The National Toy Hall of Fame recently enshrined its latest member, which will now join a pantheon of luminaries that includes Barbie, Mr. Potato Head, Legos, Lincoln Logs and Slinky. The new inductee: a cardboard box. Yes, the kind of box a big toy (or a TV or a refrigerator) comes in.

What an inspired choice!

Generation after generation of chagrined parents has learned the inestimable value of the cardboard box to a child. The expensive gift is unwrapped with much anticipation. The kid plays with it for a few minutes. Then he or she dumps it in favor of the box the toy came in.

What is a box?

The better question: What isn't it, in a child's imagination? A racing car, a castle, an igloo?

Parents often forget about the box. They feel pressured to buy the kid the newest trendy toy, usually electronic, the one advertised on television. Or they're captivated by the latest "educational" toy. But there's nothing like letting a kid discover the concept of boredom — and one low-tech antidote, the cardboard box.

For the younger kids, just exploring the box, getting in and out of it, is a rigorous exercise in motor skills. For the older ones, it's a challenge to the imagination and often to nascent engineering skills needed to modify the box into, say, a doll house. An acquaintance recalls a huge refrigerator box of his childhood in the '70s. He spent a week drawing on it, until he had created a spaceship capsule. He still speaks fondly of it.

Plaudits to the Toy Hall of Fame for having the imagination to enshrine the box along with other toys that have belonged to the ages.

It's a timely reminder for parents, particularly as the holiday season approaches, that there are many ways to spark a child's imagination. They don't all require batteries and a 10-page instruction booklet. Sometimes, a rousing game of Candy Land is required, or any number of other toys and board games that aren't designed specifically to enhance a child's ability to get into the right preschool, grammar school, middle school, high school and college. They're just fun.

The point of all this isn't to discourage parents from buying all the fancy new computer-chipped remote-controlled toys. Go ahead. The kids will love them — for a while. But just remember: The new toy doesn't substitute for the basics. And that includes a parent who's willing to hunker down on the floor and play any game that a child can imagine.