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My Favorite Christmas Gifts As A Kid in the 80s & 90s

By: ashleyb85

[This is another Christmas article that I am publishing late. My apologies]

When I was a kid, Christmas was a lot different than it is now. Times were different and in my humble opinion, better. Maybe it's just because I was a kid and we often view things differently when we're younger. I was just reading over some of the other articles on this website and noticed that someone had made a post about retro Christmas gifts. It got me thinking about some of my favorite gifts that I received when I was a kid, in the mid to late 80s and throughout the 90s.

Probably, the most memorable gift that I remember receiving is the Barbie Dream House. My parents spent forever putting it together, to surprise me on Christmas morning, and I remember it being the most gigantic thing I'd ever seen. I spent countless hours playing with that thing and found multiple uses for playing with it. Needless to say, Ninja Turtles and other action figures, also found their way into the Barbie Dream House, haha.

Ghostbusters toys. Enough said. Who could not love these things?! Oddly enough, one that I remembered playing with the most is the toilet toy. Not sure why, but it stands out in my mind. I wish that I still had all of the toys from my childhood, but most were destroyed in a fire.

Oh, the days of the Atari in comparison to the video gaming technology we have today. I'm not sure which version that I owned, but I remember this being the first gaming system that I ever played.

I'm placing both of these in the same category, because in the early 90s, I went through a phase in which I thought that I was a complete and total rock star. My parents bought me my first electronic drum set and a Yamaha portable keyboard. My dad would stay up during the night and we would create songs together and record them onto cassettes. I'd give anything to know where these are at now, because it would provide some quality entertainment.

In 4th grade, I had such a big head that I went to my class and signed up for the school talent show. The teacher, knowing that I didn't really know what I was doing, told me to get up in front of the entire class and play a song, to prove that I was worthy of being in the talent show. Needless to say, it didn't go so well. I'll never forget that day or how much I despised that teacher afterword. Ha.

Moon Shoes. As cool as these things were, they were actually quite dangerous. I'll explain. When I was a kid, I thought that I was practically indestructible. I got the great idea to strap these babies on and jump off of the giant edge of my grandmother's front porch. What I expected is that I would bounce to the moon. What ended up happening is that it caused some serious pain in my legs from the impact. Not a fun time, haha.

These were a few of my favorite Christmas gifts that I received as a kid, what were some of your favorites that you can remember?

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OldSchool80s Posted on Jan 22, 2016 at 03:40 PM

The year we received our Atari 2600 is probably my best Christmas gift memory of my entire childhood. It is one of my favorite stories to re-tell and will always hold a special place for me.

Hoju Koolander Posted on Jan 12, 2016 at 10:53 PM

That's awesome that your Dad recorded your songs with you. My son is guitar obsessed and always wants me to play my original songs for him. I can only imagine he'll be penning his own tunes soon.

massreality Posted on Jan 06, 2016 at 03:17 AM

The Ghostbusters line of toys was by far my favorite back in the day.

Vaporman87 Posted on Jan 05, 2016 at 11:34 PM

I loved my Atari and my synthesizer/keyboard. I used that keyboard for so many things. Especially to add intro and segment music to my "radio station" shows that I would record on cassette.

echidna64 Posted on Jan 05, 2016 at 08:39 PM

The Ghostbuster's firestation was epic! One of my favorite playsets!

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