Top Toys Christmas 2012?

onlyroz

My daughter will be 4 around Christmas, and I've got her a playmobil castle, after resigning myself to the fact that she really is a "girly girl" despite my efforts to turn her into a tomboy:

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/public/WK6vIDBbioR2B1F44HGW4oOG3SSRh0GeKyftt4YoIEZvIMAS8SsPcQ3ZIVvha_WaIzvhZLOxhCYw_no4-8PSf64vwwHd4AzsISWSNGKTSu1VQKnjtimhzR5mV8FFFweZ2sRNPaxib1YFrA5SsIQN6wsmI9l_ViFfqBPLcRdRUyDEnf0

My son is 7 and we're considering getting him a Kindle Fire and some Lego.

If you have a 2-year-old, have you considered some of the VTech electronic toys? E.g.:

http://www.vtechkids.com/product/detail/282/Winnie-the-Pooh-Teach-n-Lights-Phone

suki1001

I think we'll get ours a tablet each, but only cos they come "free" when we renew our carphone warehouse contracts. Last time our tv bust and we got a tv and a ps3, which was the joint christmas pressie

I don't mind getting something like this because they'll play with them and get use out of them. What I don't like is these £30-40 toys that get played with a couple of times and then turn into car boot fodder and I make a habit of not getting them. The rest will be books, board games, pj's. Kids love to open stuff on christmas day, but we've had stuff that might have come out of a box once and that's it.

I've put my foot down at anything else. The best toys ever are lego and wooden train sets, mine have had years of playing with theirs.

What's annoying is that my in-laws almost expect them to choose something out of the argos catalogue. My children are catching onto my way of thinking!

shegirl

Ooh Kingfisher,thanks for mentioning Crafty Crocodiles!Never heard of it before but have now just placed a lovely order for loads of Christmas craft bits for ds to do decorations,some clay an other bits.And it's sooo cheap!

Great website,he'll enjoy himself (It must be my month as I've just found an art group for people with LD's too that he can go to they even cater for adults,have carers and teach them full skills including making pottery and selling it in their studio )

kingfisherblue wrote: »

I don't tend to go for the overpriced 'toys of the year' type of thing. They often don't have much play value and the cost can be extortionate. Instead, I look at what my children enjoy, how long toys will be played with, what toys are available, and how much they cost. I don't always get it right though! It's harder now that they are older.

One thing that always goes down well in our house is a selection of craft items. My Crafty Crocodiles catalogue arrived yesterday and my two boys are both going to choose some things out of it. You can buy items individually (I used to use Baker Ross, but they sell a lot of craft stuff in packs of 6 or more). With prices from about 22p for a wooden coaster to decorate, I can buy quite a lot for a low price, and the lads will have plenty to do over the rest of the year.

I also buy a lot of books, as we are all readers. Both lads enjoy DVDs as well. When they were younger, we had a lot of games and jigsaws - fun to do with the kids. Tap-a Shape was a great favourite (where you hammer little nails through wooden shapes to make a picture).

Janepig

gravitytolls wrote: »

Wow, an ipad for a 12 yr old! Our 14yr old DD wanted a tablet, and we went with the blackberry playbook, featured on the grabbit board, 64gb, £129 with free deivery from Currys. It looks great and the reviews are good, you don't need to connect wit a bb if you're using wifi and most of the popular apps are readily available.

We ordered two of those, one each for DD and DS (9 and 6) because it's not worth the bickering otherwise. DH set them up last night ready (he's nothing if not organised ) and said they seem very good. DD really wants an ipad but there's no way she's having one of those. They both love playing with my ipod touch so I know they'll both get the use out of them. They're both sporty and get plenty of exercise as well so I don't mind them sitting on their arrises now and again playing computer games.

Other than that, DD is in to Monster High atm so she's flagged up a MH DVD that's coming out, and I'm sure they'll both like afew DVD's of the various films we saw in the cinema Kids Club over the summer. Neither of them go a bundle on toys any more though really, they love playing together at cops and robbers, families, schools, etc.. (some things never change ) and DS loves anything football related but that's about it. I'm a bit worried that this year's present pile isn't going to look like much (even though it is!).

Jx

gingin_2

kingfisherblue wrote: »

One thing that always goes down well in our house is a selection of craft items. My Crafty Crocodiles catalogue arrived yesterday and my two boys are both going to choose some things out of it. .

I've never heard of them, it's a revelation to me. I can fill DD's stocking from there. Thank you!

zaksmum

My grandsons are 13, 9 and 20 months. The little one's easy enough to buy for but the 13 year old's a nightmare.

All he seems to want is X Box games and besides costing a fortune, they don't look much when wrapped up.

Even the 9 year old is starting to give me headaches!

kingfisherblue

shegirl wrote: »

Ooh Kingfisher,thanks for mentioning Crafty Crocodiles!Never heard of it before but have now just placed a lovely order for loads of Christmas craft bits for ds to do decorations,some clay an other bits.And it's sooo cheap!

Great website,he'll enjoy himself (It must be my month as I've just found an art group for people with LD's too that he can go to they even cater for adults,have carers and teach them full skills including making pottery and selling it in their studio )

I found out about Crafty Crocodiles from this site last year - I can't remember which poster recommended them though. I use them for my Brownies and Rainbows units as well. They sometimes send emails with codes for 10% off as well

Good to hear about your son's art group. My son would love that round here. Mind you, he has just joined a cookery group that is small and friendly, and is in the local community centre (where he is very comfortable - he's been going there for over ten years ). Both lads go to the cookery, but the other two that attend are girls with LD and the lads know both of them.

Threebabes

gravitytolls wrote: »

Wow, an ipad for a 12 yr old! Our 14yr old DD wanted a tablet, and we went with the blackberry playbook, featured on the grabbit board, 64gb, £129 with free deivery from Currys. It looks great and the reviews are good, you don't need to connect wit a bb if you're using wifi and most of the popular apps are readily available.

Got my 2 girls ipads last xmas, 11 and 8 and theyve been a HUGE hit.

lilmiss1982

I'm getting my boys aged 3 and 6 a talking Tom cat and Ben dog as I know they use there dad's phone to play the game. They are two for £30 at Argos at the moment.


http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/TALKING+TOM.htm

The youngest wants the batman jail £29.99 in Argos at the moment. The eldest got the batcave he asked for last year and he loved it, they have both played with it loads and it turned out to be good value as its still in tact and played with an they still have the figures.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/BATMAN+JAIL.htm

The eldest hasn't said what he want but always picks something difficult to get hold of:mad:

Pervious years were

age 3 a cuckcoo clock (found on amazon)
age 4 a discoutinued ben 10 figure, paid well over the odds on ebay for the darn thing.
age 5 the batcave that was sold out everywhere, lucky I managed to get one from Toys r us


If anyone child wants a cuckcoo clock:rotfl: here's the link
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HeadsUp-Design-EweCoo-Clock-character/dp/B000B83KSK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347731141&sr=8-1



Funny my eldest said to me today how kind it was of santa to leave him a stocking, (filled with 5 or 6 bits from the pound shop) As he wasn't expecting it, it seems to be what he remembers the most and cost the least.

I really don't think you need to spend a fortune to have a nice x mas. I've been saving £1 a day towards x mas all this year and don't want to go over that.

Alleycat

mummyroysof3 wrote: »

my 2 have chosen a lego mine set and tatty teddy house..no idea what to get 3 year old, he has a learning delay and is fussy about he will play with so i bet ill be buying for him really late.

looking at this for him does anyone have any comments about them

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Funtastic-8520-Mookie-Scramble-Blue/dp/B003BNY8GU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pdT1_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=DAS6LJKYPGH4&coliid=IB3AH1KSS2DZK

Our DS got the red one of these for his second birthday and whilst he uses it, it was on the smaller side then. So unless your 3 year old is a real tiddler, he'll probably get minimal use of out it.

How about one of the micro scooters? You can get the smallest ones with seats that can be taken off as their balance improves.

http://www.micro-scooters.co.uk/product/mini-micro-t-bar-scooter-blue-with-seat-and-o-bar-handle/