Long before it was my job to follow shopping trends, I made it my business to be in the know about the popular holiday gifts kids were clamoring for every year. The day the Toys “R” Us Big Toy Book arrived in the mail was always the start of my annual tradition of identifying the must-have items of the season . I was only three years old when the original NES became the “it” gift of the year in 1986, and Nintendo has had a knack for taking that title with nearly every new system to this day.