One of my favorite memories growing up was writing my letter to Santa. My mom would save the Christmas catalogs from the mail and spread them all out on our dining room table. Armed with scissors and glue, my sister and I would spend hours deliberating and then cutting out every item we wanted and pasting them in our letter. My “letters” were at minimum 10 pages long and filled with collages of barbie dolls, my little ponies, and cabbage patch kids.
I felt a touch of nostalgia when I opened my mailbox last week to see the Amazon gift catalog in the mail. The kids are still too young to handle scissors. And oh boy glue would definitely be a mistake. But they did enjoy going through every page and placing stickers on the items they wanted.
Anyway! It’s officially gift-buying season, so I thought I would share a few of our favorites in case anyone needs ideas for family and friends. I’ll also share what Santa plans to bring to our house this year assuming Lamborghini and The Dot keep up the good behavior.
Before I begin, I thought I would mention a post I wrote a while ago about three questions to ask yourself before buying more toys. Those questions are: (1) will the toy inspire creativity? (2) am I going to have fun playing with the toy? and (3) is it better than blocks? Although #3 is a hard one to hit, almost all of these gifts fall into those parameters. I’m also going to add one very important requirement. One that I’ve come to appreciate over the last three years. NO NOISE. I can’t take it anymore. The batteries, the constant music playing in the background. Save yourself and don’t do it.
Also, I’m not going to divide the list between boy and girl toys because, quite frankly, the “boy” toys are more fun. And I’ve found that my 1.5 year old girl prefers the boy toys anyway. You can click on any of the photos below to jump to the Amazon link (affiliate link). Without further ado, here you go:
Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Set
Lamborghini received this as a gift last year from my sister, and it has been a huge hit. Really anything by the Melissa & Doug brand is fabulous (except maybe the musical instruments). This one is particularly fun because it inspires so much creativity. My kids have used it every single day for the past year. They make us ice cream, they make ice cream for themselves, The Dot organizes the ice creams. Endless play.
We spend a lot of time fake-cooking in the house, probably because I spend a lot of time real-cooking, and the kids see that. I love the Melissa & Doug sets because most of them come with their own cases, so they’re easy to store when not in use. Plus they’re made out of wood, so they hold up really well.
We have these other Melissa & Doug food toys on our wish list this year:
Plasma Car
A friend of mine told me about the plasma car when Lamborghini was just over one year old. It’s fabulous for kids of all ages. The car is low enough to the ground that little ones can scoot around on it. And then when they get older, they can wiggle the wheel to self-propel.
I will tell you as a word of warning that we cheaped out and purchased the off-brand car first, but it eventually broke after a few uses. Last year, we got Lamborghini the name brand, and it is still going strong. I personally like that the maximum weight limit is around 200 pounds, so I can use it too. And I totally do.
EDIT: Mr. L pointed out that I forgot to mention these polyurethane wheels that we purchased to replace the standard wheels that came with the Plasma Car:
They make the car ride a little bit smoother and a little bit faster too. Also, we used the car indoors for a while, and I wasn’t as concerned about the softer polyurethane wheels on our wood floors. The standard wheels work great, but these are a fun add-on.
Horse Set
And going back to Melissa & Doug toys once again, we plan to get this for The Dot this year. My sister had a similar horse set when she was little, and we would play with it for hours. I like that each horse has its own slot, and I know The Dot will like putting each horse into the slot and taking each horse out of the slot and putting each horse into the slot and . . . you get the picture. That girl has focus.
Walkie Talkies
We saw a Santa at Kroger last week, and Lamborghini ran up to him and exclaimed, “I want walkie talkies! I want walkie talkies!” The poor guy had clearly drawn the short straw on who had to wear the Santa suit that day, and he was unprepared for the auditory assault by the three-year-old. He held up his hands, started backing up, and then offered Lamborghini a slice of the apple samples he was handing out. I definitely had a face-palm moment as I realized I had failed at coaching Lamborghini on the gracious (graceful?) approach. Lamborghini has been singing “Go Tell It On the Mountain” at the top of his lungs all week, so at least he’s clear about that part of Christmas.
But the point of this whole story is that Lamborghini has never been so excited about any other gift in his entire three-year life. Walkie talkies. I think we can afford to make the kid happy. And he really is a sweetheart the majority of the time. Plus The Dot can have her own, and the kids will stop stealing Mr. L’s remote thermometer transmitter and receiver and pretending they are walkie talkies.
Balance Bike
If you’re going for a big gift this Christmas, these balance bikes are the ticket. I’m only linking this one because my sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to gift it to Lamborghini, and it’s the only one I know. But it truly has been fabulous. Lamborghini started walking with it around 1.5 years and now he coasts down the street. I like it because he can’t go so fast that he gets out of sight when we are walking or when I am jogging. We are going to wait until he is four before we get him a real bike with pedals, but he should be able to transition to the real bike without needing training wheels.
These Strider balance bikes
My First Trampoline
There were two types of people growing up: those who had a trampoline in their backyard and those whose parents wouldn’t allow them to have a trampoline. Sadly—oh so sadly—I belonged to that second group. And I vowed that my kids would have a trampoline.
So now that I’m a mom I totally get why my parents didn’t want me breaking bones in my body. NOBODY followed the one-person-at-a-time rule and EVERYBODY had a near miss falling off the trampoline.
With that said, the protective netting around trampolines today makes them a lot safer. And this particular trampoline is small, so they can’t get too out of control.
I love it because (1) the kids love it, (2) it wears them out, and (3) after they bounce, they nap. Enough said.
Boogie Board Writing Tablet
This simple device is actually a lot of fun to use. It is basically a digital notepad. You write on it with a plastic pen (or really any hard utensil) to doodle and then digitally clear the entire page by pressing a small button the top. We keep ours on the fridge and hand it to the kids when they get rowdy waiting for dinner. I also use it to jot down shopping lists or anything that pops into my head during the day. I just have to remember to take a photo of the screen before the kids push the erase button.
We’ve had ours for over a year and a half now, and the little tablet is still going strong—even after numerous drops and having the erase button pushed thousands of times. I suspect you might be thinking, why not just use a pen and paper? For some reason, the Boogie Board is just more satisfying to write on. There’s the hard copy aspect to it for those of us who are trapped between the millennial digital generation and the golden age of books. I also like the way the device responds to the pen—The Dot was able to doodle before she turned one. It feels very natural. More importantly, it’s mess-free because there’s no ink!
LEGO Duplo
I have personally never been a big LEGO person. I had the K’nex blocks when I was a kid and enjoyed them, but we never had LEGOs. Then a dear friend introduced me to the Duplo set of LEGOS. We are hooked. The Duplos are considerably larger than traditional LEGOs, so they are safe around little ones. They do still hurt to step on, so I keep them in their own box in a cabinet, and we pull them out and put them back when we’re done.
The train set is a good starter set because the train cars can be transformed into any kind of car when you disconnect the them. Although we do not have the train at home, Lamborghini plays with these a lot at school and builds cars and trucks and things like that. I’ve been really tempted to get him this off-brand set for Christmas:
These Duplo sets are also on Lamborghini’s and The Dot’s wishlist:
For bigger kids without little siblings around, LEGO Juniors are a good option too. The pieces are traditional LEGO size, but there are fewer small pieces and the figures are less complicated to put together. We recently purchased this set of the Juniors, and I love the little box it comes in:
Play-Doh Play Sets
Mr. L and I reached the conclusion the other night that this is really a gift I want. But that’s ok because requirement #2 in my list of questions to ask yourself before buying more toys is whether the parent will have fun playing with the toy. How fun does this look?! Make your own veggies and chop them up! This would really appeal to The Dot and Lamborghini because they are always begging to help me in the kitchen. I occasionally give Lamborghini a butter knife and let him chop mushrooms and soft vegetables, but this play-doh set looks safer than the butter knife. These other sets look really fun too:
Magnetic Blocks
These have been a constant source of entertainment for Lamborghini and The Dot as well as Mr. L and myself. They are so addicting to play with. The blocks all have magnets around the edges and stick together. It’s extremely satisfying to build different shapes and then crush them. We have a similar offbrand set at home (sadly ours is no longer available), and I’ve compared it to the name-brand magnetic blocks and can’t tell the difference. Like ours, this particular set comes with wheels, so the kids can make cars and trucks.
Gumball Machine
I know, I know. Candy?! We don’t have this yet, but I’m toying with the idea of getting it for Lamborghini. This is because gumballs have played a significant role in (a) potty training and (b) chores and responsibilities. All Lamborghini has ever wanted to do since he turned 3 is chew bubblegum. We told him that he couldn’t chew gum until he was fully potty-trained. Well, that happened last weekend, so Lamborghini is now a gum chewer. When I asked if he wanted to go to the LEGO store to choose out his prize (really bribe) for using the potty, he said, “No! I need bubblegum first!” He clearly has his priorities in order.
I recently created a simple chore chart for Lamborghini that incorporates the potty training elements, and my plan is to award him a nickel every time he gets all of his stars for one day. Then he can save up the nickels and either “buy” bubblegum or save it for something else. I’m still toying around with the details, but I have a feeling he will choose bubblegum every time, and I would rather him deposit a quarter into his own bank rather than those machines at the grocery store.
Board Books & Pop-up Books
For our family, books never get old. I still have a huge collection of my childhood book collection in our guest room upstairs, and I keep adding to it. We’ve started letting the kids pick out a book to read each night as part of their bedtime routine. Lamborghini has officially memorized the entirety of Old Hat New Hat
The Wheels on the Bus pop-up book is one of my personal favorites. We still have my original version from the 1990s, but I’ve purchased the newer version as well and it is very similar. The tabs are pretty robust and, more importantly, fairly repairable in case your one-year-old decides to pull the wipers off the bus. The Dot has been obsessed with this book since she was 9 months old.
Here are some more of our favorites:
I especially love the Leslie Patricelli board books. We have the Halloween
That’s all I have so far. I’d love it if you would let me know in the comments about any gift ideas you have. Happy shopping!
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