Whether it's cute and fuzzy or plastic and remote-controlled, certain toys have taken the spotlight under the tree over the years.
In recent decades, retailers have struggled to restock empty shelves of Beanie Babies, Cabbage Patch Dolls and Tickle Me Elmo Dolls, only to have them replaced by another hot toy the next Christmas.
John Johnson, a senior psychology major at The University of Memphis, never wanted a Tickle Me Elmo doll himself, but he did have relatives that wouldn't take "No" for an answer.
"I had cousins that played with them and demanded them for Christmas," he said.
Cheryl Johnson, the store manager at Toys "R" Us in Cordova, has been working in the retail toy industry for 19 years. During that time, she's seen a lot of toy crazes come and go. Johnson said she remembers the Tickle Me Elmo fever of 1996 very well.
"Of course, the supply didn't meet the demand. Retailers couldn't keep them in their stores," she said. "As fast as we got them in, they were out."
Johnson said the most determined shoppers were waiting at the store before she got there.
"Guests were waiting in the parking lot for us to open the doors," she said.
Melissa Morgan, an administrative secretary at The U of M, said she had to bypass retailers altogether to find a Tickle Me Elmo for her daughter.
"The Tickle Me Elmo was hard to find," she said. "I just looked until I found it. I ended up buying one on eBay."
A few years later, Morgan found herself hunting down another hot toy for her daughter â€" the gremlin-like electronic talking toy Furby.
"It was the thing to have at the time," Morgan said. "It was the 'All my friends have it and I want it' toy.'
Johnson said Furby has made a comeback, but they're not as popular as they once were.
"Thirteen years later, we have Furbys again, which are not as hot."
Heather Hall, a junior architecture major, remembers wanting something a little more fashionable when she was younger.
Hall said that slap bracelets, the flexible metal bracelets that were covered in nylon, were the thing to have.
"It was a new thing, and I liked the different colors," Hall said. "They were so cool because you could fling 'em and they'd wrap around."
Johnson said that another monumental toy trend she witnessed in her career was the Cabbage Patch mania in the '80s.
"The Cabbage Patch craze was just crazy," she said. "Moms wanted the ones with the specific birthdays that were the same as their child's."
Cassandra Ballard, a graduate student in higher and adult education, said she was already an adult by the time Cabbage Patch Dolls were popular, but she remembers another in-demand doll from her childhood.
"The only thing I really remember is really wanting a Barbie doll," Ballard said. "Barbie was hot, and we all wanted Barbie dolls."
With Barbie's sales figures dropping 25 percent in 2003, some have speculated as to what hot new doll will draw in young girls' attention. Barbie's competition, Bratz dolls, have been gaining a lot of attention for their trendy clothing and competitive sales.
"The little girls are hot into Bratz this year," Johnson said.
Barbie may have a chance to reclaim that hot toy status, as Elmo has done with the help of a few makeovers.
"We have a Tumble-Time Elmo," Johnson said. "That's pretty big."
