The Facts and Figures About The Toys Under Your Tree

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The holidays and presents pretty much go hand-in-hand, but before I started toy shopping for my cousins' kids (the only small children in my life), I decided to find out a few interesting tidbits about the toy industry:

• More money is printed for Monopoly games each day than actual money by the U.S. Treasury.
• Each year, households typically buy at least one more toy than they did the year before. (If you bought 10 last year, you might buy 11 this year.)
• To distinguish them from real guns, toy guns must conform to marking requirements under the U.S. Department of Commerce's "Marking of Toy Look-Alike and Imitation Firearms" regulation.
• There are 1,929,770,126,028,800 possible color combinations on a Rubik's cube.
• A recent study of hospital emergency room data suggests that the most frequent causes of injury involving toys are falling on, tripping over or being hit with toys.
• The United States will import an estimated $23 billion in toys in 2008, 90 percent of that from China.
• Since she originated, Barbie has had more than 80 careers.
• When the divorce rate goes up in the United States, toy makers report that the sale of toys also rise.
• According to Forbes Magazine, one in every three households in America owns a Scrabble board.

For a few other fun facts about the history of some of America's oldest toys, including Barbie's real full name (Barbara Millicent Roberts), click here.

Editor's note - This just in; if you have a little toy truck made by Wang's International Inc., it has been recalled.

Also, please keep in mind that magnets do not make good presents for small children. They may not seem to pose much of a threat, but they can cause a child to need emergency surgery if more than one is swallowed, and can cause serious damage by attracting each other through the lining of different loops of intestine. Ultimately, the magnets can cause a lack of blood flow in the lining of the intestine and puncture it.