20 Must-Have Holiday Gifts Of Years Past

You can really tell a lot about a person by their opinion on Elmo. Old farts like myself believe that his introduction in 1981 (as Elmo, he'd been in the background previously) marked the beginning of the end for Sesame Street. His annoying falsetto quickly came to dominate the show, and the geniuses at CTW cashed in with a slew of toys and tie-ins. 1996's Tickle Me Elmo was one of the biggest holiday fads of all time. The demand for the toy was so intense that people were selling it for over $1500 - this is a toy that retailed at $28.99! Wal-Mart employees were trampled, shoppers were hurt, and it was a horrible Christmas.

Remember in 2006 when the Wii hit? Everybody freaked the F out that Nintendo was dropping a console with a totally new control mechanism. It was the biggest news in gaming in years. Yes, in retrospect ninety percent of the games kind of sucked and the Wiimote needed an extra part to work how they promised, but whatevs. The Wii sold over 600,000 copies in its first eight days, causing massive shortages during the holiday season. Resellers immediately started to gouge the poor suckers who didn't get theirs.