‘Momma, this one’s my favorite.’ Lily holds up a 1980’s blonde Barbie with an unrealistic plastic waistline sporting a high ponytail and bangs. The same Barbie I dressed and redressed over and over in my childhood. She played with her for a few minutes and then went to play with her brother’s Legos.
My mom brought all my Barbie paraphernalia from my childhood for Lily to play with and after about two days, she wasn’t playing with any of it. It sat untouched in the corner of her room. So I did what any minimalist mother would do and boxed up all of it except for her two favorite Barbies. What I really noticed when the Barbies were brought into Lily’s life was that even with ALL the accessories and clothes and furniture, none of it really seemed appealing to her. Once I took the excess add-ons away, she played with her two ‘favorite’ Barbies and coaxed her little brother to join in.
Research on Kids and Toys
Research conducted by The University of Toledo in Ohio studied children playing with a certain number of toys. They discovered children were more focused and engaged in creative play when they were given fewer toys to play with. British research also reported an average 10 year old child owns around 238 toys, but only plays with 12 daily. (Honestly, that sounds about right, right? It is a more extreme version of Pareto’s 80/20 principle, kids play with 5% of the toys 95% of the time.) Experts on the ground doing the research on kids and toys are telling us our kids actually thrive with less. What if we started to believe them? What if the toy collection was narrowed to the essential five percent?
I am most definitely not an advocate for no toys. In fact, if you come to my house on any given day there are plenty of toys, many times all over my living room and kitchen. I step on a toy airplane or car more often than I’d like, but we are trying to move towards less. With Christmas right around the corner, I think it’s a good time to think about moving towards less toys for our kids. Not so we can punish them or limit them, but so we can help them thrive and create.
3 Gifts
Our tradition for Christmas is each child gets three gifts to mimic how Jesus received three gifts from the wise men. This has come to be a worthy tradition because our two oldest know this is how we do Christmas and their expectations are set accordingly. This won’t work for every family, but you can always rethink what you’ve done in the past to cut back on the amount of toys coming in on December 25.
Some questions to ask: What is a reasonable number of gifts for our family? What are two or three small changes we can make this year to make this season more about presence and less about presents?
Simple Gifts
As our kids have gotten older, we are no longer able to get them what we want to get them (big heavy sigh here). They now have more specific wishes and dreams and requests.
As our little people grow, so do their opinions.
We try and stick within certain constraints and there are just some things that aren’t going to happen on our dime (like a second Lego train for our oldest). But, we don’t want to miss the point and only get them small shop wooden toys we think they ought to like (been there, done that). We want them to be excited and for Christmas morning to be magical, and we also want them to play with their toys.
Here are some simple gifts we have found to be both exciting and get played with long after the wrapping paper tornado is taken to the dumpster.
Magna-Tiles or Picasso Tiles
These things get played with daily (with ages 1-6). Jude received some for his birthday and we have added to the collection because they are, by far, the most played with basket of toys at our house. We also added these cars to the mix and they are an accompanying favorite (which are sometimes repurposed as rollerblades). These tiles get a lot of use and kids are using their brains to create. These are the top toy at our house.
Wooden Train Tracks
We have two boys, ages 6 and 21 months and they both still love wooden train tracks. They will play with these for hours, especially if Daddy will set up a track in the living room that goes under furniture. If you have boys in your home, these are a great gift.
Doll House
Lily received a wooden doll house similar to the one linked above last year for her birthday. It sat lonely for awhile, but now it gets played with often. It is a simple design, which allows for lots of creative play. I see this sticking around for awhile.
Wooden Blocks
These blocks get played with so much. They have been used to make towers, roads, parking lots, houses, and things my kids don’t have words for. Our kids’ favorite thing to do with them is make roads and drive little cars all over them. This is a pricier toy, but so worth it.
Lego
Our kids are all-in when it comes to Lego. I would love for Luke to only want the classic kind to create and recreate, but he really loves the kits, so it’s a compromise. The classic Lego are more open ended, but Luke plays ‘Lego City’ with all his kits, so there is still some creative play involved. Lego=Classic
Books
I know. This is a no brainer. But, I had to include them because my kids always love a new book. Here are some of my favorite Christmas books to gift:
And here are some of my favorite classic books to gift that my kids love:
Boxcar Children (We really only like the first one.)
I’m all ears. What about you? What are some simple or not so simple gifts you are planning to gift your kids this year? Please share in the comments.