If you’re a child of the 90s, this will be a trip down memory lane. Why not share it with your kids on Christmas morning? (Or your nieces and nephews, friends’ kids, etc…) No one should be deprived of the joys of Gak. Or Yak Bak.
Stock their stuffings with some great 1990s toys. You can spend some quality time with your littles, showing them how to properly feed your Tomagotchi pet or throw down that slammer so the pogs flip perfectly every time.
These nostalgic 1990s toys are absolutely perfect stocking stuffers. Share the joy of the nineties with your kids, and regale them with stories of your collection of troll dolls. Or your undefeated season on your Tiger handheld basketball game. Or your record performance on Bop-It.
Yes, 90s toys are the best. Share the love with the little ones in your life.
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NOSTALGIC 90S TOYS THAT ARE PERFECT STOCKING STUFFERS
Pogs
Pogs are coming back. I can feel it. The slammers, the cool designs, the big ol’ tubes that totally did **not** signify anything other than how cool you were. My lucky slammer was an 8-ball, simple and classy. As a boy, to me the 90s were Nerf guns, baseball, and pogs.
And marbles. For some reason we got into a retro marbles kick. Going old school was a thing in the 90s too, ya know. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Koosh Balls
Squishy, tactile, sensory-ready little balls of goodness. I’m not even sure what I did with them, but I loved them anyways.
Bop-It Micro
For the full effect, go with the full-size Bop-It game. But if you want it to be a true stocking stuffer (in other words, to actually fit inside), you’ll need to go with the Micro Series Bop-It, which is just as good.
Slap Bracelets
I had a camo one. Oh but it was cool. I also had a shiny neon one that was all reflective. That was also cool. I was cool.
Tomagotchi Pets
We got these for our kids last year. They still cry every time their little pet dies. Or when the batteries die. I love that they are learning great life lessons about disappointment, and – even better – they’re learning these lessons the same way we did back in the 1990s.
Nerf Guns
Ok, I’m just gonna say it: today’s Nerf guns are way better. These little blasters work a million times better than the junk we had. So get these little guys (which work way better than the big ones), stuff them into each kid’s stocking, and laugh as the madness ensues.
Gameboy
Retro gaming is all the rage now. Go back to the first handheld gaming masterpiece to blow their little minds and stuff their little stockings. The iconic 90s toy.
Talkboy
Uh, Home Alone, anyone? If you saw this movie as a kid, you either 1) had a Talkboy or 2) wanted one real real bad. If the 90s had a soundbite, it would be played back on a Talkboy.
Furby
To my mind, this is the 90s toy. I don’t think kids these days will truly understand how weird Furbys are. But you can give them one for Christmas and try to make them understand.
Did you know there were new-style Furbys? If you still want the original old-school weirdos, they still exist!
Cupcake Surprise
It’s a cupcake! It’s a doll! It’s a cupcake again! Hours of fun.
Gak
Slime is all the rage with kids these days. Go back to the original. Still the best, in my wife’s opinion. (Like most adults, I try not to touch the stuff)
Floam
Gak, but dotty and foamy. Floamy. This isn’t the “original” branded Floam, but it’s the same thing. I couldn’t find the Floam brand anywhere, even as an unopened collectible on Ebay. So this will just have to do! (Which is probably a good thing, ‘cuz the original stuff wasn’t that great anyways…)
Connect 4 Mini
I’m not sure why I spent so many hours playing Connect 4, but I did. Something about the upright orientation and the way they all fall out the bottom when you’re done, I guess. It’s a simple game, but still fun. The “mini” version will fit in a stocking, for the full-size version go here.
Etch a Sketch Mini
I was always terrible at drawing with an Etch A Sketch. You see those brilliant drawings on YouTube (I know I saw them as a 90s kid, but since we didn’t have the internet I have no idea where) and think “I could learn to do that.”
No, you can’t.
Teach the kids in your life a little bit about 90s disappointment with the Etch A Sketch Mini to fit in their stockings, or the full-size version for under the Christmas tree.
Yak Bak
Of course any kid’s stupid smartphone will have 25 apps to do this very thing. But that’s what makes it so cool, it’s truly vintage tech. One of the great 90s toys.
Slinky
Can you believe the Slinky has been around since 1945? This is a genuine old-school toy. We played with it as a 90s toy, our parents had it in the 70s, their parents had it in the 50s. Legendary.
Related: Christmas Stocking Stuffer Gifts for Boys
Simon
Simon says, press the buttons in the order they light up. That’s it, that’s the whole game. It’s actually a great memory challenge and plenty of fun to boot. We got this for our kids and they love it.
Beanie Babies
The bizarre collectible craze aside, these cute and cuddly bean bag animals were just plain fun. The 1990s version of Beanie Boos.
Handheld electronic games
Ok, this is sort of a catchall, and your mileage may vary. I had a couple of the handheld sports games – baseball and basketball were my favorite, and I think we had soccer too but it was a little boring compared to the other two.
Maybe you had Lights Out, or Wheel of Fortune, or some other almost-forgotten masterpiece. Whatever if was that YOU had, loved, and probably lost, find it on Ebay and stuff some stockings.
Hackey Sack
I used to hack with the best of them. Ok, maybe not the best, maybe I could hack with the most average of them. But it was hours of active, off-the-couch fun from a little sack filled with sand. Not a bad stocking stuffer.
Mad Libs
“Noun.”
“Poop.”
“Verb.”
“Poop. (tee hee hee)”
“Adjective.”
“What’s that again?”
“A word that modifies or describes a noun.”
“Poopy……?”
(Smiles and nods) “Aw yisssss.”
Troll Dolls
Troll dolls! Not sure why, but my parents thought these were evil. Troll dolls and Smurfs, what can I say. Get the vintage trolls from Ebay, not the new overly-cutesy ones from the moderately entertaining but ultimately kinda lame movie.
Related: Christmas Stocking Stuffers for Girls
Rubiks Cube
The Rubiks Cube is a brilliant 90s toy that never went out of style. Actually it was a 70s and then an 80s toy first, and has pretty much only gained in popularity. This is just a great toy, probably because it was never meant to be a toy at all.
Cap Guns
Here’s your go-to non-PC choice.
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop **click**click** “Dangit!! Out again!”
Be sure to get plenty of cap refills.
Uno
We recently started playing this with our kids again, and they love it. Especially when we play “Brazilian Uno” with new rules as taught to use by our Brazilian friends.
(I’m not convinced that Brazilian Uno is a real thing, pretty sure our friend’s family just made it up. But who cares, the kids are having fun with it.)
Everything is the same in Brazilian Uno but with three new rules:
- If a 0 (zero) is played, the person who played it gets to swap hands with the person of their choice – OR – choose to have everyone rotate hands to the left or right.
- When a 7 is played, everyone must be absolutely silent until another 7 is played.
- With a 9, as soon as it is played everyone must slap the card pile. Last person to slap draws a card.
- At ANY TIME, if you have a card that exactly matches the one on the pile, you can play it. This skips everyone’s turn and play continues as if your turn has just been completed.
Polly Pocket
I never had Polly Pockets growing up (I was into GI Joe and Legos, pretty much) but this is exactly the sort of thing my wife and I get our daughter, and she loves it. No wonder all this stuff is making a comeback… it’s a nostalgic gift from the perspective of the 90s-kid-who-is-now-a-parent, and it’s a fun toy from the perspective of a kid-who-is-still-a-kid.
Pick Up Sticks
Sure, this is more of a little-kid toy, but we all played with it. The best part was fighting debating about what constituted “movement.”
THESE THINGS
Not even sure what they are called… Velcro ball toss? Velcro catch game? Who knows. We all had them, though. The flat paddle “gloves” that never worked right and the colorful neon tennis ball… ah memories.
ViewMaster
The pinnacle of analog low-fi early 90s tech.
Yo-Yos
I think there’s a rule somewhere that every kid has to have one of these at some point in their lives. Make sure the kid in your life doesn’t miss out on the priceless experience of learning but never quite mastering the yo yo.
Tech Decks
What’s cooler than finger skateboards with rad designs? Aside from Jonathan Taylor Thomas, nothing.
Silly Putty
With all the slime rage these days Silly Putty has made a bit of a resurgence. Maybe it was never out of style. In any case, it makes a great stocking stuffer for the kids in your life.
Stretch Armstrong
A weird stretchy white dude in his undies. What’s not to love?
Marbles
Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not sure if this was a craze for everyone but for about 6 months to a year marbles were in. In bigtime. Cat’s eyes, beach balls, swirlies, shooters… collecting was fun, and playing was even more fun. Rekindle your inner 90s self, get some stocking stuffers for the kids in your life, and get down on the floor with them and shoot some marbles.
Barrel of Monkeys
Everyone has heard of the classic Barrel of Monkeys. But unless you had one back when you were a kid, you may not realize it’s actually a pretty challenging (and fun) game of dexterity and calm nerves.
Z-Botz
These little robot actions figures from Micro Machines (another great 90s toy line) were all the rage for that one year they showed up in Burger King kids meals.
