Stocking Stuffer Ideas for Parents: Nine Small Things With a Long History
Nine small, plain-named gifts that fit a stocking or close to it, each with a documented history, plus the small-parts rules that matter most when the gifts are small.
November 3, 2026 · ZABI LLC
The stocking is the part of Christmas morning that belongs to whoever was up late. It is also the part of the shopping list most likely to be filled in a panic at a checkout, with small plastic things that last until New Year. A better stocking has a few items with some history behind them: light to carry, easy to find by a plain name, and not already in a drawer. Here are nine, each from the National Toy Hall of Fame.
The nine
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 2000
Slinky
The engineer Richard James was working on springs to steady delicate ship equipment in 1943 when one fell off a shelf and seemed to walk. His wife Betty named the result. The Strong says sales were sluggish until a Philadelphia department store allowed demonstrations for Christmas 1945, after which the first 400 sold within minutes. It is a spring, it comes in a box, and it fits a stocking.
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 2001
Silly Putty
During the Second World War, General Electric chemists looking for a rubber substitute produced a bouncy, stretchy compound with no wartime use. Peter Hodgson turned it into a novelty and sold it in plastic eggs before Easter, and a 1950 article in The New Yorker brought a surge of orders, the Strong says. Astronauts took it aboard Apollo 8 to stick down tools in zero gravity. Keep it off carpet and fabric.
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 2018
Magic 8 Ball
Abe Bookman of the Alabe Crafts Company in Cincinnati introduced it in 1946, selling it first as a desktop paperweight. Inside the black ball a 20-sided plastic shape floats in liquid, each face carrying an answer to a yes-or-no question. The Strong says it appeals to children and adults alike. It suits the household member who asks the family for a decision and never gets one.
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 1998
Crayola crayons
Binney & Smith turned a grease pencil into non-toxic colored wax sticks, and Crayola crayons entered the market in 1903, according to the Strong. The AAP names crayons among its art supplies, alongside coloring books, markers, clay and stickers. A box slides into a stocking with a pad of paper, and works for a four-year-old and a nine-year-old alike, though they will make different things.
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 2010
Playing cards
The Strong notes that cards support a huge range of games, from Go Fish and Old Maid to bridge and poker, and that people play them in clubs, on trains and planes, and in military camps. A single deck is the one item here that you can teach a game with on Christmas afternoon, when the batteries in everything else have been argued over.
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 2014
Rubik's Cube
Ernő Rubik built his first cube puzzle in 1974, and it reached stores in 1980; the Strong reports that about 100 million were sold within two years. A cube fits a stocking and then fills a long car journey. The Strong mentions best-selling books on how to solve it, so a grown-up who saves a solving guide for the day after is doing the child a favor, or perhaps themselves.
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 2020
Sidewalk chalk
Historians have every reason to believe that the earliest people played with chalk, the Strong says, and street painting began in sixteenth-century Europe with traveling artists decorating town squares. The museum lists hopscotch, tic-tac-toe and Hangman among its games, plus free drawing, on any driveway or patio. It is an odd choice for a northern December, and a good one to find at the bottom of a stocking when the first dry day of spring arrives.
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 2000
Jump rope
According to the Strong, jump rope began as a boy's activity in the seventeenth century among Dutch settlers, who brought it to America. As leisure time grew over the nineteenth century, girls took it up in increasing numbers, even though most advice books cautioned against too much exertion, and they accompanied their games with rhythmic songs. A rope coils into a stocking more easily than most gifts, and it asks for nothing but some pavement.
National Toy Hall of Fame, inducted 1998
Glass marbles
The Strong writes that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans played with marbles of stone or polished nuts, and that Shakespeare mentioned them in Twelfth Night. In the mid-nineteenth century a German glassblower invented special scissors for cutting molten glass, and glass marbles became affordable for the first time. This is the one pick with a firm age limit: marbles are small, and the Commission advises checking for a choking hazard warning. Keep them from anyone under three.
If the stocking is only part of it
For the main present, we have written age by age, starting with toddlers aged 1 to 3 and continuing with gifts for ages 7 to 9. The stories behind some of these names are told in classic toys that outlived every craze.
Sources
Where the facts in this post come from. Rankings and lists belong to the people who published them; the selection and the stories are ours.
- Happy Holidays Start with Safety, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (2025) — small parts and balls under 3; balloons under 8; choking hazard warning statements online
- How to Buy Safe Toys, HealthyChildren.org (American Academy of Pediatrics) — caution about button or lithium coin batteries and high-powered magnets
- Toy Buying Tips for Babies and Young Children, HealthyChildren.org (AAP) — crayons among art supplies, with coloring books, markers, clay and stickers
- Slinky, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — Richard James 1943, Betty named it, Christmas 1945 demonstration, inducted 2000
- Silly Putty, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — GE chemists, Hodgson, plastic eggs, 1950 New Yorker article, Apollo 8 astronauts, inducted 2001
- Magic 8 Ball, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — Abe Bookman 1946, paperweight, 20-sided shape, inducted 2018
- Crayola Crayons, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — non-toxic wax sticks, entered the market in 1903, inducted 1998
- Playing Cards, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — range of games, places played, inducted 2010
- Rubik's Cube, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — 1974, 1980, about 100 million within two years, inducted 2014
- Sidewalk Chalk, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — prehistoric play, sixteenth-century street painting, games, inducted 2020
- Jump Rope, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — Dutch settlers, 1800s, rhymes, inducted 2000
- Marbles, National Toy Hall of Fame, The Strong National Museum of Play — ancient play, Shakespeare, glassblower scissors, inducted 1998