5 Sears Wish Book Gifts From Christmases Past That Should Stay There

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL — In an age of online shopping and dwindling brick-and-mortar stores, the Sears Wish Book is a curio that pushes the nostalgia buttons for a certain generation. Those 30- and 40-somethings remember waiting for the holiday catalog so they could circle that coveted Intellivision video game system or checkered Swatch watch as ways to deliver not-so-subtle gift-giving hints to Mom and Dad.

After a hiatus, Sears has decided to bring back the Wish Book for 2017, the Hoffman Estates-based company announced this week. The retailer's once-signature catalog was last available in 2011, and this year's version will come in an interactive, digital format, as well as a 120-page, limited print edition for the national retailer's Shop Your Way members. Customers can check out the 2017 Wish Book at the Sears website through the company's app.

The Sears Wish Book launched in 1933 and arguably became the crown jewel for the retail chain's catalog empire, featuring a variety of clothes, jewelery, home products and, of course, toys. So many, many toys. The size of the Wish Books would run between 500 and 700 pages throughout the 1980s, but the catalog — along with all of Sears' "big book" catalogs — lost its cultural appeal as the retailer itself continues to struggle financially.

Fortunately, you can stroll down memory lane and revisit vintage Wish Books, thanks to a variety of websites and social media accounts that feature photos and scanned pages of the catalogs in all their consumer glory. Unfortunately, these images also remind us that perhaps we should have rethought some of our gift wishes.

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Patch found five items from the Sears Wish Books of yesteryear that are better left to Christmases — and holidays — past. But before you laugh at these dated images, take a look at what you're wearing and the things around you and realize that people 30 years from now will be laughing at all of it.

1. Colorful-Print Men's Shirts (1976)

Back in the day, people wore shirts like these because they were fashionable, not because they fit an ironic, detached, hipster aesthetic.

2. Watches, Watches, Watches (1984)

In the age Apple Watches and Fitbits, it would be easy to point out the quaintness of all the wristwatches with calculators and video games. But that was peak of technology at one time. This Clara Peller "Where's the Beef" watch based on the ubiquitous 1980s Wendy's commercial is another matter, however. It might be the peak of something; we're just not sure what or if we even want to know.

3. Message Nightgowns (ca. 1980s)

It's debatable what's worse: the messages on these nightgowns or the fact they were made of terry cloth. (It's not debatable. The messages are worse.)

4. Hugo … The Man of a Thousand Faces (1976)

Hugo has a thousand faces … and they're all creepy. It's like they pulled examples from a police sketch artist's notebook or re-created the last known photo of people who went missing under mysterious circumstances.

5. Hair-and-Makeup Head (1983)

Because putting a girl's disembodied head on a tray so children can decorate it to conform to societal beauty norms isn't disturbing at all.

The 2017 Sears Wish Book can be found online or through the retailer's app.

2017 Sears Wish Book (Image via Sears Holdings)