It’s no mystery that electronic devices are robbing today’s children of some of the most enlightening and illuminating toy experiences we can remember. Instead of watching a TikTok about an influencer baking cookies, we would use our Easy Bake Oven and bake some cookies ourselves. Or where kids today seemed to be glued to their phones and iPads, kids of yesteryear were using their hands to solve puzzles like the Rubik’s Cube, or to shape sculptures with Play-Doh, or by moving their bodies with a Sit ‘n Spin! This nostalgic list revisits 23 of our favorite toys from the 1960s and 70s, which we believe kids today would love just as much. What was your favorite toy growing up?
#1: Easy-Bake Oven (1963)
This decades-old toy has become a kind of American tradition. Pioneering the use of the light bulb as an apparatus for safely cooking food, the Easy-Bake Oven allows little kids to cook just like their grown-up role models do, without the danger of using an actual oven. And for a toy that’s been manufactured since 1963, it seems that cooking has never stopped being relevant to some of our youngest budding chefs and home cooks!
