Furbies, kids’ electronic tablets, and Yvolution scooters top almost every list of 2012’s hottest Christmas toys. Those lists led to these three thoughts about hot toys of past years.
- Hot toys for my kids were anything in the Lego castle line and American Girl dolls. Those toys are now in storage.
- The hot toy when I was in third grade was Chatty Cathy. I pulled the string on mine so much, it only lasted two days.
- Mom remembers one Christmas during the Great Depression when her only present was a stick of gum. Presumably the gum provided a day of chewing pleasure…or more if it spent the night on the bedpost.
Kinda puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? What were the hot gifts when you were a kid? How long could you make a stick of gum last? Leave a comment!
I never got a Chatty Cathy, though I wanted one. 🙁 But I did get Barbie and Ken dolls and an Etch-a-Sketch — not all at once, probably over three Christmases. My 11-year-old son still loves Legos, and a friend recently bought her daughter an American Girl doll, so those aren’t out yet. Oh, and I could make a stick of gum last a looong time when I was a kid. I would stick it on my plate at meal time, and yes, on the bedpost at night. I also remember getting it stuck in my hair when I got the notion from somewhere that you could save gum behind your ear. I only did that once. Now I make gum last longer by only chewing half a stick at a time. And then I throw it away. Eww.
Ah yes, the gum-in-the-hair thing. One of those enduring lessons of childhood. Do you still have Ken and Barbie?
Jolene