Let me start off by being very clear: small children do not need Christmas gifts. It may be fun for the adults to buy and give them, but toddlers don’t really need toys. If you can believe it, we have very few special toys for our 14-month old. He just plays with the other children. And my pencil cup (unsharpened, don’t worry). And his blanket. And my keyboard. We did have tons of toys for our oldest and as time as gone on, and more people have been added to our home, we have largely cleared out the toddler paraphernalia.
Please don’t be fooled into thinking that a small toddler needs “educational” toys. Talk and read to your kid and they will learn all the pre-reading skills they need. Other than that, my rule is to only have (and give) toddler stuff that makes the parent’s life easier.
I know that some of you are convinced that your child will be bringing up a lack of gifts way back in 2010 in future therapy sessions, so here’s a small list of gifts that are not totally obtrusive. I’m choosing these items not because they are “educational” but because they seem to capture small children’s attention for more than 3 minutes — just enough time to go the bathroom by yourself.
Or finish the dishes. My son, Matthew, plays with a variation of these two items while I’m cleaning the kitchen every few days.
LeapFrog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set
LeapFrog Fridge Wash & Go Magnetic Vehicle Set
Toddlers love to push stuff — it doesn’t matter what it is, just as long as they can do laps around the house with it. Here are some examples of walkers
They will only use it for a couple of months before an older child destroys it by launching it from the top of the stairs (or roof, depending if you have a ladder nearby).
Little Tikes Lap-A-Tune Piano — no batteries required and it looks like something I used as a kid (double bonus). My baby bangs on this for a least two minutes before “rediscovering” my lap.
That’s it. That’s all the cool stuff we have for Matthew.
Other than his older sister and brothers. He really has the best life ever.
Now it’s your turn — What toddler toys make your life easier as a parent?
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We got our 22 month old boy the travel Hungry Hippos game for free with the $5 printable coupon. 🙂 I know he will have fun banging on that and since it is all enclosed we don’t have to worry about the small pieces. I also got the Green Toys tool box for free with my Gilt group credit. He loves sawing, hammering, etc. so that will be a big hit for him. Done! Christmas shopping for free, got to love it.
My older kids did play with toddler toys but we also have cleared out most of them the more kids we have had. I find that no matter how many toys are in the house everyone wants to play with the oldest kid’s things anyway.
Excellent post! It always seems like there are TOO many toys everywhere. We are giving some toys away this year at Christmas time too. And usually we like to let them take 1 gift each home from each grandparents generous assortment… we are fortunate to live close so the rest stay at their respective homes for when we come to play!
My third came along right after I cleaned the house of all the baby stuff so he really never got any toys. One thing we did buy was playschool ball bopper. (not the exact name) All of my boys 6,4 and 2 still play with it a year later. It is a big hit with visitors also. We did start using big pompoms in it after we lost most of the balls. My youngest is the most well adjusted of all and I think lack of stuff helped.
POM POMS! Great idea!
Well said. Small children are so easy to delight, and more stuff is usually just more stuff. I love our family video of my 3 year old son (now 18!) going wild over the new pairs of socks and toothbrush he found in his stocking Christmas morning, along with a whole bag of M&Ms just for him.
I like to get tree ornaments for the kids in my family every year. My hope is that they will all have a collection of ornaments by the time they are ready to move out on their own, with lots of memories. Or course they are not something that little ones can play with, but they get packed away every year and aren’t all over the place. I have also purchased sturdy toddler-age bibles for a couple of the kids with simple stories and great pictures that they can look at on their own.
We buy an ornament for each child as well. It is more tradition than a present. I try to pick out something that relates to their experiences this past year. Hopefully in the years to come we will be able to tell the story of their childhood every time we decorate the tree.
Oh your post made me feel so good. 🙂 Not only do we feel like we are tripping over toys already, we are dreading what our 3 year old is going to bring home now! Half the time, we ask for the toys he gets from family stay at their house so he can have something to play with when he visits. For my 7 month old, I bought her a quilt at a garage sale this year, a rag doll of Gilt Groupe with my $20 credit, and a push cart on sale for $10. (Oh and socks for her stocking.)
We have been asking for outing activities for our 3 year old. Zoo Pass, play pass for the community center, or some sort of class there. Something for him to be able to get out of the house and run off some energy. We bought him a few books, Toy Story, and a truck from Goodwill. 🙂
Learning Palace had this “foam puzzle” travel pack by Lauri. It didn’t have too many pieces that it was hard to put away, and I can’t tell you how many YEARS of enjoyment we got out of it. I bought it for my oldest daughter when she was 2. We still had it (In the “camping toys” bin) when her baby sister came along 5 years later, and it revived as a favorite toy all over again.
nice picture of your boys, Merry Christmas!
I love when I’m able to “combine” gifts/ideas with multiple family members for my children. This Christmas my son, 21 months, will be getting a play kitchen from his grandparents. We have recently moved from a small 2 bedroom apartment into a much roomier 3 bedroom house, I plan on putting his kitchen in a safe spot between our dining area/kitchen and HOPE it will provide for lots of entertainment while we’re cooking/cleaning/etc.
His great grandparents sent Christmas money which I used to purchase the Melissa & Doug metal shopping cart, and “Santa” is bringing a $10 set of food from Target! 3 people, 3 gifts, 1 theme — Love it!
Oh, and Christmas stockings for me are always about necessities- undies, socks, etc. The little guy is getting new sippy cups & toddler sized silverwear and the big guy is getting boxers and a new travel coffee cup (where do those always end up wandering of to??)
My kids LOVED their kitchen and played with it for YEARS. Michael is in college now and loves to cook, perhaps it’s a subliminal thing from his youth 🙂
Our girls (21 months) love their kitchen and all of the accessories!
All my son wanted at this age is cheerios for Christmas!!!
We love the fisher price animal farm (makes animals sounds) for the 1-2 year old range–classic toy that all three of our older kids have loved and played with and that the baby will get to play with soon. Our tub of small wooden colored blocks has also gotten a lot of use.
We are getting our son (3 year old) an easel with much art supplies. He is getting very into creating and this is a good way for him to have all his art supplies at his fingertips and also a great way for me to keep everything organized and will hopefully make cleanup easier too! We also decided to splurge a bit and get our son his own childsize cooking utensils for helping us in the kitchen. It is a passion of his and this will make it easier for him and fun having his own size tools. We always get him a bunch of books too! They have proven to by far be the best gift and the kids dont get bored with them- its the gift of learning pure and simple!
Where did you find real child size cooking utensils? Great idea!
http://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-5820-Cooking-Utensils-Set/dp/B000H6FAUC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1292749368&sr=8-3
There is a $4 set. It’s basic, but still child-sized, very cute. There were also a couple others just on the first search page (Paula Deen, Sassafras) but they were $22 a piece!
Ikea had some awhile back, not sure if they still do…
Thank You, so many parents go over board or live with the guilty they haven’t done or given enough to the toddler. Really though for my child age 7 we do a few toys and then restock on all the arts and crafts things leaving our Christmas bill with in reason and room if we find a splurge we really want. My kid doesn’t know the difference and enjoys the Holiday 100% it is the small things they loves like their own bag of M&M’s and that big bottle of Sparkling Cider put by the Stocking. We aren’t much for drinking pop so this is a bonus for the whole house when I break out the Bottles:)
Thanks for the deals, wisdom and fun!
LOVE this post! Yeah, I just wrapped up socks and diapers for my kiddos. They had more fun with the bows on the packages than anything else!!
BRILLIANT!
We have two different Leapfrog magnetic fridge toys (farm and alphabet). My 19-month-old isn’t terribly impressed with them and would rather knock all the pieces off the fridge rather than play with it correctly. Furthermore, he has lost probably half of the letters and several of the animal parts (we think that many have been put in the garbage, unfortunately). My 3-year-old daughter (whom the toys were originally bought for) always played nicely with them and never lost the pieces. So, I guess it depends on personality and temperament.
As for the walker-type toys, my son and daughter both love them! We have several different types (including the a very loud lawnmower and loud ball popper, but we don’t mind the noise if the kids are happy!). They push them up and down the hallway and around the kitchen for 5-10 minutes at a time, giggling and screeching the whole time! :o)
Loved your intro – seems that the kids end up with a room full of toys whether you buy them or not between grandparents, etc.
The Leapfrog magnetic fridge toy captures my son’s attention for a LONG time (about ten minutes..). We finally caved and bought one because he would play with it everywhere we go. We have the piano too, funny.
Books are a great gift, our son could spend hours “reading”. He also spent about half an hour lacing and unlacing his sneakers, so I guess we could get him shoelaces.. 🙂 Great post!
We bought our 21 month old twin girlies easels from IKEA ($14.99/ea), art supplies and Radio Flyer Tricycles. They are also getting NEW bath toys, panties (yes, they’re potty trained which was MY Christmas gift from them) and under shirts 😉 This year when asked by family members what to get our girls I was very specific since we don’t have a ton of space for 2 of everything. Some gifts that I know they are getting are dress up clothes, bike helmets and a baby with a stroller ea. We don’t buy our girls many toys throughout the year so Christmas and birthdays are a time for us to “stock up” for the year.
Not toys….FOOD!
Strap baby in high chair…put food in tray…take shower…that’s how I get stuff done around here.
Please don’t do that! It is not safe to leave a child unattended in a high chair or with food. Your child could easily choke while you are showering. If you need to shower, do it when the baby is napping or get an exersaucer you can take into your bathroom with you.
Take the baby in the shower with you. We have done that since our son was born and he has no problems with getting his face in water now (swimming). Double duty; you will both get clean! You can lay them in the baby bathtub in there if you want.
My twins have choked on food they have never choked on before AND climbed out of their high chairs with no warning (not at the same time)! Don’t leave a baby or toddler unattended while eating please!!
I’ve never commented before, but this post is worthy of a “Wow!” Beautifully written, thoughtful, intelligent, TRUE, and so heart-warming. :0) Thank you!