The holiday season conjures up images of lights glowing red and green on sparkling fresh snow, gingerbread houses, crackling fires, sweets, and of course: toys. But toys that have the propensity to draw up wholesome childhood memories can very easily slip into the creepy realm.
Baby dolls can look uncannily similar to real babies, making it highly disturbing to see their heads separated from their bodies. The innocent tinkle of a music box has scored many a horror film. No need to even start in on puppets.
Here’s where to find the world’s eeriest, saddest, and least merry toys.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
La Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls)
An island filled with hundreds of hanging, decomposing, decapitated dolls.
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
Burke & Hare Murder Dolls
Tiny effigies of the victims of Edinburgh's famous Anatomy Murders.
KEY WEST, FLORIDA
Robert the Doll
The famous doll that has haunted Key West for over a hundred years.
LVIV, UKRAINE
Yard of Lost Toys
This Ukraine alleyway has become its own little island of forgotten things.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Doll's Head Trail
Just a few miles from downtown Atlanta is a trail covered in a crazy collection of outsider art.
TOKYO, JAPAN
Clone Factory
A Japanese company creates itty bitty clone dolls that look uncannily real.
LISBON, PORTUGAL
Hospital de Bonecas
Catering to broken dolls for almost 200 years, this repair shop is now a charnel house of doll parts.
TORONTO, CANADA
Leslieville's Crazy Doll House
This Toronto garden collects stares and tchotchkes in equal measure.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death
Eighteen dollhouse death scenes that helped further forensic science.
SPONSORED BY DOGFISH HEAD BREWERY
BEXLEY, AUSTRALIA
Sydney's Original Doll Hospital
Bins of plastic arms and heads cover the walls of this century old doll hospital.
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
The World Through Wooden Eyes
A collection of historic puppets that must be decidedly creepier after the lights go out.
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
Patty Reed's Doll
One tiny survivor of the Donner Party's cannibalistic disaster.
EL CERRITO, CALIFORNIA
Playland Not At the Beach
9,000 square feet of sideshow oddities and mechanical toys.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
Lost Toys of the Nybohov Funicular
No one knows who's responsible for decorating this tunnel with stuffed animals, but the people love it enough to protest their removal.
SUPPLY, NORTH CAROLINA
Mary's Gone Wild Folk Art and Doll Baby Museum
A strange, divinely-inspired house filled with over 6,000 baby dolls.
LONDON, ENGLAND
The House of Dreams Museum
An artist's palace dedicated to its creators' favorite things: wigs, baby doll parts, and false teeth.
PARIS, FRANCE
Musée de la Poupée
Dolls of all shapes and sizes display different eras of femininity in this spooky museum.
ROME, ITALY
Ospedale delle Bambole (Doll Hospital)
A hospital where antique dolls are given new life features cabinets full of dusty porcelain doll bits.
PARIS, FRANCE
Tombées du Camion
This shop, whose name means "Truck Falls," sells things that nobody else in Paris wanted.
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