Tag: Christmas

by The Retro Rambler

Weekly Wrap Up – Christmas ’17 Edition

Weekly Wrap Up

Well another week has gone by, and we’re now just a couple of days from the main event…Christmas!  I’ve had a busy couple of weeks here on the blog and at home as well trying to get everything done in time for the holiday.  I’ve not had the time to do a Weekly Wrap Up in a few weeks, so just consider this the monthly wrap up.  I’ve put up a lot of retro Christmas content this month, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it.  Just in case you’ve missed any of it, here is what you’ve missed this Christmas season on Retro Ramblings…..

Articles

The Retro Rambler’s Christmas Gift Guide 2017 – I tried to help folks find cool retro or retro themed gifts for everyone on their shopping list.

1986:  The Year Santa Became Real – Looking back at the most magical Christmas of my childhood.

The Mega Haul of Christmas 1986 – I go back to that magical Christmas, and this time look at just the toys I got that year.

How I Remember Christmas – Looking at all the little things that I loved about the Christmas season when I was young.

5 Classic Christmas Commercials – My five favorite Christmas commercials from the 80’s and 90’s.

Retro Rambler’s Picks of the Christmas Season – A full round up of retro Christmas goodness from around the web.

Drink Dr Pepper for an Old School Holiday Treat – Ads and video for the strange tradition of drinking hot Dr Pepper at Christmas.

Christmas Mornings of the Past – Going through photos of kids on Christmas morning through the 80’s.

Classic Advertising: Christmas Edition – Some great ads from years gone by with Christmas themes.

The Hottest Christmas Toys Through the Decades:  The 1940’s – I took a look back at some of the most coveted toys of the ’40’s.

The Hottest Christmas Toys Through the Decades:  The 1950’s – I followed up the 1940’s with a look back at 1950’s toys.

The Golden Age of Department Stores at Christmas – I walked back in time to the magical era of department store Christmas window displays.

 

Scans

Vintage Holiday Recipes From 1967 – I scanned in a holiday recipe insert from 1967 featuring some weird recipes involving Spam, Bugles, and more.

Woolworth’s Christmas Book From 1954 – A complete scan of Woolworth’s Christmas toy catalog from 1954.

1993 Christmas Ad for Mario Paint – An extended 8-page advertisement for Mario Paint for the Christmas season.

Johnnie Walker Black label Scotch Christmas Ad from 1972

Coca-Cola Christmas Ad from 1962

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans Christmas Ad from 1993

Retro Christmas Ad for Super Nintendo

Cool Like That Christmas Special from TV Guide 1993

1993 Broadcast of How the Grinch Stole Christmas – scanned article from 1993 TV Guide

How the Gridiron Stole Christmas from Frank Gifford – A short article from TV Guide in 1993.

Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman Christmas Episode from 1993 – from TV Guide

Ad for the World Premiere of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield – from TV Guide 1993

 

I only added one Christmas themed video to my YouTube channel this week, but you can find it at:  Burger King Christmas Commercial 1986

 

Before I go, I wanted to take a minute and announce a new feature coming to Retro Ramblings in the new year.  The current working title right now is Top 5 Tuesday.  I’ll take a different subject each week such as “What were your 5 favorite albums of the 1980’s”, and answer the question with pictures instead of a big write up.  I may add a sentence or two to each picture, but it will mostly just be a photo dump kind of thing.  I’d like to involve other people as well, so if you’d be interested in doing it on your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page, let’s get in touch and we’ll all do the same subject each week.  Heck, I may even turn this into the Retro Revival Blog Challenge each week.  Give me some feedback on this new idea in the comments if you have a minute.

 

Well that does it for this wrap up.  Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to put more into this edition due to being extremely busy on the home front for Christmas.  When I’m short on time like this, most of what posting I get to do takes place on Twitter, so if you don’t already follow me, head on over and check me out.  You can also check out the Facebook page as well for short bursts of retro goodness.

 

With that, let me say that I appreciate you checking me out and supporting Retro Ramblings.  I hope you find reasons to keep coming back time and time again and relive old memories with me.  Merry Christmas to you and your family, wherever you may be.

 

 

 

by The Retro Rambler

Retro Christmas Ad for the Super Nintendo

SNES

Getting my Super Nintendo for Christmas back in 1991 is still near the very top of my list of favorite Christmas gifts all time.  My parents also got me the game Final Fight to go with it, so I spent the day wearing it out along with Super Mario World.

by The Retro Rambler

How I Remember Christmas

Christmas

Like I’m sure it was for most kids, December 25th has always been one of those benchmark dates on the calendar. Along side my birthday, and the last day of school, it has always been a measuring point for the year. And for good reason, as I’m sure I’m not alone in enjoying the gift giving, gift getting, food, and fellowship that the magical holiday brings.

For me though, the highlight has always been about the time I get to spend with family. Especially my Dad. All through my years of growing up, my Dad traveled. He would be gone for roughly 300 out of the 365 days of a year. But his work always slowed down in December and he had a lot of time at home that lined up so well with our Christmas break from school. And while he himself never got overly excited about Christmas, he did so many little things to make it special for me. Things that most would not think are overly special, but so special to me, that I try to do the exact same things for my daughters every year now.

There is so much nostalgia built into the holiday season for me. So many different things about the holiday that trigger vibrant memories of some of the happiest times of my life. So here in this article, I want to share with you a lot of the little things that I enjoy during the Christmas season, their origins in the past, and some of the strong memories associated with them.

Continue reading “How I Remember Christmas” →

by The Retro Rambler

The Mega Haul of Christmas 1986

 

Two weeks ago, I spent quite a bit of time working on, and posting the article, 1986:  The Year Santa Became Real, for the Christmas season here at Retro Ramblings. In it, I go into detail about how my Christmas experiences took a huge upturn in 1986, and mentioned several awesome toys that I got from Santa Claus that year. I didn’t have the space in the article to go into a lot of detail on each of those toys, so this whole article is dedicated to just that!

Cobra Terror Drome

The big one that Christmas morning in 1986 was the G.I. Joe Cobra Terror Drome. At that time in life, my world revolved around four toys. G.I Joe, Masters of the Universe, Construx, and Legos….with G.I. Joe being at the top of the list. Knowing this, it was no surprise to my parents that the biggest hit of the holiday season would be this huge G.I. Joe play set.

It had room for plenty of figures, so massive battles were a foregone conclusion. I stockpiled this sucker with every bad guy I had in my collection, and then began a full on assault with all of the good guys I could find. Even Bo & Luke Duke in their 3 3/4″ figure form and the General Lee got in on the action on the side of the Joes!

 

More Dukes of Hazzard:  Looking Back at Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise From the 80’s

 

 

Cobra Terror Drome

The initial battle was a stalemate, with Cobra barely able to hold off the tremendous might of the Joes, as they retreated back a little ways to regroup and plan for a second assault. Now of course this stalemate was only to ensure that the Terror Drome was intact to play with again the following day. I spent a while Christmas afternoon interacting with various parts of this set. The Cobra vehicles re-fueled at the re-fueling station built into it, while some of the top Cobra brass interrogated a captured Joe down in the holding cell area.

The shine of this toy didn’t wear off anytime soon, but I had gotten quite a few other new toys this Christmas that required my attention, so I had to let the action cool down a little so I could get on to some of the other stuff like…..

Continue reading “The Mega Haul of Christmas 1986” →

by The Retro Rambler

The Hottest Christmas Toys Through the Decades: The 1950’s

Christmas Through the Decades

 

It doesn’t matter how far back through the decades you go, each Christmas season has had it’s “must-have” hot toy that all the kids wanted.  Cabbage Patch Kids dolls were hot in 1983, but Davy Crockett coonskin caps were just as hot in 1954.  We’re going to be taking a look back at the hottest toys for Christmas’s through time, and this time we’re looking at the 1950’s.  You can also check out the decade of the 1940’s.

 

1950

Buzzy Bee

Buzzy Bee

Fisher-Price introduced the Buzzy Bee, a wooden pull-toy shaped like a bee whose yellow plastic wings not only rotated when pulled but made a delightful clacking sound.  Further delight was added by red wooden balls that waved at the end of coiled-spring antennae.

 

Hopalong Cassidy Lunch Boxes

Hopalong Cassidy Lunch Boxes

Hopalong Cassidy lunch boxes, inspired by the new TV hit, flew off the shelves.  Before December is out, over 600,000 had been sold.

Continue reading “The Hottest Christmas Toys Through the Decades: The 1950’s” →

by The Retro Rambler

Vintage Holiday Recipes From 1967

I recently came across an issue of McCall’s magazine from December of 1967, and while getting lost in all the great advertising, I stumbled upon some fun and tasty looking recipes from that magical year.  The Christmas season always brings along it’s own unique blend of tasty treats that are usually reserved for the holiday and not many other times of the year.  So chances are these recipes only saw print a few times through the years.  Well today, we’re pulling these old recipes out and sharing them with the world!

 

While all the food on this spread looks pretty tempting, the only recipe given is for the Cream Wafers that are pictured at bottom right.  They seem easy enough to make, and look pretty dang good too!  The main thing I’ve picked up on in these old recipes, and you’ll see as we go along, is they call for butter and not margarine.  These are my kind of people right here!

Now I know that aluminum foil isn’t food, but Reynolds Wrap got in on the game with some “recipes” of their own to try and move more of their product by giving you ideas of things to do with it.  You can wrap a child’s present with it, Christmas candles look more “gala” when they have some foil curled around them.  From the looks of things, I guess bunching a big glob of it up and sitting the candle in it as a base works too.  It even says you can line your fireplace with it to reflect it’s glowing warmth.

Now this one is certainly one of my favorites, as it features the always delicious snack, Bugles!  It also features Whistles and Daisy’s, but they are no longer on the market, so we just have to settle for what we can get.  As much as I love Bugles, I am more than a bit disappointed I missed out on ever trying the other two offerings.

I’m not so sure about the dip though.  Cream Cheese, Blue Cheese, and onions mixed with Cheddar and other stuff doesn’t sound too appealing to me.  Maybe it does you.

Continue reading “Vintage Holiday Recipes From 1967” →