Christmas time is here again. The annual ritual of spending cash you really don’t have. Society expects it!! Get that card out!
Like you, I’m out there right now wandering the stores, scrolling the apps, perusing the malls that still exist and matching the prices up with the Amazon option. I get panicky this time of year because I haven’t purchased much yet. I check my bank account (you do it too), and I realize there just isn’t much time left until the big day … food, medicine? Or Christmas gifts. What do you spend on in December?
Every year I try to be one of those organized people who gets things done early.. knock a few gifts out in November, finish up the first week of December. Because we all know what happens if you don’t: the Panic Purchases begin.
We’ve all been there.
You see nervous husbands frozen in the appliance aisle.
You see kids staring at some sad-looking afghan blanket, trying to convince themselves, “Yeah, Mom would probably like that.”
Let’s be honest: most of us already have enough stuff. We don’t really need much of anything on Christmas. But we’ve been programmed for decades to think we have to buy, buy, buy.
So go buy. Be a part of something.. 🙂
As you get older, it actually becomes more fulfilling to buy something for someone else that genuinely makes them smile. The only problem is that we still wait too long to start looking for that “special” thing. So we end up right back in that blender aisle, trying to justify why someone in life might really want to circular-saw their fruits and vegetables into mush all year long.
That’s a different story for a different post. We have digressed too long.
Toy Ad Nostalgia: The Real Christmas Catalog
One of my favorite things about this time of year isn’t the new stuff… it’s the old stuff.
Specifically: old Christmas ads. Especially toy ads.
We all feel those toy ads, right?
For me and many, the sweet spot is the late ’80s and early ’90s. That’s when my childhood was starting to age out of toys, but not quite yet. Right before everything shifted into “I just want money” mode. You may be prompted into the inebriation of nostalgia from the 70s, maybe the 50s.. Maybe even the 2010s! Any way you slice it, the same effects on the mind and body occur.
Those were the years when the toy spreads in the Sunday paper or the department store flyers looked absolutely magical:
- He-Man figures lined up like plastic warriors
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in all their neon glory
- The Nintendo Entertainment System taking over living rooms one cartridge at a time
I remember one of the greatest Christmases of my entire life like it was yesterday. I got:
- A Super Mario game for Nintendo
- A Batman game for Nintendo
- A red bean bag
- A blue bean bag
The colors matched Mario. That was it. That was the list.
And somehow, that simple combination still stands out in my mind as the Best Christmas Ever™.
Before that, when I was younger, I remember getting Tonka toys—real metal, heavy, practically indestructible. That was also the year Christmas collided with a stomach bug. I spent part of that magical morning sick, but here’s the thing: even with that, the memories still come back warm. A little queasy, but warm.
Old Ads, Old Prices, New Reality
So here’s what I want to do with this post:
I’ve got a couple of old Christmas toy ads I want to share with you. Take a good look at the prices in those ads. The toys, the games, the “big” items.
Below each ad, we’ll break down a few of those prices and talk about what they’d roughly translate to in today’s money. How much would that Nintendo, that action figure set, or that Tonka truck actually cost now if you adjusted it for inflation?
Because back then, a toy that cost $19.99 felt like a big deal. Now we blink at $49.99 like, “Eh, that’s just what stuff costs.”
We used a typical inflation calculator to see what the Nintendo was.. $237 in today’s money. and even in today’s dollars that would be VERY affordable compared to the high priced almost $1000 dollar gaming consoles of today’s gaming market. And you ca n OWN a game then, BATMAN, for 40 bucks.. That would be $96 today. So yes.. we are being taken advantage of in today’s gaming market, right?
But just stop and appreciate that 1990s. That was the year I got the bean bags, BATMAN, and MARIO 3.. life changing childhood moment.
A year before the greatest Christmas ever I most likely before the $3.99 BATMAN action figures.. My parents got me BATMAN and the JOKER and BOB THE GOON. They spent $15 bucks on those, and in today’s money about $11 each. But yet in 2025, action figures in stores are 20 bucks or more… Again, are we being used by corporations?
Kids drooled over the SEGA by 89 as Nintendo faced competition.. It was pricer at $189
So now we are talking bigger money.. that is almost $500 in today’s cash. We are getting closer to the Playstation or xBox..
Ad for the heck of it in 1986 when you may have craved a Wuzzle at the Schuylkill Mall.
$1.99 then! Not even $6 bucks now .. Great deal. I am sure if they were existent today they would be $20 on sale. And if you kept it in a box, you could sell in on eBay TODAY for $99 bucks (according to sell prices), which by the way was $33 bucks in 1986. Reverse.. deflation.. See how that worked?
So money talked.. Money was spent. Bills long paid, or ignored.. We have moved on.
What make it all so special in the past?
Maybe it wasn’t the price.
Maybe it was the bean bags. They meant more than anything else..
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