ps - Mathilde is only 20 months. I'm guessing what she'll like, which means I'm buying her what I'd like her to have! :D
CHARLIE (Age 6.5)
1. Disney Infinity 2.0
After buying the original Disney Infinity for Charlie's birthday last March, it pains me to buy this updated version of the game already, but this is what he has asked for as his main present this year. Charlie is a big fan of this game and he's eager to get the Marvel characters.
For those of you not familiar with the game, I'll do my best to give you a quick run through. When buying the game you get a disc, a baseplate which holds up to 3 figures/gamepieces and a selection of starter figures (Thor, Black Widow and Ironman with 2:0 Marvel and Mr Incredible, Captain Jack Sparrow and Sulley with the original game). The baseplate plugs into the Xbox and the figures (there are dozens to collect) are placed on the plate which is picked up by the game. Some of the figures can be bought in larger packs along with a gamepiece which is also added to the baseplate. The gamepiece holds many additional adventures for the given figure. Many of the figures, however, don't come with a gamepiece so they can only be played on what is called the "toybox" aspect of the game which is like a big adventure playground with lots to do and discover.
I have no idea whether this game is actually good or not as I haven't played it, but my six year old things it's brilliant. So much so he often asks for add-on bits and pieces such as magazines, books, sticker-books and t-shirts!
I've heard it's a bit like 'Skylanders', whatever that is!
2. Lego Batman and the Two Face Chase
Both of my boys love Lego AND Batman and for reasons best known to Charlie, his favourite character is Two Face. Unfortunately the Two Face Chase Lego set was discontinued last year so by the time he got REALLY into Lego Batman, his favourite character was unavailable. The best I've been able to do was to source a copy minifigure of Two Face from China. Charlie loved it! He loved it so much that he carried it around in his hand for a week and all the cheap paint rubbed off.
Then after reading a book with all the sets pictured he said, "Mammy, I really really want the Two Face Chase set for Christmas". I knew it wasn't available so I told him we couldn't get it in the shops any more. So he cried. I looked on eBay and what was once a set priced at circa. £40.00 now sells for £120.00. What could I do? I hoped he'd forget about it. Then he came to me one day and said, "Mammy, you know how the Two Face Lego set isn't in the shops any more? Well, if we ask Santa, I'm sure the elves could make it."
Argh! So now I was faced with the prospect of 'no Lego Two Face = Santa and his workshop aren't real'. So I hunted and hunted and managed to find a used set on eBay (with original box) for £32.00. Charlie won't realise its second hand and he'll be over the moon!
3. Build-a-Bear Paperback Pup
Charlie's favourite present from last Christmas was his build-a-bear teddy who we called 'Edward'.
Edward has lots and lots of costumes. He has pyjamas and everyday clothes, he has a Spider-man suit, a Darth Vader suit, a Woody suit, a Jedi Knight suit, a Hamley's-purchased London guard suit and he's currently wearing a skeleton Halloween costume.
Recently, Charlie decided that Edward would like a friend called 'Barnaby' and that he would be a dog. Here he is:
4. Disney Store Talking Darth Vader
Charlie loves Star Wars and Darth Vader is his favourite character. He has a few figures of Darth and last year he got an Anakin to Darth Vader transforming figure which was unfortunately rubbish as all of his clothes fall off willy-nilly. Charlie also has a Darth Vader suit which Henry won't allow him to wear as he's terrified of it. He sneaks into his room and hides the mask!
So, when I saw these new talking figure sin the Disney Store I had to get him a better Darth! I've bought Henry the Stormtrooper one.
5. Minecraft Stuff
Minecraft is a game. You seem to walk around various worlds and build stuff. It has annoying music and some bloke called Stampy is always bellowing out of the tablet from YouTube about it: "Hellooooooo this is Stampy .... ".
Charlie loves Minecraft but I'm not convinced he has worked out how to play it properly. Never mind, he loves it so I've invested in some overpriced tat for his stocking. I've no idea what the purpose of this stuff is, aside from being a waste of money. It doesn't seem to do anything and I can't imagine what he's going to do with it, but it's all over the shops at the moment and all of his friends seem to be wanting it, so I'll leave it as a 'mystery' well beyond the comprehension of a 40 year old mum.
HENRY (Age 4)
1. Playmobil Lion Knights' Empire Castle
Playmobil make very very very good toys. We have lots of it in our house starting with the toddler 1-2-3 sets (zoo, vehicles) then moving on to a gigantic zoo, a huge cowboy town (with Indian enclave), a holiday resort (full camping site, holiday house, swimming pool), police station with all the vehicles, pirate ships, doll house, dragon tower and lots more!
I don't mind buying Playmobil even though it's quite pricey. I find it much better value than Lego and both boys have played with it a lot. Henry in particular can sit for hours and hours and hours playing with these sets and I recommend the brand to everyone I know.
For months Henry has asked Santa (his secret camera is the motion sensor in our back room) for the 'big knight castle'. He looks at the catalogue almost daily and he kisses the page with the castle on. Only problem is it's £160.00, but I'm watching Amazon as the price goes up and down a lot.
2. Fisher Price Imaginext Batman Batcave
As mentioned earlier, both of my boys LOVE Batman and we already have a lot of Batman toys, books, stickers and dress-up clothes. There was a time earlier in the year when Henry dressed as Batman every day and would only answer to 'Batman' at nursery. As a genius, I had a great plan to get him to wear his normal clothes which was, "ooh today you can dress up as Bruce Wayne, Henry!" So away he went in his jeans and t-shirt - he would only answer to 'Bruce Wayne' for the day - but at least I could wash the Batsuit! :)
Henry spotted this batcave on the back of a magazine a while back, so I got it for him. I've added with a couple of other Imaginext bits and pieces.
3. Tellatale Three Little Pigs puppet set
Henry has been enjoying story time at home and nursery recently and the Three Little Pigs is the current favourite. He loves pretending to be a piggie and saying, "not by the hair on my chinnie, chinnie, chinnie!"
We've had a few finger puppets from the Tellatale puppet company and this set is going to be perfect for story time.
4. Disney Store Storm trooper suit
Henry has drawers full of dress-up costumes and loves putting on a suit! He's currently dressed as a ghost pirate for Halloween but he loves all the regular 'boy' dress up games such as Superheroes (Batman, of course); policemen; firemen; Santa's elves; pirates; knights; wizards and clone troopers from Star Wars.
He's been wanting a regular Stormtrooper suit for a while. Is there a difference between a stormtrooper and a clonetrooper? Hmmm ... well as far as I can see one is all white and the other has a stripe of colour on it's helmet.
5. Playmobil 'take-along' farm
Given that we're already buying Henry that gigantic castle as his main 'from Santa' present, his announcement that he also wanted a 'noy narm' (toy farm) meant that I had a google around for a good Playmobil farm set and stumbled across this little compact one which is now discontinued. I found a new one selling on Amazon for £60.00, but I managed to buy a second hand one on eBay for just £12.00. Quite pleased with this bargain! :)
MATHILDE (Age 20 months)
1. Dolls' rocking cradle from the Great Little Trading Company
Mathilde seems to be going through a stage of loving baby dollies (as well as every real life baby she sees). As I only have experience of boy children - I don't know whether this will pass quickly or whether it will stay with us for quite a few years yet, but it is rather cute.
We have a collection of a few baby dollies at the moment and I don't think the expensive Baby Annabel or Baby Bjorn dolls are worth the money for a one year old, so I thought I'd leave that until next year!
Instead, we need a bed for the babies and I stumbled across this lovely one. Not a huge fan of the pink or the plastic, so this is a little less imposing than some.
2. ELC Happyland fairy treehouse + hedgehog carriage
We have had lots and lots of lovely Happyland toys over the years and I remember making an entire village for Charlie when he was a toddler with farm, zoo, fairground, camp site, shops and even a beach!
Henry was more interested in space rocket, knights' castle and pirate ship Happyland and now I'm finally adding some of the more girly bits! Mathilde already plays with a little mouse kettle house which she got for her 1st birthday and I know this lovely tree house will also go down well.
This set was reduced in Tesco a few weeks back - from £60.00 to £30.00 - so it is also a very good bargain! :)
3. Peppa Pig Weebles Funhouse
It's Peppa ... they wobble ... 'nuff said!
Not sure this stuff is worth the price tag and it only came with one figure ... £5.00 - £9.00 each for extra ones but ... it's Peppa (or bep-bep) and she's Mathilde's favourite at the moment!
4. Disney Store Singing Elsa
I'm very pleased that I've missed the whole Frozen fanatical thing with all the merchandise mania! Mathilde coos over the dolls in the Disney Store, but not as much as she likes Peppa. Anyway, we were browsing the shops the other day and this doll was 'singing' and she loved it!
5. Memory Bear
I saw these gorgeous bears advertised on a Facebook local parenting forum and I wanted to have one made for Mathilde. The lady who makes them, Treena Marshall, is so talented and I don't know how she does it! All I needed was a selection of Mathilde's baby clothes (I used 7 sleepsuits) and Treena made this gorgeous bear out of them in no time at all. Amazing!!!
Treena's page is: https://www.facebook.com/raggedy.pals?fref=ts
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So these will hopefully be the kids' top 5 toys of this year, unless they decide to play with the boxes (happens to us all) or then never see the light of day again after Boxing Day (this has happened too!).
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