During the 1980s, millions of American children pored over the Toys 'R' Us catalog, daydreaming about what toys we hoped to receive in a few weeks on Christmas morning. After all, by the mid-twentieth century, Christmas—for countless middle-class households with children— had become more or less synonymous with an enormous number of gifts for children in the form of toys and games. Barbie playsets and a myriad of action figures were routinely advertised during Saturday morning cartoons and in Sunday print ads in the weeks before Christmas. We kids of the 80s were sure to tell our parents what toys we "needed."