Holiday Barbie 2016 Auburn Hair Kmart Exclusive

Hey everyone!
In today's post I'll be showing you my lovely 2016 Holiday Barbie that I got for Christmas.  She's a stunner for sure and I hope you enjoy the review.

So for a while, I thought there were only 3 different Holiday Barbies that came out for 2016.  I really didn't think I was going to get one as they didn't catch my eye, to be honest.
Towards mid-December, though I noticed a redhead version of the blonde Barbie on Instagram and found out that Kmart came out with an exclusive auburn haired holiday Barbie as well.

It seems to be that this isn't the first time Kmart has made an "auburn" hair exclusive holiday doll so I will have to keep my eyes open for next year as well!

Her packaging is identical to the other versions of this past Holiday Barbie and she was also priced at $39.99.
The other one I got AFTER Christmas was the beautiful Latina Barbie. I was able to get her on sale for $28, but I'm kicking myself because a few days later, I saw her at Walmart marked down to $9!

She's gorgeous too, but I decided to keep her in her box for now. :) 

I was very excited to open this one, though, as she is my first EVER Holiday Barbie!
Hidden in the packaging was also a stand (thigh-gripper and very cheap), and unfortunately, part of it broke during this review so towards the end, you will notice her leaning to the right pretty nicely.
Ha.

Her dress is an ombre deal with the top gauzy layer covered in sparkles and the bottom layer more of a nylon white fabric.

Here's her snap-on controversial white, snowflake bodice that a lot of people were unhappy about.  Since this is my first Holiday Barbie and I'm fairy new to Barbie collecting in general, I didn't mind this piece.

Closer look at the rainbow sparkles, which are so beautiful in certain lighting. 

Her shoes are very plain white pumps and they fall off very easily without those rubber bands. 

The bodice was originally attached with small threads, but I wanted to remove it to see what the dress looked like underneath.  It easily snaps right back onto the dress.

Pretty cute!  The fabric on the bodice is a bit on the thin side, but I like the simple design. 

The dress itself is held up by thin, clear straps.  She also wears a silver cuff bracelet.  This is the only jewelry she comes with. (Boo).

Her arms are articulated in a ball joint fashion with movement up and down, back and forth and a little bit "inward" if that makes sense. They are only articulated at the shoulders as you can see.

She has a beautiful face and that, along with her gorgeous auburn hair, is what sold me on this doll.
She has bold brown brows and auburn/brown eyes.  I think the combination of red hair and brown eyes is so pretty!
She has gold and brown eye shadow and beautiful coral pinkish lips.  Her skin tone is on the paler side and she has very faint bronzer style blush on her cheeks.

The biggest disappoint for me was her super cheapo body.  I know this is a pretty typical body you would find on a designer Barbie, but I was expecting a tiny bit more articulation or quality, in general.
It's not a big deal though, because I eventually plan on doing a MTM body swap anyway.
I'd guess the purple or light blue top would be the best match.

She only has 5 points of articulation (head can roll around) and her legs can only move back and forth in a scissor-kick motion.

All that aside, we are back to her gorgeous hair!  It has at least 2 different colors, which gives it a highlight/lowlight look.  Her original style consists of two front pieces twisted into a half ponytail.
Her hair wasn't the best right out of the box, so I did a simple boil wash to clean it up a bit.

Luckily, her hair is pretty good and there is NO GLUE, thank goodness! 

Very voluminous. 

I might try to give her proper curls eventually. :) 

After I smoothed her hair out a bit and placed her in front of this little winter back drop, I really started to love this doll!

I like her best with her hair down and I think she looks really cute without the hard, molded bodice. 

As far as creating a character for her, I gave her an Irish background (I just found out through an Ancestry DNA genealogy test that I am 70% Irish, wow!) and have named her the ever popular Siobhan (pronounced Chi-vonne) as that is who she looks like to me!

Overall, I had not realized how much I would love this doll in her Holiday Barbie form.  I had intended to buy her and switch out her body right away, but for now, she is happily perched on my shelf in our den so I can look at her beautiful glittery dress while I am on the computer.

She may have a story line or maybe I'll make her a little diorama apartment some day, but I am so happy to have this gorgeous doll in my collection.  I've never seen a face like this with such beautiful red hair.  Does anyone know if this is the Millie mold or a different one?

I know that Christmas has long since passed, but I still really wanted to review this doll.  She was really fun to photograph.  :}

As usual, I also did a video review for my Youtube Channel which you can see here:

Did any of you all get this year's Holiday Barbie?  I know a lot of people were disappointed with the simple approach they took and the not so great packaging so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

I think, for me, this is going to be a Barbie kind of year in general and I am excited to see my collection grow. :)

Thanks, as always, for stopping by and have a wonderful rest of your week.

Farrah
xoxo