It's Christmas day 1960 and little Cindy is sitting on her living room hard wood floor below beautifully decorated cedar christmas tree as Sinatra croons The Christmas Song from the all wood Zenith radio in the corner. The little girl looks wide eyed at her mum and dad as she hugs a big red shiny box with a green bow.

Fast forward to Christmas day 2007, little Amber sits on her bed with her parents as N sync's I'll Be Home for Christmas booms from her iPod speakers. She too hoping and praying that the huge purple box in front of her contains the most famous doll in the world. But hopefully not just the doll, her big mansion with 4 rooms, a real oven, Ken her live-in boyfriend (comes with his limited edition friend Tommy), Courtney and Nikki her two fashion diva friends and of course her trusty dog Tanner.

But when a few a things have stayed the same, a lot more has changed, largely due to TV. During the 50s and 60s many households were blissfully happy with their radio. Children during this time had to go outside to entertain themselves. Most of the toys during that time required children to be active physically and to have an active imagination. Think of the Hula Hoop craze that took off in 1958, how many hours in the summer did kids spend in Hula Hoop competitions, Hula Hoop parties, and even Hula Hoop-a-thons? Hackey sack, Frisbee, Slinky, Superball, Pogo stick and simple Jump Rope, these were all toys that allowed children and teenagers to enjoy hours of fun outdoors. The 50s, 60s and 70s also saw the rise of many board games; these were great because it allowed children to interact with their peers and spend quality time with their family. The hugely popular Candyland, Clue, Monopoly, Parcheesi, Scrabble, Sorry!, Labyrinth, Risk, Tiddlywinks and even the hair raising Ouija Board were a way to bring families and friends together.

With no television during this time, not only did it mean no distractions, but it also meant no endless TV commercials. If little Johnny in 1960 wanted the new Mattel Tommy Burst Submachine Gun it was because he saw it in the display case of his local toy store, or because his buddy Pete across the street got it for his birthday last month.

That's not the case today; it is estimated that kids are exposed to 1500 commercial messages a day. With TV and the advent of the Internet today's 12 year-old is more technologically advanced than his 40 year-old dad! Any top 10 toy list today will have many robots, iPods, and video games that require a lot less physical activity and not as much imagination from a child as the simple toys from yesteryear.

But all hope is not lost, many of the games that were made famous in the 50s and 60s have remained as classics now for the tech-savvy dot-com children to enjoy. Toys like Lego, Mr. Potato-head, Barbie, Monopoly still make many top 10 toys lists every year, giving us hope that perhaps the magic, wonder and imagination of playtime of the past can still be enjoyed by the kids of today

For more fun trips down memory lane visit Boomeryearbook.