The holiday season is upon us and with that comes gift giving. It’s so easy to get stumped on what to buy the kiddos in your life when the trends are changing so often! So, I wanted to share with you the toys and play items we own personally that have withstood the test of time, trends aside. These are the toys our kids play with continually, day in and day out and as a striving-to-be-minimalist mama, I can appreciate a toy that will last! In fact, the toys on this list survived our playroom clearout earlier this year so you know I love them!
1: Magna Tiles: These are, hands-down, the BEST toys you can buy. Maybe you’ve heard talk of “open-ended” toys being great for children? These are the ultimate open-ended toy. The possibilities with these are endless. Some days, for my kids, they serve as tunnels or super tall sky scrapers. Other days they morph into garages and houses. They become pizza, ice cream and serving trays. They are so versatile and really quite sturdy. My kids are not soft on their toys and these are holding up beautifully.
2. Wooden Train Tracks: We started playing with wooden train tracks when Alex was about 18 months old, and we haven’t stopped since (he’s 5 1/2 now)! The boys come up with all sorts of elaborate tracks and the stories to go along with them. We have a mix of all sorts of different tracks, but these from Amazon are a great price! I’ve even made a train table out of them and as you can see below, they are well loved!
4. Felt/Pretend Food: This Melissa and Doug pizza is a favorite around here. My boys don’t often play pretend with their felt food, but when they do, it lasts for a few hours! We also have these fruit and vegetable baskets from Ikea. Madi has even started to stand at our play Ikea kitchen!
5. Dress up: I’m a big fan of buying up Halloween costumes when they are on sale for my kids to play dress up with. We have a mix of my husband’s old costumes from when he was little and newer costumes we’ve bought in years past. We have things like super heros, pumpkins, pirates and even a Thomas the Tank Engine! We keep these out all year round and then when Halloween comes around, they most likely just pick a costume out of the bin for their costume!
So, there ya go! These are our favorite toys and we honestly don’t have many toys outside of these because they just never got played with like these toys do. I hope this was helpful in deciding what to purchase for gifts this Christmas! Let me know if you have any questions about how we use these toys or how they have lasted! I’m happy to help!
What toys are a favorite in your house? What is on your child’s Christmas list this year?
