National Bobblehead Day Date in the current year: January 7, 2024

Modern bobbleheads, also known as noddlers, wobblers, or wacky wobblers, are believed to have been inspired by “temple nodders”, Asian nodding-head figurines depicting Buddha and other religious figures. They were first imported to England, continental Europe, and America from Canton in the second half of the 18th century. These figurines were popularized in England by George, Prince of Wales (future King George IV), who had an active interest in matters of style and taste and loved extravagant “Oriental” interiors.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, ceramic bobblehead dolls depicting animals were produced in Germany and exported to other countries, including the United States. Porcelain bobbleheads became fairly common throughout the first half of the 20th century and experienced a surge of popularity in the 1960s, when Major League Baseball started producing paper-mâché bobbleheads: generic figurines representing teams and player-specific bobblehead dolls.

Within a few years, bobbleheads became popular outside of sports as well. For example, the Beatles bobblehead set, released in 1964, has become one the most famous bobblehead sets of all time. Today, it is a rare and valuable collectible item.

A new surge in the popularity of bobbleheads occurred in the 1990s due to the emergence of new manufacturing processes that allowed to make bobbleheads from plastic instead of ceramic or paper-mâché, resulting in less expensive high-quality bobbleheads that could be produced in large quantities. The San Francisco Giants brought bobbleheads back to the public eye in 1999 by conducting a giveaway of Willi Mays bobbleheads at their game.

Since then, countless new variations of bobbleheads have been produced. Once associated primarily with baseball, modern bobbleheads depict an impressive number of pop culture characters, ranging from popular to relatively obscure, and notable people, including even Pope Francis.

National Bobblehead Day was launched in 2014 by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Co-founded by Phil Skar and Brad Novak, the museum claims to have the largest collection of bobbleheads in the world, currently numbering in the 10,000s. The founding of museum was officially announced shortly before the launch of National Bobblehead Day, but it didn’t open to the general public until 2019.

The inaugural National Bobblehead Day was held on January 7, 2015. Since then, bobblehead fans and collectors across the United States have celebrated it every year because bobbleheads are awesome! There are many ways to join the celebration. You can share photos of your favorite bobbleheads on social media with the hashtag #NationalBobbleheadDay, buy a new bobblehead for your collection or start a bobblehead collection if you don’t have one yet, give someone a bobblehead as a gift, or even plan a trip to the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.