Eleven years have passed since Tickle Me Elmo debuted and turned normally calm toy stores into jungles. Crazed parents pounced, hit and pulled at hair, similar to the behaviors they so admonish in their children. Let’s take a look at former best sellers, what’s predicted to be hot this year and some toys we can all only dream of. It’s sure to get you thinking: How good were your kids this year?
2007 This year’s hot Elmo toy is Singing Pizza Elmo, which includes a singing pizza pie and Elmo dressed as an adorable pizza chef.
40 million Number of Furby toys, those funny-looking fur balls that made a splash on the holiday scene in 1998, sold in just three years following their debut.
$15,000 Cost at FAO Schwarz to buy your little ones a junior Hummer replica so they can cruise the neighborhood in style.
300 Number of adults who stampeded into a Wal-Mart in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in December 1996 to buy a Tickle Me Elmo. At the end of the rush, a clerk had injuries to his back, knees, ribs and more.
4 Number out of the 68 toys Toys‘R’ Us predicted as 2007 holiday best sellers that have some sort of exercise capabilities for kids.
$5.99 Cost of a sturdy wooden Elmo puzzle at Toys‘R’ Us. Great if you want your kids to have Elmo this December, but without all the frills
1935 Year Monopoly was introduced to America. This year, the classic game goes modern with debit cards and electronic banking that allows money to change hands instantly. Maybe this is the year that a game of Monopoly can be finished in one night!
And last but not least…
It wouldn’t be a true discussion of holiday toy trends without mentioning Cabbage Patch Kids. The huggable, adoptable dolls were swept from the shelves in 1983 by eager parents, with a few brawls for dolls reported. Just the beginning of the holiday toy craze that continues to take American families by storm.
