Over the weekend, my lifelong friend, Marissa, texted me:

“What kinda stuff did you get the boys for Christmas? My kids do not need more Legos or vehicles of any kind.”

I feel this. After the excitement of the holidays and the joy of gifting to little kids who are so easy to please simply with the novelty of any new toy, moms across the world stare dejectedly at their once-attempted toy storage solutions, realizing they are nowhere near up to the task. What are the gifts that are not simply going to be new versions of things they already have, or difficult to store or keep organized together, or be used for 30 minutes and then put in a toy donation box by next holiday season after we have proven countless times that none of us can reliably keep track of the USB charger specific to this RC toy??

My response to Marissa:

1. Our big ticket item for the boys to share: a Melissa and Doug play store (but purchased on sale awhile back from a retailer). Our boys are obsessed with commerce this past year and setting up “shops” where they sell their brothers’ toys back to them. Apart from a few other books or games, we’re going light on gifts, but here are a few other ideas:
   
2. Eric Carle and Bombas did a cute collaboration, or last year I got the boys Bombas slippers for the winter
   
3. Scratch and sketch games and puzzle books
   
4. These darling kids’ wallets (see point 1)
   
5. Books you can’t rent from the library that speak to your kids’ passions, like the Ultimate Construction Site Book for A, or a sensory “Poke a Dot” book for C, who loves chiming in with “EIEIO” when someone starts “Old MacDonald”
   
6. Games! J is eager to start playing Catan with us, and we’ve gotten a lot of hours from classics like Battleship, or this fun cooperative game, Outfoxed!
   
7. Stocking stuffers: I always go with Mr. Bubbles and other bath supplies (foam soap, bath crackles) in the “consumable” vein

Any other brilliant ideas, please comment below!

Happy holidays and godspeed to anyone still trying to conduct covert toy purges without their children noticing.

Related: 2021 Christmas gift ‘hit list’ // when you need a toy purge so badly that you spend your precious adult time conducting one.