What was your favorite holiday present as a child? Was it the Millennium Falcon starship you coveted after seeing “Star Wars” in the late 1970s? A Buck Rogers “ray gun” from the ’50s? One of those cute Shirley Temple dolls, which the Tribune described in 1934 as having “curly yellow hair tied back from their smiling faces by a wee blue snood”?
Gift giving in the early 1900s tended toward the humble: teddy bears, yo-yos, perhaps a train or Erector set. But by the 1930s, the popularity of child star Shirley Temple started pushing us in the direction of “must-have gifts,” even as the Great Depression put a damper on how many luxuries families could afford. The same decade brought Parker Brothers’ Monopoly and the Red Ryder BB gun, letting kids play at going bankrupt or possibly shoot their eye out.
As wartime hit in the 1940s, gift giving turned practical with handmade objects like soaps, knitted hats and scarves, jams and jellies, as well as military-themed toys. The Slinky was a standout, launched just in time for the 1945 holiday season. Cheap, silly and fun, it became an instant hit.
A Buck Rogers Sonic Ray toy gun with an “uranium” chamber was on sale for $2.50 at Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago in 1948. (Louis Paus/Chicago Tribune)
A mechanical dog toy imported from Germany that shivered was a holiday gift idea in 1949. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
The postwar consumer boom came next and would change everything. Considered the golden age of toys, the 1950s brought us Barbie, Matchbox cars, Legos, the Hula-Hoop, the Magic 8-Ball and Mr. Potato Head, advertised in the Tribune on Oct. 1, 1952, as “the most wonderful little friend a boy or girl ever had. Just stick a real, live potato on his beautiful plastic body, then select a set of eyes, a nose, a pair of lips, mustache, ears, hat and there you are! You will be friends for life.”
“The most fascinating toy in the world,” gushed another 1952 advertisement. “Youngsters, oldsters go completely hilarious playing Mr. Potato Head, the new fun game.”
In 1964, G.I. Joe became the first “action figure,” marketed to boys as “not a doll.” Barbie got a boyfriend — just Ken, according to the recent “Barbie” movie. Children yearned for the new Easy-Bake Oven, which somehow used light bulbs to produce real baked goods.
Kimmy Duke, 4, of Gary, looks at a doll while out shopping on Dec. 20, 1967. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
A boy named Johnny gets a close look at a toy train he received at a Christmas party at Ridge Farm in Lake Forest on Dec. 18, 1953. (Jack Mulcahy/Chicago Tribune)
Your Vintage Tribune correspondent particularly remembers the Cabbage Patch Kids mania of the mid-1980s, which led to parents fighting in store aisles and a black market for the squishy dolls.
“Toy stores are reporting mob scenes when the popular items go on the shelf. At one Chicago-area store, security guards had to be called when a man threatened a woman with a baseball bat so he could buy the last Patch Kid doll in the store,” the Tribune wrote on Nov. 18, 1983. The Tickle Me Elmo doll from “Sesame Street,” which giggled when squeezed, would bring the doll craze into the 1990s.
Meanwhile, a technology boom that continues today was starting to change holiday gift giving, starting with Atari and Nintendo gaming systems climbing to the top of children’s wish lists.
May this look at the toys, gifts and novelty items from our archives light up your eyes with nostalgia this holiday season.
Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Marianne Mather at mmather@chicagotribune.com and Kori Rumore at krumore@chicagotribune.com.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/21/vintage-chicago-tribune-holiday-gifts/
