Heartwarming story time! When I was in 1st grade there was no way my newly divorced, waitress mom could afford a Cabbage Patch Doll. My teacher asked everyone to take turns telling us what we wanted for Christmas and I only wanted that. She even pulled me aside later to ask again, but my answer didn't change. A few days later she came to my house and asked to talk to my mom. I was freaked out, thinking I was in trouble (even though I was a quiet and good kid,) but was sent to my room so they could talk. Turned out she was touched that the other kids had a laundry list of wants, but mine was just one doll. So she got one for me (somehow!) and brought it over already wrapped, and asked my mom not to tell me it was from her. Core memories for sure! Mrs. R, wherever you are, you're an absolute gem of a person. You have no idea how much your gesture meant to me at such a low point in my childhood. 🤗
My parents were teachers and could NOT afford a cabbage patch doll so my mom made me one, with Pink hair! (She purchased the head at the craft shop) I was SOOOOO happy! The lady at the shop said to “be sure to stuff it really well” so 41 years later this homemade doll is still standing up, arms out like she’s expecting a big hug. My sweet mom signed the bum with her own name and I still have it today. Rip to my mom who made me SO happy as an 8 year old!!
Yeah, I know what you’re saying. I think they can be, but I was the youngest of 5 kids (my parents were old-school Saskatchewan folks who wanted a big family) and we really didn’t have “cabbage patch kid” kind of money….it sounds so dumb to me now, we were not poor or anything, it was just that those dolls were an excessively costly gift for a 9 year old (maybe I was 8 but in any case that was the situation as I understood it!) I DID get a brand-name snugglebum a few years later so things obvs were looking up!
Fyi guess what I bought for my own daughter?? A cabbage patch kid from eBay. She only sort of likes it so I laughed thinking how much culture dictates what is cool or not. So funny!
We were broke, latchkey kids raised by our single mom and didn’t expect much more then an orange and some candy in our stockings. BUT…I got the surprise of a lifetime on Christmas morning when my aunt had made me a cabbage patch doll! BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!!
My mom fought it out at the Base Exchange to buy me a Cabbage Patch Doll the first year, only to realize I didn’t want one. Sold it to a friend. Then the next year I did want one and she went to war to find one. She did. God bless our moms. And God bless us for having to fight shipping dates and out of stock notices everywhere all the time. Different fights but it’s what moms do.
My mom claimed she didn’t even know what one was, but saw all the crazy women and bought me one just in case. I didn’t want it, but you can’t risk things like that. I mean, the very next day I might’ve wanted it, or after Xmas I might.
As someone born in '69, I am so grateful I did not grow up in an electronic bubble! We knew how to have fun because we made it. This video is absolutely incredible, Thank you for making it!
I thought I could handle being without the internet when our telephone exchange in town burnt down several years ago. Ah no. There was no news being distributed as to when it would be fixed on TV (regional town so no one cared as it was only mentioned once on the news at the beginning), no way to get cash out, pay bills, no EFTPOS, or make phone calls. I thought this would be perfect being an introvert. It was so bad that the Aussie government put it at the second worst level of disaster for those two weeks. So glad I kept all my DVDs! 😊
Seriously getting teary-eyed at that. I'm a Xennial and so my memories of the early christmases are vague. But I always love looking back at the photos. Me and my cousins all in matching Christmas dresses, yes made by my mom, and most likely worn the next year also.
I'm a 60s and 70s generation fella. When the 80s rolled around, and when they showed on TV, how people were fighting over those Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, I and others of my Generation was shocked in horror. MY WORD ! Those people should have been in the WWF ! In fact, I think the WWF, would shivered in fear of those crazy CPF (Cabbage Patch Fighters) ! It was a whole different experience for my Generation, seeing such things. 😆😅😂🤣
I LOVE your photos! As a survivor of abusive family, I have no photos from childhood, not from my family. It's so weird to see others having, sharing and being proud of their childhood memories! Inspiring ❤
The laundry basket was quite a memory, it wasn’t a holiday thing, but I have a picture of my younger daughter sitting in the laundry basket watching Lonesome Dove when she was about about three years old and eating a tomato like she was munching on an apple😂 and her favorite part of the whole miniseries was when the journey just started and the one young man got eaten by all the snakes - she watched it over and over and over😬
My mom would not do the Cabbage Patch riot. She bought the plasic head and the same material used for the bodies of the dolls and sewed it by hand. I remember being sad I did not have the box the doll came in with the name and date of birth of the doll! Geez...total jerk move by me! That doll is one of my most prized possessions now!
When I was maybe 12 my mom gave me a Barbie she'd had as a child back in the 50s or 60s. At the time, it seemed like just another plain ol' Barbie, but now I recognize the love behind that gift. (Edited to add that it must be part of growing up to recognize our own childhood ungratefulness!)
My parents got me a homemade Cabbage Patch doll from a craft fair. I never even got a real one! And I always wanted Teddy Ruxpin, but never got him. But the BEST thing I got was a Speak-N-Spell. I won many spelling bees in school thanks to that wonderful invention! They even have one in the ET ride here at Universal Studios Florida. Gen X DID have the best Christmases!!!
My first Cabbage Patch doll was from a craft fair too! I got a real one the following year. Oh and I have a picture of me when I was 10 that is like the big girl version of the toddler in the red polka dot dress. And yes, my mom made it! 😂❤
My first coding exposure was on the Apple IIe printing multiplication tables in columns on the screen in 5th grade - loved it ever since and now a professional software engineer! Thank you 80's!
Oh wow! I remember doing something to make a picture on the screen in 5th grade. Something like an outlined hot air balloon. I don’t remember how we did it but I remember liking it. I became a graphic designer 😂
At home, I remember pong, the TRS80, and programming in basic. At college, I remember the excitement of getting ethernet in the dorms, and playing Hack on the computers in the physics lab on Friday nights. I became the head of testing at a computer game design firm between my master's and Ph.D. What times we've experienced!
I was in jr high or high school when the Cabbage Kids came out, but my dad got me one “because it was bald like him!” Now that he has passed away I’m so glad I kept it. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I was 7 or 8; my mom managed to get 2 and my brother and I were poking around under the tree looking for that distinctive shaped box and only found one for me. He was so disappointed until we were finally allowed to open presents (had to wait until my parents got up and we weren’t allowed to wake them before 7am); his was in a regular brown cardboard box because the company ran out of the CPK boxes.
Honestly, I needed to see this today. Those Christmases were some of the best ever and I needed some good memories to drown out the brain gremlins. Merry Christmas!
Me too!! My sister and I literally had most of the toys in these photos. My mom and dad really made Christmases the best and so did my grandma. Times were a lot kinder in some ways back then.
Very accurate, Gen-Xer here. I can recall when I was 10 or 11 at the height of the Cabbage Patch Doll craze, I never wanted one, I was too old for dolls then, but we were at a store shopping when a shipment of them was revealed. I will never forget it, this crowd of women attacked that large pyramid of dolls like animals. Running, screaming, fighting. It was a spectacle I'll never forget. It was really disgraceful. It was weeks before Christmas.
Funny thing about the punching someone in a riot line. My dad in 1983-84 was 6’8, 325. He was a big Lithuanian dude. He managed to get two dolls at a local Kiddie City. Out of nowhere, a 4’11” or so lady comes out of nowhere and punches my dad in the stomach and tries to take the dolls. My dad just looked at her and put the dolls in the trunk and picked her up and moved her out of the way to come home. It was wild, or so I hear.
My mom heard on the radio that Cabbage Patch Kids would be available at Toys R Us later that day. She called my dad up at work and made him leave to go get them since she was home with me. My older sister wanted one too. So he gets to the store and there is a 1 doll per customer policy. But he has 2 little girls that want them. So he somehow got hold of a boy one and a girl one and is walking around the store trying to find a customer who DOESN'T want one. He finally finds an old lady willing to take one through the cashier for him. He gave her cash and said he'd meet her in the parking lot after they both checked out. He said he felt like he was doing a drug deal or something! He wondered if he'd ever see the doll or lady again who now had his cash too. But thankfully she really was a nice old lady and handed him the Cabbage Patch in the parking lot! I remember being so excited to have a boy doll because all my other dolls were girls and it just seemed really neat! I now have 2 sons. Guess that's why I wanted a boy doll so much!
@ I got a boy preemie in 1985, I think it was. I didn’t get a regular boy until I was 8-10. I can’t remember the year. I do remember his name though - Gardner Sebastian. I had Marcy, Barbara Jean, Lily, Michael, a Koosa, the horse, and Gardner.
The box for our Apple II-c is still in the attic at my parents’ house. Sadly, our cat vomited on the keyboard/computer combo part in around ‘91 and it never worked right after that, or else we’d probably still have it. My Teddy Ruxpin and Mother Goose are up there to this day 😹
Gen-x here. We had the best Christmases! I still remember the super deluxe art kit I got from Santa. Crayons, markers, water colours, acrylics, pastels. No idea where my parents found it but I was over . The. Moon!
As a crafty girl, I still remember the art kit I got from my aunt as being my favorite gift ever. So many different items and so many possibilities of what to do with them. It was awesome!
@denisekaub1014 right?! Even though, I had poor vision as a kid, I adored art and my parents were very encouraging. Every Christmas, I got some sort of art item.
Almost brought tears to my eyes. The old memories of being a kid. Getting the one thing you most wanted, the homemade clothes, yeah i dressed like my older sister, and The cigarettes!!!!
My dad only got away without a scratch when getting my Cabbage Patch doll because he's a stocky, decently tall guy. I only found out about this later, but he just grabbed one and held it above his head, wading through the brawling moms.
Move over McCartney and Wham! THIS is the new Christmas anthem! ROFL "Well done!" from a mid-60s baby. : ) Still not sure why, but so many Moms smoked cigs and drank Diet Pepsi! AHAHAHHAA And alllll that paneling! -->> I love the burn marks on the chairs!
Xennial here. It really was the best time to grow up! We did get real Cabbage Patch dolls but one yr mom sewed them for us and yes did the PJS quite a bit. Everyone knocks our boomer parents but they did a great job. I mean I got a She-Ra tent one yr and that was everything lol.
I was born in the last year of the Boomers ('64) and my wife was X ('67). All those pics sparked so many memories. My father's side were all smokers, and my dad fell asleep many times with a cigarette burning in his hands. Can't count the number of burns in the couches and beds. The wood paneling, grainy photos, and hilarious clothes gave me a smile. Thanks for this video.
Wow! Someone else's mom got the green and yellow light-toned Herculon upholstery??? (face palm) I've honestly never seen it anywhere else but our house and the display at the flooring shop. Thanks to everyone who shared and to Team Holderness for putting it all together. Happy Holidays! 💖☮🙏🎄
I am a boomer (born 1960) and you're describing my childhood too (except for cabbage patch - that was you X-ers). LOVE your videos! and yes, so many cigarettes!!!!
I've watched this video several times already and laugh-cry every time. My mom, looking shifty as hell, told me she got my Cabbage Patch doll "fair and square." My dad denied smoking in the house (I have photographic evidence to the contrary). My brother's favorite present was a car wax kit (he was 5). Thanks for making this! It brings back crazy - but amazing - menories.
I got kid snow shovels for Christmas! Was so excited! And we also got huge towels for showering that had hoodies and wrapped all around us. I couldn't wait to take a bath that day!
My dad was the shopper and he was a REALLY GOOD shopper! Not only did he get a Cabbage Patch doll for my little sister, he got them for me and the other three sisters who had almost outgrown (but not quite and never did) dolls. And got them at list price, not expensively. And no violence involved! And then got another round within a year so we had both regular and preemie dolls! At least one of those passes was sheer, dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time - or so he said, anyway.
Omg... Kim is SO RIGHT .... ALL and I mean all those pictures made me feel like they raided my mom's photo albums I swear!! Wow. How did we all look the same. Thx guys bc this made me smile big-time. The panelling and the cigarettes were so on point!! 🤣🤣(My parents didn't even smoke yet my mom had quite a few crystal ashtrays always set out.) 🙄??
😂😂😂 Just ad extreme heat and no air conditioning and it was the same in Australia too. Sooo much wood panelling - or in my family home thick embossed 70's colouring wall paper EVERY ROOM. 😂🤪🤢 I was a lucky girl who got a Cabbage Patch Kid, a Care Bear, and hair crimping tool -but missed out on Teddy Rumpskin, and skates.
I know people who don’t have family, or don’t have family near enough, and they organize Orphans Christmas dinners. I bet if you look around over the next year, you can find a few other people who won’t be with anyone. If you don’t want to risk strangers in a home, go out to eat. There are always restos serving traditional dinners. This year, consider helping at a community dinner for people who can’t afford to have a meal or feed their families something festive. It feels great to help others so you’ll get a big happiness boost, and realize you’re not alone in being alone. Many hugs and wishes for you to find your people ♥️
Hey Penn & Kim, this was awesome!! Great story thread and lyrics for the song, mixing comedy and childhood memories but darn if I didn’t know or hear that you guys wanted fans to send in old Christmas pics because I had at least a few I would’ve sent; either way, wishing the entire Holderness family a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and blessed New Year 🎼🎤🎹🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤
This is terrific! I was just showing my daughter the patterns in Joann Fabrics -- how my mom and my Oma would make us outfits based on Butterick patterns, and how the fabrics were just infinite possibilities!
2:09 The stuffed Gremlin! I had just enough money to get either the Gremlin for my son’s Christmas gift or the Springsteen ticket I wanted so badly, it was during the Born in the USA craze. Springsteen lost out😢, 40 years later we still have the Gremlin.
I got such a kick out of this!😆 I also just recently asked my mom how on earth she got us cabbage patch dolls - specifically asking if she was part of the rioting. She said absolutely not bc she went to buy them with a neighbor of ours who was over 6 ft tall. (Female btw) She figured nobody would dare try to fight Barbara.😂
❤memoriesI recall cabage patch flury, but was more into Strawberry Shortcake dolls .... & super excited I knew mom got me one....that smaller box under the tree smelled good; how those little dolls had 'stawberry scent' 😂! I love the tree in a playpen!! We didn't put ornaments on the bottom of the tree when my bro was a toddler~ 🎄Merry Christmas, thnx for the vid!!
I'm a millennial. Born in 1990 and whilst the fashions were very different to what is shown here, I do miss 90s Christmasses. 90s childhood just rings differently to the one my kids are growing up in 😢
My mom made my siblings all these beautiful hand made cabbage patch kids. Hand stitched hair, hand painted eyes, and hands made clothes. We still all have them.
That brought back some good memories. My parents quit smoking when mom was pregnant with me and hated the smell but we had great great aunts that were smoked like a carton a day that stayed with us every year form Christmas and my mom did not have it in her to tell them no smoking. It took until Valentine’s to get the smell out. Not sure how many crappy ash trays we made in school.
This is one of your best, guys! I love it so much! ( I'm '81, so I think this is still me, but maybe right before.... Depending on the chart I look at lol, but still relate to most of it! ) MERRY CHRISTMAS! Sending prayers and love to you and yours! 🥰🥰💖🙏🏻🎄🎄🎄❄️
Gen X Christmas was the best. But I miss just a family Christmas at all. My Mom always made Christmas so special. It hasn't been the same since she passed in 2011. My sisters are almost 20 years older and off in their own worlds that we never get together. I try to be the peacemaker to bring us together to no avail. It really sucks to be alone at Christmas. So many of my friends and other people I hear complain about having to go one relatives house or another or they are so busy with parties and everything. What they don't realize is how lucky they are. Being alone and with no one to celebrate with or places to go is the worst. Those we love aren't here forever. Please cherish those moments and those people now while you have them, because you won't always.
A lot of people are on their own these days. Over the next year, keep an eye out and you’ll probably find a few. Then you can have Christmas together 😃 If you’re sad when you’re alone on traditional holidays, please consider volunteering at a community dinner for people who can’t afford a festive meal. Some will be families but there’ll be couples and singles too. You’ll feel good helping others - nothing better for losing the blues than helping and being busy - and you’ll see you’re not alone in being alone. ❤️🩹
Thank you for this. And my Christmas photos look just like this. We really had it all... And OMG *The* Print Shop - saved our family so much money in cards and decorations. Merry Christmas Generation X! Let's make it a good one.
I got my daughter's Cabbage Patch at a market in Sorrento, Italy. The 'adoption" papers were in Italian, and had to be sent to Florance. But, dammit, I got one!
I miss going to the mall, and not even buying anything just going for the decorations and hanging out with other people and if I did buy anything at the mall it was usually at a store personalized everything for people like a cup or lighter. I can't remember the name of the store but they would engrave a person's name on something for you. I also miss going to the store and buying a Santa hat. Those were fun days. You can still do these, it's just not the same.
Merry Christmas! Even though I’m a Millennial, Christmas did seem simpler back then, and I honestly never asked my parents for the latest popular toys, I was legit happy with whatever I got for Christmas presents. And my parents have never smoked a day in their lives, which is one of the big reasons they’re still alive today.
I got my daughter her Cabbage Patch doll “ when it fell off the back of a truck and into a car trunk. I met a man in my work parking lot who opened up his trunk and I got to choose my daughter’s doll.!!! Ah the memories!
Heartwarming story time! When I was in 1st grade there was no way my newly divorced, waitress mom could afford a Cabbage Patch Doll. My teacher asked everyone to take turns telling us what we wanted for Christmas and I only wanted that. She even pulled me aside later to ask again, but my answer didn't change. A few days later she came to my house and asked to talk to my mom. I was freaked out, thinking I was in trouble (even though I was a quiet and good kid,) but was sent to my room so they could talk. Turned out she was touched that the other kids had a laundry list of wants, but mine was just one doll. So she got one for me (somehow!) and brought it over already wrapped, and asked my mom not to tell me it was from her. Core memories for sure! Mrs. R, wherever you are, you're an absolute gem of a person. You have no idea how much your gesture meant to me at such a low point in my childhood. 🤗
That’s such a heart warming story. 🥹 thank you for sharing.
How did you find out it was from her? Also, I love this story
Well it seems your mom did tell you it was from your teacher, or maybe you were eavesdropping lol
Crying. I love this story.
SO sweet. What a wonderful teacher and person.
My parents were teachers and could NOT afford a cabbage patch doll so my mom made me one, with Pink hair! (She purchased the head at the craft shop) I was SOOOOO happy! The lady at the shop said to “be sure to stuff it really well” so 41 years later this homemade doll is still standing up, arms out like she’s expecting a big hug. My sweet mom signed the bum with her own name and I still have it today. Rip to my mom who made me SO happy as an 8 year old!!
This sounds so bizarre to me because where I live teachers are known to be well-off.
Yeah, I know what you’re saying. I think they can be, but I was the youngest of 5 kids (my parents were old-school Saskatchewan folks who wanted a big family) and we really didn’t have “cabbage patch kid” kind of money….it sounds so dumb to me now, we were not poor or anything, it was just that those dolls were an excessively costly gift for a 9 year old (maybe I was 8 but in any case that was the situation as I understood it!) I DID get a brand-name snugglebum a few years later so things obvs were looking up!
Fyi guess what I bought for my own daughter?? A cabbage patch kid from eBay. She only sort of likes it so I laughed thinking how much culture dictates what is cool or not. So funny!
Post a photo!!
@@salexo9 Back then teachers weren't paid so well.
Remember when we used to make ashtrays in school for gifts 😂
Metal Working Merit Badge! I still have it! 😂
OMG, you just unlocked a memory for me with this comment!
Same! I completely forgot about making ashtrays! My parents didn't even smoke!
Elementary school I made one for my parents😂. Totally forgot that, thanks.
Then they were to put rings and cufflinks in! 😂
Goodness i wasn't prepared to get emotional watching this. As an 80's kid this was such a great bit of nostalgia. You all outdid yourself on this one.
👍
Totally.
Same here! Cheers to 80's babies/kids! 🍻
Yes, I have tears in my eyes now, but not from the cigarettes. 😅❤
Gen X here, as I like to say I was born byw Star Trek and Star Wars and I remember all of this. Thanks for my wonderful parents, now gone.
I teach college history. This video will be a requirement for my students to watch . Thanks 😊
We were broke, latchkey kids raised by our single mom and didn’t expect much more then an orange and some candy in our stockings. BUT…I got the surprise of a lifetime on Christmas morning when my aunt had made me a cabbage patch doll! BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!!
My grandma sewed me a pound puppy
My mom fought it out at the Base Exchange to buy me a Cabbage Patch Doll the first year, only to realize I didn’t want one. Sold it to a friend. Then the next year I did want one and she went to war to find one. She did. God bless our moms. And God bless us for having to fight shipping dates and out of stock notices everywhere all the time. Different fights but it’s what moms do.
LOL, Well I guess your mother was military, and she didn't even know it. And she was a General ! I salute her ! She earned her stars and ribbons ! 😂
lol the BX/PX and everything was put on Lay-A-way
My mom also fought for my Christmas cabbage patch kid at the BX. 🤣💕
😂😂😂
My mom claimed she didn’t even know what one was, but saw all the crazy women and bought me one just in case. I didn’t want it, but you can’t risk things like that. I mean, the very next day I might’ve wanted it, or after Xmas I might.
This song is awesome. It embraces nostalgia, but also acknowledges that not everything in the past was good.
As someone born in '69, I am so grateful I did not grow up in an electronic bubble! We knew how to have fun because we made it. This video is absolutely incredible, Thank you for making it!
I thought I could handle being without the internet when our telephone exchange in town burnt down several years ago. Ah no. There was no news being distributed as to when it would be fixed on TV (regional town so no one cared as it was only mentioned once on the news at the beginning), no way to get cash out, pay bills, no EFTPOS, or make phone calls. I thought this would be perfect being an introvert. It was so bad that the Aussie government put it at the second worst level of disaster for those two weeks. So glad I kept all my DVDs! 😊
🌈 Rainbow Brite and roller skates 🛼 👏🏻🥳
I had those skates!
FlowerPatch Dolls, too!
Seriously getting teary-eyed at that. I'm a Xennial and so my memories of the early christmases are vague. But I always love looking back at the photos. Me and my cousins all in matching Christmas dresses, yes made by my mom, and most likely worn the next year also.
I'm a 60s and 70s generation fella. When the 80s rolled around, and when they showed on TV, how people were fighting over those Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, I and others of my Generation was shocked in horror. MY WORD ! Those people should have been in the WWF ! In fact, I think the WWF, would shivered in fear of those crazy CPF (Cabbage Patch Fighters) ! It was a whole different experience for my Generation, seeing such things. 😆😅😂🤣
Those really were the good old days. I miss the simplicity. Merry Christmas!
X-mas like Generation X!! Love it!
Penn, you nailed every bit of it! You are the best!
Merry Christmas Penn and Kim and family!
I LOVE your photos!
As a survivor of abusive family, I have no photos from childhood, not from my family. It's so weird to see others having, sharing and being proud of their childhood memories! Inspiring ❤
Thank you so much for choosing my photo! It means more than you will ever know! 😢 2:42
The laundry basket was quite a memory, it wasn’t a holiday thing, but I have a picture of my younger daughter sitting in the laundry basket watching Lonesome Dove when she was about about three years old and eating a tomato like she was munching on an apple😂 and her favorite part of the whole miniseries was when the journey just started and the one young man got eaten by all the snakes - she watched it over and over and over😬
My mom would not do the Cabbage Patch riot. She bought the plasic head and the same material used for the bodies of the dolls and sewed it by hand. I remember being sad I did not have the box the doll came in with the name and date of birth of the doll! Geez...total jerk move by me!
That doll is one of my most prized possessions now!
When I was maybe 12 my mom gave me a Barbie she'd had as a child back in the 50s or 60s. At the time, it seemed like just another plain ol' Barbie, but now I recognize the love behind that gift. (Edited to add that it must be part of growing up to recognize our own childhood ungratefulness!)
I am an 80s kid and 90s teen and the printing of banners is the only thing it did really got me....laughed out loud at that one!! Love it! ❤
My parents got me a homemade Cabbage Patch doll from a craft fair. I never even got a real one! And I always wanted Teddy Ruxpin, but never got him. But the BEST thing I got was a Speak-N-Spell. I won many spelling bees in school thanks to that wonderful invention! They even have one in the ET ride here at Universal Studios Florida. Gen X DID have the best Christmases!!!
It was EZ bake oven for me. 😊
My first Cabbage Patch doll was from a craft fair too! I got a real one the following year. Oh and I have a picture of me when I was 10 that is like the big girl version of the toddler in the red polka dot dress. And yes, my mom made it! 😂❤
OMG the speak n spell, i totally forgot about that! My brother and I got one and it was incredibly awesome!
My first coding exposure was on the Apple IIe printing multiplication tables in columns on the screen in 5th grade - loved it ever since and now a professional software engineer! Thank you 80's!
Oh wow! I remember doing something to make a picture on the screen in 5th grade. Something like an outlined hot air balloon. I don’t remember how we did it but I remember liking it. I became a graphic designer 😂
At home, I remember pong, the TRS80, and programming in basic. At college, I remember the excitement of getting ethernet in the dorms, and playing Hack on the computers in the physics lab on Friday nights. I became the head of testing at a computer game design firm between my master's and Ph.D. What times we've experienced!
I was in jr high or high school when the Cabbage Kids came out, but my dad got me one “because it was bald like him!” Now that he has passed away I’m so glad I kept it. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I was 7 or 8; my mom managed to get 2 and my brother and I were poking around under the tree looking for that distinctive shaped box and only found one for me. He was so disappointed until we were finally allowed to open presents (had to wait until my parents got up and we weren’t allowed to wake them before 7am); his was in a regular brown cardboard box because the company ran out of the CPK boxes.
It really is so crazy how much my pictures look just like this!!!
Honestly, I needed to see this today. Those Christmases were some of the best ever and I needed some good memories to drown out the brain gremlins. Merry Christmas!
Thank you for celebrating our generation!! It's good to look back on this times.😅
Why am I crying? This is funny but making me cry too
yeah it hurts a lil bit
People of a certain time and place. Dusty in here.
Me too!! My sister and I literally had most of the toys in these photos. My mom and dad really made Christmases the best and so did my grandma. Times were a lot kinder in some ways back then.
I cried and laughed though the whole thing too, I wish life was still like that
Yes me too😮
The good old days! We had the same wood panelling - didn’t realize it was a thing.
Looked great painted though 😂
That was great! Yes, thanks to all that sent in the pics. You're right, everyone's 80's Christmases looked alike!
Very accurate, Gen-Xer here. I can recall when I was 10 or 11 at the height of the Cabbage Patch Doll craze, I never wanted one, I was too old for dolls then, but we were at a store shopping when a shipment of them was revealed. I will never forget it, this crowd of women attacked that large pyramid of dolls like animals. Running, screaming, fighting. It was a spectacle I'll never forget. It was really disgraceful. It was weeks before Christmas.
Funny thing about the punching someone in a riot line. My dad in 1983-84 was 6’8, 325. He was a big Lithuanian dude. He managed to get two dolls at a local Kiddie City. Out of nowhere, a 4’11” or so lady comes out of nowhere and punches my dad in the stomach and tries to take the dolls. My dad just looked at her and put the dolls in the trunk and picked her up and moved her out of the way to come home. It was wild, or so I hear.
😂
My mom heard on the radio that Cabbage Patch Kids would be available at Toys R Us later that day. She called my dad up at work and made him leave to go get them since she was home with me. My older sister wanted one too. So he gets to the store and there is a 1 doll per customer policy. But he has 2 little girls that want them. So he somehow got hold of a boy one and a girl one and is walking around the store trying to find a customer who DOESN'T want one. He finally finds an old lady willing to take one through the cashier for him. He gave her cash and said he'd meet her in the parking lot after they both checked out. He said he felt like he was doing a drug deal or something! He wondered if he'd ever see the doll or lady again who now had his cash too. But thankfully she really was a nice old lady and handed him the Cabbage Patch in the parking lot! I remember being so excited to have a boy doll because all my other dolls were girls and it just seemed really neat! I now have 2 sons. Guess that's why I wanted a boy doll so much!
@ I got a boy preemie in 1985, I think it was. I didn’t get a regular boy until I was 8-10. I can’t remember the year. I do remember his name though - Gardner Sebastian. I had Marcy, Barbara Jean, Lily, Michael, a Koosa, the horse, and Gardner.
Amazing. The actual Apple IIe in the background is the best touch.
Mine may not have been as good but I had a TRS-80 that came from RadioShack back in the good old days.
The box for our Apple II-c is still in the attic at my parents’ house. Sadly, our cat vomited on the keyboard/computer combo part in around ‘91 and it never worked right after that, or else we’d probably still have it. My Teddy Ruxpin and Mother Goose are up there to this day 😹
@@LamentButterfly amazing!
Omg! This song is so true. Miss my childhood. I didn't know this song would put a tear in my eye. Thanks!
Gen-x here. We had the best Christmases! I still remember the super deluxe art kit I got from Santa. Crayons, markers, water colours, acrylics, pastels. No idea where my parents found it but I was over . The. Moon!
As a crafty girl, I still remember the art kit I got from my aunt as being my favorite gift ever. So many different items and so many possibilities of what to do with them. It was awesome!
@denisekaub1014 right?! Even though, I had poor vision as a kid, I adored art and my parents were very encouraging. Every Christmas, I got some sort of art item.
Almost brought tears to my eyes. The old memories of being a kid. Getting the one thing you most wanted, the homemade clothes, yeah i dressed like my older sister, and The cigarettes!!!!
My dad only got away without a scratch when getting my Cabbage Patch doll because he's a stocky, decently tall guy. I only found out about this later, but he just grabbed one and held it above his head, wading through the brawling moms.
Move over McCartney and Wham! THIS is the new Christmas anthem! ROFL
"Well done!" from a mid-60s baby. : )
Still not sure why, but so many Moms smoked cigs and drank Diet Pepsi! AHAHAHHAA And alllll that paneling!
-->> I love the burn marks on the chairs!
You're so right!! It was just like that!! Absolutely wonderful!
Xennial here. It really was the best time to grow up! We did get real Cabbage Patch dolls but one yr mom sewed them for us and yes did the PJS quite a bit. Everyone knocks our boomer parents but they did a great job. I mean I got a She-Ra tent one yr and that was everything lol.
Love this! Brought tears to my eyes bringing back so many memories! You are such a creative song writer!! 💜
Totally enjoyed this. It sure brought back some memories from the past! Thanks for all you do and Merry Christmas to your family.🎄
Even after all these years, you guys produce the most funny and thoughtful songs. You really helped me get through COVID.
I was born in the last year of the Boomers ('64) and my wife was X ('67). All those pics sparked so many memories. My father's side were all smokers, and my dad fell asleep many times with a cigarette burning in his hands. Can't count the number of burns in the couches and beds. The wood paneling, grainy photos, and hilarious clothes gave me a smile. Thanks for this video.
That so brought back so many memories! Most of the toys and things I remember having as a kid!
Merry Christmas guys! Thanks for the memories...and yes, everybody smoked. :D
This straight up warmed my heart. ❤ it was the hug I needed after a rough day today. Thanks so much!!!
That brings back some great Christmas memories. Merry Christmas to your family.
God Bless our Moms! I related way too much to this song!!! Merry Christmas!
Thank you for this! This also applies to us Boomers born in the 60s. ❤
Wow! Someone else's mom got the green and yellow light-toned Herculon upholstery??? (face palm) I've honestly never seen it anywhere else but our house and the display at the flooring shop. Thanks to everyone who shared and to Team Holderness for putting it all together. Happy Holidays! 💖☮🙏🎄
I am a boomer (born 1960) and you're describing my childhood too (except for cabbage patch - that was you X-ers). LOVE your videos! and yes, so many cigarettes!!!!
Very cool video and a Merry Christmas to all, this video makes me remember so much of growing up in the 70's in Australia.
Those tinsel decorated trees remind me fondly of my Auckland New Zealand Gen x Christmases
This made me smile! Great job as always. Happy Holidays!!
Cannot take in what has happened from the simpler times to these times. This is one amazing video compilation and words to match
Thank you, Holderness family!!!! This was awesome.
This made me cry. I miss those old days.
Im not really into these but this one was incredible! So spot on with our generation! Thank you!
I've watched this video several times already and laugh-cry every time. My mom, looking shifty as hell, told me she got my Cabbage Patch doll "fair and square." My dad denied smoking in the house (I have photographic evidence to the contrary). My brother's favorite present was a car wax kit (he was 5). Thanks for making this! It brings back crazy - but amazing - menories.
I freaking wish we could all go back in time! That would be incredible
I got kid snow shovels for Christmas! Was so excited! And we also got huge towels for showering that had hoodies and wrapped all around us. I couldn't wait to take a bath that day!
My dad was the shopper and he was a REALLY GOOD shopper! Not only did he get a Cabbage Patch doll for my little sister, he got them for me and the other three sisters who had almost outgrown (but not quite and never did) dolls. And got them at list price, not expensively. And no violence involved! And then got another round within a year so we had both regular and preemie dolls! At least one of those passes was sheer, dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time - or so he said, anyway.
And, yeah, there’s a photo of me now out on the Internet for all eternity, wearing my Wonder Woman Underoos. I was SO PROUD. *That* was my must-have.
Omg... Kim is SO RIGHT .... ALL and I mean all those pictures made me feel like they raided my mom's photo albums I swear!! Wow. How did we all look the same. Thx guys bc this made me smile big-time. The panelling and the cigarettes were so on point!! 🤣🤣(My parents didn't even smoke yet my mom had quite a few crystal ashtrays always set out.) 🙄??
Because we all bought our clothes at Kmart and Sears Roebuck.
All I wanted was lego & fishing gear. Merry Gen-X Christmas from Australia (where we do Christmas in the summer!!)
@@ronlucock3702 Keep cool today and tomorrow! I have the fans going on high.
@@HappyHarryX5 Yeah mate, we got fans & the air con going! What electricity bill?
@ I call big Bills “Williams”!
I legit cried…made me miss my mama and her homemade Cabbage Patch Doll.
😂😂😂 Just ad extreme heat and no air conditioning and it was the same in Australia too. Sooo much wood panelling - or in my family home thick embossed 70's colouring wall paper EVERY ROOM. 😂🤪🤢
I was a lucky girl who got a Cabbage Patch Kid, a Care Bear, and hair crimping tool -but missed out on Teddy Rumpskin, and skates.
This almost made me tear up, seeing all these pictures with wood paneling. Nice work, I loved everyone’s pictures.
As fun as this is it makes me sad 😔 too. I didn’t have kids and lost our folks 😢 Christmas isn’t the same anymore
I'm truly sorry 😞. Then there's families like mine that could get together, but won't everyone is too busy, or can't get along. So sad 😞.
Life still has the potential for you to have many great Christmases for you with people you love. Hugs.
Big hug.
I know people who don’t have family, or don’t have family near enough, and they organize Orphans Christmas dinners.
I bet if you look around over the next year, you can find a few other people who won’t be with anyone. If you don’t want to risk strangers in a home, go out to eat. There are always restos serving traditional dinners.
This year, consider helping at a community dinner for people who can’t afford to have a meal or feed their families something festive. It feels great to help others so you’ll get a big happiness boost, and realize you’re not alone in being alone.
Many hugs and wishes for you to find your people ♥️
This was THE BEST! I love it. I had no idea how difficult it was on the parent side. They rocked xmas. GEN X
Great song! I miss those times. I love you guys videos, they always make me smile. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Hey Penn & Kim, this was awesome!! Great story thread and lyrics for the song, mixing comedy and childhood memories but darn if I didn’t know or hear that you guys wanted fans to send in old Christmas pics because I had at least a few I would’ve sent; either way, wishing the entire Holderness family a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and blessed New Year 🎼🎤🎹🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤
I sure miss those days. Too bad we can't go back!
Says someone probably using a iPhone or iPad to comment.
Merry Christmas you all! ❤️
Love you guys❤❤❤❤❤thank you for your wonderful videos❤
This is terrific! I was just showing my daughter the patterns in Joann Fabrics -- how my mom and my Oma would make us outfits based on Butterick patterns, and how the fabrics were just infinite possibilities!
2:09 The stuffed Gremlin! I had just enough money to get either the Gremlin for my son’s Christmas gift or the Springsteen ticket I wanted so badly, it was during the Born in the USA craze. Springsteen lost out😢, 40 years later we still have the Gremlin.
Legit had 50% or more of those gifts, plus the stuff in the backgrounds. Wasn't expecting to feel nostalgic today - thanks!
Are and forever will be... the best generation!!
I got such a kick out of this!😆 I also just recently asked my mom how on earth she got us cabbage patch dolls - specifically asking if she was part of the rioting. She said absolutely not bc she went to buy them with a neighbor of ours who was over 6 ft tall. (Female btw) She figured nobody would dare try to fight Barbara.😂
Nailed it! Down to the wood paneling in our family room!
❤memoriesI recall cabage patch flury, but was more into Strawberry Shortcake dolls .... & super excited I knew mom got me one....that smaller box under the tree smelled good; how those little dolls had 'stawberry scent' 😂! I love the tree in a playpen!! We didn't put ornaments on the bottom of the tree when my bro was a toddler~ 🎄Merry Christmas, thnx for the vid!!
Yes! Gen X totally rules! Sweet Christmas pics and yes mine look like those too. Spot on Holderness-es-es!
Merry Christmas !🎁🎄 ❤ love you guys
I'm a millennial. Born in 1990 and whilst the fashions were very different to what is shown here, I do miss 90s Christmasses. 90s childhood just rings differently to the one my kids are growing up in 😢
Oh my goodness! This transported me back to my childhood Christmas. So perfect!! 👌💕
My mom made my siblings all these beautiful hand made cabbage patch kids. Hand stitched hair, hand painted eyes, and hands made clothes. We still all have them.
That brought back some good memories. My parents quit smoking when mom was pregnant with me and hated the smell but we had great great aunts that were smoked like a carton a day that stayed with us every year form Christmas and my mom did not have it in her to tell them no smoking. It took until Valentine’s to get the smell out. Not sure how many crappy ash trays we made in school.
This is one of your best, guys! I love it so much! ( I'm '81, so I think this is still me, but maybe right before.... Depending on the chart I look at lol, but still relate to most of it! ) MERRY CHRISTMAS! Sending prayers and love to you and yours! 🥰🥰💖🙏🏻🎄🎄🎄❄️
Gen X Christmas was the best. But I miss just a family Christmas at all. My Mom always made Christmas so special. It hasn't been the same since she passed in 2011. My sisters are almost 20 years older and off in their own worlds that we never get together. I try to be the peacemaker to bring us together to no avail. It really sucks to be alone at Christmas. So many of my friends and other people I hear complain about having to go one relatives house or another or they are so busy with parties and everything. What they don't realize is how lucky they are. Being alone and with no one to celebrate with or places to go is the worst. Those we love aren't here forever. Please cherish those moments and those people now while you have them, because you won't always.
Hugs to you from this internet stranger.
A lot of people are on their own these days. Over the next year, keep an eye out and you’ll probably find a few. Then you can have Christmas together 😃
If you’re sad when you’re alone on traditional holidays, please consider volunteering at a community dinner for people who can’t afford a festive meal. Some will be families but there’ll be couples and singles too.
You’ll feel good helping others - nothing better for losing the blues than helping and being busy - and you’ll see you’re not alone in being alone. ❤️🩹
Thank you for this. And my Christmas photos look just like this. We really had it all... And OMG *The* Print Shop - saved our family so much money in cards and decorations.
Merry Christmas Generation X! Let's make it a good one.
Man, this took me straight back to my childhood! Merry Christmas, y'all 🫂
I got my daughter's Cabbage Patch at a market in Sorrento, Italy. The 'adoption" papers were in Italian, and had to be sent to Florance. But, dammit, I got one!
I miss going to the mall, and not even buying anything just going for the decorations and hanging out with other people and if I did buy anything at the mall it was usually at a store personalized everything for people like a cup or lighter. I can't remember the name of the store but they would engrave a person's name on something for you. I also miss going to the store and buying a Santa hat. Those were fun days. You can still do these, it's just not the same.
@@chickie8252 Was the store’s name “Things Remembered”? We had one of those at the mall in my city. I miss the way malls used to be too.
@karenbignell7060 Yes! Thank you! As I was reading your response I remembered the name of the store!
Merry Christmas! Even though I’m a Millennial, Christmas did seem simpler back then, and I honestly never asked my parents for the latest popular toys, I was legit happy with whatever I got for Christmas presents.
And my parents have never smoked a day in their lives, which is one of the big reasons they’re still alive today.
Damn straight!
That was spot-on! I'm so glad I stumbled upon it! Merry Xmas, fellow Xers!
This generation will have their own special awkward Christmases. And they will be frightening and hilarious, just like ours were. Happy Christmas!
I got my daughter her Cabbage Patch doll “ when it fell off the back of a truck and into a car trunk. I met a man in my work parking lot who opened up his trunk and I got to choose my daughter’s doll.!!! Ah the memories!
😂❤😂 So did my SIL way back in the day! In an alley!! 😂❤ Those days were definitely awesome!
Oh my…mums going rogue for a doll 😂
Yes our Gen X Christmases were the absolute best. Great song and photos.
Did anyone have a aluminum tree with a light rotating red blue green yellow at the bottom? I loved that tree 😅🥰
This brought back so many memories.
As a later in the generation boomer, I resemble a whole lot of that.. especially mom sewing matching green velvet dresses for all of us.