Toy Hall of Fame adds 4 new play items in 2026

Four playthings have been selected in 2026 to enter the National Toy Hall of Fame.

The new inductees are: the game of Bingo, Care Bears plush characters. the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the outdoor slide.

 

Winners were announced on Nov. 6 at The Strong National Museum of Play, in Rochester, N.Y., home of the Toy Hall of Fame.

The other eight finalists this year were: Bop It!, Mahjong, Monster High dolls, Mouse Trap, Polly Pocket, Sorry!, Tickle Me Elmo and Yahtzee.

Personally, I had predicted that Bingo and the Care Bears crowd would be accepted into the hall of fame. Each is worthy and meets the criteria for induction, based on:

Icon-status (the toy is widely recognized, respected and remembered).

Longevity (the toy is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over multiple generations).

Discovery (the toy fosters learning, creativity or discovery through play).

Innovation (the toy profoundly changed play or toy design).

Bingo, a game of chance, originated in Naples, Italy, around 1530. It was modified by both the Germans and the French before making its way to the United States.

In 1929, the game was introduced in America as “Beano,” using dried beans as markers on cardboard playing cards, by Hugh J. Ward, of Pittsburgh, Pa. He copyrighted the game and published a rule book in 1933.

 

The game was further popularized and commercialized by Edwin S. Lowe of Brooklyn, N.Y., a toymaker and game entrepreneur. He overheard someone with a winning card accidentally blurt out “bingo” instead of “beano.” So, Lowe went with the name “Bingo” for his version of the same game.

 

Lowe hired Carl Leffler, a Columbia University mathematics professor in New York City, to come up with non-repeating number groups so that fewer people would get Bingo at the same time. By 1930, Prof. Leffler had invented 6,000 different bingo cards.

 

This was also the answer to the prayers of an unnamed Catholic priest in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., who had seized upon the game thinking it to be the solution to his problem of financing the parish school. He bought several sets of the game and invited his parishioners to play the game with great gusto and frequency.

 The E. S. Lowe Company had great success with its bingo game sets, while also manufacturing chess and checkers games and assorted plastic toys. The Milton Bradley Company acquired the E. S. Lowe Company in 1973 for $26 million. Milton Bradley became a subsidiary of Hasbro in 1984.

Soft and sweet, cute and cuddly, Care Bears have been teaching youngsters compassion, kindness and consideration for others for 45 years.

The Care Bears were created in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik of Cleveland, Ohio, for American Greetings. 

The plush stuffed animals were subsequently manufactured and released by the toy company Kenner in 1983. The Care Bears’ unique “tummy symbols” have special powers.

 

The popularity of the colorful bears – each designed around a simple human emotion or virtue – has endured over the decades, with adults and kids alike, said Michelle Parnett-Dwyer, chief curator at The Strong museum.

“Nearly a million Care Bears followers on social media, and scores of apps for mobile devices, attest to Care Bears’ enduring nimbleness in making new friends even in the electronic world,” she said.

 

Authentic Brands Group of New York City acquired the intellectual property of Care Bears, one of the world’s most enduring family entertainment franchises, in August 2026.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has sold more than 85 billion cards since it debuted in 1996. The game’s mechanics are straightforward and can be grasped within a single game. Two players, each using a deck of 60 cards featuring Pokémon creatures, trainers and items engage in battle until one emerges victorious. The game is simple for beginners to learn but complex enough to stay engaging for experienced players.

 

“The Pokémon Trading Card Game’s widespread appeal and global presence are undeniable,” said museum curator Mirek Stolee. “The appeal is amplified with the infusion of the lovable Pokémon creatures.”

Slides have been around for ages, and they’ve always been a staple of childhood, according to Jeremy Saucier, vice president for collections at The Strong museum.

“With the right materials and imaginations, slides are a vehicle for free play. Today, slides are customizable, modular and more flexible,” he said. “People of all ages remember fondly the simple, satisfying and energizing experience of racing down a slide.”

“By the 1900s, slides became fixtures at funhouses and amusement parks. Also, the playground movement of the early 1900s further introduced slides into public spaces dedicated to children playing together,” Saucier said.

 

I was rooting for Tickle Me Elmo and Yahtzee to be voted into the Toy Hall of Fame. Each has been nominated previously.

Tickle Me Elmo made his debut 30 years ago as a furry, plush doll based on the bright red Muppet character Elmo from the “Sesame Street” children’s television show and Jim Henson Productions. Elmo shakes, giggles and vibrates when squeezed.

 

Tickle Me Elmo was introduced in 1996 by Tyco Toys of Woodbury Heights, N.J. The toy franchise rights are now owned by Mattel, Inc., of Segundo, Calif., as part of its Fisher-Price division. (Mattel acquired Tyco Toys in 1997.)

“Tickle Me Elmo allowed the toy to emulate the experience of being tickled,” reported Chris Bensch, who recently retired from of the Toy Hall of Fame. “When Elmo was tickled, he laughed, then he laughed some more and shook with glee.”

In 1956, the aforementioned Edwin S. Lowe acquired the rights to a dice game was invented by an anonymous Canadian couple, who called it “The Yacht Game,” because they played it on their yacht with their friends. Lowe changed the name to “Yahtzee.”

 

When playing Yahtzee, each player gets three tries to roll five dice to try to match a predetermined poker-like combination of the number values to score points. Simplicity, speed and luck make this fast-paced game a perennial favorite among adults and children.

With the four new additions, there are now 94 individual toys, games or playthings that have been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame since it was established in 1998. Charter members are indicated in boldface type:

Alphabet blocks, American Girl Doll, Atari 2600 Game System, baby doll, Baby Nancy, ball, Barbie, Battleship, baseball cards, bicycle, Big Wheel, Bingo, blanket, bubbles, Cabbage Patch Kids, Candy Land, cardboard box, Care Bears, checkers, chess, Clue, coloring book, Crayola Crayons, dollhouse, dominoes, Duncan Yo-Yo, Dungeons & Dragons and Easy-Bake Oven.

 

Erector Set, Etch A Sketch, Fisher-Price Corn Popper, Fisher-Price Little People, Frisbee, G.I. Joe, The Game of Life, Hot Wheels, Hula Hoop, jack-in-the-box, jacks, Jenga, jigsaw puzzle, jump rope, kite, LEGO, Lincoln Logs, Lionel Trains, Lite-Brite, little green army men, Magic 8 Ball, Magic: The Gathering, marbles and Masters of the Universe,

 

Matchbox Cars, Monopoly, Mr. Potato Head, My Little Pony, Nerf, Nintendo Game Boy, paper airplane, Phase 10, pinball, Play-Doh, playing cards, Pokémon Trading Card Game, puppet, Radio Flyer Wagon, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Risk, rocking horse, roller skates, rubber duck, Rubik’s Cube, sand, Scrabble, sidewalk chalk, Silly Putty, skateboard, slide, slime and Slinky.

 

Star Wars action figures, stick, Super Soaker, swing, teddy bear, Tinkertoy, Tonka Trucks, top, Transformers, Trivial Pursuit, Twister, Uno, View-Master and Wiffle Ball.

Dori Mae’s special Christmas wish comes true!

Children’s book author Doris Alaimo-Melillo takes readers back to the 1950s when she was a young girl growing up in Milwaukee, Wis.

During the Christmas season, Dori Mae (as she called herself) would hurry home from school and remove her snow boots, then take off her leggings, coat, stocking cap and mittens – hanging them up to dry.

 

Now, she was ready to stretch out with her teddy bear, lying on the living room carpet in front of the “big brown radio on four legs”…anticipating the clock striking 5 p.m.

 

That’s when her favorite radio program, “Billie the Brownie,” came on Milwaukee’s WTMJ (620 AM). 

Billie was an elf-like creature who was created to help sell Christmas toys for Schuster’s Department Stores in Milwaukee. He had a special relationship with Santa Claus; they told holiday stories on the radio, a practice that had begun in 1931.

 

A popular segment of each show was the reading of children’s letters to Santa. Dori Mae asked Santa for a television set, like the one her neighbor Mrs. Winters had at her house.

 

(On most afternoons [except during the Christmas season], Dori would stop by after school to visit Mrs. Winters, who baked cookies for them to enjoy while they watched the “Howdy Doody” TV show.)

Dori Mae wished with all her might that Billie would pick her letter to read, increasing the odds that Santa would grant her wish, but the Christmas countdown advanced daily with no mention of Dori Mae’s letter.

At last…“The big night arrived. It was Christmas Eve. Billie was giving his final report for the year.” Billie’s dog, Willie Wagtail was there in the radio studio, too, barking his encouragement.

This was Dori’s last chance to hear her letter read aloud over the radio. And sure enough, it happened. “Today’s letter is from Dori Mae,” Billie announced.

She “screamed and jumped for joy”…but Dori Mae “was sad, too,” because this was the last time she would hear from Billie, Santa and the other characters until next year.

On Christmas morning, next to the family Christmas tree in the living room there stood a new Admiral TV set with a 12-inch, black-and-white picture tube.

“Dori Mae smiled. This was truly her happiest Christmas ever. After a while, though, Dori Mae realized something was different. She looked around the room. Something was missing. What was it? It was the radio. The new television set was sitting in its place….”

“Gone was the big brown four-legged box, and gone was her friend Billie.”

The radio show on Christmas Eve 1955 was Billie’s last appearance on WTMJ. He did not transition to TV in the years that followed.

“Many years have passed…to this day, Dori Mae remembers those wonderful evenings in front of the radio when her imagination took flight listening to Billie the Brownie. Yes, Billie is gone (along with the other characters from the show) but not gone from her memories….”

Doris recalls that the “Peeping Brownies” were important characters in the “Billie the Brownie” radio scripts. 

They were “secret spies” who hid in the homes of children, observing kids’ behavior and reporting their findings directly to Santa Claus at the North Pole. 

“Dori Mae is a grandmother now. Every year her family gets bigger, and every year the newest grandchildren and their friends hear all about Billie the Brownie” from Grandma D.

 

Author Doris Alaimo-Melillo graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee and taught high school English and drama in Milwaukee for several years. 

Eventually, she went on to work as a costume supervisor for television and feature films in Los Angeles. She and her husband, Jules Melillo, reside in Oxnard, Calif.

She wrote “Dori Mae and Her Friend Billie” in 2006 to commemorate the 75-year anniversary of the first Billie the Brownie radio show…a gift to all “who let Billie into their lives.”

 

A limited supply of Dori Mae story books remain available for purchase. If interested, contact Doris Alaimo-Melillo directly for pricing information and delivery. 

Her email is dorisalaimomelillo@gmail.com. 

A good Christmas story can linger long in our hearts

One of the most popular Christmas stories written for the “Billie the Brownie” radio program produced by WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wis., during the early 1940s was: “Why the Christmas Tree Is Always Green.” 

Here’s an abridged version of the tale:

It happened hundreds of years ago when Christmas trees were very young. The first Christmas tree was very unhappy. 

It wasn’t fond of its sharp green needles, saying: “I hate my needles. Oh, how I wish I had beautiful leaves of gold.”

Suddenly, the Wood Fairy appeared and said, “You shall have your wish.”

So, in the morning, there was the little Christmas tree covered with leaves of pure gold. The tree was very happy. It said to itself: “I’ll pick these leaves and sell them, and I’ll be rich.”

Soon, the little tree was bare and very ugly and cold and started to cry. The Wood Fairy appeared again, and the Christmas tree said: “Please give me leaves of glass so I can glisten and sparkle in the sunshine.”

In the morning, the tree’s glass leaves glistened beautifully in the sunlight, and the birds and animals came from miles around to see the wonderful sight…and the Christmas tree was very happy.

Then came a strong wind, and the glass leaves were blown off and broken into bits. The Christmas tree was naked and ugly. It cried and cried and soon the Wood Fairy appeared and said, “Well, little tree, what now?”

The Christmas tree answered: “I was foolish and wrong, please give me another chance. I would love pretty green leaves like those on the olive tree.”

In the morning, the Christmas tree was covered in pretty green leaves, but along came a billy goat looking for breakfast. He saw the little tree and he ate, and ate, and ate…until the tree was bare and ugly.

The Wood Fairy observed from afar but chose not to intervene…waiting for the little Christmas tree to initiate the conversation.

Finally, the Christmas tree said: “Woody Fairy, I have learned my lesson. I want my beautiful green needles back.”

“Would you love them and keep them?” the Wood Fairy asked.

“Please, I’d love them so much I won’t even let them go when winter comes,” the Christmas tree replied. “I shall keep them all year long.”

 

The Wood Fairy decided, “Yes, little tree, you’ve learned your lesson. Needles are best for little Christmas trees.”

In the morning, the Christmas tree was full of lovely green needles, and the birds and animals came to see the tree and tell it how beautiful it was. To them, the green needles felt soft and not sharp.

 

And one old saucy robin remarked: “‘bout time that Christmas tree got some sense.”

So, when you look at your Christmas tree, think of this story.

 

Sari Goodman Ross was the voice actor who played the role of Billie the Brownie on the radio from 1943-45, when WTMJ personality Larry Teich (Captain Larry) first read the “Why the Christmas Tree Is Always Green” story to WTMJ listeners.

 

Ross said her stint as WTMJ is what led her to become a professional storyteller. One of her favorite yarns to share with young audiences the world over was “Why the Christmas Tree Is Always Green.” Ross died in 2015 at age 86.

Special thanks to author Doris Alaimo-Melillo, for sharing the “Why the Christmas Tree Is Always Green” transcript.

 

Doris remembers hearing the story over the radio as a young girl growing up in Milwaukee, which is one of the reasons why she wrote the book, “Dori Mae and Her Friend Billie.”

‘Billie the Brownie’ was featured in 2006 PBS documentary

Sari Goodman Ross was a high school student in Milwaukee, Wis., when she auditioned in 1943 at WTMJ radio, reading lines for the part of the “Billie the Brownie,” a beloved Christmas character who had been created by the art department of the Shuster’s Department Store chain in Milwaukee.

Sari had gained experience performing as a child actor in community theater, so she was hired on the spot by WTMJ’s Larry Teich. He instructed her to use her “high-pitched little boy voice” to portray the elf-like Billie.”

During the Christmas holiday shopping season, the 15-minute radio show was broadcast Monday-Friday at 5 p.m. and on Sunday morning. 

Children faithfully tuned in to listen, hopeful that their letters to Santa would be selected to be read on air…seemingly increasing the likelihood that their special gift requests would be honored by Santa on Christmas Eve.

Sari held the role as Billie for three years. She reminisced about that experience with television host Jim Peck of PBS Milwaukee in 2006 for a documentary observing the 75-year anniversary of Billie’s radio show, which debuted on Nov. 8, 1931.

 

Also appearing on the studio set with Peck was Doris Alaimo-Melillo, author of the 2006 children’s book, “Dori Mae and Her Friend Billie,” which masterfully tells the Billie the Brownie story from a young radio listener’s perspective.

 

Peck and his guests laughed about some of the rituals associated with the Billie the Brownie program. 

For example, Doris said: “Children were urged to be obedient and kind to their parents, not bicker with their siblings, eat their vegetables, brush their teeth, make their bed, hang up their clothes and do their household chores. We knew the invisible ‘Peeping Brownies’ were out and about checking up on us”…and filing their reports directly with Santa at the North Pole.

So, when the children were instructed by Billie to face the radio and assert loudly “I’ve been good,” it was a morality check, Sari interjected. “If too many kids were fibbing, Santa’s magic storybook would not open that evening,” she said.

 

As a young girl, Doris was called Dori Mae, and she was a loyal Billie fan. “Oh dear, was it me?” she asked herself. “Did I do something wrong? Did I forget to brush my teeth or hang up my clothes?”

Doris’ fond childhood memories of growing up in Milwaukee provided the inspiration to write the 32-page book to commemorate Billie’s 75-year anniversary in 2006 and “preserve an important part of Milwaukee’s heritage.”

Peck told his audience that he totally “loves the Dori Mae book; it’s a terrific story…and is beautifully illustrated” by artist Christiane Cassan Wiese.

Local Milwaukee historian Paul H. Geenen reflected on the “timing” of Billie’s premiere on WTMJ in 1931: “The Great Depression was a worrisome time of penny-pinching and determination.”

 

“Families made do with essentials, with little left over for holiday excess. This was the time of radio’s debut in America, the internet of its day, a perfect home for Billie.”

By the mid-1930s, this mass medium had found its way into 60-70% of American homes. People could turn the dial and find immediate local and national connection. For the first time, Milwaukeeans needed distractions, reasons to forget their troubles; and the marvel of a squeaky-voiced, invisible brownie named Billie came into their homes through WTMJ radio.”

“When the Great Depression gave way to World War II, the show brought cheer to the next batch of children,” Geenen wrote. “But gradually, television sets with jaunty antennae replaced the stately radio in American living rooms. Billie did not make the transition.”

 Yet, as Doris attests: “Billie remains a magical being at Christmastime.”

‘Billie the Brownie’ is back for the 2026 Christmas holidays

It’s never too early to get in the Christmas spirit. Here goes:

A Wagnabbit post from December 2025 traveled all the way to Oxnard, Calif.

I was delighted to hear from a reader living there who said she enjoyed a Christmas season column about “Billie the Brownie.” 

Her name was Doris, and she graciously provided a treasure chest of additional information about the fictional character…who was created about 100 years ago.

We’ll get there…but first, here is a modified version of the original column that ran on Dec. 20, 2025…to reset the stage.

 

Folks need to know this story, because Billie the Brownie is already memorialized in the “National Bobblehead Hall of Fame,” located in Milwaukee, Wis., alongside iconic holiday season figures like The Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Ebenezer Scrooge.

 

Billie the Brownie was created as a holiday season mascot to help sell toys at Schuster’s Department Store in Milwaukee in the early 1920s. He was “inspired” by the literary characters from the stories of Canadian author and poet Palmer Cox.

 

Cox’s “brownies” were wee creatures who originated during the Victorian era within the British Isles. Cox’s grandmother told him Scottish folk tales about the “mischievous but invisible little people” with special talents. Cox wrote his first brownie story – “The Brownies’ Ride” – in 1883 for St. Nicholas Magazine, a monthly children’s publication.

 

Ed Schuster, a German immigrant, also arrived in Milwaukee in 1883 and began to build the Schuster’s chain of department stores.

Schuster’s advertising/marketing department created Billie the Brownie to build even more awareness for the Schuster’s brand. The character evolved from a sprite to a pixie to an elf-like being. 

By 1927, Billie the Brownie was featured in Schuster’s annual Christmas Parade in downtown Milwaukee.

Beginning in 1931, Billie joined Santa on a 15-minute radio program that aired weekdays on WTMJ at 5 p.m. and on Sunday mornings. 

This print ad contains a typo. The Sunday show came on at 10:30 a.m.

They talked about the upcoming holiday, told Christmas tales, discussed yuletide traditions and read letters from children to Santa.

Dave Begel, a former newspaper reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, remembered growing up in the 1950s. He said: “There was no Christmas tradition that could match Billie the Brownie.”

 

Begel said that Billie and Santa always chatted a bit about whether the boys and girls listening had been good. Santa would comment about how work was progressing inside the toy workshop at the North Pole.

“Then came the biggest thing,” Begel said, “Billie reading letters to Santa sent by children from all over the area.” There were thousands and thousands of letters to pick from.

Begel and his younger brother Danny sat on the floor in front of the radio, listening carefully, while their grandmother watched over them.

“The first time I actually sent a letter, I asked for my own record player. That year the magic took on a new dimension,” Begel wrote. 

One day, Billie said, “Our first letter is from little David Begel in Whitefish Bay. David says he’s been a good boy and would like a record player.”

“It was like a bomb going off in our house,” Begel said. “On my feet, I was hollering at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t wait for my mom and dad to get home so I could tell them.”

As it turned out, Dave Begel was tagged as “the luckiest kid in the Milwaukee area at Christmastime. 

For some reason, each and every year, his letter to Santa Claus was the first one selected to be read on the radio by Billie the Brownie, and brother Danny’s was always second.

That’s the way it went for about seven years. “My friends were very jealous,” Begel said.

“When I was 10 or 11, my mom told us one night that she wanted to talk to me and my brother. I remember this so vividly, it’s like it happened yesterday. ‘Boys,’ she said, ‘I have something to tell you.’”

“She closed her eyes for a second, and I could see her swallow. She opened her eyes and looked at the two of us,” and said: ‘I am Billie the Brownie.’”

“It explained how my letter got read first every year,” Begel said. “It explained why my mom disappeared every afternoon and left us in the custody of our grandmother. It explained why mom and dad helped us write our letters to Santa well before Christmas.”

“And I remember being amazed at my mother, whose name was Carol Cotter,” Begel wrote. “I’m sure lots of little boys are amazed by their mothers. But Danny and I are the only ones who had Billie the Brownie for a mother.”

It’s true, Carol Cotter worked in radio. She was performing as “a magician’s assistant” in Chicago when she was “discovered.” 

She had an uncanny ability to mimic a child’s high-pitched voice, and this is what enabled her to break into broadcasting, voicing children’s parts on radio soap operas.

After Cotter moved to Milwaukee, her skill landed her a job that attracted thousands of fans – including her own children – who never knew her name. Cotter was the voice of Billie the Brownie for seven years.

She was there for the final show, on Christmas Eve in 1955.

There were other Billie “voice actors” who preceded Cotter, but she had the longest tenure.

 

Her “next career” was as a television producer who specialized in documentaries. 

She died on Nov. 8, 2011, the 80-year anniversary of very first Billie the Brownie radio show. Cotter was 92.

Her elder son Dave Begel died earlier this year at age 82.

 

Dave Begel's high school senior photo.

We don’t know for sure if Santa brought that record player to young Dave all those many years ago, but Dave did love music and had a great memory for song lyrics. 

Begel was part of a local rock’n’roll band, Granite, playing his a guitar and serving as lead vocalist.

 

“He liked to entertain, he liked to inform,” said brother Dan Begel. “He liked to plumb the world for information.”

As for Billie the Brownie, the rights to the character were acquired by Gimbels department store when it merged with Schuster’s in 1962. Several attempts to revive the character failed to gain traction in the 1960s and ‘70s.

In 1984, Gimbels donated its Billie the Brownie collection to the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

“Every year, people called or visited to ask about Billie the Brownie,” said Mame McCully, who formerly served as the historical society’s executive director. “He was and always will be a part of the magic of Christmas in Milwaukee. He was in the hearts of so many children, and they have passed on those stories from generation to generation.”

 

Indeed they have. In 2006, Jim Peck, a veteran Milwaukee broadcast journalist, hosted a special “I Remember” documentary for PBS on the 75th anniversary of Billie’s first radio broadcast. It’s a treat and available on PBS YouTube.