A warm welcome to everyone coming from Moms Favorite Stuff! I hope you’re enjoying the festivities leading up to Toy Tuesday, December 8th.
If you’re just now joining us, we’re having virtual play time (or a blog hop) and sharing our favorite toys, toy trends, and places to buy them for the best bargains of the year.
After my tips on making Christmas Day more fun for everyone,
learn how to enter to win a $250 gift card
AND a $500 in products to your favorite charity or school!
I have 3 boys, two of which are only 22 months apart. There can be some serious competition and disappointment on Christmas morning if I neglect to keep a few things in mind while toy shopping. Therefore, I thought I’d share with you my philosophy on Christmas toy buying which makes Christmas morning more fun for everyone.
The Tip Junkie’s Christmas Toy Philosophy: Limit your gifts to 4-8 (depending on cost) for each child. Make sure there are a variety of good quality toys so nothing breaks and there’s plenty to do throughout Christmas day. This ensures no one is disappointed or is bored an hour after opening presents.
1. First, know what your child wants. I take into consideration my boys’ wish list and their likes and dislikes. You can have the best variety of toys imaginable but if it doesn’t cater to their special interests then it’s still a no-go.
2. Next, I like to make sure my boys each get:
- Something to build
- A video game to play
- A toy for their imagination
- An item to build on whatever they are collecting
- Something to play with outside
- A board game
- A big gift from Santa
Any of these qualities can be combined for one toy. For instance my boys’ favorite Christmas gifts have combined “something to build” with “a toy for their imagination”. Having a wide range of toys expands their uses, creativity, play time, and excitement throughout the day.
Things to Build:Â Marble Run, K-nex, Bionicles
Favorite Video Games: My Sims Agents, Star Wars Legos, Mario Kart
My Favorite Toys We’ve Collected:Â Anything Star Wars, Imaginext, Legos
From Santa: Santa gifts are usually large and go for the shock value. I don’t go overboard on price but I do try to make it fun and unique.
Other options to consider:
- Art supplies: to paint, draw, or create. Play-Doh, Pixo’s, and craft kits
- Electronics:Â MP3 player, DS, radio, spy gear, watch, Funkeys, computer game
Entertaining Toys:
- Zoom-o (surprisingly fun for $10)
- Anything Nerf
- Air Hogs (the new ones are more durable)
5. I try to keep things fair:
- The same number of gifts or price range for each child.
- Size matters with boys! So I make sure each kiddo has the same number of “large” wrapped gifts. Even if I have to put a toy inside a larger box. {{evil laugh}}
- Same number of items in stocking and I try to have larger items next to stocking for shock value when the boys come down the stairs.
So what’s your toy buying philosophy?
Feel free to leave a comment which automatically enters you to win a $250 gift card. Details below.
Huge thanks to Bill Me Later for organizing such an informative and fun play time. Feel free to check out all the blogs participating and their favorite toys and money saving deals. They’re worth the read.
What is Toy Tuesday?
Toy Tuesday will occur on December 8th and is a one day sale event held over on Bill Me Later’s website. You’ll find all kinds of amazing deals to wrap up all your holiday shopping from these stores:
| Toys R Us | Walmart.com |
| eToys | Mercantila (trampolines) |
| FAO Schwarz | Drugstore.com |
| Little Tikes | HP.com |
| Overstock.com | MacMall |
| Step 2 | and moreÂ… |
Bill Me Later wants to get YOUR attention and to do so they’ve not only come up with a really fun campaign that introduces you to some new bloggers and new toys, but they are putting up some serious CASH and discounts!
Bill Me Later has made it really easy to enter to win a $250 gift card AND $500 in products to the winners favorite charity or school. They aren’t messing around and are taking good care of everyone involved. They’re buying some toys from Wal-Mart for my boys AND they’re paying YOU some hard core cash to get your attention.
A $250 gift certificate to FAO Schwarz and a
$500 product donation to the school or charity of winners choice.
Share what toys you are most excited about giving this year
or your toy buying philosophy in the comments.
This giveaway will only last until midnight Saturday (CST).
P.S. Toy Junkie’s, tomorrow head on over to Bargain Briana for her toy tips and another $750 in giveaways.
I am MOST looking forward to the train table we are giving- the boys will be thrilled!!
Thanks for the great giveaway – I am most excited about the money for the charity!
You have some interesting ideas on kids gifts. I like the idea of the different categories, but I think it is important for kids not to get the same number of gifts. My mom and dad always spent around the same amount on each of us, but it was important for us to learn that if we wanted a really big gift we would only be getting one gift while my siblings would get more presents if theirs’ were all inexpensive.
I only go with open ended toys, no more “what does it do?”. Instead, my philosophy is “Look what YOU can do!”
I also have learned to buy fewer gifts. It’s pretty overwhelming for a child to open 15 gifts on Christmas morning so I buy more expensive but fewer. They last longer, there’s no meltdown on Christmas morn.
I think that Christmas is about the giving…not getting. I love to give my kids presents and I make sure that we think about the real meaning of Christmas above all! A couple of ways we do that is by giving toys to kids in need or helping out a struggling families. This helps kids see beyond the gifts. Then, I only give the kids 3 gifts (note- there can be multiple items inside a gift, but just 3 actual wrapped packages). Reasons for this: Jesus got 3 gifts and it cuts back on the arguments of who got the most presents (because it’s all equal). Anyways, thanks for the giveaway! 🙂
I’m so pumped about christmas this year! My 3 year old little girl is begging for “dress ups”. We also just had a baby… He probably won’t get gifts… He doesn’t know the difference yet. It’s really the first year my little girl has shown interest in gifts, so we’ll do a few. We are keeping it small, though. Money is tight this year….I’m sure everyone understands that!