I’ve always found it interesting how our sensory system links smells, or odors, with particular places in time, key events or even people.  Like the smell of a lilac scented drawer sachet not only makes me think of my Grandmother, but more specifically of playing in her bedroom, which obviously included plundering through her bureau drawers.  And my favorite birthday celebratory smell is still that of fresh cut grass, being that I was born in S.C. in mid-June.  Yes, to me the smell of fresh cut grass is synonymous with the smell of summer, also conjuring up images of green stained feet as a result of running barefoot through that freshly cut grass.  While these examples of my olfactory memories seem pretty normal, it’s my favorite Christmas smell that is a rather peculiar one.  Like many, I love the scent of just baked holiday cookies and that of  a freshly cut N.C. Fraser Fur tree – but it’s the smell of vinyl that really takes me back to a nostalgic place in time.  I don’t mean just any old vinyl, but a very specific vinyl smell that is embedded in my good little girl, Santa Wish List, childhood memory bank.  That’s right, the strangely pungent smell of a brand new vinyl baby doll will always evoke in me the excitement of Christmas morning that only a child can experience.  My childhood nose knows that Barbie Dolls have a similar odor, but still somehow, not quite the same as that of a cuddly vinyl baby doll.  My all time favorite was Baby Crawl Along – Christmas 1967!  She wore pink pajamas, had rooted (not plastic) blonde hair and blue eyes, just like me.  Her legs were curled in a permanent crawling position and, when you put her on her hands and knees and flipped the little switch on her back, she crawled.  And as I hugged her close, she had the most perfect Christmas smell that I looked forward to year after year!  I’ve often wondered if the vinyl dolls of today smell like those from the 60s & 70′s, that I recall so fondly.   Or, if perhaps governmental regulations have changed some of the odor causing chemicals that were used back then.  Certainly, the vinyl that Fibrenew Upstate uses doesn’t smell like a brand new doll.  I’m just glad I have this childhood olfactory Christmas memory and in a quirky sort of way, wish that all little girls cold still have the same! 

Happy Holiday Smells to You & Yours!

from Fibrenew Upstate, the Experts in Leather, Vinyl and Plastic Restoration

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