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As all of you know, I am absolutely, without a doubt crazy about Christmas. My baking starts in November, my Christmas tree is up as soon as I can harangue Mike into getting it out from storage and Christmas carols are on the music playlist starting as soon as I can get away with it -which is usually as soon as I start baking those Christmas cookies for bribery.
I have loved Christmas for as long as I can remember, and that love has just grown deeper every year— tripling even—when I had my own children. When I was asked to share my Christmas memories I didn’t even know where to start.
Who in our generation hasn’t spent time circling the items they wanted in the Sears Wish Book for weeks before Christmas? Who didn’t colour code pens with their brother and sister, making sure that no one circled the same thing twice in the same colour so that there was no mistaking whose choice was whose? We would wait anxiously every year for my Mom and Dad to bring out the new Wish Book and it wasn’t limited to toys. Oh no! I used to pour over every page of that book!
My very favourite childhood memory, however, has to do with a Cabbage Patch Doll. Oh, I can just feel some of you nodding your heads and smiling in agreement.
It was 1985, one of the crazy years when Cabbage Patch Kids exploded across North America. Those dolls were on every wish list of every girl I knew back then, and my nine-year-old self was no exception. I desperately wanted a Cabbage Patch Doll more than anything else on my Christmas list.
Christmas morning came that year and I remember looking through all of the gifts, anxiously searching for one that had the same measurements of the box that would house a Cabbage Patch Doll. My little heart sank when I couldn’t find a single one. I set aside two boxes that I still had hope for and proceeded to open up everything else before them.
I opened the first box to find socks and a pair of slippers. Anti-climactic or what! I know that I should be happy about socks and slippers and grateful for all presents, but that memory is a clear as glass to me; I just wanted to throw them aside and see what was next. I remember that moment whenever my kids are given items like that, let’s face it; socks and underwear are not exciting. Gratitude, yes. Excitement? Well, not so much.
That last box held my final hope for my Cabbage Patch Kid and to this day I remember what it felt like when I opened that box and found her inside. The joy, the surprise and the excitement of that moment is something I have always hoped to create with my own kids at Christmas.
Oh yes, I still have her. Her shoes, tights and original dress are somewhere in my daughter’s room, in a bin full of all my Cabbage Patch things. I haven’t kept much from my childhood but my dolls and dresses are now being played with by my daughter. Her hair used to be in braids, I believe, and her name is Celeste.
That box, with my first Cabbage Patch Kid, had come from my Grandma in Winnipeg. I’m not sure how or when she found it, but obviously she had to re-package the doll so she could send it by Greyhound affordably, instead of one of those huge boxes that they used to come in.
This very reminiscent post also has a fabulous giveaway attached!
Sears has three (3) $50 gift cards for me to giveaway to you guys! Merry Christmas to you!
Make sure to head on over to www.Sears.ca and check out all the amazing things they have in store for Christmas!
The rules are the same, you get many choices chances to enter in the form below! Good luck everyone! This is open to Canadian residents only!
Love,
Karlynn
suzquiz says
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/503769908293044852/
FlorenceCochrane says
I signed up to your news letter
FlorenceCochrane says
My favorite holiday memory is getting up on Christmas morning to get my stocking to see what was in it.
Florence C
Lori Jackson says
I remember being a young girl and getting the catalog, unfortunately we didnt have alot of money and never shopped there.
Lori Jackson says
My fave at the moment of your recipe pins!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/569986896564050910/
Lori Jackson says
long time email subscriber 🙂
Tracydeanne says
The arrival of the Sears Wish Book every year meant that Christmas was coming soon!!!
Karla Sceviour says
My fav wishbook memory,is going through it every year as a kid picking out everythIng I wanted for christmas!
Manduhh says
II always enjoyed circling items in the Wishbook as a kid. I don’t think I ever really got anything from it though lol. My daughter now does the circling and I always make sure she gets at least one item she circled 🙂
seasidesmitten says
My favorite holiday Sears wish book memory has been looking at all of their holiday gift ideas as a child! My favorite Christmas/holiday memory is attending church as a family on Christmas Eve night. My daughter will share her first candlelight church service this year with my husband and I. We are looking foward to sharing many “firsts” with her this year! We’re a one income family, this would be wonderful. Thanks for the opportunity!
Seasidesmitten@aol.com
lil_lady_dz says
My favorite holiday memory is when my family all flew in to gather with friends too, and we went sledding and ice skating when I was younger.
Bev80 says
I signed up for your email!
Laureen King says
It was a much anticipated event in our house, waiting for the Sears Wishbook 🙂
Bev80 says
My favorite holiday memory is taking my son for his first photo with Santa!
wlking says
The Sears Christmas Wish Book, I would spend hours as a kid looking through the many beautiful things. Growing up in small town Saskatchewan we didn’t have many stores, so the Wish Book was my way of dreaming and window shopping, hoping for Santa to bring some special like I had seen in the catalogue.
crazyladybibs says
We just put last year’s wishbook in recycling. Our girls have looked at it hundreds of times and most of the pages were ripped. I smiled everytime I looked at it with them because it was pure joy in their eyes.
StaceyDempsey says
My sisters and I used to get so excited when the wish book came out , I dont really have once specific memory just year after year as a kid it was such a big deal. We did use to go to see Santa at Sears when we were kids too
StaceyDempsey says
I am already signed up for emails THANKS
jennymajor84 says
Looking in the wish book and circling everything i wanted for christmas
glogirl3 says
My favourite Wishbook memory is getting the catalog as a child and turning to the back where all the toys were and looking to see the dolls and easy bake ovens!
Thomas Murphy says
pinned a recipe
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/38280665559089853/
Jonnie Hartling says
I signed up for your emails
Jonnie Hartling says
My favorite Sears Wish Book memory is cutting out the things I wanted and making a collage each year when I was a kid. There was nothing worse than when I wanted an item that was on the back of the page of another item I wanted!
PatBattles says
I remember pouring over the Sears Wish Book as a kid – trying to decide what to ask Santa for. Tough choice as there were so many wonderful things.
nicolthepickle says
My best Sears Wish book Memory was when I was 16 we would have youth group at an older lady’s house and she had Sears Wish Books from the 50’s. We loved to look at them and admire and laugh.
mommyoutsidethebox says
Ohhhh I remember the Cabbage Patch craze well. In fact Santa brought me a red haired Cabbage Patch too! Cordelia Evelyn. I still have her somewhere – not sure where exactly but she’s safely packed away.
LeeAnn Jeffrey says
My brothers and sisters and I would always love to look through the Wishbook. We would spend hours circling and initialing what each of us wanted. That poor book was so do eared by the time Christmas came around….
LeeAnn Jeffrey says
I remember sitting with my bothers and sisters looking through the wishbook.Was always a good time. =) We dreamed big.
kellywcu8888 says
Every year, my brother and I would look through the Sears Wishbook and circle everything we wanted for Christmas, it was so much fun.
kellywcu8888 says
I subscribed to your newsletter.