Want to get the holiday spirit in a hurry? A friend told me about this trick: Do a youtube search for “Christmas commercials + ___the year you were seven years old___”.
For me, this is what I found.
Annnnnnnd it worked. It totally worked. As soon as I finish this post I’m running off to make paper chains and write a letter to Santa about that Teddy Ruxpin he never gave me. Bastard.
You could search any year and find something interesting, but seven seems to be the right age as it is usually the last year a kid will believe in Santa. The magical Christmas spirit situation runs downhill after that.
Also, interesting to note, this trick seems to work much better on people who are under fifty. Not because there were no Christmas commercials more than 50 years ago (dude, check the archive), but because kids born after the baby boom spent a lot more of their childhood in front of the television. Consumerism, commercialism, whatever…we feel a weirdly deep connection to these nuggets of nostalgia. I don’t know if we blame that on technology or women’s lib, but either way, all I really need to know is how I can get my hands on a that Teddy Ruxpin.
Santa, you owe me one.
Hoping you get that Teddy Ruxpin this year!
xo Mary Jo
This is amazing! I remember a lot of those commercials. You helped me get them from the dark recess of my mind (is that the right phrase LOL). I remember the skating Ronald and the Chicken Mcnugget doodle and the Oreo cookie too!
My husband asked for a Teddy Ruxpin and never got one. He did get Teddy Ruxpin’s sidekick Grubby one year, but this was way many years after he had asked for the original doll (he got Grubby when he was 12). Needless to say, he was NOT very happy.
8:38 Michael Damien!
OK, there was also a mention of “Circus of the Stars”. Totally forgot about that one!
AAAaaannnd in 1986 I was trying to get into bars with a fake id. But that’s just me.
AAAaaannnd in 1986 I was trying to get into bars with a fake id. But that’s just me.
I wanted a Teddy Ruxpin so I could play Ozzy Osbourne in him. He would totally rock!
I think that would be hilarious!
The one that came up for me was that Folger commerical where the brother sneaks home for Christmas. I still love that commercial!!!
What a great idea! Definitely worth a try. Having a very hard time getting the old Christmas magic machine cranked this year. Will see what’s still around from December of ’72. Good luck with the Teddy quest! 😉
I was nine. In grade four. I had gotten a really cool Flintstones book (yeah Im nerdy that way) for Christmas that year. It was a big hard cover. And I took it to school after Christmas. It had From Santa on the inside. There was a kid, Billy, that looked at it and then turned to me, laughed in my face and said that Santa wasnt real and thought I was stupid for believing in Santa. I cried. I went home. I asked my mom. And she said: well, do you believe in Santa? I looked at my mother and tentatively said yes. She said, then Santa is real. Then I knew. Worst.Feeling.Ever. lol!! I think I would still believe in Santa today, at 46, if only for that Billy kid. Bastard! lol!! Love Rook xox
FYI….my mother-in-law gave my daughter a Teddy Ruxpin….she was thrilled of course but what I remember is that it never worked right from the time it was opened…..so you might have been disappointed like she was 🙂
Hi Aunt Peaches, If you want to know why our generation is so affected by TV and a lot of things you’d be shocked to find out watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQBPWv11izc
It is a huge deal and I would hope will encourage a lot of people to go cold turkey on their TV addictions.
If you care to know how to fight it, look up Dean Clifford on YouTube.
Seriously? North Korean propaganda is how you want to advocate for less screen time? That’s pretty hilarious.
Yeah and the idea that we in the west are free people living in a free “democracy” isn’t propaganda. Oh, maybe it isn’t propaganda when the President of the USA can do whatever he pleases and isn’t answerable to the people he “serves”. Wake up and smell the coffee. One person’s propaganda is another’s truth. Oh and don’t forget that in Indiana the value of pi according to the “government” is 3…not 3.14 etc, just 3. If you can still say that the governments in the West aren’t dumbing the people down to forward their own agenda then you don’t deserve freedom because you can’t form a rational thought.
And if one Korean psychologist isn’t enough, how about all the Western people speaking out against the manipulation of the governments? How do you explain them stealing our national resources and selling them to the highest bidder to be sold back to us? How do you explain the fact that any law that is not indictable is not enforceable upon a human being without going against every international treaty on human rights yet we are all forced by men with weapons to comply?
Or is that all just a bunch of malarky those Freemen are selling us to rebel against “the man”? Want to know why Iceland was able to overthrow the banks? Because they woke up!
@Sarah Holis: Clearly you have cable tv, a cell phone, maybe a tablet, and many other tools that help keep you subtly compliant and zombified. If you think you are free, try doing something that is a God given right without a license. You didn’t even give an intelligent viewpont. Just straight to insults…..proof positive that the propoganda machine works.
I first searched Christmas 1954 – a John Wayne “Camel cigarettes” commercial came up. Tried 1950 and even more cigarette commercials for Lucky Strike, Montclair, Kent, Kool and etc. The traditional Christmas Coca-Cola ads brought back the memories of my dad always bringing a wooden case of Coca-Colas home on Christmas Eve. Didn’t find any toys, however it brought back memories of my favorite Christmas toys. The electric toy oven ,
a RCA Radio/Record player and an Annie Oakley doll. (wish I still had her) The pink bike my Dad had customized for me complete with pin striping and my name in ‘gold’ script. Miss Peaches thanks for taking me down memory lane.
Miss Peaches- While searching YouTube I found this video that you might like.
” Cats in Christmas Trees ” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ooMb1f4vI
I totally did this the other day, searching for the cheese christmas commercial… you know, the one where the family walks into the living room and there are toys GALORE, like a pony and car and just crazy stuff. And the dad goes “what type of cookies did you give santa?!” And the girl says, “I didn’t give him cookies… I gave him CHEESE!” Favorite commercial… probably ever!