Once upon a time, holiday gifts for children were a relatively humble thing: perhaps a handful of chestnuts and a small wooden toy; even — oh, Dickensian joy! — a whole exotic orange.

The days when presents (literally) grew on trees are, of course, long past. The most coveted toys of today tend toward the sparkly, the squeezable and the busily electronic — and the annual race to procure them can leave parents anxiously refreshing out-of-stock pages on Amazon, or brawling in the aisles of a big-box store for the last Nintendo Switch or Magic Mixie.

But for every high-priced gaming console or whiz-bang piece of intellectual property, there are timeless hits like the Hula-Hoop and the Koosh ball. Below, a look back at the items whose novelty and scarcity put them at the top of every wish list — even if just for one brief, shining season.

1950s

America’s postwar consumer boom quickly trickled down to its youngest citizens, thanks in part to the mass-market mediums of radio and television. Hasbro’s Mr. Potato Head — the first toy to be advertised on TV — became a hit in 1952, with its synthetic spud body and detachable parts (the original, less enduring model involved adding those accessories to an actual vegetable); Mrs. Potato Head joined him in 1953.

Alongside stalwarts like Lincoln Logs and Matchbox cars came several notable newcomers: Play-Doh (originally invented in the 1930s as a wallpaper cleaner), the Hula-Hoop (based on an even older toy, but suddenly ubiquitous when the California-based company Wham-O produced it in lightweight plastic) and a “Teenage Fashion Model” doll called Barbie, who made her wasp-waisted debut in 1959.