American Girls Pastimes

American Girls Pastimes was the name given to the activity sets given to each Historical Character until the release of Kit Kittredge. Billed as "Activities from the Past for Girls of Today," each set consisted of Cookbooks, Craft Books, Paper Dolls and Theater Kits.

Cookbooks
Cookbooks featured recipes from each era along with historical facts about food preparation and consumption in the era. Each cookbook had two "meals" and favorite foods.

These have seen a recent, small revival as Cooking Studios for selected characters.

Craft Books
Craft Books featured different crafts of varying skill from simple to advanced. Several crafts were for toys and playthings of the era, as well as interspersed facts of the items crafted and casual time.

Paper Dolls
Paper Dolls are, simply put, paper dolls of the characters. These initially included just the character and outfits for her, but was later expanded to include friends and/or family with small sets of outfits.

These are currently seeing a revival as Play Scenes and Paper Dolls.

Theater Kits
Theater Kits included four scripts and director's book, with tips, costume ideas, and instructions for putting on a quick 20-minute play of one of the books in the Central Series.

As a Set
In sets, the books came in a cardstock slip case with the four activity sets, and were marketed as "Historical Character's Name Pastimes." Purchasing the books this way was at a slight discount to buying them individually.

Craft Sets were available as well, which included the craft book and several supplies to make three items from each craft book. There was also an offer--through American Girl--that would include the four books and craft sets.