Sears Wish Book, 1999 and 2000 Editions

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our 200TH POST!

The Sears Wish Book. That most anticipated of direct-mail publications, rivaled only by Fingerhut's  and J.C. Penney's annual volumes of Yuletide delights. Every year, it was like holding the key to Aladdin's Cave of Wonders in my hands, packed as it was to the brim with all the most fabulous presents a kid could open on Christmas day...or dream of opening.

Sears began as Sears, Roebuck, and Co. as a mail-order catalog at the beginning of the 20th Century, and later moved on to brick-and-mortar retail locations. For decades, Sears called the Windy City its home, and the skyscraper which once bore its name served as a broadcasting antenna for all of Chicago's television stations. 

More than that, though, Sears represented stability. Ever since I was very little, Chicago Ridge Mall had Sears as its most prominent anchor store, and Dad used to get our cars checked up and repaired all the time at their auto center. The company made a good name for me by subsidizing children's fare on PBS like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and also by backing the North American leg of Phil Collins' Both Sides of the World tour in 1995. 

This past year, when the Chicago Ridge branch closed for good, the world felt a little less stable. Walking into the Spirit Halloween pop-up this past October felt oddly ghoulish in a way that it normally doesn't: Sears' corpse was still comparatively warm. In truth, we all know that the company's days were numbered following reports of competition within the company, its stores, and its subsidiaries--K-Mart's demise heralded the first tolling of the bells--but it's still saddening. 

All right, let's get to it and rekindle some nostalgia with the 1999 and 2000 volumes. I chose 1999 because it seemed more likely to have some Millennium-themed goodies, and 2000 because it might hold more of the same, but as leftovers. 

Here is the most relevant section from the 1999 edition.

We've already covered a lot of this stuff, so I will point out the most interesting things.

First is a teddy bear with a digital countdown clock, which automatically gives it far more personality than the Countdown clock I previously posted.

Next are a child's backpack, digital organizer, stationery set, and activity book set, with a scrapbook similar to an earlier book I posted. The organizer is interesting for being somewhat passé in the smartphone age.

Third is an Oregon Scientific countdown clock. It does not seem to be Millennium-themed, but has many bells and whistles such as a backlight, snooze, and countdown bar graph.

Fourth are Monopoly Millennium and Millennium Princess Barbie, which made it into Happy Meal form. The Monopoly game will be a video review.

Fifth is Trivial Pursuit Millennium, which I covered in mid-2013.

Finally, and far more interesting, are Minnie Mouse and a Millennium Cabbage Patch Baby. I can feel a separate entry for Cabbage Patch Kids coming on.

This Wish Book is for Christmas 2000-2001. The Millennium itself had already come and gone as a marketing fad, so this one doesn't have a dedicated section. More than that, it doesn't have an awful lot of 2000-specific stuff. What little there is is relegated to "the first coin of the new millennium." For example, one of then is a full-color version of the Sacagawea Dollar Coin...which just happens to be our next article!