To ask why there is no must have toy?

[Swinesinsleepingbags]

It seems like there is not a must have toy, nothing that kids are dreaming of and hoping they have been good enough to get. Is this the end of the commercialisation of Christmas or have kids given up on toys for tech?

DD 9 has asked for books, Jenga and a Rubik cube. We've got her those...and an iPad. I think her head might fall off on Christmas morning.

Its the big Lol dolls that come with a little one. Pretty were pretty hard to find, although I saw them in Smyths the other day.

I think the Switch is the main present being asked for in my kid's class. I haven't bought one as already find it difficult to control screen time.

Last year it was hatchimal craziness here and by mid January they were thrown in a corner and I haven't seen them since. Today I asked DC what they got last year from Santa. The eldest mentioned some colouring pens (!) and the other couldn't remember one single thing other than chocolate! That was a lot of money well spent obviously

@Gothmummy the Playmobil Aquarium sets are fab and DD5 had no problem setting them up or looking after the small parts And it's very much LOL Dolls here, though I've noticed a definite snobbery towards them from aspirational types whose poor children aren't allowed them in favour of a worthy stick and perhaps a ball if they are lucky.

My son ( and I) has consistently asked for a super station. He's excited as am I

For those who mentioned the Thomas Super Station - Brace yourselves as it's not worth the money at all! I got my daughter one and she was bored after 10 mins! All it does is go round and up & down the hills - and every single damn time the motorised Trackmaster trains fall off! My advice is to get the new Trackmaster Push Along trains to use on it and move around by hand.

One good thing though, is it's great to store Thomas Mini engines on! 🤷🏼‍♀️

@Shesalittlemadam my ds cousin has one and he loves it. Ds played with it for 3 hours solid at his house in October and has been asking for one ever since 😂

I think that kids TV used to be a few hours in the afternoon and on Saturday morning and a lot of those didn't have toys associated with it - Art Attack, Knightmare Blue Peter, Rugrats etc. so when a TV show/film did have merchandise then all the kids wanted it.

Now there are practically 24/7 cartoon channels and most of them have a whole range of toys - Paw Patrol, Doc McStuffin, My Little Pony, Peppa Pig.

I was thinking the same.

DH recalls a time (still with some trauma) when the Teletubbies were the must have. He has a sister some 11 years younger than him so when he was 15 or so she would have been 4 and that's what she wanted. Him and his Ddad queued early in the morning outside Beatties as rumours were rife a shipment had just arrived. They split up and agreed to meet at the till. FIL was charged with LaLa and Po. DH the others. He said the doors opened and there was a stampede - the toys had been placed in metal containers and the staff just let them go and ran for cover. DH was nimble and grabbed his two and ran for the tills. As he did an elderly woman stuck her stick out and sent him flying! She then held him down with her stick and pinched his Tinky Winky!

So that year there were only three Teletubbies although they were given one after Christmas as MIL called the store and complained about her son being assaulted 😂

My nearly 3 year old just wants a ball and a bubble machine for the bath. Simple pleasures!

Harry Potter Lego here.
DS watches Netflix and Prime so not many adverts though which I think makes a difference.
He saw Playmobil History advertised a few years ago and that had been played with a lot. It’s beautifully done.

My must have toy is anything for my Cricut 🤣

It's maybe a bit niche, but the Turing Tumble is sold out and hard to get hold of.

My three year old must have toy is a peppa brolly and a plastic richard rabbit toy. Sadly mummy not been able to locate either so granny got her a unicorn brolly. Hoping she not notice. Came vvv close to a richard rabbit plastic figure last week on fb but another mum snapped him up. Ill re look in new year. I think each child wants different things this year. My nephew wants harry potter things, niece drawing things. In fact dont know any wanting tech stuff

Not a toy but no England shirts to be found anywhere. Not main present so not a disaster but annoying none the less.

The "must have" toys are usually crap. I think it's better if there isn't one so parents/children have to think of something they actually want rather than just following the trends.

My daughter is that age definitely doesn't want LOL dolls. She's asked for a Fitbit Ace(?!), Switch games (we've got her some Labo kits as well), lots of books etc. She's got things like Boomtrix and a telescope too as well as some jewellery.

We don't watch normal TV - it's all Netflix, iPlayer etc although she does see some stuff on YouTube but usually it's not current.

YABU. I think you need to watch Jingle All the Way, OP

It’s all about Lego ninjago in my ds group of 6/7year olds. I don’t let him watch YouTube so he thankfully has no idea of most of the toy reviews.

For my DS (6) it's Lego friends funfair set (I have it for him along with an octopus ride to go with). He also asked for a hotwheels crate track which we have for him.

No tech wanted here!

Luckily, I managed to get both items without any problems but I did but then.in November!

One of DS friends (who is 5) apparently only wanted a Nintendo switch! Literally nothing else which I think is a little sad - so many toys missed out on!

The LOL stuff for girls? Not even sure what it is as I have boys.

My 3yo just wants brio Thomas trains and track - love buying this, good quality, it lasts forever and gets played with loads by both, and good re-sale value. May keep it all for future grandkids.

7yo wants a keyboard so he can have lessons and jellytots .

It's great at this age.

There is for our two but it’s not as related as they do t watch commercial telly! Kids grow out of ‘must have’ toys anyway by 10/11/12 before phones etc it was replaced by clothes or branded trainers or whatever

I think a lot of this is down to children watching Netflix and other streaming services rather than conventional telly, so they are no longer bombarded with adverts for the 'must have' toys.

My DS, 6, wanted a laptop game called Planet Zoo (very much like the old zoo Tycoon), a playmobile Zoo and fact books about animals. He wants to be a zookeeper!! He will play on the tech under our controlled screen time, and then reenact with his Playmobil when it's time to come off. He studies the books before bed. I think that's a fairly nice balance.

All his friends aged 6/7 are asking for Switches, PlayStation and Xbox. No toy requests 😢

My DD 9 hates LOL dolls. I wonder if some kids aren't exposed to as many adverts? Mine rarely see ads as their screen time is mainly xbox or Netflix.