Holiday Barbie 1988 - The Birth of Collection Potential

What started as some random musings on Facebook is about to get the full blog treatment! The first plan is to go year by year through all the Holiday Barbie offerings since their start in 1988. This hit at an ideal time in my childhood to peak my interest and I've always held some mild curiosity of seeing where it all went from there. After that? Well, ideally I'll have thousands of fans begging "Oh my god, do this Barbie next!!" But honestly, if I make it to the end of the holiday girls it'll more likely be me saying "Well this one is crazy!" and picking new subjects from there. But it began as a Facebook post on Labor Day weekend...
What good is an extra day off if you can't fall through a Pinterest rabbit-hole or two? Here's mine today:
The first Holiday Barbie - Happy Holidays 1988


It started with me randomly thinking about how my Grandma told me later she really wanted to get me the Holiday Barbie when she first came out. It would have been appropriate. It was 1988 and I would have been 8. Unfortunately it seems Mattel grossly underestimated the popularity of the first doll in this line and I think my grandma said they were pretty much all sold out in local stores even before Thanksgiving when she went to purchase one for me.

When they were on their 3rd or 4th year of producing these and I found out my grandma had tried to start this collection for me I was kind of bummed at having missed out on that potential tradition. I was never super into Barbie but I DID like collections. 

 But while looking up the years of Holiday Barbies I ran into some of these others. Where were THESE when I was a little kid?!? 
Vampire Barbie Athena Barbie Hard Rock Cafe Barbie

 Vampire Queen Barbie? Athena Barbie? Stevie Nicks Raids Steven Tyler's Closet Barbie??? Hell to the yes!!! In the late 80s we were just stuck with this version where Barbie murdered a neon pink Pekingese to wear on her head and is desperately hoping enough purple eyeshadow will make anyone's eyes look purple.
https://i.pinimg.com/…/a6/bb0aa654060b31e3043ebce5c182c674.…
Not the same! If I had an 8-year-old daughter, you bet I'd be getting her Barbies. Though only ones like those seen above need apply!

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