Good gift, bad gift

Bad gift for Dad:


Is there a man alive who would wear this? I canvassed my men folk on the question. Husband Pundit shook his head quizzically and thought it extremely unlikely. #1 son said yes, definitely, because "most men today aren't men." I thought that was a bit harsh.

Good gift for Dad: Hmm. Our dad is a challenge when it comes to gifts. So let's move on to me; I want music but that will have to wait for another post. For now just refer to RS McCain's What to Give Your Wife for Christmas.

Bad gift for kids:


Granted, this is absolutely benign compared to some of the objects out there for girls. But it's still a bad gift. The little girls I've known were never quite able to fall in love with cloth-faced dolls (with the possible exception of a genuine Raggedy Ann). I may be wrong but I can't imagine a girl loving the tacky monster above, no doubt made in China by baffled child-laborers.

As a little girl I loved my Thumbelina. She's the gold standard of baby dolls.


I still have her. This isn't mine but looks like her except for the hair, which I chopped. The thumb of one hand fits perfectly into her little mouth and her lifelike, chubby arms and legs can be tucked in to form her into a cuddly bundle. Sigh. I have no one to buy a doll for this year. But maybe you do.

The best baby dolls are the American Girl Bitty Babies. At $42 (plus shipping) they're a bit pricey, but the real cost comes with the numerous (and irresistible) clothes and accessories. And worse than the expense is the risk that comes with this elite doll brand: the instilling of dissatisfaction and greed in little girls' hearts, because there's always something more to covet in the catalog.

Look around if you want to give a baby doll; lower-maintenance but lovable dolls can be found from the usual toy vendors. My girls were ready for baby dolls at 12 months of age. At the same age my boys (well, one in particular) would pick up a baby doll and hurl it across the room.

Another bad gift:
Madness. A three year-old doesn't need to be plopped on a stationary bike and hooked up to a screen to get exercise.

Good gift: Blocks!

Our kids, both the boys and the girls, loved these cardboard brick blocks. The trick is to buy lots of them so the children can think big. Many was the time I was called to come see what they had built and was shocked, shocked when one of them burst out from inside a brick-block tower. Kids can set them up as dominoes, make horse stables, race tracks, forts, etc. (Warning: they leave hard-to-remove colored spots when hurled at the wall.)

Our other favorite blocks for little ones are Duplos. Again, you need to have a lot of them. Of all the toys our kids have had I think they spent the most time with the Duplos. And they never break or wear out. The blocks, that it. Kids can be somewhat fragile.

More good gifts for kids: books. I plan to write a post on this. For now see this list and these reviews for a few ideas:

Little Fur Family
A House is a House for Me
The Snow Queen
"B" is for Betsy
The Moffats
Ralph Moody books
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
Return of the Twelves
Tripods series
The Dark is Rising sequence

Full disclosure: If you click through the Amazon links and buy something P&P will make a few cents. This will not add to the price of your purchase. So far we've made over $7!

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