Comments on: Christmas Morning, Santa Ana, CA 1959

By: Joanie

Joanie — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:32:43 +0000

The doll is charming, especially because of her long blonde hair and pretty dress. The toy dog is creepy, however modern toys are just as weird. To comment on the kid’s awkward pose and then to fantasize about it is real creepy.

By: Diane

Diane — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:55:56 +0000

Creepy doll?
It was wonderful waking up to big dolls for Christmas back then!
They had that new car smell! I loved them! The dolls showed us little girls how much we were loved by our families!
Those were the days and we will never see them again!
Love the photo Charles!

By: Peggy

Peggy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:35:53 +0000

I wasn’t born until 5 years later, and I had the walking version of the doll. I loved that doll!

By: Margaret Werner

Margaret Werner — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:13:15 +0000

I was five in 1959, and I got this same dollhouse. It was manufactured by the now-defunct Marx company, and I even remember the television commercials touting it’s many features, such as a doorbell that could really ring and one of the tiny lamps that would really light up. Both stopped working in short order, as one can imagine. As another poster noted, most of the house’s decor was printed right onto the metal. Oh, and I was the proud owner of a Patty Playpal, too, but I think I got her for a birthday. Her big selling point was supposed to be that now a little girl could be the same size as her doll. Other hot toys around that time were anything based on Disney’s Sleeping Beauty which was a new release at the time, and anything “approved” by Miss Frances of Ding-Dong School (remember her?).

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 02:00:33 +0000

I was 8 years old when this photo was taken.
2 years later I received a Peter Playpal under the family X-mas tree and my sister received a Patty Playpal.
Seeing those big dolls under the tree was a wonderful experience at the time. I can still recall the way the plastic smelled. I actually like it. Kind of like that famous new car smell!
Not all children had great X-mases.
A big family down the street could hardly afford presents for their kids.
My sister and I were so lucky. We usually had good X-mases.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 19:09:47 +0000

I’m not the same Cindy who posted above, but I was 5 in 1959 and I got Penny PlayPal while my 8 year old sister got Patty!!! Wonder if my mom just made up the name Penny? I also got a metal dollhouse with everything painted on as well. They must have been big sellers at Woolworth’s or Grant’s. Janet looks just awful with that pixie haircut her mom forced on her, doesn’t she? I had a pixie cut too, but only after I took a pair of electric Snippy scissors to my head and gave myself a haircut. Remember those? They were red and made to resemble birds. You cut stuff with the beak-paper, hair, whatever. Wonder why they don’t make those anymore, or those toy electric irons either? Remember how they got really hot so you could iron doll dresses on your little ironing board, just like Mom??

By: Cindy

Cindy — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:44:27 +0000

Ahhh, sweet memories. I was 6 years old in 1959 and also received a Patty Playpal doll (mine had brown hair) and the dollhouse shown (it was metal, with lots of plastic furniture, like the pink bedroom shown). That house was a bit of a one-trick-pony: all the rugs, paintings, etc. were painted onto the walls, so the furniture always had to go in the same place . . . kind of killed the creative juices – I’m still not much at interior home design!

By: Ezio

Ezio — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:28:57 +0000

Hi Charles. Oh my God! 1959 I was a boy but I remember my Christmas Eve without gifts because we were poor and we had lost our father. An empty home with a mother and her four children.Those days. But was Christmas for us.

By: Kimberley

Kimberley — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 05:07:18 +0000

This photo was most likely taken within an about an hour of my birth.(8:22am,12/25/59 – central time). Funny thing is, the first thing I noticed was the doll (my mom still has her) and the dollhouse – had one just like it. Got those a few years later.

By: Mdm DaDa

Mdm DaDa — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 01:38:06 +0000

I think the plush doll is Huckleberry Hound made by Knickerbocker toys.