It will be Christmas soon! Have you started creating your kid’s Christmas wish list yet? If not, it’s about time–you don’t want to be stuck in the Christmas rush, especially if you (like we) live quite far away from most family and friends and get many things by mail. The post offices will be overwhelmed before the holidays, and you wouldn’t want your child’s presents to arrive late. Besides, if you want to avoid lots of people crammed into a physical store during the pandemic and prefer online shopping like I do, you might find some educational toys of value on the Internet. If you don’t know what to give your toddler yet (whether boy or girl), check out what Leander is getting this year. Maybe, there’s an idea that works for you, too.
My son has very few wishes this year. Last year, he got the huge “Kugelbahn” (a high, wooden ball track), and he still plays happily with it. This year, we’ll tone it down a bit, because living in Germany is expensive. When I asked him what he absolutely wants to have, he said: “Olaf!” And when I asked him why, he said, “He has a long nose!” 😉 (He means the snowman from Frozen.) And, of course, he wants new playdough, since his old one has been played with for so long, the colors have melted into a not-so-nice brown, and it got a bit too hard to sculpture. His wishes shall be fulfilled…
Here’s an Olaf that jumps up if the wrong crystal is inserted into his barrel. When I showed him several Olafs, including plush ones, he selected this one. He knows the principle from Banana Blast (but he’s only interested in making the monkey jump by inserting the bananas, not in waiting his turn or rolling the dice). I’m sure he will like the jumping Olaf, too. And it prevents him for running out of place to sleep, because his bed is filled with plushies already.
This year, we will have matching jammies again. I don’t like to wear red, and we already had a blue/turquoise matching PJ set, so this year, I have ordered a green set. It has a dinosaur on it, because my son loves dinos.
Does your child have a dino friend already? If you have a toddler who is into electronic toys that play music and move, the VTech Mix and Match-a-Saurus might just be a perfect fit. My son got his dino friend for Christmas 2020 and still loves it. He dances with it and happily exchanges the tiles (crests) on its back for different songs and prompts. He also feeds it pizza 😉
What I really want for him this year (a bit more educational) is a scooter, Tonies in English for his Tonie box that he will get from mommy (they have Tonie boxes in kindergarten, so he knows how to use those), clothes for a 4-year-old (he will be 4 a month after Christmas), new bedding with characters (the zippers on his Peppa Pig bedding are breaking all the time now, although grandma fixes them faithfully).
Here’s a 100% cotton Olaf bedding (in German bed sizes!) that he would love:
This is a nice sparkly roller for preschool kids. I think he would love to zoom around on it. He is getting too big for his trike already, and he’s a very active boy.
He loves The Gruffalo books in German, so it would be lovely if he had a corresponding Tonie in English:
He also loves Elmo a lot and has a plushie he sleeps with:
And here is the ever-present Peppa Pig, which has been accompanying him for the past years. He would love to listen to her stories before falling asleep.
I’d like for him to know more fairy tales, so I think a Tonie about Pinocchio would be great:
Finally, here are some pants for 4-year-olds (he mostly wears pants with elastics, because otherwise, they’ll fall off his tiny bottom):
Some sweaters for 4-year-olds:
Some pj’s for 4-year-olds:
Lyons Cub is looking very forward to Christmas already, and our kitchen has filled with tangerines, gingerbread cookies (from ALDI), and marzipan already. We’ll set up our tree around Thanksgiving (which is not celebrated in Germany), and this year–if it’s open after the pandemic closures last year–we will go to a German Christmas Market!!! Photos of that will follow…