I have very fond memories as a child loving and taking the best of care with my Winnie the Pooh books. They were always read sitting at a table to avoid pressure on the spine of the books, and always returned to their safe location whenever they were not being read.

Today however there are so many different Winnie the Pooh merchandise that taking care of them all is very hard to do. I still insist that our children look after their books properly, not just their Winnie the Pooh books, as well as some other belongings they have in their bedroom. One item however that seems to be replaced the most is the Winnie the Pooh rug they have on the bedroom floor.

You may think this an odd piece of merchandise to replace often as carpets in a bedroom on the whole stay in good condition longer. However with children of different ages sharing a bedroom and a combination of unfortunate accidents we have replace that particular rug 6 times in less than 10 years.

Two were replaced due to accidental damage. The 1st accident occurred to the rug depicting Winnie the Pooh on his own, that had playdoh trampled into it enough so it no longer looked like a Winne the Pooh rug but more like an abstract painting. The second rug was the replacement for the playdoh covered rug and that was unfortunately disentangled by the vacuum. It seems there was a loose piece of carpet which I didn’t see while cleaning their room.

So with the two accidentally recovered rugs we move onto the reason for the four remaining replacements. These were simply replaced to reflect the changes in age of our children. When very young it seemed perfectly fine to have a rather large Winnie the Pooh sitting on a rug but as the children grew older Winnie was replaced by other friends. So now not only was it a Winnie the pooh rug but maybe a Winnie and Lumpy or Winnie and Tigger or even Winnie and Piglet rug. For some time we did have two rugs in the bedroom but one of those was a hopscotch Winnie the Pooh rug that was used often enough to eventually annoy us with their fighting over the game and the constant thump, bang, thump as they hopped and skipped across the bedroom floor.

All of these rugs were very easy to buy but as time passed they only got more and more popular and therefore more available. Obviously the best place to research the different types and sizes of Winnie the Pooh rugs available is right here on the internet but just because you see it doesn’t mean you will all ways find the same one in your local high street shops. EBay is a great source for discovering new and unique styles but it certainly isn’t your only source. Amazon have a small selection of modern Winnie the Pooh rugs and similar to eBay it also has a few of the older style, and a little plumper, Winnie if that’s what you would preffer, I know I do.

High School Musical was first released in 2006 as a Disney made for TV movie but it didn’t take long to capture the imagination of every child in the world. High School Musical clothes wasn’t something you would have seen a lot of that first year but after the release of the second movie most high street retailers stocked everyone’s favorite Troy or Gabriella outfit.

With High School Musical 3 the merchandise has stepped things up and now you can find High School Musical clothes for almost everyone in the movie.

These outfits are a great way to dress up for Halloween but they are also popular presents for Christmas and wonderful outfits for girls to wear to parties. Boys to can wear High School Musical clothes to parties but with the casual gym look of shorts and vest or track suit these would be more suited to everyday wear. Not to be left out there are plenty of everyday clothes for the girls as well.

With Christmas getting closer and High School Musical 3 being released at the end October 2008 it won’t be long before the mad shopping occurs for High School Musical clothes. We have a wardrobe full of these and other Disney theme clothes and I’m not really sure where we will be putting them, but I am sure that High School Musical clothes will be on the Christmas list this year again.

So what wonderful High School Musical fashion can we look forward to this year? First on the list for us at least will be High School Musical pyjamas and/or dressing gowns, never really a favourite choice with Skye but always handy to mix practical purchases with up to the minute fashion. Throw in some High School Musical underwear and that’s the practical purchases almost over for Christmas. For Skye however there will no doubt be at least some type of denim skirt on the list, well I hope its denim and not the cheerleaders skirt again. We will most likely see some jeans on the list as well and lots of different t-shirts with different characters on each one. Don’t forget the shoes and handbags as well all with matching logos!

The problem I have with High School Musical clothes is that the clothes they wear in the movies is far more tasteful than the clothes they sell to the kids, but my wife just says I’m over thinking it.

Other than the High School Musical clothes there will be the accessories to work out and the board games and the console games and anything else with a High School Musical logo on it. Luckily we have avoided the Nintendo Wii so far, so we won’t have to buy the dance game being released around the same time as the movie. Well at least we won’t have to buy it as long as we don’t have the Wii but that is a discussion that is dodged at least once a day at the moment.

Like everything that is popular with children around Christmas there will be the High School Musical clothes copies and rip off’s. To avoid copies we stay clear of anything that comes from Asia, that’s not to say they are all copies from this part of the world but the chances of them not being original are higher. We normally buy our kids stuff off EBay or from the local super market as shopping in stores like Toys-R-Us or the Disney store can sometimes work out expensive for items such as the High School Musical clothes.

The secret to avoid being ripped off is to start early doing the price comparisons and have a plan of were you want to look. For us here in Manchester, our house is in between 2 massive superstores; Asda and Tesco, so that’s our first port of call while doing the grocery shopping. Before we get there though we check out what is available on EBay as this is a wonderful window into what is out in the market place. Sometimes you will find a great bargain there as well.
The Plot

So how does it all come about that we parents have fork out for this stuff each year? Well what started as a Disney Channel TV movie in 2006 quickly became very popular the young kids and soon erupted into an international craze. The plot has been described as a modern day Romeo & Juliet with Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) playing the lovelorn couple. The story goes these two are from opposite groups but are pulled together when they audition for the lead parts in the High School Musical. Despite intervention from their friends who try everything to split them up they inevitably fall in love and become inseparable.

High School Musical 2 was released in 2007 and obtained more followers than before as Troy and Gabriella continued their relationship, this time working at a golf country club for the summer. Despite the efforts of Sharpey (Ashley Tisdale) to split the two up again they still manage to stay together. This is pretty much the same theme again for High School Musical 3 but this time the threat to Troy and Gabriela is the graduation and moving into the real world and out of High School.
The End

I hope I have given you some idea what High School Musical is all about and what sort of High School Musical clothes you can expect to be shopping for this Christmas but be warned its not only Christmas this stuff is popular for. Just recently we were invited to a High School Musical themed party were they had plates, cups, balloons, napkins and the like. So we were in a room full of kids wearing High School Musical clothes eating of High School Musical party packs and looking at High School Streams and posters and balloons. Where will this all end? Usually at the shops or on EBay.