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11 tiny toys that were always stuffed in our stockings back in the day
We still remember the smell of caps.
Top image: Wish Book Web
Thanks to today's micro technology, you can stuff some big-ticket items into stockings. Heck, there could be a Go Pro, an iPhone and a Fitbit in that big sock over the fireplace.
When we were kids, the toys inside stockings were more of the five-and-dime variety, little tchotchkes made of plastic, tin and wood. Perhaps your parents bought you one of those pre-stuffed stockings, the big suckers made of red mesh, bulging with cheap playthings. Take the one up top, for example, from a 1975 Sears catalog.
Did you get any of these things in your Christmas stocking? Of course, there was always candy, too.
1. Balsa wood airplanes
If you could make these unpredictable gliders merely get across the living room, you deserved a career path in aerospace engineering.
Image: airplanebasic / Pinterest
2. Jacks
How good were you at the old game of knucklebones?
Image: Thinkstock
3. Cap Bombs
We can still smell the sulfur in those rolls of paper caps.
Image: bathman-cooper / eBay
4. Marbles
Do you remember the difference between an agate and a cat's eye?
Image: Thinkstock
5. Parachute Jumper Army Men
So much better than the regular old army men.
Image: VINTAGE5AN10CENTSHOP / Etsy
7. Plastic Boats
Those pre-stuffed mesh stockings from the store always seemed to have a little plastic boat inside.
Image: Ruby Lane
8. Floating ball game
It was just like Pokémon Go, except instead of walking around outside while staring at a smartphone, you blew into a pipe and floated a ping pong ball.
Image: Retro Planet
9. Balloon Car Racers
Pretty much anything powered by your breath was a cool toy.
Image: officeplayground
10. Weird plastic musical instruments
Recorders, kazoos, slide whistles… or how about this novelty, the nose flute?
Image: Retro Planet
11. Finger puppets and push puppets
Puppets in general have fallen out of favor. Heck, they used to sell kids ventriloquist dummies back in the 1960s and '70s.
Image: Retro Planet
SEE ALSO: 12 MOST DESIRED CHRISTMAS TOYS OF THE 1970S
Under the tree we found Nerf balls, Weebles, Stretch Armstrong and more. READ MORE
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