Christmas’ latest and greatest

It seems we’ve gotten to the point that when the fourth week of November rolls around, our thoughts quickly shift from the gluttony of Thanksgiving to the shopping free-for-all that is Black Friday.

And when that retail mayhem begins — these days it doesn’t wait for Thanksgiving to end before getting a jump start Thursday night — I frequently think about the cautionary tale recreated on both the big and little screens. They were both set in the final hours before Christmas rather than the Friday after Thanksgiving, but they both involved a do-whatever-it-takes battle for the year’s most popular toys.

For 1995, it was the episode “Frasier Grinch,” in which Frasier Crane’s mail-ordered educational Christmas gifts — including the Living Brain — for son Frederick are misdirected, forcing Frasier into the mall on Christmas Eve in a futile search for a replacement. Although Frasier is insistent on buying an educational gift for his son, 6-year-old Frederick is like every other boy, and wants an Outlaw Laser Robo Geek.

By Christmas 1996, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad were battling for a Turbo Man action figure in “Jingle All the Way.” Of course every store is sold out, yet the two fathers battle tooth and nail to secure for their son the elusive toy.

I can’t say I’ve experienced what transpired for Frasier, Arnold and Sinbad, but I have braved Black Friday crowds before. Although there’s a certain degree of excitement and anticipation, the shopping melee isn’t worth it, at least for me.

But it’s one of America’s holiday traditions, which got me to thinking about Christmas shopping in years gone by. Some may not realize it, but Black Friday didn’t always exist. I like to believe that the classic holiday movies accurately depicted how Christmas shopping was spread across the en- tire month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. While department stores were always a beehive of shopping excitement during those four-plus weeks, it was more of a controlled chaos, but it was part of the holiday spirit.

Throughout the years, there have always been popular toys and gifts. Some, I recently discovered, were popular way before I realized. Such gifts as the pogo stick, a chemistry set, an electric train set, the yo-yo, Winnie-the-Pooh and Raggedy Andy were all from the 1920s, and were predated by the Erector Set and Andy’s older sister, Raggedy Ann.

By the 1930s, must-have items were the Radio Flyer wagon, pedal cars, the sock monkey, little green Army men and Parker Brothers’ Monopoly game. They were all represented on the pages of the greatest printed collection of toys, the Sears Christmas book, which I remember from the 1960s when the holiday shopping staple had grown to some 600 pages.

It was the late 1930s and into the 1940s that comic books were all the rage, after Superman was introduced in Action Comics #1, and was followed by Captain America. Reading was popular during the war years, with the Little Golden Books a popular find. Do you remember Milton Bradley’s Chutes and Ladders, the Dick Tracy Detective Kit, the Slinky, Silly Putty, electric football and Tupperware bowls? They all came from the 1940s.

By the time the Nifty Fifties rolled around, top Christmas gifts included the Magic 8 Ball, View-Master, Mr. Potato Head, Matchbox cars, the Wiffle ball and bat, Gumby and Pokey, Frisbee and the hula hoop. The introduction of Barbie closed out the decade.

For the 1960s, kids were being treated to the Etch-A-Sketch, Chatty Cathy, Legos, the Easy Bake Oven, the GI Joe action figure, Tonka trucks, troll dolls, Barrel of Monkeys and Hot Wheels die cast cars.

In the 1970s, the soft foam ball NERF burst onto the holiday scene, along with Weebles (which wobbled but didn’t fall down), the Polaroid camera, the lifelike Baby Alive doll, Paddington Bear, Hungry Hungry Hippos, squishy and oozy green Slime and, of all things, the Pet Rock.

Atari kicked off the video-game craze for the 1980s, a decade that also included the Rubik’s Cube, Smurfs, BMX bikes, Transformers, Teddy Ruxpin, Pound Puppies, Koosh Ball and the electronic gaming systems of Nintendo and Gameboy. But it was the 1983 craze that surely touched off the raucous shopping craze that has become the holiday staple. That was the year Cabbage Patch Kids hit store shelves before being immediately snatched up.

For the 1990s, top must-haves were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Barney, Power Rangers, Beanie Babies, Tickle Me Elmo, Furbies, Pokemon trading cards and Kevin McCallister’s nifty gadget for “Home Alone 2”: the Talkboy cassette recorder.

After 2000, Elmo made a return with Let’s Rock Elmo (in 2011) and Big Hugs Elmo (in 2013), and although Elsa and “Frozen” had their time in the spotlight, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made a resurgence in 2014. Other crazes for the new millennium included the foldable Razor Scooter, Bratz dolls, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPod touch, Nintendo Wii, Nook, iPad and, for something completely different, Baby Shark Song Puppet.

Every year seemed to have the next best thing in gifts, but I’m still partial to the wondrous collection of dreams found on the pages of the Sears Wish Book.

Happy holidays and happy shopping.