[MarkWarner]

As we are now well and truly into the final lap before Christmas I cast around for a festive book for us to read.

I love old ads, so when I found the Woolworth's New Christmas Book it was a "slam dunk", as I believe our American cousins call a sure fire thing.

The book can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20426 and as it is so light, this is a cover to cover browse.

Happy reading!

[lyons]

Okay, I'm going to be the Grinch and say the only animals I want to see talking at Christmas time is Rudolf and the reindeer who pull Santa's sleigh. Rather selfish of me, I know, but there you have it; if animals must talk at Christmas, then let it be only the reindeer who are heard at this festive time of year,...oh, and maybe an abominable snowman or two.  That's my Grinch report. Agree about the ads, MarkWarner, this comic is a time capsule for 1950's Christmas.   

[SuperScrounge]

Santa Comes To The Big Top - Ummm... must have been aimed at very young children. It's not terrible, but I found it over-simplistic and tended to drag a bit.

[Morgus]

Anybody have any idea who the artist was? Not bad. For some wild reason it reminded me of the Walt Kelly Christmas stuff from years past...I know it's probably not, but...even without knowing who did it, this was the damndest thing I read all week. It kept me reading until the end, I'll say that much, but I couldn't for the life of me see a rhyme or reason...even Fellini or Salvador Dali would probably have said; "Now, wait a minute.." Right up there with SANTA CLAUS (1959) from Mexico, or America's own SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS. The ads were great, and that makes sense...they were the point of this...even remembered some of the toys...think I had at least one of the gun holster sets...Kids would have gone nuts for this comic, I bet...

[paw broon]

Well, we can see why Mark picked this one, seeing he's an ad fan. Some great toys that I'd have loved to have recieved on Christmas morning. But here it was an orange, a selection box, a junior smokers kit, an annual - usually The Broons or Oor Wullie depending what year it was, or one of the piles of others that came out every year - and, if you were really lucky, a 10 bob note from your granny.
As for the story, that never happened in The Snowman, or Rupert.  While there were talking animals in Rupert, it was much more fairytale, and all the better for that.  I felt that having warships and jets in the story was a real letdown and I'm sure children would have dreamt up some fantastic allies, other than the military. Still, it's a nice, not bad wee story.
It's the ads that make this for me as an adult and I fondly remember the Woolworths in the town where I grew up.  It was like an Aladdin's cave.  Anyone remember those awful cover versions of hits on those never heard of before or since record labels?  Our Woolies also sold comics, British comics.  Not mainstream Beano or Dandy or the like, but the American look-a-like versions
Thanks for a look at this curiosity.

[bowers]

I skipped the story and went straight for the ads! Such wonderful memories of "Woolies"- it was indeed, as Paw says, an "Aladdin's cave". As young kids we could do all our Christmas shopping in this amazing store and still have a bit of cash over left to get some ice cream at the in-store lunch counter!

It was great to revisit some old friends from my childhood. The Hubley airplane on page 18, with folding wings and retractable landing gear, is now listed on Ebay for $75. A good, sturdy metal toy with sharp and pointy parts, teaching us to be careful! Also my beloved Daisy air rifle on page 28. The Daisy company had the foresight to weld a bar inside the barrel so the only thing that could be fired were small cork balls.(What were my parents thinking of when they turned me loose with this?) And the indestructable Auburn rubber toys and American Logs- such great fun.

Okay, the story isn't bad for filler between the ads. Maybe not so strange to have Navy jets as an escort. In pre-internet years, NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) would "track" Santa on it's radar on Christmas Eve, and news reports would follow his progress. I believe there is still an internet link on the Norad site to do this.

A fun read! Christmas Cheers to all, Bowers

[crashryan]

Like most of my fellow greybeards I went for the ads more than the story. However while reading the story it annoyed me that I'd get to read only a couple of pages before an ad broke in, rather like TV commercials.

The story was VERY lightweight. Like so many of these Christmas-themed stories, it's a series of unrelated events that just sort of happen. Not awful, but not especially interesting either. Like the story, the artwork is perfectly adequate and that's it. A couple of points, though. The kids seem to live in a Tardis trailer; it's MUCH bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Do the parents sleep there, too? If so the kids would have to  clamber over them to "slip quietly from the trailer." Also the American Navy appear to be flying Russian MiG-15's! Maybe it's an international Christmas exchange program, a sort of Peace and Brotherhood thing, you know.

On to the fun part...like bowers I have fond memories of the folding-wing monoplane. I'd sure like to have had the 7" Jaguar and the 9" MG. This is the first time I've seen them. Another item that is new to me is the Treasure Island game. I presume it was one of those generic follow-the-path games. I know I played Uncle Wiggly but I don't remember how it went. I do remember thinking of it as a "little kid game." Little Golden Books for a quarter...and everyone's favorite: Jimmy Durante signing Christmas songs. I don't recall American Logs. For us it was Lincoln Logs, which were round instead of squared-off as these appear to be.

When we moved to Everett, Washington circa 1960 there was a Woolworth's on the main street. Even then it seemed a bit anachronistic. I have a few vague memories. When you walked in the air was filled with the smell of popcorn. The lunch counter ran along a side wall; it was finished in shiny black tile. I've always liked shiny black tile; is this why? I remember the store being dimly lit, giving the long aisles a mysterious vibe. Try as I might I can't remember ever eating there, even though I know my brother and I would have been campaigning for ice cream.

I was surprised to learn that the UK had Woolworth stores. I'd imagined it was strictly a US phenomenon.

(Later addition) I searched for the Treasure Island game on ebay and found it. Sure enough, it's a single-path game with a cardboard spinner and all. I can't tell from the photos where the challenge comes in. The path is just a line of dots without the usual "lose one turn" / "back one space" instructions. It was published by Milton Bradley, which was King of the Market back in the day.

[Kracalactaka]

The old ads also hold more interest for me on this one.

The story just lost me completely when the Navy fighter shot at the Pelican, Really......?

Navy ships would not even take note of a bird flying by, let alone scramble a plane to investigate. And they certainly don't "shoot first, investigate later" that's a recipe for an international incident.
(If I seem over-critical it is because I've been on ship when real incidents requiring a scramble/intercept have happened, so I know what the real procedures are)

anywho,

Strange as it may seem I'd like to see an example of the Liz Taylor paper doll set on the IFC

I have an example of the metal airplane on page 20, I'll have to snap a pic or two and post them.

American Logs (aka Lincoln Logs) on p32 were always a fave

those six-gun rigs on p35 were definitely inspired by the Roy Rogers-esque TV/Movie cowboys of the day. By the time I was a kid in the 70s, such sets had lost almost all of their gaudy ornamentation.

a fun look through the days of yore


@Crash, back then there was a Navy version of the F-86 Sabre (the FJ-2 Fury), very similar in general appearance to the Mig-15 and the later MiG-17.

[JonTheScanner]

Those American Logs must have been Woolworht's house brand.  At least they're not the Lincoln Logs I had as a kid.  The cross section of the basic Lincoln Log was round. I played the Uncle Wiggly Game at a friend's but recall nothing about it.  I had a two gun six-shooter set something like one of those.  I must have been a cowboy wannabe quite young.  When I was 3 1/2 my little brother was born. I've been told my then just 6 year old (by a week) older sister's first comment was "Not another cowboy!"  I do recall setting up my little cowboys all over my room and in the hall.  I don't recall what they were made of, but neither plastic nor wood. They had metal framework covered with something and painted.

[Kracalactaka]

couple of liz taylor sets on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ELIZABETH-TAYLOR-1956-VINTAGE-ORIGINAL-UNCUT-WHITMAN-2057-PAPER-DOLL-BOOK/382307077633?hash=item5903470e01:g:0nQAAOSwzXxaLWsm

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-RARE-1955-Elizabeth-Taylor-2-Paper-Dolls-w-Cut-Uncut-Clothes/252343631209?hash=item3ac0da3d69:g:1JEAAOSwJblXAq17

[crashryan]

Yeah, Krac, I remember the FJ-2. There were some of them at the Sangley Point (Philippines) Navy base where I lived as a kid. I always thought they were cooler than F-86's (probably Navy Brat bias).  The reason I thought of the MiG-15 in this story is the plane's squared-off nose (no "snout") and the overhanging rudder (on the Fury the trailing edge of the rudder ended even with the tail of the plane).

[paw broon]

Bowers mentioned NORAD tracking Santa.  Cultural differences read their heads here as I had never heard of that.  Well, why would I have heard of it?  Another fact to be stored away and it certainly explains the military in the story.  Thank you.
Where our Woolies was located in the High Street is now a Wilko ( Wilkinsons) which is like a modernised Woolies.

[bowers]

 Jon, American Logs were manufactured by Halsam and were pretty common but never as popular as Lincoln Logs. Your cowboys were probably probably made by Elastolin. A clay-like composition compound was molded over a wire frame and then painted. They sometimes had a ceramic head, and were about 70mm tall. I still have one of mine from the fifties, labeled "made in West Germany". If anyone is interested, "The Uncle Wiggly Game" was a simple pursuit game, a race to get Uncle Wiggly to Doc Possum's house. Some traps and shortcuts featuring characters from the Howard Garis books. The fun part of the game was having to read aloud the cards drawn to assign movement. All were in ridiculous little rhymes, such as "The Bad Pipsisewah shivered and shook, but Uncle Wiggly five hops took". What is The Pipsisewah? In the books, a rhino-headed beast who is up to no good. On many of the boards (I have several versions), he brandishes a nasty-looking club and a menacing demeanor. In an early 1940's version he is, for no apparent reason, depicted as a large red squid!
Okay, guys, now you know- I have a weakness for toys and old board games. Cheers, Bowers

[The Australian Panther]

Reading the comments here I thought, Hah! I'm not going to be interested in the ads. Wrong! We do have a Woolworths in  OZ but its name is a co-incidence, we didn't get this catalogue but we did have some of the toys listed. I had a little golden record, a Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam one. We also had quite a few Little Golden Books, but none of those listed. there were a lot of titles. I think I actually had that Chinese Checkers box. I definitely had the Uncle Wiggley Game, which I was always puzzled about as the character was basically unknown in this country. The game was basically Snakes and ladders with dice and Cards. As for toy cars I had a fair collection of Matchbox toys which spent a lot of time on dirt roads under my home. The things that trigger memories! The story? A typical Christmas story for Advertising purposes, of which we would have been ignorant in the day. It put me in mind of the Walt Disney Christmas stories we used to get in the daily paper in the lead-up to Christmas. I guess Nostalgia isn't always what it used to be. 

[lyons]

Thanks for the gander at the Liz Taylor set, kracalactaka.   My Mom would have hit the roof if she had seen one of these sets in our home at Christmas.  She hated the attention Dad paid whenever Elizabeth Taylor appeared in magazine or screen. And yes, NORAD's tracking of Santa by radar over North American territory was an exciting time to listen to the radio on Christmas Eve night.  Thanks to MarkWarner for sharing these ads. 

[paw broon]

Some of you might be interested in A bit of Woolworths history in the U.K. Obviously some of the items for sale were different and this page will give you an insight, especially as a lot of it is WW2 related:-
http://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/1940s-defiance.htm
Krac's mention of the navy firing at a pelican is informative.  I didn't think it felt right for other reasons as I said above and I think the story would have been better with a more fairytale slant.
Needless to say, this has got Linda and I talking about the Woolworth stores that we knew as kids, and the weird and wonderful mix of goods you could find in them. How things have changed.  The Flagship store in Edinburgh, where you could buy paint, toys, records, comics, underwear and piles more, is now an Apple store, where, in many peoples' opinions, you can buy nothing useful
Just great to see those ads in the comic again.

[Kracalactaka]

the afformentioned pics of the Metal Toy plane advertised on Page 20, Made By Hubley.

[lyons]

Thanks for the history on Woolworths, paw broon.  I had no idea the chain spawned itself over there. Reading that 26 Woolworths stores had been destroyed by the enemy during WW2 seems like news out of the Twilight Zone or from an alternate reality.       

[crashryan]

Very cool, Krac! Did Hubley produce planes with different color schemes? I seem to remember mine being mostly silver, with a highlight color...blue maybe?

[bowers]

Yeah, great pics, Krac. Mine was silver and red. Cheers, Bowers

[Kracalactaka]

Yep the Hubleys came in a variety of colors over the years. This one pictured is an ebay purchase from about 5 years back, but it is just like the one I had as a kid in the 70s it came as a part of a set  with a P-40 in the same color scheme

[crashryan]

The last plane with the blue wings is the one I remember. Nice P-40's!

[SuperScrounge]

I actually skipped over all the ads, but seeing all these comments I decided to go back and look at them. Interesting. A number of things I probably would have liked as a kid.

Oddly enough I don't remember ever going to a Woolworth's. I'm not sure if there even was one near where I lived. I might have been in one when my parents drove cross-country one year. Would certainly explain where we picked up that hardcover of The Trigan Empire.

However the catalog me and my sister went through for Christmas was the Sears catalog, not Woolworth's. My biggest memory of Woolworth's was Sarah Jane deciding that she and the Doctor were definitely on Earth because she saw a Woolworth's, in the novelization of Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion.

[BoldVenturePress]

Wow ... that's beautiful cover artwork! Just looking at that will put the grumpiest Scrooge into the Christmas spirit!

[lyons]

One more comment.  This book felt more Easter Parade than Christmas celebration.  Okay, that's it for me.