Anyone else spend hours looking through the Sears Christmas catalogue?

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Patient_Doctor4480@reddit

Looking through that catalogue was the best! I miss it. If the books were dark green, yeah, they were Reader's Digest condensed novels.

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Business_Network_703@reddit

Loved it. This from Generation Jones.

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l00ky_here@reddit

In high school, my Home Ec teacher had a 1800s Sears catalog. It was in black & white and I spent many classes looking at it.

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NorseGlas@reddit

We had those in the library at school too.

You could buy handguns for like $7.99 out of the sears and robuck catalogs in 1897!!!

Mail Order houses too!

That shit was crazy.

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l00ky_here@reddit

Thats where the "Everything but the kitchen sink" saying comes from. The kitchen sink wasn't included in those Sear's houses.

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Dry_Dust_8644@reddit

My older brother was a fan of the lingerie section

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Altruistic_Food_7961@reddit

Exactly. Every Christmas to look at the toys.

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thenletskeepdancing@reddit

The old ones are online if anyone feels like a nostalgic browse. https://christmas.musetechnical.com/

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MissDisplaced@reddit

You can relive it all again: https://christmas.musetechnical.com/

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bigwomby@reddit

I always found items I wanted and circled them and left it out, but my mom never took the hint.

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Familiar-Pianist-682@reddit

My best friend and I would go through the catalog, ‘choosing’ items we’d like. It was almost a holy ritual. 🤭

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southernmamallama@reddit

Yes! And I just looked through the Amazon catalog and missed my “wish book” 😢

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EdwardBliss@reddit

Hell yeah. That was sort of like our Internet

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NorCalFrances@reddit

I loved the specialized ones like the farm and ranch catalog - you could order baby chickens and ducks! And bunnies! And all the toys that go along with them!

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DisturbingPragmatic@reddit

Are you kidding? I can still SMELL the pages of that catalogue!

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Sweet_Priority_819@reddit

Yes!! I loved catalogs. They were shiny, colorful and full of stuff I wanted.

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Yep. We would go 'point to it' crazy, but at the end we had to choose three we "really really want", and often our parents would come through with two of those(within reason/budget). Often, G'ma would get the third choice one.

Also, "condensed books" = Reader's Digest

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breid7718@reddit

I used to make out a list on a memo pad with prices, page numbers and orders of preference for my parents, which I often was revising up to Christmas Eve.

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justlookingokaywyou@reddit

First, look through all the toys you wanted. Second, boobs in the bra section.

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Pnknlvr96@reddit

Also, men in underwear.

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MactionG@reddit

as the kids say, I feel seen.

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Ralph--Hinkley@reddit

Every now and then, you'd be able to see a nipple.

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dchobo@reddit

They are in the same section

;)

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Viperlite@reddit

Pretending that section didn’t exist until you could look at it later in a more private setting.

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CHIDENCHI@reddit

Funny how the ratio of time spent in each section skewed towards the latter every passing year, but always toys first in my case.

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OldBanjoFrog@reddit

That wasn’t until I was about 12, but yes

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Diabolus1999@reddit

This is (was) the way

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baconcheeseburgarian@reddit

I wrote down the page number and SKU just so Santa knew. Mom said it helped the elves.

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saltychica@reddit

You know what else was quality entertainment then? The Harriet Carter catalog.

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crackersncheeseman@reddit

I can remember going back too school after Christmas break and the teacher would have everyone of us kids stand up one at a time and tell the whole class what they got for Christmas. I was so embarrassed when it was my turn. I'd be like I got some crayons and some coloring books and some new socks. The other boys were like I got a new BMX bike and a new Nintendo. Looking back I think the teacher did that shit on purpose.

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crackersncheeseman@reddit

Would look at it the day after Christmas and be so disappointed because I didn't get any of the things I circled.

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NorseGlas@reddit

The sears wish book was literally my Christmas list.

I went through that catalog and circled everything that I wanted. It simplified everything since my mom hated shopping….. she would mail order all my clothes from J.C. Penney and all my other gifts came out of the sears wish book.

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Mondschatten78@reddit

Grandma would hand me pen, paper, and the Sears wishbook. Found out later she copied the list and sent it to out of state aunts and uncles that came for Christmas.

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ManyLintRollers@reddit

I think all my Christmas gifts, both clothes and toys, came from the Sears catalog.

My mom had grown up during the Depression, so she was very frugal. We weren't allowed to tear the wrapping paper when we opened gifts; mom had us trained to very nicely and gently pull up the Scotch tape holding it together and unwrap it in one sheet of paper, so she could save the paper to use again the following year. Every Christmas, I received some article of Sears clothing inside a Saks Fifth Avenue box. I'm pretty sure my mom had never set foot in Saks in her life. And well into the early 2000's, I also almost always received a gift in a box from a local department store that had closed down in 1982. Mom was a fanatic about saving nice boxes, wrapping paper and ribbons!

I still tend to open gifts by carefully de-taping them so as not to tear the paper. My husband finds this hilarious.

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Viperlite@reddit

I still have gift boxes from stores that went out of existence in the 1980s and 19980s. We still gingerly wrap and open them each year.

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Blossom73@reddit

Lucky you! I thought Sears and JC Penney were for rich people, when I was a kid. Lol. My parents couldn't afford to ship at either.

I do remember the wish book well though. Also the big JC Penney catalog that came out several times a year.

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Legitimate-Annual-90@reddit

My brother and I used it to make very long lists for Santa.

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MagScaoil@reddit

Are you my cousin? That description is too close…

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Easy_Ambassador7877@reddit

We had the Sears catalog and the JCPenney catalog. I was all about the toys, and later clothes. I had my favorite pages all dog eared and read the descriptions over and over and halfway convinced myself I already had all the things I wanted lol. I’m a female so the boobs weren’t of interest to me. I do remember looking at those bras and wondered why the women had such pointy boobs. Then came Madonna lol

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Financial_Coach4760@reddit

Who else started looking at the Sears Wishbook from the back? That where the toys started. The first 3/4 of the book were grown up stuff like clothes and furniture.

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classicsat@reddit

In the last years, first several pages were items that could be given as gifts , in price categories, mostly excluding children's toys, clothing, and jewellery.

As a teen boy, there was the stereos and other electronics. Nice to look at, but never received, nor asked for anything from that department.

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ExistentialDreadnot@reddit

The first 3/4 of the book were grown up stuff like clothes and furniture.

I was always frustrated with how useless that all seemed, because everything looked the same. So boring.

Now, I'm just thinking about how much higher quality all those clothes and furniture still were, even in the '80s when the decline started.

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Tinawebmom@reddit

This year Amazon sent it a toy catalog.

My autistic 33 year old son was excited..... Until he realized there were no prices included.

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Silver_Objective7144@reddit

I wanted the red Dean “Hollywood Z” guitar soooooo bad

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queenofcaffeine76@reddit

JCPenney Wish Book!

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eventualguide0@reddit

Sears, JC Penny, Montgomery Ward, Service Merchandise, and Spiegel catalogs, though I don’t remember if the latter had toys.

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KP_Neato_Dee@reddit

There was also Best Products, which was a catalog showroom chain similar to Service Merchandise. They had a big catalog, and went out of business around 2000; same as SM.

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succored_word@reddit

Of course! Where else would I get my halloween costume from?

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MarshallGibsonLP@reddit

8 - 10 minutes tops.

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greevous00@reddit

I literally just received an Amazon catalog in the mail that was clearly patterned after the Sears Wish Book.

When you think about it, Sears really screwed the pooch. They had the catalog business that absolutely could have turned into Amazon, but instead, when the Internet came, they started closing down the catalog business, just before Amazon began decimating retail. That catalog business had all the basic infrastructure to compete with Amazon (taking orders, delivery via mail, a huge collection of suppliers, etc.) Poor strategy at the top. If they had come up with a better strategy, nobody would even know who Jeff Bezos was.

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ritchie70@reddit

The Walmart and Amazon toy catalogs showed up a week or two ago and our daughter grabbed them both.

Not just a GenX thing.

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PresidentSuperDog@reddit

Yeah, there are some serious memberberries in this thread.

My daughter looks at the Amazon toy catalog all year long. She has the last 3 editions and “reads” them in bed some nights.

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OAKRAIDER64@reddit

Supposedly looking at toys, but really scopping out the chick's in their undies.

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Justdonedil@reddit

True story...... the other day, I got a toy catalog in my mail for Walmart. I ask my nieces (8 and 6) if they want to look at the toy catalog before I toss it. They asked me what a catalog is.....

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TK528e@reddit

The Radio Shack holiday catalog was one of my favorites.

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SomePeopleCallMeJJ@reddit

Radio Shack catalogs were the best, year-round!

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External_Side_7063@reddit

I spent our stocking the shelves of toys at Christmas time at Sears

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davemartin82@reddit

hours and hours looking at the Sears Christmas Catalog, it was better than all the others.

I remember the Readers Digest Condensed books too

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analogpursuits@reddit

Also sat on them for haircuts.

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CulturedGentleman921@reddit

Right to the lingerie section! 😂🤣😅

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dynamic_caste@reddit

In fairness, I did look at the toys and electronics. A bit later I found that section to be more captivating.

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thejadsel@reddit

Hadn't thought about those in ages. But, I was a spoiled only grandkid. So at one set of grandparents' house (where we were a lot), I got set loose on the Sears, Penneys, AND Montgomery Ward catalogs every year to mark what I wanted for Santa. A surprising amount of that in retrospect did show up at my grandparents', and usually a little more at our house.

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MaryBitchards@reddit

Archived here. I've been known to spend hours looking through these. Rabbit hole warning! https://christmas.musetechnical.com/

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ghostofstankenstien@reddit

gif

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cacraw@reddit

Wow! I hadn’t seen this before. Opened up the book from when I was 10 years old and saw a bunch of things I’d forgotten. Some things I know we had, some that friends had. My dad worked for Sears so everything we had came from them!

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MaryBitchards@reddit

So easy to get lost in these!

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bippityboppitybooboo@reddit

Yes, that as well as the Swiss Colony holiday catalog. I loved looking at all the gingerbread houses!

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thepustiger@reddit

Wow, this brings back memories! It’s funny how certain shows or traditions become such a vivid part of our childhood. Being the youngest always has its perks though—somehow we get the coziest spots! The Lawrence Welk Show and Sunday comics sound like the perfect mix of entertainment. And those condensed books? Classic. It’s amazing how those little things from our past stick with us.

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InterviewMean7435@reddit

A few years ago I bought a replica.

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Mikethemechanic00@reddit

Child of the 80s. Every year would look forward to the Sears Christmas book. I would circle every toy I wanted….

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2boredtocare@reddit

Nope, Montgomery Ward!

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1970-1980@reddit

Distinct memory of the early years of handheld videogames and seeing games in the Sears catalogue you otherwise wouldn't know existed (for better or worse). Bambino, Entex, Bandai, etc... a window to the world I wanted to live in

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Can-you-read-my-mind@reddit

I looked through all the catalogs that had a Christmas section. Now I watch old classic Christmas commercials on YouTube around Christmas, I do the same thing for Halloween. It’s so nostalgic

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DeaddyRuxpin@reddit

As a small child I spent hours looking at toys. As a pubescent kid I spend hours looking at women’s lingerie. As a young adult I spent hours looking at tools.

That catalog had something for every age.

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raerae1991@reddit

Yes! Even dog eared pages of things I really liked!

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Mercury5979@reddit

Oh yeah! My wife has gone as far as buying old catalogues from ebay and other auctions.

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GeoHog713@reddit

One of my parents' friends was in charge of the Wish Book.

He was very proud of that. Mr Earl was a good man.

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Unreasonable-Skirt@reddit

With a pen to circle everything I wanted.

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jerrylovesbacon@reddit

BRITS Had ARGOS catalogs

Always wanted a stretch Armstrong and a skateboard.

Later wanted weights sets.

Never got any of it but

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mfk_1974@reddit

Toys and p*rn under one cover. It didn't get any better than that.

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ToogyHowserMTB@reddit

This and Consumer's Distributing, the Christmas editions would show up right around this time of year and then you'd stare at them for months deciding what you'd want for Christmas!

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WillaLane@reddit

Hours and hours, we never really got what we circled but I would show the best toys to my clueless neighbor friend who would circle it in her catalog and actually get it so I’d at least to play with it

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commonguy001@reddit

Glad we weren’t the only family that didn’t get anything we circled!

Making a list was pointless as my mom wouldn’t use it.

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smokeehayes@reddit

Baby of the family here too, and yes! 😂

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BandOfBroskis@reddit

Not the Christmas one but I would pore over the main catalog all the time. Weirdly, the thing I wanted the most was a home photo copier which I never got (of course). I think about that all the time as a scan and copy things with my $100 dollar multifunction printer/scanner.

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tvieno@reddit

Service Merchandise catalog

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sinisterdesign@reddit

The GOAT of Xmas catalogs.

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michiganrockhunter@reddit

Service Merchandise had the best stuff 👍😔

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l00ky_here@reddit

Wasn't that the gift certificate used for Whhel of Fortune when the winners had less money than the cheapest prize after "shopping"?

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beyondplutola@reddit

Yes. The Service Merchandise catalog was the big one for me. I liked that everything was OEM and not some weird rebrand like what Sears did.

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TxJprs@reddit

And then when I was 12-13 the woman's section became my favorite.

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stinkyrobot@reddit

LaBelle’s was my jam. Awesome catalogue but the toy pages were so few.

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MsZRowsdower@reddit

We would circle the thing we liked the best on every page lol. We did expect to get everything, it was more of a game -1 per page

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Retiree66@reddit

I spent hours designing my future house. I remember deciding lace was too girly for the bed I would share with my future husband, but ruffles were not.

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oceansapart333@reddit

It was a right of passage, after Thanksgiving dinner, all the cousins would lay on the floor at my grandma’s house, circling away and making the things we wanted. Sometimes we’d be given different colored pens to circle things, sometimes we’d write out initials. We’d take t turns passing the different catalogs around until we were all done. Good times.

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zedgrrrl@reddit

Consumer's Distributing

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NCPinz@reddit

JC Whitney for us car folks.

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GenXinNJ@reddit

OMG yes. Then I’d go through it religiously circling everything I wanted.

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yafuckonegoat@reddit

Never got my page 56 Ghostbusters proton pack with neutron wand and rolling ghost trap..... I'm not bitter

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blaspheminCapn@reddit

I still look those up on the Internet occasionally

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PuzzleheadedWeird402@reddit

Yes! Much to my parents’ dismay. My Christmas wish list tripled in size as I read about all the neat toys that were out there.

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ElectronicMechanic51@reddit

The yearly "Wish Book"

...and yes, I also read the Illustrated Classic Editions.

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kalelopaka@reddit

That was an evening pastime for my sisters and me.

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thirtyone-charlie@reddit

I probably spent an hour just smelling it.

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flammablesquid@reddit

Cringe. I was obsessed with the bridal/bridesmaid dress section of the JC Penny catalog. I would study those pages for hours on the squishy mauve carpet in front of grandma's TV set. There was ALWAYS a baseball game on in the afternoons, and I would stay close so I could change the channel for her. She had a button collection, so sometimes she'd let me try to find buttons to match the catalog dresses. I miss her.

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Specific_Ad_97@reddit

Just the video games & the bikes.

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ratteb@reddit

last few pages had the Train sets and Tyco racetracks. Stared at those pages for hours.

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outerlimtz@reddit

Between both grandparents houses, it was that and the Montgomery Ward catalogs every year.

Back in '92, I came into some money from an accident I was in as a kid. Every Christmas when family would do rounds before heading to grandmas for dinner, it always felt like a dig to my mom, brother and I.

Oh, we got the kids new stereos, oh, we bought a vcr for the house, etc. While we struggled and mom bought our gifts from friendly toys catalog.

We would get like 4 or 5 small gifts and the annual required socks.

That year, I did all of our shopping through the sears catalog. Got my brother a 60' slot car track, a Nintendo for the family with 2 games each and my mom her first microwave. Paid off the TV/vcr combo we were getting from rent a center an a lot more smaller gifts. All in all, I think I spent about a grand on the 3 of us.

Family came and went as usual but were speechless. However, I did hear sly remarks at grandma's house.

Needless to say, that was my best Christmas and my worst Christmas. I vowed to never do it again. To this day, I hate the holiday.

Following year, the new catalog came in the mail, didn't even look at it, just tossed it.

On the brightside, that microwave I bought in '92 finally died back in 2021. Even on its last leg, it could boil a cup of water for coffee at 1:20.

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