I got for Christmas' - *X-Factor voice* THROWBACK EDITION (too much? perhaps!) Anyway, I'm going to be going through all the the things that I used to get when I was a little girl growing up in the 90s - because the crazy thought occurred to me that those born in 2000 (Millenials) are going to be 18 this year?! That is crazy and makes me feel so very old because I no longer squeeze into the 18-25 category but the 26-35 one!! So without further adieu let's get staaarrrrted.
Baby Born Early on this year, I had asked a little girl what she wanted from Santa and she had said she wanted a 'cry baby' and when I asked her if it was similar to Baby Born - she replied 'no, it's a baby who cries real tears'. Then I realised I was ancient, the poor girl had no idea what a Baby Born was and 'Cry baby' was obviously the latest edition of this, whereby it no longer pees when you give it water but cries! My Baby Born was my pride and joy (I'm pretty sure I made it a passport to go on holiday) it even had a plastic ring for the bath with attached shower - this was an actual product for the doll, not one of my inventions! and several changes of clothes, wipes, bags and nappies!
Baby all gone Continuing on with the 'doll' craze, I think mum and dad were trying to compensate for me wanting a 'real baby brother or sister' - I also remember getting a 'Baby all gone' - I'm noticing a theme here... 'baby all gone, baby born, cry baby' - what's next? Baby all gone was basically this doll who came with, quite surprisingly, a container of cherries (not the best thing to give a newborn, is it?) by which you put the special spoon in and when you took it out, by magic (or some kind of mechanical process which you don't pay much attention to when you're 4), cherries would appear on the spoon. You then fed them to baby all gone and when the cherries touched her lips - they disappeared! I loved this doll - the cherries actually did smell like cherries and like a lot of my old toys, mum kept it and it still smells like cherries 22 years later!
Now onto the classics...
Barbies Who didn't have a Barbie when they were going up? Tbh, all this carry on about Barbie 'not being a true representation of a women etc etc' is a lot of nonsense! It's a toy! It's not a living, breathing, role model with thoughts, feelings and opinions! Barbie is not going to be the next PM so I think we all need to chill... Anyway, back to my little story. I remember having boxes of Barbies - Barbie go skate, Barbie princess, Gym Barbie, Swim Barbie and I even had an Emma Bunton 'Baby spice' Barbie because she was my fave Spice Girl! However, my favourite Barbie was my Esmerelda Barbie - I was absolutely fascinated with The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was so magical and I would always team up Esmerelda with one of my brother's Action Men when he wasn't looking :) Barbie was a huge part of my childhood and I wouldn't change it.
Polly Pocket - back in the 90s - Polly pocket was a huge thing! For those who don't know, It was basically a little plastic trinket box (small enough to fit inside your pocket! convenient!) and inside there was a little mini town, house, palace, hotel, etc which you could play 'pretend' with. The greatest small world toy of it's generation! I clearly remember having a Mickey and Minnie mouse styled polly pocket complete with characters and a pink star which was slightly bigger and a small blue and pink jewelled play set and one with a swimming pool. They were magical.
Sylvanian families - another classic which is still around today! I was so enamoured with Sylvanian families and the fact that they were animals that had their own little houses etc. It got my imagination running riot! Every year Santa would bring me a new family and I clearly remember having a canal boat, a red house and a laundrette. I plan on keeping my Sylvanian families for my own children because they never change and it's something that can be passed on.
Geo safari - my brother and I got one each of these at Christmas. I had a yellow one which was obviously for my age group but I wanted the more difficult one that my brother got so I used to play on his! It was basically like this computer but instead of a screen you picked a card and you had to key in the code of the card and it would ask you different questions. It was a great learning toy.
Furbys - yet another classic! I remember when Furby's first came onto the market - I thought they were theee cutest things ever - until you put their batteries in! ;) I had a plain white one and a grey speckled one with a pink tummy. You would pop them away after having your friends to play and if anything knocked them during the night they would wake up with this creepy yawning voice and you would have to try and get them to go to sleep again which often involved putting your finger in their beak and feeding them until they'd had enough. They were pretty cute though, even though they were a riot in the black of night.
Sky dancers - Sky dancers obviously existed during a time where health and safety wasn't such a big issue. Sky dancers were basically this toy which had foam wings and sat on a dock with a pull cord attached and if you pulled the cord fast enough, the wings would propel and the sky dancer would take off! I think I had two of these - a blue and pink one with a dolphin on it and I remember my brother having the male version. We would then see whose could fly highest and once we'd had enough of each other, a fight would ensue, resulting in sky dancers being aimed at each others faces and other places where they really weren't meant to go.
Tamagotchi - My little tamagotchi was pink and yellow and I actually did take good care of looking after it. I also had one called a Gigapet? I'm sure that was it's name. If you had a gigapet let me know so that I don't think I'm going doolally!
Talkgirl- that famous Home Alone toy. My brother had the grey talkboy and I had the fuschia pink/purple talkgirl. Before we had phones with everything on them and snapchat filters that changed your voice - we had the talkgirls and talkboys. You could record whatever you wanted and make it sound silly. I used to sing into mine like i was The Spice Girls missing 6th band member.
Art set - It wouldn't be Christmas without an art set! I'm not sure if you still get these but they were little plastic cases and inside there were coloured pencils, crayons, paints and colouring in pens. I remember getting a jungle themed art set from Santa and I thought i was the kiddy! Bring back art sets!
Stocking fillers
Doodle bear - this was a cute little bear that was deep pink and you could draw on it and then pop it in the washing machine and it would come out clean again! Does what it says on the tin! Probably made this toy for any child who liked to draw on the walls etc.. Probably why I got it tbh!
Glitter bracelets - plastic bracelets that were bendier than glow sticks but were filled with a glittery watery substance. I had hundreds of these and I thought they were ace. Although I'm pretty sure I chewed on one and it burst in my mouth and then I was banned from having them! :P
Beaded purse - true 90s classic! I had a pink one and I loved it!
Stick on earrings - they came in every shape and colour. Stars, circles, diamonds and triangles and every girl would go to the disco with their stick on or clip on earrings.
Loveable bears - the same idea as a tamogotchi but it was a bear whose nose lit up when you fed it a little bottle.
Waterfall ring toss - basically an authentic version of a gameboy :P It was a clear container with red round the outside with one soft squishy button on the side. Inside there were rings (conveniently) and these sort of plastic posts that you had to get all the rings on using the button at the side. *I understand I have explained this completely incoherently so look to the pic for further explanation.*
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Baby Born Early on this year, I had asked a little girl what she wanted from Santa and she had said she wanted a 'cry baby' and when I asked her if it was similar to Baby Born - she replied 'no, it's a baby who cries real tears'. Then I realised I was ancient, the poor girl had no idea what a Baby Born was and 'Cry baby' was obviously the latest edition of this, whereby it no longer pees when you give it water but cries! My Baby Born was my pride and joy (I'm pretty sure I made it a passport to go on holiday) it even had a plastic ring for the bath with attached shower - this was an actual product for the doll, not one of my inventions! and several changes of clothes, wipes, bags and nappies!
Baby all gone Continuing on with the 'doll' craze, I think mum and dad were trying to compensate for me wanting a 'real baby brother or sister' - I also remember getting a 'Baby all gone' - I'm noticing a theme here... 'baby all gone, baby born, cry baby' - what's next? Baby all gone was basically this doll who came with, quite surprisingly, a container of cherries (not the best thing to give a newborn, is it?) by which you put the special spoon in and when you took it out, by magic (or some kind of mechanical process which you don't pay much attention to when you're 4), cherries would appear on the spoon. You then fed them to baby all gone and when the cherries touched her lips - they disappeared! I loved this doll - the cherries actually did smell like cherries and like a lot of my old toys, mum kept it and it still smells like cherries 22 years later!
Now onto the classics...
Barbies Who didn't have a Barbie when they were going up? Tbh, all this carry on about Barbie 'not being a true representation of a women etc etc' is a lot of nonsense! It's a toy! It's not a living, breathing, role model with thoughts, feelings and opinions! Barbie is not going to be the next PM so I think we all need to chill... Anyway, back to my little story. I remember having boxes of Barbies - Barbie go skate, Barbie princess, Gym Barbie, Swim Barbie and I even had an Emma Bunton 'Baby spice' Barbie because she was my fave Spice Girl! However, my favourite Barbie was my Esmerelda Barbie - I was absolutely fascinated with The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was so magical and I would always team up Esmerelda with one of my brother's Action Men when he wasn't looking :) Barbie was a huge part of my childhood and I wouldn't change it.
Polly Pocket - back in the 90s - Polly pocket was a huge thing! For those who don't know, It was basically a little plastic trinket box (small enough to fit inside your pocket! convenient!) and inside there was a little mini town, house, palace, hotel, etc which you could play 'pretend' with. The greatest small world toy of it's generation! I clearly remember having a Mickey and Minnie mouse styled polly pocket complete with characters and a pink star which was slightly bigger and a small blue and pink jewelled play set and one with a swimming pool. They were magical. Sylvanian families - another classic which is still around today! I was so enamoured with Sylvanian families and the fact that they were animals that had their own little houses etc. It got my imagination running riot! Every year Santa would bring me a new family and I clearly remember having a canal boat, a red house and a laundrette. I plan on keeping my Sylvanian families for my own children because they never change and it's something that can be passed on.
Geo safari - my brother and I got one each of these at Christmas. I had a yellow one which was obviously for my age group but I wanted the more difficult one that my brother got so I used to play on his! It was basically like this computer but instead of a screen you picked a card and you had to key in the code of the card and it would ask you different questions. It was a great learning toy.
Furbys - yet another classic! I remember when Furby's first came onto the market - I thought they were theee cutest things ever - until you put their batteries in! ;) I had a plain white one and a grey speckled one with a pink tummy. You would pop them away after having your friends to play and if anything knocked them during the night they would wake up with this creepy yawning voice and you would have to try and get them to go to sleep again which often involved putting your finger in their beak and feeding them until they'd had enough. They were pretty cute though, even though they were a riot in the black of night.
Sky dancers - Sky dancers obviously existed during a time where health and safety wasn't such a big issue. Sky dancers were basically this toy which had foam wings and sat on a dock with a pull cord attached and if you pulled the cord fast enough, the wings would propel and the sky dancer would take off! I think I had two of these - a blue and pink one with a dolphin on it and I remember my brother having the male version. We would then see whose could fly highest and once we'd had enough of each other, a fight would ensue, resulting in sky dancers being aimed at each others faces and other places where they really weren't meant to go.
Tamagotchi - My little tamagotchi was pink and yellow and I actually did take good care of looking after it. I also had one called a Gigapet? I'm sure that was it's name. If you had a gigapet let me know so that I don't think I'm going doolally!
Talkgirl- that famous Home Alone toy. My brother had the grey talkboy and I had the fuschia pink/purple talkgirl. Before we had phones with everything on them and snapchat filters that changed your voice - we had the talkgirls and talkboys. You could record whatever you wanted and make it sound silly. I used to sing into mine like i was The Spice Girls missing 6th band member.
Art set - It wouldn't be Christmas without an art set! I'm not sure if you still get these but they were little plastic cases and inside there were coloured pencils, crayons, paints and colouring in pens. I remember getting a jungle themed art set from Santa and I thought i was the kiddy! Bring back art sets!Stocking fillers
Doodle bear - this was a cute little bear that was deep pink and you could draw on it and then pop it in the washing machine and it would come out clean again! Does what it says on the tin! Probably made this toy for any child who liked to draw on the walls etc.. Probably why I got it tbh!
Glitter bracelets - plastic bracelets that were bendier than glow sticks but were filled with a glittery watery substance. I had hundreds of these and I thought they were ace. Although I'm pretty sure I chewed on one and it burst in my mouth and then I was banned from having them! :P
Beaded purse - true 90s classic! I had a pink one and I loved it!
Stick on earrings - they came in every shape and colour. Stars, circles, diamonds and triangles and every girl would go to the disco with their stick on or clip on earrings.
Loveable bears - the same idea as a tamogotchi but it was a bear whose nose lit up when you fed it a little bottle.
Waterfall ring toss - basically an authentic version of a gameboy :P It was a clear container with red round the outside with one soft squishy button on the side. Inside there were rings (conveniently) and these sort of plastic posts that you had to get all the rings on using the button at the side. *I understand I have explained this completely incoherently so look to the pic for further explanation.*____________________________________________________________________________
Sooo, that's my first blog post of the year! Let me know what you think and if you remember any of these things! I might do another post similar to this if it's popular and give a description of what I got for Christmas when I was little more grown up! I hope you've had a nice peaceful few days with your loved ones.
Lots of love
Lauren
xoxo
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