Holidays in July? it sounds so cliche… but any friend who has tried shopping for wooden toys in, or even close to, December will tell you it is miserable. Now is the time to build your lists and pick up anything you know you’d like to get.
Not everything will be in stock now–but all the more reason to build your lists! Most years, there are one or two more restocks between now and the holidays with time to accommodate shipping. This year everything is a little bit different, and shopping early will matter more than ever. With more people staying home, and I think more people starting to look for wooden toys, the demand is higher than ever. To make the competition stiffer, production is down (Covid-driven), local shipping is slower and international shipping even more erratic. If you see something in stock and think its the right thing for you this year, it’s not the time to hesitate.
I’ve pulled together a few lists with ideas. There are two key criteria considered when picking wooden toys for these lists: Will they last for at least a few years of play? and Can it be a stand-alone toy? There’s nothing like that feeling of picking a toy that a child outgrows in a few months, or that the kiddo can’t enjoy without a notable complement of specific other toys. There are some exceptions, but particularly with the bigger ticket items on these lists, these two criteria ranked high.
Have a look, and as always, leave me a note if you’ve got questions or suggestions!
To find the lists, in the menu (on a mobile device: icon in the top right corner with three horizontal bars), select “Shopping Guide”. If you’d like to jump straight to recommendations by age, expand the menu item “All Ages Gift Ideas”. Or if you select “All Ages Gift ideas”–scroll to the bottom of the page for the age-specific lists.
The Shopping Guide has links to a number of our favorite shops, makers and places to buy some of our favorite things. As always, stock comes and goes, so if you see your perfect gift, I suggest picking it up as soon as you are able.
There is also a list of Reader Favorite items. These have been suggested by readers and they look really fun too! If you have favorite toys, books or learning materials that we haven’t found yet, I’d love to hear about them and share them here so other people can enjoy them too
(And in case you were wondering–the picture at the top is two Panettone. Every year for Christmas Day Morning Breakfast and New Years Day Morning Breakfast we enjoy Panettone)