Your Christmas Toy GIFT GUIDE

Whether you’re a spontaneous shopper or a meticulous gift planner, you’ll want your choices both to hit the mark and become firm favourites. While age recommendations are useful guidelines for toy purchases, remember that not all children develop at the same rate. Do consider the child’s passions and hobbies.

For inspiration, take a look at The Good Play Guide’s (goodplayguide.com) top picks for the festive season. You can rest assured that these accredited products have been independently tested by play experts and most importantly, by children.

Rock Stepper - Educational Playmat

(Baby and pre-school) £195

Hands Up!

(Ages 7+) £16.99

Hands Up! is a reaction speed card game where you compete to be the best security guard. Lots of twists and turns along the way make this game a fun, fast-paced contest where only the quickest thinkers prosper. Thieves have made their way into the museum and are attempting a heist. As a security guard, your mission is to catch the thieves and stop them in their tracks but you will need to be careful to avoid triggering a false alarm. Collect the most cards to become the best security guard.

Tonies Toniebox

(Baby to 10 years) £62.95

The Toniebox is an invincible musical storybox that children control. The box comes with one character, with add-ons available such as Peter Rabbit, Elsa and James and the Giant Peach. The figures help bring stories to life, also giving children a sense of independence as they choose which character they want to listen to and place the figure on the box. There are ‘Tonies’ that just play music and the option to record your own stories onto certain characters meaning children can listen to stories or goodnight messages from relatives who live far away.

Little Rebel Dolls

(Ages 6+) £24.99

Little Rebels are more than just dolls, they are inspired by iconic women including Marie Curie, Malala Yousafzai and Amelia Earhart. Linked to an app, each one can teach and empower the next generation of leaders. Scanning the doll unlocks hours of fun with videos, ebooks, colouring activities, trivia and augmented reality. The range provides strong female role models for children by representing inspiring figures throughout history. The dolls also make a great tool for helping children to develop knowledge and understanding of the world around them.

The Rock Stepper playmat supports early learning and development by introducing phonics, word formation and early maths skills. Shapes, letters, numbers, colours and pictures keep children of different ages engaged. Accompanying flashcards and access to an app bring another play dimension, prompting children to interact with the mat in different ways. The mat is well cushioned to avoid bumps and bruises if children take a tumble while playing. The reverse side has a stylish design on it, so you can turn it over when it’s not being played with instead of putting it away each time.

Ollyball

(Ages 5-9) £17.99

The Ollyball has so much to offer. A lightweight ball that will encourage children to get moving and also get their creative juices flowing. Children first inflate the ball with the straw provided, then they can colour in the design with any type of pen, marker or crayon, before deciding which game to play with their friends. It’s incredibly lightweight and safer to use indoors than any other ball.

My Ice Cream Shop Playset

(Pre-school) £27.99

The My Ice Cream Shop Playset is great for imaginative role-playing and practising basic maths skills. With nine colourful flavours of ice cream scoops and three yummy toppings, little ones can assemble cones to match the play cards and practise their counting and pattern matching skills. Pretend play is a great way to develop emotional and social skills: open up the play guide to find interactive play ideas for developing skills like empathy and active listening or spin the game wheel for a fun activity.

Hey Clay

(Ages 5+) £14.99

Hey Clay mixes an engaging app and a box of air-drying clay for unlimited creativity. The cleverly thought out app gives clear step-by-step instructions on how to create a variety of models. Children love how simple the steps are to follow and also the extra games that come with the app. Designed to boost kids’ imaginations, the vibrant and soft modelling clay is great for sensory development and play-based learning, developing fine motor skills and creativity.

Discovering StemAstronomy: Travelling to Space

(Ages 9+) £27.99

This Stem set will have older children occupied for hours as they learn about the mission to the moon and what it’s like to live in space, among other facts. They then have six space-themed models to build, including a space shuttle and rocket. There is also a quiz to test the new space explorer’s knowledge and the accompanying mobile app and instruction booklet are easy to follow.