# What was your Christmas toy store? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438 "2015-10-12T16:56:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/1 "2015-10-12T16:56:30Z")
[This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=771833) reminded me of Toys R Us. Toys R Us was around when I was a child, but I can only remember going there a couple of times. When I was a child, the toys generally came from Sears. Every year we’d get the Sears catalogue in the mail, and I’d pore over it picking out my Christmas list. So my answer: Sears. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/2 "2015-10-12T17:00:10Z")
Small town in Indiana some 50+ years ago? L. S. Ayres. We didn’t get Sears catalogs until I was a teenager. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/3 "2015-10-12T17:20:41Z")
We always picked out toys from the Toys R’ Us Christmas insert in the newspaper. I don’t know where [del] my parents[/del] Santa got the gifts from. We never actually went to Toys R’ Us. KB Toys was our toy store, since it was in the mall. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/4 "2015-10-12T17:23:25Z")
50’s kid in San Diego. The toy store of choice was Sears (Washington Street), hands down. I loved our frequent family visits to the store, and would also spend hours at home with that catalogue. Any other San Diego kids remember walking in through the lower level doors at the foot of the outdoor stairs, getting hit in the face by the aromas of candy and popcorn, as well as the godawful ultra high-pitch whine of the security system? (That’s what I’ve always assumed it was, anyway. Similar to the sound that many old style TV’s used to make.) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/5 "2015-10-12T17:24:00Z")
My sister and I would pore through the Sears Wish Book catalog (this was the early to mid 70s), though I suspect that my parents did little or none of their actual Christmas shopping there (at least, not for toys). We had a Toys R Us near us, as well as a locally-owned toy store; as that’s where most of our toys were bought during the rest of the year, I imagine that’s where my parents bought Christmas presents, too. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/6 "2015-10-12T17:34:16Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Any other San Diego kids remember walking in through the lower level doors at the foot of the outdoor stairs, getting hit in the face by the aromas of candy and popcorn Vaguely, though I don’t remember stairs. But I came around later than you. Also, I don’t know where the store was. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/7 "2015-10-12T18:11:53Z")
Sears. Their Wish Book was awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/8 "2015-10-12T18:20:50Z")
I was a kid in 80s and I remember getting toys at a place called Children’s Palace and Service Merchandise. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/9 "2015-10-12T18:37:08Z")
Sears catalog and Montgomery Ward’s catalog. Alaska didn’t have toy stores, or much of anything else in the 50s/60s. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/10 "2015-10-12T18:46:57Z")
I think it was the JC Penny catalog. But mom shopped at KMart and Gold Circle. The toy stores we went to (80s, NE Ohio) were Lionel Kiddie City and Children’s Palace. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/11 "2015-10-12T18:56:29Z")
Caldor (Northeast chain) or K-Mart. If they didn’t have lay-a-way, we couldn’t afford to shop there. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/12 "2015-10-12T19:11:54Z")
My parents didn’t necessarily do their shopping in Sears but the Wishbook was a huge part of Christmas for me when I was very young. My friend and I would pour through it and literally circle the stuff we wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/13 "2015-10-12T19:11:57Z")
Ames, and Hills (It is where the toys are, after all). ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/14 "2015-10-12T19:14:23Z")
Sears Catalog was definitely the place to look. Secondary to that, K-Mart. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/15 "2015-10-12T19:17:41Z")
Children’s Palace and Slater’s Hardware. Slater’s had a second floor that was all toys. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/16 "2015-10-12T20:11:56Z")
We had a local department store called Robertson’s. They had an empty floor at the top of the building (7th floor, if I remember correctly), that was used throughout the year for special events of one type or another. They would put up a Santa’s village there every year that involved a maze and a toy train, among other fun things for kids. All around the village were displays of toys, hundreds of different things if my mind remembers correctly. In those days we didn’t have a specific toy store in town, so it was either Robertson’s display or Sears. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/17 "2015-10-12T20:49:17Z")
Sears, of course. I can still remember the smell of a new Wish book. Looking at them on line now, I find that a 19" color TV in a stylish oak cabinet ran $389 which converts to $1722 in today’s dollars. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/18 "2015-10-12T20:49:57Z")
The Sears and JC Penny catalogs were the big go-to wishbooks when I was a kid but I don’t know how much shopping was done there. There was a mall with a Toys R Us near it about 30-40 minutes away or a Venture or Zayre department store maybe 15 minutes away. I’m guessing that they got a good portion of the toy sales with TRU picking up the remainder. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/19 "2015-10-12T20:58:30Z")
Growing up in rural Indiana in the sixties and seventies, it was Sears. But we went to see Santa on his throne at Wolf and Dessauer department store in Fort Wayne. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438/20 "2015-10-12T22:06:50Z")
Magic Village, a huge toy store in San Jose, CA (in the Tully/King area). I don’t think it was a chain. Sears [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-christmas-toy-store/734438.md?page=2)