The Disney Store at 30

This year, while I celebrated turning 29, The Disney Store celebrated their 30th. The first store opened on March 28th 1987 in Glendale, California but it would be a few years before the first one appeared in the UK which opened in London the November of 1990. Ever since then they’ve been a fantastic treat to find in many cities across the UK, There are currently 42 stores across the UK and you can guarentee whenever LM and I are near one we’ll be popping in. The Cast Members and displays make it a magical place to be and we always get our Disney fix.

As you can guess, Disney means so much to Little Miss and I. It’s the crux of all our best memories during her life and it’s brought some of the most amazing people to us. But Disney is also huge for my family. Growing up my dad would use all his spare money to have a huge shopping spree in The Disney Store for Christmas, just so we’d wake up to some magical presents on Christmas morning. Being a parent myself and knowing how much you can easily spend in the store made me realise what my dad did to make us happy. We weren’t rolling in money but we were so lucky he worked extra hours just so he could pull off his special shopping trip to The Disney Store. I’ll never forget that and I’m so grateful for The Disney Store being in the UK even in the 90s so we could have this special memories without going to the parks.

Anyway, Little Miss and I happened to be in London during their birthday weekend, and she even got the chance to open the Harrods Disney Store (Which is sadly closing in a few weeks). While she was there we managed to talk our way into a special 30th anniversary badge and she took part in an activity to make her own Mickey ears hat. It was great fun and I loved we got our chance to celebrate in store.

We were also invited by the Disney Store to take part in their 30th anniversary celebrations by creating a famous Disney scene. We were sent a beautiful Miss Bunny plush* (RRP £19.99) to do this and Little Miss was truly excited to dress up (when isn’t she though!)

Obviously with Miss Bunny we decided to recreat the scene where Thumper and Miss Bunny become twitterpated. I remember watching this as a child, completely innocent much like Little Miss is today and laughing like crazy when straight talking Thumper goes all gooey over Miss Bunny. LM is much the same although she finds it sweet that they become friends (she’s heading to be more of a hopeless romantic than me!) And although Thumper is the boy she was happpy to play along giving Miss Bunny lots of hugs and kisses. The twitterpated scene really is the epitome of Spring.

Want to be part of the celebrations? Recreate your favourite Disney scenes and share them on Instagram and Twitter using #DisneyStore30!