Catalogs

oldman

oldman

Well-known Member
Location
PA
Remember "back in the day" when about this time of the year the Christmas catalogs would start filling up our mailboxes. There were so many from Sears, Roebuck & Co., Montgomery Ward, J.C. Penney, Williams Sonoma and countless others. I wish now that I would have saved just one or two just for the sake of showing them to my kids today and my Grandchildren. They would have gotten a hoot out of them.
 

Sears had a special Christmas catalog full of toys. My children enjoyed the catalogs almost as much as they enjoyed what they got for Christmas. They spent hours and hours looking at them.
 

I remember one year as a very young child I wrote my letter to Santa Claus (do they still do that?) and pasted a picture from the Sears catalog in the letter so santa knew for sure what I was wanting!

After my mother died, we found our letters to Santa, which she had carefully saved (she was supposed to take them to the post office for us). Most were totally illegible, as we couldn't write yet -- just swirls and lines -- and some even had the stamps drawn on the envelopes with crayons.
 
We used to post our letters to Santa in the local sweet shop where there was post box for Santa letters. Different today they tell parents what they want and in most cases they get it. Shame its all changed for the worst
 
I used to love the smell of a brand new glossy catalogue ..it gave off a really distinct smell (dunno if it was the oil used in the print or what) but catalogues don't have that smell any more.

I still have some catalogues from 30 years ago, stored away in case they ever become collectors items in the future.

In the meantime, anyone who wants to bask in nostalgia for things long gone, can find certain shopping catalogues available put on DVD's and sold on Ebay...I have one from the year my daughter was born and she was amazed at the toys and clothing from the mid 1970's
 
Butterfly said:
I remember one year as a very young child I wrote my letter to Santa Claus (do they still do that?) and pasted a picture from the Sears catalog in the letter so santa knew for sure what I was wanting!

After my mother died, we found our letters to Santa, which she had carefully saved (she was supposed to take them to the post office for us). Most were totally illegible, as we couldn't write yet -- just swirls and lines -- and some even had the stamps drawn on the envelopes with crayons.
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Yes they do still write letters, Butterfly, and come from miles around to mail there letters from Santa at this Post Office.
 

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I remember anticipating the arrival of catalogs for Christmas but I don't really remember which ones they were. This would be around the mid-'60's so I'm sure Sears was one of them, but I seem to also recall separate toy catalogs from other places.

Damn my lost memory ... :mad:
 
When you think about it, we're all a bunch of liars, telling our kids about Santa Claus.

But, we all do it anyway; no harm done.

SO, Don't try to tell me you never lie. LOL
 
I have a reprint of a 1908 Sears catalog I bought years ago. I think they still make reprints of some years. Very interesting to look through.

We get lots of catalogs today but they are nothing like the old ones.
 
When I was a bit skint..I used to show my son the toy ''catalogue'' to see what took his fancy...then I could eke out the cost..

He would open the catalogue ..''I'll have that..that..that..that and that'' he would say..:greedy_dollars:

And that was only the first page!!!....
 
We used to wait for the Sears and Wards Christmas catalogs and my mother would put them away until mid-November so as not to rush the season. When my kids were little, JCPenney had started to put out a Christmas catalog, too. I remember complaining that they came earlier and earlier every year, but at least it wasn't as early as the TV advertising starts now. The Hallmark Channel has been showing teasers for Christmas programming since early September, and it annoys me no end! It would be nice if the retailers would just wait until each fall holiday has passed before starting on the next one so that we enjoy it. Walmart has had their Christmas displays up for weeks.
 
We used to go to our local market and buy American mags..I goggled at them..''Yesiree win a real live pony..X ray goggles..see through peoples clothes..Sea monkeys..just add water''

We had nothing like that...I tried to send off for the ''sea monkeys''.. had no idea how much 3 dollars was..or what was a ''zip code''..:D
 
A little history of the store catalog. :)

https://medium.com/@pahwadivya/the-history-of-the-catalog-b5334841e941

WOP+-+mercantile4.jpg
 
Twixie said:
We used to go to our local market and buy American mags..I goggled at them..''Yesiree win a real live pony..X ray goggles..see through peoples clothes..Sea monkeys..just add water''

We had nothing like that...I tried to send off for the ''sea monkeys''.. QUOTE]


"Sea Monkeys".....now there was one of the great disappointments of my young days. I was crushed. Frickin' brine shrimp eggs. I can guarantee you've never heard anyone say "that was funnier than a barrel of brine shrimp!"

Another thing I sent off for was "inflatable dinosaurs"....a whole dollar....I was really excited and couldn't wait to see my inflatable dinosaurs. Opened the box and there were a bunch of small balloons with dinosaurs printed on them. Oh, and I forgot the "100 baby dolls" for a dollar.....little plastic things about a half-inch tall.

Look up "gullible" in the dictionary and my picture was right there.
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