Christmas at Target

Well, normally I might complain about it being kind of early for Christmas, or about the fact that they were moving the Halloween stuff OUT and the Christmas stuff IN the day BEFORE Halloween, but I've been sick and overworked for the better part of a month and I'm already feeling the need for some Christmas Cheer. So let's grab a peppermint mocha and check out the early Christmas selections!

(and in case you are NOT ready to think about Christmas, maybe you would rather read these articles about how stores decide the timing of when to start their Christmas marketing? Of course the funniest thing about the first article is that it is saying how Target is starting their Christmas marketing "later" when the stores are full of Christmas stuff, and have Christmas ornament decorations hanging from the ceiling. The second article clarifies - they don't mean the store, just the ads! XD)







This one is bigger and seems to be made of a slightly more fragile (ceramic? glass?) material...


I didn't see any mini ornaments, which is a bit disappointing. I guess I can't add anything to my tree this year. But that's probably ok - my tree is pretty full! I didn't see any hello kitty stockings yet either. Tho again, I'm fixed for that anyway. I just like to see new designs!

Then, in addition to ornaments, there are, of course, the toys...

First, new Sanrio Town (do these have an official name?) buildings.

I bought the "Holiday Home" one, because I thought it was the cuter of the two, tho of course both are adorable!

There was a comb and mirror set as well (kind of random?) but I didnt get a picture of that. And then the last thing I saw (of hello kitty - there were some cute MLP and LPS stuff too) that I HAD to get a picture of (and it wasn't easy! They were restocking! XD) was these cute Kitty plushies.



At $7.99, I thought they were kind of expensive for their size. But on the plus side, they are actually really nice quality. Very soft and nicely put together...

In addition to the Christmas ornaments, a few more 'Kitty in costume' plushies appeared. This is more of the theme of Kitty dressed as other Sanrio characters.


I am not a big fan of the pig character - in fact, I don't really know his name - but Kitty looks pretty cute dressed up this way!


I like this one too, even tho he is also a character I'm not so familiar with. I think his name is Purin?


Chococat is a little funny looking!


I thought the fourth one is Pochacco, so I took his picture, but I realize from looking at my old picture that he was already out. So I guess the new one was Tuxedo Sam, who I thought was already out. I will have to get a picture of the Tuxedo Sam costume next time then. Pochacco used to be one of my favorite characters tho actually. And Kitty looks pretty cute dressed up as him too!
I am not sure, however, if I want to buy any more of these. I have so many stuffed animals now... ^^;

I also have to show a picture of this cute nightshirt, even tho it is for kids. Isn't it an adorable design?


Transitioning back to Christmas, here's some non-Sanrio stuff.

I always am on the lookout for ornaments that could make good doll accessories. These aren't as cute as re-ment or anything, but they are pretty amusing. I am not sure why you would want them as ornaments tho! XD



I notice its a big year for owls this year at Target. I'm not surprised, they do seem trendy lately. So here's a few owl ornaments I noticed:




(These are somewhat see-thru, so they were a bit hard to photograph)

There were also some owl-themed gift wrapping options too (well, bows and gift bags)



These are gift TAGS, not BAGS. But I think there also were bags...
I didn't really like this owl design all that well, but since it's an owl, it's still cute! ;P

I think nesting dolls are somewhat trendy lately too. These don't actually 'nest', but clearly that is the style they are meant to be in.


Target also has a LOT of cute Penguins, but I didn't get to photograph many of them. But here's one I did photograph, along with the other cute "astronaut" snow globes. I feel like I don't need such a bulky decoration, but these are really too cute to pass up. I think I will have to buy one - as soon as I can decide which one I like best anyway!


(maybe the bear?)

Here's another style of penguin:



(these two are probably my least favorite... Sorry guys! ^^;)

Also, jumping back to the 'stocking stuffers', I forgot I had this picture of the Barbie Mini Bs. (I still miss the holiday Kellys!!!)

I like that the case for them is an ornament (it's a little bit hard to tell that from the photo, but they are ornaments) but overall, I don't like these as well as the Halloween ones. I was fine with passing those up at the time, but somehow now that the christmas ones are not as cute, i find I'm sorry I didn't buy the halloween ones! ^^; (ah, the psychology of consumerism...)

And speaking of Barbie, I'll just randomly squash in my sighting of some new Barbie clothes:


That blue dress says "I love tokyo". I kind of want this set for that one dress, but I gotta tell you, that middle outfit is the ugliest thing I've seen in a while!! It's actually shorts, and it's got this weird high waist/corset thing going on. Ugh.


This one is nicer overall, but it doesn't have any items that really grab me. The pink 'tweed' kind of material reminds me of previous sets. It would, therefore, be easy to coordinate with things I already have, but like I said... I just don't find any of it that exciting.


I DID really like this dress... but I get sick of buying entire dolls just to snag the clothing. Sigh.

I also couldn't resist taking a peek at this Barbie coloring book, because I've been wondering what the story was supposed to be with those odd Barbie fairy type dolls.



I always knew Ken was a schmuck!! ;P
(it's not really him. One of her frenemies was pranking her. Actually, I am not sure who this girl pranking her is supposed to be. She's the 'bad guy' of the story, but I don't know if it explained how she got Ken's phone to send the text message..)