Tell me about your Christmas toys!

[r4blessings]

Now that Christmas is over and the kids have had time to play....what are the toy hits and toy duds this year?

We were hit with a blizzard on the 26th....so we haven't really dug out yet and have been in jammies ever since!

Some of our hits were dd6's digital camera and video barbie. I knew she would love the camera, but couldn't imagine how much time she would spend taking pics with it....or with the video barbie her aunt got for her! Other things she loved were Lanie's camper (of course!) and her playmobil dollhouse and shrinky dinks!

DS5 loves his screacher and his big foot! But the thing he loves the most is his imaginext pirate ship and space shuttle! Had no idea he would be playing with it so much since he never showed much interest in his older brothers old imaginext sets.

DS12 and DS9 are of course playing constantly with their psps but their favorite games are Kingdom Hearts and NCAA football on the xbox. And an impulse purchase at Target of two boxes of Magic starter set cards have been a HUGE hit! They love them, are trading them and already planning their collection.

Our duds of the season seem to be the toysrus brand 18" doll sleigh and horse that a poster posted about that was on crazy sale back in Nov. I'm glad that I only paid $49 for it, b/c dd doesn't seem to play with it much. It is huge though.

The other dud is the kung zhu zhu arena and hamsters. My son soooo wanted these, but it doesn't really work right. He got several hamsters and none of them seem to do much and it has sat untouched since his great grandmother gave it to him.

So tell me about all your toys!

 

[momxx5]

Christmas was nice here.

DD8 -huge hit~Barbie Dream House. She asked for it last year but Santa did not bring it. He brought it this year and she plays with it all day long.
DD12- flute- a much wanted gift. She is constantly playing it. We need to get the proper books for band class.

Boy - they got a huge ping pong table but it has yet to be set up....still making room for it. I am very nervous as reports of this brand/particular one has mixed reviews on quality and putting it together. It was a Target exclusive, and on clearance. Crossing my fingers.

The girls LOVED their pillow pets. I knew they would like them but didn't think they would be getting them.
Most got shoes/boots and are all very happy.

Glad to hear about the ZhuZhu hamsters. No one really was asking for them but they seem to be such a hit. I'm glad no one followed that trend here.

This is our first year without an American Girl....anything

 

[sbpebbles]

biggest hits for my kids:
dd8-her Nintendo DSlite by far, she hasn't put that thing down since Christmas day for more than 5 min other than to sleep..and i got her 5 games, she's played with only 3 of them but having issues with Nintendogs...and of course her pillow pet, she LOVES that thing, a little disappointed she didnt get the one she wanted but happy to have one at all

ds2-the many cars and trucks he got from grandma and grandpa,his melissa & doug puzzle, and his sleepytime Thomas the train (i dont know the real name of it), and his wagon with blocks..basically anything with trains and cars he feel in love with..if he started to open something on Christmas and it wasn't a toy he would not open the gift the rest of the way lol it was cute...

only real dud this year was some of the games i got for DD's Nintendo DS, i think she got too many so now I have a feeling they may sit for awhile...and i think for DS it'd have to be his imitation pillow pet, he don't seem all that into it...oh another flop for us I'd have to say would be the Kid's Digital Camera that we got from JcPenney that everyone was trying to get on here...DD played with it while everyone was here and her cousin's got theirs but that was it..i have no idea where it even is right now so i'm glad it was cheap lol

 

[maddiesmom0116]

Our big hits for DD6 were her Flip video camera, her new Kodak Digital camera, her American Girl Doll (Lanie) and all of the stuff that came with her including Julie's bed and several outfits. Her new Pink DS has been a hit with her, but not with me. No real duds yet this year, but we have about 10 more toys to still open up. I only open a couple a day. also... I got her connect 4 and I think everyone has played it at least a dozen times with her, it was a big hit too.

 

[momxx5]

maddiesmom-

How is the Flip?
DD12 had it on her Santa List. I was curious to know if its as good compared to other handheld video cameras.

BTW- Santa brought Jenga as a family gift. Everyone loves it. Most had not played it before, so my DD8 is kicking butt (she plays at school for indoor recess days)

 

[QVCshopper]

My DD6 LOVES her Elizabeth AG doll and the outfits. Elizabeth has gone just about everywhere with us and goes to bed with DD. Very cute!

Anyway, DS4 was a different story. His favorite gift was a $10 Hot Wheels track. Second fav was a $10 Moon Dough set. The Dinosaur Train stuff that I searched and searched for over literally months? He doesn't like it anymore, he tells me. The Rex and Trixie he always asked for when watching TS3? He doesn't want (returned them). He seems to be entering a new phase and keeps changing his mind. He's always loved animals and dinos; Hot Wheels came out of no where. Oh well. Guess he's growing up. But, I'm not shopping far ahead for him anymore--at least not 90 days ahead so I can still return to Target.

The fav family gift is the Wii and the iPad that I won just before XMas. It's amazing!

 

[luvmy3]

The biggest hit here was the Xbox with Kinect. My one ds loves his ipod nano, my other ds loves all of his Lego Atlantis sets and my dd loves her Uggs.

I'm loving my new Calphalon cookware

 

[StephMK]

We have had a great Christmas with the kids enjoying about everything they've gotten. I think sticking to a budget & really thinking how I best wanted to spend it helped weed out the impulse buys.

DD16 - loves her GPS & ipod transmitter for the car! I was worried because she didn't ask for it but had nothing really on her list except clothes, books & music. The GPS was a last minute idea on a great sale at Best Buy last week.

DD10 - Kodak digital camera & lego beach house! DS games - Art Academy & Scribblenauts - both huge hits. She has not yet read her cartooning or fiction book but I figure those will come later. I rejected her request for an EZ Bake oven in favor of a Babycakes machine - she loves it & we enjoyed very labor intensive but tasty cupcakes for dessert tonight.

DS8 - LOVED his spy gear stuff! Snap Circuits car a big hit but loud, chemistry set has not been used but he started trying to do stuff on his own the other night. DS games - Transformers & Drawn to Life big hits. Kirby & Mario wii games great too.DS & my brother share a fascination for almanacs & he got the 2011 edition & was thrilled! Again, books not touched yet but those will be used after the excitement dies down.

Happy to report no real duds yet! Edited to correct - the duds were the PJs I bought for the girls at Penney's. DS's fit fine but the girls were both too short & cut wide. The ribbon wrapped packages are cute but don't allow to really check for size. Both were returned today.

 

[mom2t]

DS - DSI XL and his 5 games - also legos - 8 new sets

DH - 1950s timeline book - only paid 10 at Ollies & Happy Days Seasons 1-4 scored deal at Amazon

Me - Trip to Disney in 3 weeks

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Dd's DSi and ds' DS were both big hits. DD is loving recording everyone (gotta watch what I say ) and replaying it in the different voices.

Wii Dance2 - everyone loves it, even dh and I had a dance off. LOL (I won, of course!)

The best bang for my buck though was a fabric patterned binder that comes with markers that you colour. I got it in a clearance bin for $4 for dd. She's been colouring non stop since Christmas and it's still not done. She's lovin it! Lots of quiet around here, it's been great.

Santa put some candy dispensers in the kids stockings - they're reindeer and the candies come out their butts. I think they got more of a kick out of those than some of the other presents.

 

[Mom2Ben02]

DS8 got a Nintendo DSi. I thought it was going to be a huge hit - had the video camera all ready. He cried - and not happy tears. Turns out, he still had games that he had with the DS his sister lost, and he thought they would not work. Once he figured out they did, he was happy. His fave gift - a Lego Star Wars Dictionary.

DD6 got an American Girl (well, the Target version) bed from Grandma on Christmas Eve. She set it up by the fireplace, and Santa put all of the small, wrapped AG gifts (hairbrush, shoes, etc) on the trundle part. She was so tickled.

DS6mos - he liked the paper. His gifts were all old baby toys that I had in the basement or from garage sales - he had to have something, so DS & DD would not wonder why Santa forgot the baby. He would have been fine with a box, though.

As for me...my mommy bought me a Keurig -

 

[StephMK]

DS6mos - he liked the paper. His gifts were all old baby toys that I had in the basement or from garage sales - he had to have something, so DS & DD would not wonder why Santa forgot the baby. He would have been fine with a box, though.

As for me...my mommy bought me a Keurig -

Love it! I bet he was so cute w/the paper too!

 

[r4blessings]

Wow! Thanks for all the responses!

StephMK....how is the babycakes machine? DD would love, love, love an easy bake oven but I think the novelty would wear off. Would love to know how the babycakes machine is. DD has her birthday in January so I am still looking for ideas! LOL!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We just got back after having to leave early on Christmas day to avoid snowstorms to get to see my family for Christmas. So my kids haven't gotten to play with much.

Oldest DD is enamoured with all of her barbie stuff and second DD loves her generic barbie house (Target's wooden tall dollowhouse).

But too soon for me to declare what wasn't and what was a dud.

DS got a new bike and seems to enjoy his trains and matchbox cars the best. Cold weather here, so not ideal bike riding weather.

Baby--well, she just plays with whatever I give her. We didn't spend anywhere near what we spent on the other kids. But she was in need of things to put in her mouth. She is my most oral baby yet. I got a couple of weeble wobbles and she likes those. Also loves a fisher price tea set and will soon enjoy her Violet that we haven't had the chance to program, yet.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Our biggest hit is a surprise to me. It is Bop It. I bought it very last minute, it was on sale for $8 and I had a $3 off coupon. It was so last minute it didn't even get wrapped (bought it getting snacks for the car ride to grandma's.) Anyway, I have not stopped hearing it played with since Christmas day. One of the best $5 purchases I have mde for sure.

Other hits were DD11 got a DSi. She gave her DS to her sister (DD16) and that made her happy. DD16 got a new camera and gave her old one to her sister (DD8) and that made her happy. DD8 got a 3 foot tall spiral gumball machine and she is over the moon about that, but those aren't really toys I guess. I think another favorite (non-toy, my kids are getting older) is they all got recycled candy wrapper purses and they really, really loved those! We got some new Wii games but the rule is no Wii when the tree is up cause our house is so tiny so we won't play with those for a few more days at least.

 

[DaniB]

DS6 - lego (3 new sets), a V-Reader, and a zhu-zhu ninja hamster he purchased upon receiving a gift card. I thought the hamster would sit around doing nothing, but he likes it. Personally I think they are dumb.

DD11 - Barbie Glam Jet. She has not stopped playing with it yet, and in fact invited a friend to sleep over so they could play with it non-stop. Upstairs playing with it right now!

US (hubby & I) - my parents telling us they would take care of the kids for a week next year so we can go to Disney by ourselves! We got that news late Oct/early Nov.

 

[mom2val]

DD10: Hits- Phineas and Ferb Goo from disney online store, Bitty Baby, Legos, Sonic the Hedgehog Comics

Misses - American Girl Josephina's Oven

 

[java]

Have not come across a dud yet.

Funny thing is the most played with and loved items of both 5 and 8 year old boys are the Singamajigs they got! They think they are so funny and sleep with them now too!(The kinect that I searched and searched for hasn't even been set up yet-- too busy playing with other toys.) The other big hit was a magnet set I got from QVC
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/...netic-Building-Set-w-Instruction.cm_scid.zone

I am going to have the Easter Bunny bring some more of those for sure.

My 16 year old loves his camera-(it's the panasonic lumix that also takes video. It's a sweet camera and it should be for the price!)

My daughter hmm she's loving her Northface jacket - not really a toy.

 

[JamesMom]

Hits:
DS8 has already played through Mario/Donkey Kong DS game and the headphones for his Video MP3 player are on when the DS isn't. Oh, and the roller skates! He wore them for 2 days straight rolling around the house, lol.
DS5 is now attached to his lady bug pillow pet and has been coloring in his house (cardboard to color).

Misses:
DS8 - Guilty party has even been put in the Wii yet, but he has probably been too busy playing with his other stuff. Same with the scooter still in the box. Guess can't ride it with skates on your feet!
DS5 - His legos. Shock! This is a kid who begged and begged for legos and is known for putting 300+ piece sets together within an hour. Nana got him one of the monster 600+ Space Police sets and he messed with it for awhile and now all the pieces are tucked in the box. Too many too soon?

For the adults?
I've been playing almost nonstop WoW cataclysm expansion - so many toons, so little time and I love the Rock Band 3 ProDrum expansion. Having the cymbals adds great realism.
DH has also been playing WoW & his Xbox Red Dead redemption

 

[DawnM]

Hits:

Ping Pong table!
Epic Mickey Wii
Kirby Epic Wii
fleece throw blankets
Lego sets

Duds:

Really we didn't do too bad in the dud department. I have stopped getting filler gifts as I know they won't use them. I opted to just get candy, gum, and beef jerkey for their stockings and they liked all of that.

They didn't appreciate the clothing I got them, but they will be worn!

Middle son was disappointed that his large box turned out to be a backpack for boyscouts......but 4 days later he inspected it and tried it on his back and decided he liked it!

Dawn