In celebration of Barbie’s 50th anniversary, I’m sharing some of my favorite Barbie memories and I’d like you to do the same.
I was a Barbie girl. Oh yes, and then some. A babysitter gave me my first Barbie, Superstar Barbie, when I was 5 yrs old and the rest, as they say, was history. After that introduction, I yearned for all things Barbie. I’m fairly certain that pink has been my favorite color ever since.
Barbie was on the tippy-top of every birthday and Christmas wish list in my childhood. I would have been thrilled if everything I owned was Barbie branded. I threw mad parties in the Barbie Motorhome, learned to french braid on the tail of Dallas, Barbie’s horse, and slept in a Barbie sleeping bag at sleepovers where, of course, we played Barbies. At Christmastime, I even decorated my Barbie Town House with a tree and stockings I made out of construction paper.
I had the 1974 edition of the Town House, a yard sale find that I treasured and refurbished with love. Sure, the cardboard walls had fallen off but it had an elevator. An Elevator. Need I say more?
My sister, a mere child at the time, received the newer version of the Barbie Town House for Christmas.
How was that even close to fair?
My sisters and I played Barbies together almost every weekend. With three girls in the house, it wasn’t long before our basement resembled a Barbie village. Sometimes our barbies would have fashion shows. Other days, they would have magical powers. We had the McDonald’s and the Barbie and the Rocker’s stage so they (the Barbies) even had places to go for entertainment.
We truly enjoyed Barbie being a part of our childhood and thanks to her, my sisters and I have many happy and a few not so happy memories (see expression in picture #2) as a result. Eventually, when I grew out of playing with dolls, I packed up my Barbies and saved them for my daughters. What’s really cool is that in our playroom, right now as I type, there are two girls playing with Barbies – and some of them are the same ones I played with as a child.
Now that Barbie’s 50th anniversary celebration is in full swing, I have many excellent happenings to pass along to you:
Barbie®’s Birthday Party at Her “Real” Malibu Dream House®: On March 9th (Barbie® doll’s actual birthday), event-planner-to-the-stars Colin Cowie will help throw Barbie® an outrageously pink birthday celebration at – where else – but a real Barbie® Malibu Dream House®, styled and decorated by famed “Happy Chic” interior designer Jonathan Adler. The newly designed “real” Dream House® (located on the beach in Malibu, Calif.) will play backdrop to what is sure to be the most talked about “pink-carpet” birthday bash of the year, where Barbie®’s closest famous friends from throughout the years will be invited to peek into the fashionista’s storied closet! (Barbie® Birthday Party on March 9, 2009 – by invitation only).
50th Anniversary Web Site: Already one of the top online destinations for girls, in late January, Barbie.com™ will get an e-makeover and direct Barbie® fans of all ages to a new area on the site featuring Barbie®’s influence in fashion, beauty and pop culture. In addition to showcasing video confessions from celebrities sharing their favorite Barbie® stories, allowing fashionistas to get “behind the seams” access to the Barbie™ Runway Show and providing other inside scoop to events and partnerships around the globe, the new site will also include funny Barbie® commercials from throughout the years, downloadable content and a fun look at favorite Barbie® dolls.
Facebook: Although she’s already a “friend” to all, Barbie® will have an official Facebook Page where people can become fans, check out her status (is she or isn’t she back with Ken®?), hear her secrets, post messages and check out all her favorite things.
Barbie’s All Doll’d Up blog is the place to celebrate fifty years of fun, fashion and friends. Read about everything from the most talked about runway moments, hottest parties, chicest trends and more. Check out exclusive video content, photo galleries and all the latest must-have goodies! For even more of the hottest buzz surrounding Barbie’s 50th, you can follow Barbie’s tweets on Twitter.
I can’t wait to hear your stories!
This is a compensated review from BlogHer.
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There are so many barbies out there that I don’t think they will ever run out of ideas for doll creations.
[...] this post on my review blog to find out why I’m making such a sweet face – and don’t forget to [...]
I wish I could play Barbies right now, instead of getting ready for work and going for that matter. Cute post, doesn’t it stink to be the oldest?
I seem to remember having some sort of Barbie van that I treasured. I also remembered really liking to play with Skipper. I think it was that she was as flat chested as I am-I mean was. HA!
So many memories. But I loved my barbie bubble bath with real working shower. It was so cool!
I remember getting the car, pink I believe, but it was a push one, no remote control. I had a BFF who was an only child and she got EVERYTHING, so that is where I played. She had the boutique, the two story mansion, the REMOTE CONTROL car. Ah, good times, good times…
Barbies? Sorry, I was busy with my GI Joe collection in the late 70’s. As a matter of fact, I blogged about GI Joe just yesterday.
Ok – no offense, but we would NOT have been friends as children! Any Barbie crap at my house was the direct result of my mother forcing me to play with dolls, which I totally didn’t get! Just more proof that I never was good at being a girl – thank God he decided to give me boys! BTW – if we HAD met when we were whipper-snappers, I’d have happily given you my Barbie airplane (it was like a compartment you could open and all the dollies could sit and be served – or serve as the case may be for Flight Attendant Barbie) and all the hand-knitted ensembles my mother slaved to clothe my totally unappreciated Barbies in!
My friends and I would play Barbies for hours and hours after school almost everyday. We would spend so much time getting them all dressed up and ready – that by the time we finally had them all together, we had to quit playing and eat dinner. I had the camper and every house imaginable – and now my girls are the same way. They can get lost for hours in a Barbie game, and it is always so funny (and sometimes a little unnerving) to hear the dialouge!
I loved my barbies totally….I had so many clothes and boy o’ boy were they busy. But my strongest memory is that all my barbies were pregnant….yep…I always stuffed something under their dresses so they all had baby bumps…..I have no explanation for this :-)
You failed to mention the illegial swap that you made with me. I recall that you pressured me into trading my new, convertable livingroom furniture for your old, green, inflatable bedroom set. You also failed to mention that the blow-up dresser had a hole in the back that you kept plugged with a BandAid. No tears ever brought back that cruel swap. Yes, I have plenty of wonderful memories about Barbies but some still haunt me to this day.
In addition to the classic Malibu Barbie, I was given my older cousin’s “Original” Barbie, from, like, the 60s! Then there was the other one to whom my sister and I gave a really unfortunate haircut. When I was learning to sew, I made my Barbies LOTS of dresses. I always wished their shoes would stay on better, and I always wanted those boots.
We also had what we called the Barbie Head – it was the life-size plastic Barbie that you could practice putting makeup on and doing her hair. We had the Farrah Fawcett head, too, oh yes we did, complete with lots of baby blue eye shadow, and now I know how jealous you realy are. I only wish I had photos to prove it.
Barbies are the best! I only had one, but she was beautiful. She was from the disco era and sported a glittery red dress and white pumps, long brown hair parted down the middle. You can leave Barbie a birthday greeting at http://www.barbiefest.com/
Oh, I TOTALLY coveted that townhouse. I also always wanted a Barbie styling head.
We’re Barbie…and the RockERS! I so remember this tune. However, I can’t believe YOU – Jem incarnate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz4QRB25DSI – are endorsing the competition.
My sister and I used to play Barbies all the time. I had one that came in a yellow prairie-style dress with a big blonde afro that supposedly you could straighten but to traditional silky Barbie locks but my mother confiscated the hair serum because of potential messes. As if!
My favorites were Crystal Barbie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYsIO7ds4tU) and Peaches N Cream Barbie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73jbrA2uzyo&feature=related)
I’m still waiting for my grown up life to begin where I get to wear a long luscious stoll I can style in so many ways. Sigh.
OMG, I totally remember the stole attached to the dress that you could wear in multiple ways. i think it was called Dream Date Barbie. Only I had the brown-haired version . She wore a blue dress and that stole was FAB!
The barbie houses or castle that you get now totally suck, imo. My 5 year old got the Diamond Caste for Chistmas and it is pretty – but in its efforts to be “compact” and “fold-able for storage” it is flimsy to the nth. Urgh!
I loved this post. My sisters and I fought to the near-death over Barbie and still have jokes about her.
I had Barbie, Ken and Midge. It must have been in 1959 because I remember having them when I was really young. My mother saved them and gave them NOT to my daughters, but to my brother’s daughters. Where is the fairness in that?
But my favorite Barbie memory was when my own daughter was 6 and she got a Barbie Dream House for Christmas. Yeah, it WAS for her. Really.
At 35…I still love Barbie. I still have the huge yellow Barbie camper, Mcdonald and the tub you could fill with real water and add dish soap to create bubbles. I spent many hours daily playing with my two best friends…last time I played Barbie I must of been 13 or 14. My three year old found the Barbie camper and some dolls and likes to play with it. The irony???? He is a boy…not to worry! He plays with Ken and the camper
I am so brain fried with trying to play barbies with my five year old daughter. When she doesn’t have a friend to play with, she begs me to play with her and I try to do it but I just suffer through it trying to be creative. I am just not wired to play with a five year old for very long. I’m trying to figure out new ways to play with her. She loves her barbies and I am happy to buy them for her. But I don’t want to play it. I used to play them with my sisters and since we were poor all we had was one barbie and one skipper. We had to create the townhouse look out of our encyclopedia set. We used wash cloths and creatively folded them into lounge chairs and love seats. My dads shoes were the Barbie car and canned goods with scrap fabric on them were tables and chairs. Now my sister and I are both interior designers but we totally suck at playing with our young children. We specialize in making great designs out of low budgets. But back to my Barbie dilemma, five minutes of Barbie gets me so brain fuzzy. It sucks out any creativity I had and I am wasted. Why can’t I enjoy playing like you do?
I never saw her as perfect or as beautiful as real females. i needed Barbie for my GI Joe to play the role of my mom and dad. I loved collecting them. I had Legally Blonde, Winter in New York, StarTrek, Hawii, Super Talk, Hollywood Hair, Dentist, Cut & Style, Repunzel, Jello Fun, Ice Capades, Rose, Teen Talk blonde and brown haired ones, and many others. I’d had over two hundred over my life.