Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Xmas in July, Day 30: Kiddie Korner
From the Kiddie Korner pages of Montgomery Wards 1971 Christmas Catalog, we've got our sweet tooth primed and ready for some sugary neat treats: foil wrapped milk chocolates, icing coated gingerbread houses, candy canes, Disney character Pez, and gum balls from our very own gum ball machine! More than anything though, I'd like to get my mitts in/on those awesome xmas themed lollipop packed puppets-- especially the snowman, but the reindeer is pretty "cool" too!
Yeah, it was always fun to have a leftover toy when the candy was all gone. I don't think Pez ever did realize that they would sell twice as many dispensers if they had any real play value in their own right (I guess the "collect them all" impulse worked well enough for them, though).
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, almost everyone's parents smoked--certainly everyone's grandparents--and I never thought in terms of Pez making the "candy lighter" companion to other brands' candy cigarettes and candy chew. But the semantic leap is totally here: that golden Pez contraption in the middle of the Disney dispenser holder in this ad (I guess that's one of the Three Pigs then? Tricky) looks just like some fancy gold-plated desk lighter. I loved playing with my granddad's lighter when I was a kid; they had to take it away from me all the time. I suppose a Pavlovian reward system with Captain Hook's head was a bit safer in my hands than that, huh?
Haha, yeah... I wish they'd make a Creepshow Pez dispenser of Sylvia Grantham's head that twists fully around sideways and ejects cake flavored Pez candy. "Where's myyyy Pez?!!!"
ReplyDeleteyeah those lollipop puppets are really cool! i like the funky santa and the screaming reindeer the best i think.
ReplyDeleteand man i swear to god this year i'm gonna make a gingerbread house. ive wanted to forever and i always laze out.
I've made quite a few over the years with Zander-- it's not as fun as you think. But it's fun to munch on afterwards!
DeleteI have a dissimilar response: My mother-in-law makes ginger bread houses for, like, every family member, every year. Often, this means making more than twenty houses each December, all told. Each person can come over to the big house, where there are candy stations for decorating their personal house in a social, Christmassy setting. It's like Santa's workshop, and it's a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteNow, I don't love baking--I like my cooking closer to art than science--but knowing that you might, Carol, I think the tedious part of the process wouldn't be so bad for you. The architecture part is like doing a puzzle and can get frustrating till you have a system. But the decorating process is fuckin' great! Frequently the resulting row of witch houses is so beautiful that I can't stand the idea of busting them up and eating them.
Pro-tip from my mother-in-law: make lots and lots of extra gingerbread cookies on the sides of the pans when baking the parts that will end up as a house. Not only will this keep heat distributed evenly over the large flat surfaces, but decorating gingerbread people later on (walking dead? sci-fi? porn?) is every bit as much fun as doing the houses and takes a tenth of the time.
Cool and interesting info, thanks Mr C!
DeleteI bet that PEZ collection is a bit more than 2.69 right now!
ReplyDeleteI have a huge -- crazy huge -- PEZ collection. And I'm not a PEZ collector! Some how, because I actually like PEZ the candy, everybody got it in their mind I collected PEZ. Now I have tons of them, plus one-offs, plus mechanical things, I've even got 2 KISS PEZ sets.
Again, not a collector. It's weird. Nothing valuable, all within the last couple decades kind of things.
I have a few too, I mostly buy the cool bat that always comes out around Halloween
Delete"I wish they'd make a Creepshow Pez dispenser of Sylvia Grantham's head that twists fully around sideways and ejects cake flavored Pez candy. "Where's myyyy Pez?!!!""
ReplyDeleteWith 3D printing you could have your wish come true!
http://www.dvice.com/2013-1-25/custom-3d-printed-pez-dispensers-your-own-face
Granted, they are offering a pez dispenser with your own face, but why couldn't they make one of any face you choose?
Modern technology, making the impossible possible, making our most twisted dreams come true. ;)
Now there is a thought, a 3D created pez collection of our favorite horror icons past and present, Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, Jason, Michael Meyers, Freddy Kruger and the Tall Man from Phantasm (though the Tall Man might dispense silver spheres instead of pez)
I'd love a Phantasm Pez dispenser! The famous monster Pez came out in the 60's I think, Frankensteins monster, Wolfman, Creature etc...
ReplyDelete