Hot Toys in New England this Holiday Season

Well, maybe "hot toys" is pushing it a bit this year. After all New England is as impacted by the recession - can I say that word for sure? - as anywhere else. But this holiday season people will still buy presents, and though we may forgo buying presents for other adults, we usually don't stop present purchasing for babies and kids.

But this year there definately isn't as much money floating around for large or expensive toy gifts. So my sense is people will be looking for bargains and more bang for their buck.

Last weekend I was out doing some early Christmas shopping - well early for me - and was looking for a couple of presents for younger members of my own family. I always ask the local store owners what are the "hot toys" and then check them out online to see if I can get them at better prices.

So here's what I was told were hot toys in New England this holiday season...

The first is the Kidizoom Digital Camera from Vtech - I bought the orange version but it comes in pink and blue as well. I wish these had been around when I was young - maybe I’d be a much better photographer than I am today - or maybe not!

Anyway it looks like it’ll take some rough handling and survive a few droppings better than my 6 mega pixel Olympus can. It comes with a built-in flash and cable to hook it up directly to the TV or PC so you - I mean the kids of course - can have a picture slideshow or video screening. It even has its own simple picture editing software you install on a PC. The Vtech Kidizoom camera toy is aimed at 3-6 year olds.

The other toy that caught my eye was the Leapfrog Musical Table - an educational toy aimed at 6 months - 3 years, although I suspect older toddlers may get bored quicker.
Ignoring all the mumbo-jumbo talk about the “Mozart effect” there’s plenty of evidence that musical toys are popular with this age group and companies like Leapfrog spend a lot of time designing these toys for educational purposes. There’s certainly plenty of stuff to pull and push on this one.

The Leapfrog Musical Table has 15 activities, over 40 melodies, and a volume control for when the parent has a headache - how nice! It also has detachable legs so it’ll work as a floor toy for infants and then as your child learns to stand you can put the legs back on so it is just the right height to help them gain their “sea legs.” This product also has both English and Spanish words to encourage language development - as a parent of a kid in a local spanish immersion class I appreciate this in a product.

As I write this post there are twelve shopping days left to Christmas and still time to order online and beat the rush. Whatever you choose to buy this year, and wish you good bargains and I'll be back with some more news next week from around the New England region.

Have a great week,

Cliff Calderwood
Publisher
New England Vacations Guide