The Toys That Made Christmas: A Decade-by-Decade Guide (1950s–1980s)

Christmas morning was different once. There was no online shopping, no same-day delivery, no tracking your package across three states. If your child wanted the must-have toy of the season, you either got to the store early enough to find one on the shelf, or you spent the weeks before Christmas explaining why Santa had made other arrangements. These are the toys that defined those mornings, decade by decade.

The 1950s: The Television Toy Era

Mr. Potato Head (1952)

The first toy ever advertised on television, Mr. Potato Head was originally sold as a set of plastic facial features that children were supposed to stick into a real potato. (The plastic potato body came later, in 1964, after too many rotting potatoes.) At 98 cents, it was one of the most successful toy launches in history. More than a million units sold in the first year.

Davy Crockett Coonskin Cap (1955)

When ABC debuted its Davy Crockett miniseries on December 15, 1954, nobody anticipated what would happen next. By the summer of 1955, every child in America wanted to be the "King of the Wild Frontier." The coonskin cap — or rather, the synthetic fur imitation — became the must-have item of the decade. Manufacturers could not keep up with demand. An estimated ten million caps were sold in 1955 alone.

Hula Hoop (1958)

Wham-O introduced the Hula Hoop in 1958 and sold twenty-five million of them in the first four months. The craze was so intense that several countries banned it — Japan, the Soviet Union, and others deemed the hip-swiveling motion inappropriate. Americans didn't care. It remains one of the fastest-selling toys in history.

The 1960s: The Space Age

Barbie (1959–ongoing)

Technically introduced at the New York Toy Fair in March 1959, Barbie became the dominant Christmas toy of the early 1960s. Ruth Handler of Mattel had noticed her daughter Barbara playing with paper dolls and imagining adult futures for them — Barbie was her solution. More than a billion Barbie dolls have been sold since, making it one of the best-selling toys in history.

G.I. Joe (1964)

Hasbro wanted to create a doll for boys but knew that "doll" was not a word that would sell. They invented the term "action figure" specifically for G.I. Joe's launch in 1964. It worked. G.I. Joe became the first highly successful action figure line in American history, establishing a category that would define boys' toys for the next fifty years.

Hot Wheels (1968)

Mattel engineer Jack Ryan and designer Harry Bradley (who had previously designed the Chevrolet Camaro) created tiny die-cast cars with low-friction axles that could actually roll — unlike the static metal cars that had existed before. Children could feel the difference immediately. Hot Wheels launched in 1968 and outsold Matchbox cars within the year. More than six billion Hot Wheels vehicles have been produced since.

The 1970s: The Action Figure Decade

Atari 2600 (1977)

The Atari 2600 home video game console changed Christmas forever. Before 1977, the idea of playing arcade-style video games at home was science fiction. After 1977, it was reality — and the most-wanted gift of the decade. Atari sold millions of units, and titles like Space Invaders and Pac-Man became cultural phenomena.

Star Wars Action Figures (1977–1985)

The story of the Star Wars action figures is one of the great tales of toy marketing gone both wrong and right. When Star Wars opened in May 1977 and became an immediate sensation, its toy manufacturer Kenner had not anticipated the demand and had no products ready for Christmas 1977. Their solution: they sold an "Early Bird Certificate Package" — essentially a cardboard IOU promising four action figures to be delivered in early 1978. It worked, and when the figures finally shipped, the Star Wars toy line became the most successful in history to that point.

The 1980s: The Must-Have Decade

Cabbage Patch Kids (1983)

Nothing before or since has created the kind of parental frenzy that the Cabbage Patch Kid generated in the Christmas season of 1983. Each doll was "adopted" rather than purchased, came with its own unique name and birth certificate, and was theoretically one-of-a-kind. Stores were overwhelmed. Parents waited in lines for hours. There were documented incidents of adults fighting over the last dolls on store shelves. More than three million Cabbage Patch Kids were sold in 1983.

Nintendo Entertainment System (1985)

After the video game market had collapsed in 1983 — the infamous "video game crash" that nearly destroyed Atari — Nintendo quietly relaunched home gaming with the NES. By Christmas 1985, with Super Mario Bros. as its flagship game, the NES was the most-wanted gift in America. It saved the video game industry and established Nintendo as a global entertainment company.

"Christmas morning was the one day a year when the impossible became possible. You went to bed not knowing, and you woke up to find out." — the experience of a generation

The toys changed every decade, but the feeling was always the same — the electric anticipation of Christmas morning, the specific weight of a box, the sound of tape being pulled from wrapping paper. Those are the memories that last.