Christmas Countdown: Topps’ 1969 Christmas Lineup!

Here at my family’s place in Nebraska last night we had a nice helping of snow heaped upon us.  It put me in quite the Christmas mood, as did scooping my mother’s driveway and sidewalks this morning (I’m taking a break before I finish – whew!).   The snowfall stopped at 8am, but it had already left more than enough of a holiday-appropriate white covering over the town.  Quite nice.

With that positive holiday vibe fully enveloping me, I thought I’d go back to 1969 for today’s post on Topps’ Christmas holiday lineup from that year.

I’m building today’s entry around this lovely little candy industry trade clipping, which described what retailers and distributors could look forward to from Topps that Christmas season, so many years ago:

Topps Christmas candy and gum line – candy trade magazine announcement – September 1969

I provided a close-up of the second image from that clipping for today’s title, so here’s a close-up of the other:

Topps 1969 Christmas Lineup

I’m fortunate to have picked up a small selection of pieces featured in these photos over the years, so now I get to share them with you.

First up is the Bubble Gum Fun Assortment box, designed to look like a house with Santa and his reindeer arriving on top:

Topps – Christmas Bubble Gum Fun Assortment – close-up photo

I have a Topps company file proof of this piece, so it’s not folded up like the one in the photo, but with the proof you can get a great look at the graphics and can imagine how it must have appeared loaded with gumballs and pieces of Bazooka gum.  I really love this one:

Topps – Christmas Bubble Gum Fun Assortment – 70-piece 59-cent bubble gum candy box file proof – 1969

Next up is the holiday edition of one of Topps’ mainstay products at the time, Big Mouth-on-a-Stick.  Big Mouth was a brand of Topps jawbreaker, which they turned into the aptly named lollipop by simply adding a stick to them.  I have an unused box flat for this one in my collection as well:

Topps – Big Mouth On-a-Stick bubble gum – Holiday display box flat – 1969

Following is a piece that I’m particularly enamored with and interested in, as I’m a big fan of Topps classic Gold Rush bubble gum product.  This is a Christmas edition of the standard Gold Rush Gum.  If you look closely at the photo from the trade clipping, it would appear that the Gold Rush bags have a Santa Claus printed graphic or sticker upon them:

Topps Gold Rush Christmas edition photo – 1969

I’ve never come across those Santa-branded Gold Rush bags.  In fact, the only evidence that I have of  their existence is this blurry image, so I would love to find one some day.  For now, I’m happy to have an unused flat of the Christmas-themed Gold Rush  display box they came in:

Topps – Gold Rush Bubble Gum – Box Flat – Christmas Holiday Variation – 1969

The last piece I have to share today doesn’t come from my own collection, but that from my good pal and fellow collector, Dan Goodsell.  It’s a piece I never really associated with Christmas due to its pirate theme but since it was included in Topps’ announcement, it appears that they marketed it for the 1969 Christmas season.

It’s one of the most spectacular Topps Gold Rush pieces I’ve ever come across, and it’s a beauty:

Topps Gold Rush bubble gum – Pirate Chest – holiday package – 1969 – Courtesy Dan Goodsell

With that, I’ve wrapped up my coverage of Topps’ 1969 Christmas lineup!  I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into the past of one of the great bubble gum and confectionery brands, a brand that is still going strong today.

I’ve got some more shoveling to do, so I’m going to suit-up and head out to face the snow.    But drop back by over the next several days as I’ll have daily Christmas-themed posts going up right through Christmas Day.

See you next time!

Epilogue – The Shovel Broke!