Holiday 2022

Here we are, December 1 and once again we have the great privilege of sharing a few things we are giving our kids this year. We are leaning away from toys that require batteries and make a bunch of sounds and moving towards toys that spark imaginative play, educational games, and books upon books. We know the importance of teaching our kids about the greatest gift that we have ever received and also are eager to show our love to our kids simply from a small, wrapped gift. If you are reading this, we just hope to give you a few ideas of what you could wrap up for a child in your life and in the same breath we know that our time together at Christmas time is what we all cherish the most. Each company you see is thoughtfully picked by us and we hope you find something that kids in your life could use!

The three youngest girlies; keeping their brother’s gifts a surprise. MasterPieces has a wide variety of puzzles, games, toys and crafts and we were grateful to find a few things that our boys will really love. You can really find something for everyone from MasterPieces and we especially love their branded sports paraphernalia. The Spot It Game is a huge hit in our home and is a fun one for all ages. The Shake N Score dice game is great for any sports lover as you can buy your teams favourite game and this is a perfect game to bring on road trips or play while you’re waiting for a game to start.

Penguin Random House - Lately, we have been reading chapter books as a family read aloud and The Penderwicks is one on our list we have been waiting to read! It would be a great family gift for the holidays. Narwhalicorn and Jelly is an easy to read, beginner comic book for children. Boys and girls of all ages love the drawings and inviting story lines of Ben Clinton. The cutest addition to our holiday books is Uni the unicorn: Reindeer Helper. Our girls love this series and Uni’s Wish for Wings is another great early reader level book. However, I think our boys are most excited for the Who HQ Collection: Disasters. The Who HQ collection has so many titles of inventors, presidents, athletes, leaders, heroes, singers, actors etc. and in each story they share all about who or what the person or event is all about. They are a beginner chapter book and the disaster collection includes titles about the Great Depression, the Titanic, Pompeii etc.!

You can find most of these titles at Indigo and some on Amazon as well.

Learning Resources: Our younger children love playing games and any time we can combine learning and fun we are always in! Learning resources makes quality games that are perfect for young fingers to use while engaging them in play and learning. Penguins on Ice: Math activity set has over 100 counter penguins allowing you to do so many different skills with them: sorting, counting, addition, subtraction etc. The Alphabet Garden Activity set comes with a few different activity cards making the set up simple and easy. Children place the flowers in specific holes to work on letter identification, letter sounds etc. Snap-n-Learn Shape snails are easy to store and perfect for little hands to develop fine motor strength while matching shapes. The snails also make a fun toy to imagine with as well. If you’re looking for a toy that also encourages children to use their engineering skills then Gears! Gears! Gears! is the perfect collection. They have different themes such as Gizmos, Dizzy Fun Land, Build and Bloom etc. that all work together or you can use separately.

ABC Party Cupcake Toppers - Our younger girls love to play kitchen and pretend to bake things so this is a great way to incorporate learning and play. Children can build cupcakes with different colours, and when they are ready, you can add letters, picture sounds to match and even spell out simple words. We love an activity that has multiple uses.

Giving a new puzzle to one of our kids is always a sweet option because it allows us to complete it as a family on those days in between Christmas and New Years when no one really knows what the date is. Raincoast has such beautiful puzzles by Mud Puppy. The Search and Find In the Mountains and the Map of the U.S.A. are both great options. Cairo loves learning about geography so these are a great fit. Plus, I’ll wrap up a few of these books for Cruz who is a huge fan of trucks and animals. A few great titles for younger kids are Over and Under the Canyon, Forest Tracks ( a lift the flap book) , Farm Lullaby and for your child that loves anything that moves: Construction Site: Road Crew, Coming Through!

Crafting and pretend play with dolls/stuffies takes up a huge chunk of time in all of our girls’ lives and we love to encourage that. These Pomea Dolls from Djeco are so soft and light and I know our girls will love to care for them or push them in their stroller. You can find these cute dolls locally at Dilly Dally Kids . For any child in your life that loves arts and crafts, we highly recommend Djeco for markers, craft kits, and beads (If you live in the lower mainland you can find these at Dilly Dally Kids). Djeco makes incredible art and activity kits that are ready to use such as Do It Yourself Mosaic Tiaras, Butterfly Mosaic Kit and Create with Stickers Sea Creatures.

North South Books - The Smallest Snowflake, A Fairytale Christmas, The Christmas Star and Advent Storybook are some new titles we are adding to our Christmas library this year. These books are heartwarming and capture the magic and wonder of Christmas. One new early reader book series we are excited to try is The Mouse Advenutures in which a mouse travels to different places and discoveries such as a trip to the moon!

We love finding stocking stuffers at Bendon because they carry so many different characters and themes for creative play. If you have any travel days coming up then these are great to have in your bag to pull out in the car or on the airplane for your kids to pass the time. The Play Packs with stickers, colouring books and crayons come in a variety of themes such as Hot Wheels, Frozen, Christmas and so many others. On travel days our kids are really into the Magnetic Tins which are great to pack on road trips such as Dinosaurs, Farm Animals and Scratch off United States! The Imagine Ink picture pads are excellent for younger children to colour with at home, in the car, on an airplane etc. so we cannot wait to include those in their stockings this year. You can find some of these items on Amazon, your local dollar store and Target!

These are some awesome faith-filled books from Tommy Nelson that make a great gift this Christmas for any kid in your life. I know our boys will love this book from Dude Perfect that is filled with fun tricks, helpful tips, and more about how these men love Jesus. Dream Big for kids is the children’s story version of Bob Goff’s book he wrote for adults about reaching for your biggest dreams without fear. Colouring God’s love for me is a wonderful way to incorporate devotions and art at the same time. Each day has a devotional to read and a new page to colour.

Kooshoo - this is a newer find for us but we love the hair ties and accessories this company creates. Their products are kind and gentle on hair as their hair ties are strong with no plastic on them. Also, the colours in their packages are beautiful, creating a gorgeous accessory to any hair. We love the mini hair ties in Earth tints and the Plastic Free Round Mondo Hair Ties in Golden Fibres

Baker Book House - If you are looking for a good fiction or non fiction book, this is a great place to visit. They have books for young and old but for a younger reader, the Cul-de-Sac-Kids is a series by Beverly Lewis that has been recently rereleased and is a great first chapter book for beginner readers. The stories are about a group of children going on adventures, solving mysteries and having fun.

One thing that always reminds us of our childhood is Purdys chocolate during the holidays. As children, our mom would always put Purdys bells in the bottom of our stocking. It was the best chocolate and a treat that we love now adding to our own children’s stockings. As adults, we can’t get enough of the Sweet Georgia Browns in both milk and dark chocolate. For gifts, the Holiday Wishes Gift Basket makes a wonderful choice filled with a variety of delicious treats. In our kids stockings we love to slip the Holiday Milk and Dark Chocolate Bar Bag or the Milk Chocolate Joy bar. A fun tradition to add is enjoying a chocolate each day before Christmas and Purdys makes an adorable Elf village Advent Calendar that makes it both fun and delicious!

One of our favourite book companies is Zonderkidz because they carry stories of faith, teach wholesome character traits, and help teach our kids more about who God is. We will be using Twas the Season of Advent on December 1 with our kids and in the new year we will be doing a new unit on Food + Farming so This Farm is a Family will go perfectly.

These Lottie Dolls are from Schylling, who has many different products that engage children in play but also foster imagination, creativity and most importantly are fun! As moms, we are always looking for creative, imaginative and quality made toys that engage our children and Schylling carries a ton of great brands that do just that. I know our girls will love imaginative play with these child-like dolls and a bonus is that these dolls can stand on their own two feet! They also come with adorable accessories and costumes. Forest Friend, Queen of the Castle and Pool party Lottie would make great stocking stuffers!

FoxMind is a Canadian company that makes educational and fun games for the whole family. We are eager to try out these new to us games such as Maze Runner, Archelino, Metaforms, and Match Madness. These multi-level games are perfect for our family when we have varying skill level so that each kid can practice playing them. For homeschooling we often use games for learning to break up our seat work and I am excited to add these ones to our games closet.

Finally, the last item we would love to share with you all is this christian book series by Ted Dekker and his daughter, Rachelle Dekker called The Dragons Among Us. These books appeal to young boy and girls (they recommend 9 and up) as they join a thrilling ride that will forever change the way they deal with the challenges we all experience in this life.

Each year we love sharing some great ideas of what we are gifting our kids for Christmas. We are hoping this list of books, toys, games and treats inspires your Christmas shopping and introduces you to a few new companies this season.