Joe and I have been busy the last few weeks dreaming up gifts for the girls for Christmas. Christmas was such a magical time for me when I was little, a real bright spot of happy memories in a generally sucky childhood. I really hope and believe that my girls will have much happier lives overall than I did as a little girl, but the magic of Christmas – even though we are not Christians – is something that I want to share with them.
So, what to get? We put off buying toys mostly throughout the year. Yes, they get a few things here and there, for their birthdays and when the mood or need for a specific toy or craft supply calls. But most of the stuff out there is crap that will get played with for ten minutes while it’s new and then become detritus for floors and every other surface in our home. I thought shopping was going to be hard, but instead we’ve managed to find more than enough things to give the girls (probably too much) and hopefully keep us busy through the rest of the dreary winter days after the holidays are over.
I should note that I’m pretty picky about toys – I don’t like things that are battery-operated. I don’t like things that involve over-marketed characters like Dora or Dizzney Princesses. I made a couple of exceptions for characters that the girls really like that I feel a little better about. I really like to focus on more open-ended and creative toys, because that’s what’s good for the kids in the long run, and because that’s what they actually play with.
Let’s get shopping!
Learn To Dress Elmo (at Amazon) $20
Sophie is currently obsessed with Elmo – I don’t know why because we don’t let her watch TV. But Elmo is one of the few words she says regularly, and it makes her happy to see him. I went searching through the Elmo toys on Amazon and elsewhere looking for one that I could live with and that I thought we’d actually get something out of, and I think this one fits the bill. We already have a plain Elmo doll buried somewhere around here. I think it is one of the toys I put away last year during a major purge, and I should probably bring it back out, but am a little afraid of turf wars that might ensue.
Angelina Ballerina Doll and DVD (at Target.com)$15
Julie still has a minor obsession with Angelina, and she’s seen a doll at a local bookstore several times and practically begged for it. I knew that this is one gift she’d open and be really thrilled to see. I’m not sure how much lasting power it will have, and certainly we don’t need any more stuffed animals in the house, but I have a feeling this one will make her really happy in the moment.
Lap Harp with Carrying Case and tons of music (at Hearthsong) $80
This one is kind of expensive, but I saw it and wanted it for myself almost as much as for the kids. I feel like it’s kind of an investment because I think they’ll grow into it, and in the mean time, it’s a great toy for me to sit with them and interact, singing and playing together. I need every tool I can get to have fun with my girls in different ways.
Nyokki Holiday Plant Pet (at Hearthsong) $10
This one is just silly! I think it will go in Julie’s stocking, and I think they will both enjoy it – heck – we’ll all enjoy it. I probably wouldn’t have gotten this one if I weren’t already ordering from this catalog.
Wooden Stencil Box Playset (at Hearthsong) $13
I thought this toy looked like a great deal. It’s wood, it’s something they’ll be able to use for several years, it’s open-ended and honestly I bet Julie will use the pieces for other things besides just stenciling.
By the way, I used promotion code HSA056 to get all the stuff from Hearthsong shipped for $5.
Rollipop Set (at Creative Kidstuff) $34
I’ve seen marble-track sets all over the place for older kids. They look like so much fun, for them and for me! But I just don’t trust either of my girls to play with standard-sized marbles. Honestly, Julie puts things in her mouth more than Sophie does. Someone mentioned how worried they were about the beads my girls were playing with the other day – and trust me I was watching that game like a hawk. The moment anyone put anything in their mouth, we put it away. The marbles just have too much potential to roll off under the couch and someone finds them later when I’m not looking. Luckily, this set is made for toddlers. It’s a bit more simple than the older-kid versions, but still looks like some good fun, and a good gift to put Sophie’s name on.
Trampoline (at Creative Kidstuff) $70
This will probably be the big “Santa” gift of the year. It will go in our basement playroom. Julie has played on these at school in the past and enjoyed them, and we definitely need good ways to burn of energy when it’s too cold to go outside for days on end. This will also help build muscle tone and coordination.
I chose the local pickup option for Creative Kidstuff when ordering this online because shipping would have been really expensive for the trampoline. Lots of catalogs have various versions of this toy, and this one looked like pretty good quality, and the local-pickup option clinched the deal.
Fashion Designer (at Back to Basics Toys) $20
Joe and I both noticed this in a catalog and remembered playing with similar toys as kids. This isn’t the actual one I ended up buying – I found a similar one in a local store for $12 and picked it up. But the one in this catalog looks like maybe better quality than the one I bought. Julie loves doing art projects, and this will be a good way to keep her occupied at the table for a few minutes when she’s bored or when I need to start dinner.
I know this sounds like a lot of stuff. And it is. But remember, I’m a stay-at-home mom, so we need more toys to keep us busy all day than families with kids in day-care all week.
A couple of things we considered, but didn’t buy I think are worth mentioning.
View Master – remember this awesome toy? I really really really wanted to get one for my girls, but most of the reels are movie and/or over-exposed character related. Maybe next year.
Ed Emberly Drawing Books – Julie got one of these for her birthday, and it’s great! Both girls love to hang out in front of the easel with me while we draw animals out of it. There are several in the series, and they’re not even expensive. But we had already reached our spending limit, and I think we’d appreciate them more if we bought them in a month or two when the new starts to wear off the Christmas stuff.
In the interest of full disclosure, there may be a few other little things – stocking stuffers mostly. But these are the big ones, the ones I thought people with little kids like mine might be interested in. Next up, my own wish list…
Wow–thanks for all the great gift ideas. My nephews are around your girls’ age, and I think some of these toys will be great for them, too. Thanks–you have just made that part of my holiday shopping so much easier!
View master–they sometimes sell educational ones at zoos, aquariums, and children’s museums. Sometimes it has a logo or is a little touristy, but it’s still better than dizzney (love that spelling!!)
I had a mountain of not-too-charactery ViewMaster reels as a kid (we also had the projector) that came from a garage sale or something. If I find them when I’m home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, do you want them for your girls? I will, of course, make sure my mom wasn’t saving them for non-existent grandkids first, but I’m pretty sure that they made the move to MN.
wow, I love your ideas.
I wish my parent’s had thought more like you when I was a kid. unfortunately I was a little spoiled, and I remember plenty of toys that were cool the first week, but got boring once the newness had worn off.
I love that trampoline, just wonder about the bar… I have images of a kid jumping without holding on and getting a good bonk in the noggin.
We got a viewmaster for my son last year – the store had them with a horizontal lever and I wished I had shopped around for a vertical lever/slide insert (I saw them later) the horizontal ones are neat looking but difficult for little hands to manage. Something to keep in mind for later!
Incidentally, it gets more use as pretend binoculars when looking for pirates then it does with our small collection of slides!
Viewmaster is great and you can look for vintage reels, which are way better. I find the reels now are poorly made and often blurry! Also the viewers don’t seem to be made as well. Look for older models and you will be happier.
The Princess has an Angelina, several outfits & the accompanying books. It was worth the $ and the space, she played with that darn mouse A LOT.
1) You can never have too many stuffed animals. My brother and I got hours of entertainment out of our crew.
2) The lap harp, marble track, and fashion designer thing – perfect. I LOVED those things when I was a kid.
OK, this is a little weird. You sound a lot like me several years ago. I ordered most of those same things from Hearthsong, and had a BAD experience with them, meaning that several weeks went by, and nothing, and then when I got in contact with them the week before Christmas, they informed me that almost everything I had ordered was no longer in stock. I questioned why that could not have been told to me earlier so that I could have had time to find a replacement. Their answer to say the least was unsatisfactory. So, just keep on them and make sure that doesn’t happen to you.
I can’t wait to see your wish list and see if it’s like mine. Let me guess, does it involve yarn?
I got lap harps for my nephews two years ago and while they are neat, they can be difficult to keep in tune. Of course I did get the $25 version from Target, just a might bit cheaper version. When the lap harp arrives it will probably be horribly out of tune because of tempeture changes through out delivery, and you will want to tune it before your wrap it up for the girls. Otherwise my nephews (all four of them) love them!