Worth a Visit
By Ivette M. Yee
Finally, a hospital you’ll never want to leave.
Theodora Aretha and Crystal Lorraine — more than three decades later, I remember their names and the pure joy my sister and I felt when our parents gave us our very own Cabbage Patch Kids!
The Travel Channel named BabyLand General Hospital one of the top 10 toylands.
More than 130 million Cabbage Patch Kids have been “born” since their creation in 1978.
In the 1980s, Cabbage Patch Kids, the adoptable dough-faced dolls (with birth certificates included) incited pandemonium and became a global phenomenon as one of the most wanted toys of all time. You can relive the nostalgia, excitement, and the colorful decade that was the ‘80s at BabyLand General Hospital, a Cabbage Patch Kids museum in Cleveland, Georgia (just south of Helen).
Admission is free and the hospital is filled with memorabilia, nurseries, adoption offices, a toy store, hundreds of dolls, and plenty of warm feelings. It’s a must-visit attraction that can fill two hours or your whole day, a charming stop while road-tripping to an Interval resort or taking a day-trip.
During the holidays, BabyLand General is festooned with seasonal splendor that will have you snapping many Instagrammable pics with diverse Cabbage Patch Kids of many cultures. Year-round, you can watch a live “Cabbage Patch birth” with the new arrivals available for adoption.
These days, Cabbage Patch Kids have become more inclusive of other cultures, a change welcomed during a recent visit to the museum with my young children. What a day filled with smiles and delight, and made greater by the best news of all: I’m a grandmother now! Emma Hannah is officially part of the family.
More information about regional resorts near the museum.
