A famous Massachusetts resident just listed her home on Airbnb.
Polly Pocket, the little doll with colorful clothes and the coolest houses that millennials could take with them anywhere as kids in the 1990s, apparently hails from Littleton, Mass. About an hour northwest of Boston, that’s where fans will find Polly’s iconic house this fall, bookable for daytime visits and overnight glamping as Airbnb’s newest Icons experience.
The platform category Icons, which launched in May, includes places and experiences that loom large in pop culture, such as the Inside Out control center, and an overnight at Musée d’Orsay in Paris. “We want to create spaces that guests and fans of these figments of pop culture have maybe only seen on a screen, or imagined, or, in case of Polly, played with in a compact, and bring them to life in a way people haven’t been able to experience before,” says Airbnb communications lead Ali Killam.
At Polly’s house, visitors won’t meet the famous host; she’s away celebrating her 35th birthday, her friends onsite tell me and other gathered media during press previews earlier this week. Polly Pocket was first created in the early 1980s by a father for his daughter, then licensed by a British toy company in 1989. Airbnb’s collaboration with Mattel, which acquired the brand in 1998, celebrates 35 years of the pocket-sized toy.
Polly’s friends show visitors around the larger-than-life version of her Slumber Party Fun set in Littleton. Hidden away in a field past bucolic hills and serene ponds, the open-air compact is a like-for-like copy of the 1994 toy, down to the wallpaper design, images on the TV screen and scale of the decorative items. Rising more than 40 feet tall, it has two and a half levels to explore.
Once guests remove their shoes and ascend the stairs into Polly’s living room, her friends turn on the TV to share a video message that Polly left, in which she explains that Littleton is her hometown. “Polly is Mattel’s adventure doll, so we wanted to make sure wherever [her house is] had a lot to explore,” explains Killam. “We felt once we found Littleton, Massachusetts, this is just perfect. There’s a lot for people to explore and the surrounding town is obviously very charming and quaint, too, for people to check out.”
After listening to Polly’s song, you’ll have a chance to rummage through her closet and even try on some of the memorable outfits from the doll’s post-Mattel takeover fashion era. Made from the same colorful, rubbery material as the tiny replicas, the Airbnb offers jackets, shawls, skirts and more to try on in sizes small, medium and large.
(Eighties babies such as myself may not realize that Polly Pocket became a fashion doll in the late-1990s. She was a miniscule figurine with a circular base that snapped into place inside the makeup compact-sized doll houses I had—which totally included the original 1994 Slumber Party Fun set, by the way. Memories of it returned to me instantly as I gazed upon the larger-than-lifesize blue refrigerator in Littleton. After Mattel purchased the brand, they introduced a nearly four-inch version of Polly with changeable clothing.)
After picking out the perfect outfit, you’ll head around to the side of the house to a staircase that leads up to Polly’s vanity on a mezzanine level. Openable drawers in front of the mirror are filled with accessories like stick-on earrings, butterfly clips, headbands, scrunchies, press-on nails and more that visitors can play with, try on and take home with them. The top floor is kitchen-inspired, with a giant blue refrigerator stocked with (real, edible) ’90s snacks.
Outside the Slumber Party Fun house, Polly’s friends have set up her Action Park Tent (circa 1998) in the yard with sleeping bags. This fall, in addition to 21 daytime experiences to check out the property and do activities, Airbnb is also offering three, one-night stays for up to four people.
The property in Littleton also features glamping-style mobile restrooms, a purple "she shed" for Polly's storage and lilac Adirondack chairs overlooking scenic views. A blue-striped pop-up tent with pink picnic tables is where a “charm expert” leads visitors in making keepsake charm jewelry; and it also shades a counter stocked with fruit, soft drinks, snacks and fresh pastries made exclusively for the experience by Salt & Light Cafe Bakery in nearby Groton. Each experience will also include a pizza party with pies sourced locally from Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza.
“That sense of nostalgia is something people are craving now more than ever, and all these themes of the ’90s are reflected in today’s culture and aesthetic and fashion,” Killam says, while a speaker plays a Backstreet Boys song at a moderate volume underneath the activities tent. “Obviously, those who grew up in the ’90s playing with Polly Pocket will have so much that they’ll recognize here. Millennial moms who want to share this with their children can bring them here to experience it,” she continues. “But really, no matter what era and decade you’re from, this slumber party experience is really just one-of-a-kind.”
As a child-free millennial, I think the experience is probably better suited for kids’ birthday parties than a bachelorette trip, but it’s certainly fun and definitely a bit surreal to step inside Polly’s adorable world.
Beginning August 21 at 6am through August 28, you can request to book one of three, one-night stays happening September 12–14, for up to four guests at $89 per person. Twenty-one daytime experiences for up to 12 guests are happening between September 16–October 6 with booking also beginning August 21. Transportation to and from Littleton is not included in the experience, but there is parking onsite and the location is accessible via a 45-minute bus ride from the Lowell Commuter Rail Station.
For now, that’s all the access to her house that Polly’s offering—but, you know, compacts are meant to travel.