January is National Hobby Month

Visit us on Facebook: National Hobby Month

A hobby can be many things, from horseback riding to playing the banjo to knitting. For the National Retail Hobby Stores Association, Hobby Manufacturers Association and the Game Manufacturers Association, we're defining a hobby as recreational activities supported by a hobby store.

We're concentrating on traditional pastimes such as model trains, plastic model kits, rockets, radio controlled airplanes, cars, trucks and boats, as well as board games and tabletop and role-playing games, puzzles and more.

Each January our goal is to remind consumers about the joy of the hobbies we support. Our hobbies can bring generations together, give people a sense of accomplishment, and instill a life-long love of learning and creativity.

Hobbies have been a part of American culture for decades, from the earliest model train sets to balsa wood airplanes to slot cars. The Wright brothers used their skills from carving flying toys as boys to build their aircraft. Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, honed his engineering skills as boy working on his model trains.

Today, science, technology, engineering and math skills are vitally important for young people to learn to succeed in today's economy. With hobbies they can learn problem solving and critical thinking skills while they assemble a rocket or tumble rocks into gemstones.

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For more information on how you can support National Hobby Month, contact the National Retail Hobby Stores Association (NRHSA) www.nrhsa.org or the Hobby Manufacturers Association (HMA) www.hmahobby.org.