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Growing up as a kid I remember seeing this thick catalog from Sears. These had a complete list of things they had for you to buy from them that they would send by mail to your home or the nearest store. They started putting the catalog out back in the 1880's and ran it threw to the late 1990's when they moved to an online format.
Taking this image of Galatea made me think of the catalog, that and this video the U.S. post office has out this year about a little girl who wants a hippopotamus for Christmas.
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Imagine this: early 80's, Poland, the Iron Curtain still stands proud, this side of Europe is drab, gray and in crisis (so severe that there's nothing but - for some reason - mustard and vinegar on shelves in shops, meat comes only about once a week to the butcher's, modern electronics is non-existent, and forget about fancy toys for kids.
But small semi-legal trade flourishes on the border with DDR (Eastern Germany where life wasn't all rosy either, but infinitely more comfortable and colourful than in Poland). One kind of items that were quite often traded for our cheap fruit, veggies, or alcohol, were these catalogs from companies like Sears, but their German equivalent. My mum borrowed a few of them from a friend (there were some useful DIY patterns for fashionable dresses, etc. in them, or something like that).
As a little kid I spent literally months gorging on the photos in these catalogs. They were like a vision of paradise to me - so colourful; smiling people in them seemed genuinely happy, they dressed in nice, bright and soft clothes; and the toys looked unbelievably magical. Browsing through these catalogs was like a magical journey to a fantasy land.
A few years later with the Curtain down normality descended, but I remember to this day images from those windows to paradise - even such mundane things as an electric drill (bright red - not grey and army green), toy snooker table, Barbie, or pink flannel pajamas for girls, and blue for boys (with Winnie the Pooh printed on them! OMG!).
Somehow Christmas always reminds me of these catalogs. Your image brought it up again.
So, yeah, have a great, colourful and happy Christmas. And never be short or deprived of anything.
An artist on the canvas and with words.
Times get better and times certainly get worse, I suppose we can only hope that the general trend is a better world for everyone.
You never know what you will end up finding clicking through on a simple recently uploaded images list ^^".
Anyway, happy holidays all ^^/