How to Choose the Right Toys as Gifts This Christmas
Are you feeling overwhelmed (as always!) by the number of products available for kids this holiday season? Here's a guide to choosing the right toys to give the children in your Christmas gift list. Here are tips on how to choose the right toys as gifts this Christmas:
Playtime for Babies - For a child, play is serious business. Any kind of stimulation—the sounds from a music boy, a mobile twirling, even the whoosh of a washing machine—can gain a baby's attention, diminish boredom and end crying.
Toys to Imagine By - While children may be initially fascinated by some highly structured toys that do very specific things, they remain interested in toys far longer if the toys are more flexible and can be used in different ways. The toys that can become whatever the child wants it to be is bound to be more enriching than the toy that is only one thing. The universal attraction of blocks to children everywhere throughout the history of mankind is an example.
Family history is another rich source of memory gifts. Frame old maps, the deed to the family home or a square of needlepoint or embroidery made by your great-grandmother. Or make a slide show of family slides. For a high-tech twist, try creating a videotape or DVD of old slides of someone’s family and setting it to music. Their tape will become such a hit that relatives will play it over and over at family get-togethers. You can also use a video camera to tape your clan's reunion, a special birthday party or Grandma reading to the kids, and make copies for your relatives.
I turn the pages of the old spiral notebook, reading the familiar recipes in my grandmother's shaky handwriting: Henry's Christmas Cookies, Sparta Buttermilk Griddle Cakes, and Icebox Rolls. I remember sitting at the big table in her Wisconsin kitchen, and I can still smell the steaming trays of cloverleaf dinner rolls coming out of the oven on Christmas Eve.
This chronicle of favorite family recipes is one of my most cherished possessions—especially now that my grandmother is gone. I feel a link to my past every time I turn those well-worn pages.
