Some Christmas lists were politely varied. Others came down to one item, underlined twice, with the brand name written carefully enough to prevent any misunderstanding.
A toy could take over a season. Children talked about it at school, commercials supplied the sales pitch, and adults discovered that wanting to buy something did not guarantee they could find it.
In 1977, 1983 and 1996, a few toys and games made an especially strong impression on American Christmas lists. Some children wanted a new doll. Others wanted control of the living-room television. And in one memorable case, the present was a promise that the real toys would arrive later.
1977: Star Wars, and the present that wasn’t ready yet
After seeing Star Wars, a child could have very clear plans for what to do with a Luke Skywalker figure. The trouble was getting one.
Kenner’s action figures were not ready for Christmas 1977. Its answer was the Early Bird Certificate Package: a package containing a display stand, stickers and a certificate to mail away for four figures when they became available in 1978. The promised characters were Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and R2-D2.
The Star Wars Collectors Archive documents the original package. If you remember unwrapping the figures themselves, that Christmas came later. For the children holding a certificate in 1977, there was more waiting ahead.
Imagine unwrapping something you desperately wanted and discovering that Christmas morning was only the beginning of the wait. Parents had bought a place in line for a whole new toy world.
1977: A video game system for the living room
Atari’s Video Computer System arrived in 1977. The name Atari 2600 became familiar later, so a period Christmas list might simply have asked for an Atari or a VCS.
The appeal was easy to demonstrate: connect the console to the television, put in a cartridge and play. The system launched with Combat included, according to The Strong National Museum of Play. You did not need a room full of arcade cabinets to bring a game home.
There was a household negotiation built into the gift, of course. A television used for games was a television somebody else could no longer use for a program. Taking turns involved the whole family, whether everyone wanted to play or not.
1983: A Cabbage Patch Kid with its own name
For Christmas 1983, a soft-bodied doll could require a remarkable amount of adult effort.
Coleco introduced Cabbage Patch Kids in 1983, building on dolls that had an earlier history. Each came with a name and adoption paperwork, which gave the purchase a different feeling from simply choosing another doll from the shelf. The Strong’s history of the 1983 phenomenon explains how the craze took off.
It also explains why “just get one” was not useful advice. Demand outran supply, and the rush for the dolls produced widely reported confrontations in stores.
For the child opening the box, though, the story might be much quieter. There was a name to learn, a face to examine and a new occupant for the bedroom. Whatever the adults had gone through to find it could remain a family secret for years.
1983: The gift did not have to make the news
A famous shortage can dominate the way a Christmas is remembered. It cannot tell us what was under every tree.
Plenty of children were happiest with a bicycle, a board game, building bricks or a toy they had spotted months earlier. A hand-me-down could become the most-used present in the house. Families chose around budgets, availability and the particular child they were buying for.
That is worth remembering when an old advertisement produces an immediate “I wanted that!” Wanting and receiving were different parts of childhood. Sometimes the toy you never got stayed in your memory longer than several you did.
1996: Tickle Me Elmo made the adults do the running
A laughing red Sesame Street character became the Christmas shopping story of 1996.
Tickle Me Elmo responded to a squeeze with laughter and shaking. Children could understand the joke immediately, and adults soon found that understanding the attraction was much easier than locating a doll.
The Victoria and Albert Museum’s toy history describes the shortage and the shopping frenzy in the run-up to Christmas 1996. Elmo joined Cabbage Patch Kids in that awkward category of presents whose names could make a parent remember a particular queue.
From a child’s point of view, the wish was fairly straightforward: the funny toy seen on television should also be funny in the living room. Making that happen became the grown-ups’ problem.
1996: The Nintendo 64 was a different kind of wish
For children interested in video games, there was another large item to hope for. Nintendo dates the Nintendo 64’s North American launch to September 29, 1996, leaving it on the market in time for that Christmas.
Super Mario 64 was a launch title. Its three-dimensional spaces made familiar Mario actions feel new, and the console’s unusual three-pronged controller was recognizable before a game even started. Nintendo’s company history records the launch.
This was a North American Christmas story; release schedules differed elsewhere. It is also easy to mix later Nintendo 64 games into a memory of the first holiday season. GoldenEye 007, for example, was still to come.
The box under the tree might have been the big surprise. After that came the equally important question of who got the controller first.
Which toy was on your list?
Were you waiting for Star Wars figures, hoping for an Atari, searching for your Cabbage Patch Kid’s name, or asking for a Nintendo 64? Perhaps your best Christmas present was something much less famous.
Tell us the toy, the year if you remember it, and whether you actually got it. If you were the parent doing the searching, we would love to hear that side of the story too.
More interesting articles you may be interested in reading:
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15 Forgotten Candies From the 1960s, 70s and 80s
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