Broken Arrow Woman Has Every Holiday Barbie On Display For Christmas

Barbie was reintroduced to the world with the movie this summer, but a Broken Arrow woman has celebrated the doll every Christmas, for decades.

Christmas decor fills every corner in Don and Ralpha Phillips' living room, from reindeer and bears, to evergreens and lights. But around the corner, something else is on display that's not all red and green.

"It just seems to bring the holidays alive. And I've always loved Christmas," Ralpha said.

Barbie dolls fill Ralpha's staircase. Each step climbed, is a step back in time.

"This one is the very first doll. 1988," she said.

She has every holiday Barbie, all 36 of them, proudly standing on her staircase. Ralpha's collection started the year her granddaughter, Lindsay, turned four. The hope was the dolls would be worth a lot more as Lindsay grew up, and they could be sold to help send her to college.

"Usually when I first started buying them, I would buy two, for that reason," Ralpha said.

But, Ralpha said, the Barbies did not end up being worth the price of tuition, so instead the dolls became a decorating tradition.

A family picture shows Ralpha's daughter Donna Williams, and Donna's daughter, Lindsay Smith, on the staircase together with all the dolls. From the glitter to the hairstyles, the three generations can appreciate Barbie across three decades.

"They have gone from the huge, wide, big dresses, to the slim dresses now," Ralpha said.

“Even though the fashion has changed, some of them, even that are older, actually reflect a lot more modern, a lot of things, you know, you’ll see in bridal wear," Williams said.

And with the 2023 holiday Barbie in place, Ralpha's collection is complete, until next year.

"Usually around Thanksgiving I'll get them, and I leave them out and sometimes I don't take them down until sometimes, the middle of January because I like to see them," Ralpha said.