When I was pregnant with Spencer, I had a conversation with my dad about toys.  I said that I didn't want our kids to have all the talking, electronic, brand name stamped, over hyped crap that is so prevalent in the market today.  I wanted 'back to basics' toys, as I called them.    Buckets of legos instead of the 'build this exact item' kits, so we could build whatever we wanted.  A basic doll house shell instead of the plastic molded unchangeable playsets.  Cars with loose pieces of track instead of the 'this specific trick' tracks.  Does that make sense?  And NO little electronic talking devices.  With the never ending barrage of cartridges that are ridiculously expensive but promise to teach your kids how to read before they can walk.  I want to teach them these things.

As I sit and look over the toys that I bought the kids for Christmas, I can honestly say that I've stuck by that principle for the most part.  Even though others made mock at the time, and I'll admit that I've made an errant purchase or two.  There was the purchase of a leap frog book thing last year and one additional cartridge because I was desperate to get Spencer to point to something, but he didn't really like it and it was pitched a long time ago.  And I did buy TMX Elmo the moment I could get my hands on it, but again a long time ago and he's long gone too.

We have a Hot wheels track that does a specific loop-de-loop, but we've never set it up that way, we just use the pieces to make our own path.  We definitely watch more tv and specifically more 'name brand' tv (dora and diego specifically), but I don't automatically buy something because Dora is on it.  Sometimes I will buy the character themed version of an item I was already going to buy, but just as often not.  The biggest pitfall has been the movie Cars.  As much as I despise Disney, I love Spencer and Spencer loves Lightening McQueen.  So we do have a bit more Cars character stuff than I'm proud to admit, but again we don't automatically buy stuff just because it's available in a Lightening stamped package, so I'm not a total sell out.  Rachel likes Dora and Elmo, but is not obsessed (yet?).  I've been successful keeping her from the whole Disney Princess stuff, but my resolve is already waining because they have the cutest little set of dress up shoes and she love shoes so much.  Maybe I can make alternate stickers to cover the princess faces?  But I digress.  My point is that I've not gotten too awfully far off track.

So here is our Christmas loot, in all it's over-indulged glory.  I never said anything about not buying them too many toys.  Even in my most ideological state I knew that was a principle I'd never be able to stand by ;o).

For Spencer:


Fire truck sounds, flashing lights and the ladder spins all the way around.

Comes with two toters, a garbage collector man, and makes sounds as you 'load' the recycling into the truck.  I'm a little put off by the blatant political agenda ON A TOY (it's endorsed by PETA!!!), but it is a good message and I'm trying to teach the kids about recycling so I'm not too hard on myself about it.

I don't know how much more 'back to basics' we can get than a plain jain (john?) scooter.

Okay, this is probably the biggest deviation from my principles, but let me explain.  I got it for TWENTY FOUR DOLLARS (full retail is $70).  No tax, no shipping.  He loves shake n go cars and the three that come with this set are $12 each alone.  Yeah, the cars make noise and move on their own, but so do wind up toys and these are not that much different.  You do have to put in at least a moderate amount of effort to make them go.  The race track is just an add on for us to get the cars so cheap.  If he likes it and plays with it, that's cool.  If not, I'll donate it.


No Thomas set for us.  That stuff is so expensive and it's virtually identical.  Add this set and a couple new trains (also non-Thomas) to our cheap-o Ikea set that we are bored to tears with now and it's a whole new day.

Another concession, bought on a whim because I was determined to steer him away from cars (pun totally intended).  There's really only one way to play with it and now that I've put it together on a few 'things' to do.  How can something called 'imaginext' leave so little to the imagination?  But it does look like fun and came recommended by a friend who said that her boys love it, so I hope Spencer does too.

Slight variation on the classic simple game.  Spencer wants nothing to do with the classic though, so I was hoping this would be a little more tangible for him.  There's no batteries to replace though, and no obnoxious sounds, just little chips that you match to puzzle-like game boards.

Huge floor puzzles.  We already have the farm one out.  It was a gift from Santa himself at a Christmas party.  We've put it together several times as a family and Spencer is already starting to match up pieces on his own.  If he likes the fire truck one as much, I may get him a couple more for his birthday.

In his stocking there are coloring books, markers, playing cards (Dora and Diego themed lol), bath paints, temporary tattoos, and couple of hot wheels.  It just occurred to me that hasn't occurred to me to put candy in them.  I'm a little proud of that.  I'm sure the stockings that Lucy brings up will have plenty though lol.

For Rachel:

Classic wooden dollhouse with ever-so-simple wooden furniture.  I was talking to a friend about getting something exactly like this, but I didn't know how to describe it.  I wanted a 'starter' doll house, not the kind with ornate-ultra-detailed (and thus utlra expensive) furniture, something she could play with.  I'd like to think that Rachel adn I will put together one of the super fancy doll houses as mom and daughter thing in a few years, but now just a 'starter' dollhouse.  I looked briefly at TRU and didn't see anything, so I just tabled it.  Then this fell into my lap.  $170 marked down to $48 with free shipping, no tax.  I couldn't click the button fast enough lol.  I know she's still a little young, but she'll grow into it.  I think we might keep it in her room so it's her personal toy (aka so her brother won't smash it).

I've wanted to get one of these sets for my daughter before I'd even considered having a daughter.  It took all my will power not to buy one last year ;o).  My biggest question is which doll/animal she'll put in the stroller first.

This isn't exactly what we got. Ours has 3 girls and a LOT of outfit pieces. But you get the idea.  Paper dolls with the ability to last more than a few minutes (because they are wooden and magnetically hold the outfits on).

Just a stuffed doll, not the Elmo Live thing. We learned our lesson with TMX Elmo hahaha!  She loves her 'melmo'.  She got this from Santa at the same time that Spencer got the farm puzzle.

And she got some little kitchen things for the play kitchen - a whisk, a spatula, a pitcher, some little cups etc., she really likes playing with that. I actually pitched all but a couple pieces of the play food we have.  It's more fun to pretend to cook in the abstract.  And all they did with the food was scatter it everywhere all the time lol.

And a few new peg puzzles, coloring books, playing cards, etc.

There's not a single thing on Rachel's side that talks, or even needs batteries for that matter.  That's just fine though, she talks more than enough.  We'll never notice the silence.

We cleaned out the playroom and got rid of a lot, lot, lot of toys they weren't playing with any more. It's amazing how empty it looks. Not after Thursday lol.

Oh and my UPS crazy in-laws got them this (my fil is retired UPS - worked himself from the mail room to the boardroom, so to speak, so they are very loyal - go big brown!): It's an old-school metal pedal car. 

Wish me luck getting both kids to sit together in it without pushing the other out the side. And that big hill leading up to our house? Yeah, I'm gonna be running down it a bunch this summer. Yippee! *facepalm*

So, I think I've stayed mostly true to my pre-kid toy notions.  There are so many things that I said then that have gone completely out the window, it's nice to occasionally realize I'm not completely full of shit.  Just mostly.

I did just realize that everything is recognizable brand name, but that's not really my fault. I'm not going to go out of my way and double my spending to find a decent fire truck that's not Tonka.  And nothing is Disney or more specifically Cars or Princess, so that's something.  How many other parents can say that they didn't give Disney a dime this Christmas?  Granted most of them don't share my deep seeded loathing of all Disney merchandise - their free programming is fine, even if they do skirt the no advertising line pretty blatantly (don't forget - the cd of this educational song is in stores now!).  Okay going to stop now before I head off on a Disney rant.  But it would be nice if they would stop advertising directly to children.  I'm the one buying, I should be the one being marketed to.  Okay really stopping now.