Annual Christmas Hits/Misses thread - 2008

[Neatfreak]

Misses for DD#1
Leapfrog Tag reader -- it reads the whole freakin' page, not one word at a time if they are stuck on it. Sigh. And, of course, I got her ALL the books (not for CHristmas, they are stored).

There should be a way to set it to read individual words instead of the entire page. My kiddo's isn't currently reading pages - it's only reading the words she scans.

[Nyfeara]

DS is 10.5 months old.

HITS:
FP Learning Home
FP Learning Table
FP Musical Jungle
MegaBloks Fill & Dump Wagon
Parents Cars (pull back & they go forward)

Not sure yet:
Vtech toys- We got a couple of these from relatives, but they're not holding his attention for too long yet.

Misc Tonka items - too early to tell for sure

[SASM]

Kind of early for "Misses" as 1) everything is so new to them and 2) it hasn't had 48 hours to break yet.

HITS for DS (almost 6):

*Quercetti Super Marble Run Vortex
*Lego Creator -Helicopter/Plane/Jet conversion
*Star Wars Lego small pack from Target (it is the one with the evil white masked army things)
*Hasbro Power Tour Electric Guitar (DH had a blast watching DS perform ~ he's cracking up downstairs as we speak)
*Tinkertoys
*Schleich animals
*Schleich figurine catalogue from TRU
*Transformer Mix-n-Match book
*Pocket Transformer (he can actually do this one on his own)

HITS for DD1 (3.75yo):

*M&D Folding Stable (although she is still bummed that it is not the PRETTY plastic purple/pink Breyer PonyGals 2-stall tote) **Sorry...I go for quality & durability**
*Breyer PonyGal - Jasmine (& Breyer toy catalog that came with)
*Schleich horse figures
*Our Generation Haflinger horse (although it would be nice if the thing had rollers of some sort on the feet since she wants to drag it all over my HWs)
*Hannah Montana Electric Guitar (so far I am not ready to break the thing)
*Her $2 horse mini-wall calendar
*Schleich figurine catalogue from TRU
*Cuddle Zone (Tgt) plush horse with Ladybug Halloween costume (XS dog costume 75% off at Halloween)

HITS for DD2 (15mo):

*FP Musical Tea Set (this is a hit but also kind of a MISS as the "pouring" sound is quite annoying and sounds like it is broken)
*Baby Stella & Feeding set (I love this but it is still a new experience for DD ~ she did try putting the bottle "in" her mouth last night so we'll see if it catches on)
*$2 light show from Target in the stocker stuffer area (we get one at every season that they are available)
*"Please Baby Please" board book
*Finger puppets
*HMD plush purse of DD1's that we stuffed with round linkadoo's (bracelets), a toy cell phone, a fabric wallet, and toy keys.
*Target white cradle for Stella (she was sitting there last night rocking it back and forth)

MISSES for DD2:
*Snugglekins Timber Cub ~ annoying repetitive sound; not the cutest one of the bunch; I, personally, would have preferred the monkey with the swing as it was cuter and would have more things with it to entertain DDs; like Stella, DD doesn't get it yet; animal-loving DD1 hasn't taken an interest in it either.
*Chicco Plastic Activity purse (similiar to this: http://www.amazon.com/Chicco-Adventu...0396092&sr=1-1) ~ she hasn't gone near it since Christmas Eve. Kind of young for her, though, at 9m+.

[essnce629]

No true misses but I think the SpongeBob Operation game (dh again) may head in that direction. She likes it in theory but the noise it makes when she hits the sides freaks her out so she is a little scared of playing it.

My son (also 5) got the regular Operation game for his birthday and is the same way with it. The noise startles him every time as well so we've only played it once in the 4 months we've had it.

[inmypjs]

Hits for 4 yo DS:

Wooden toolbox with small handheld tools from Sears (bubble level, clamps)
Bob the Builder Take Along vehicles - they all connect magnetically and he is loving attaching things and driving around

Hits for 2 yo DD:

Baby stroller (that was mine when I was little!)
Feather boas
Parents kitty keyboard - a little annoying but the "Meow" mode is a stitch!
Snap n Style doll
Thick twistable Crayola crayons

Hits for both:

Melissa and Doug wooden play food - they are both loving the pizza and the birthday cake!
Aquadoodle mat

Maybe a miss:

Playdoh kitchen - they love the actual playdough but the kitchen accessories aren't getting a lot of enthusiasm. Maybe because they're like some of the plates, spoons, etc that we already have in the toy kitchen. This was a gift from someone else...if I had picked I would have just gone with the playdough alone.

[fivi2]

It has been a whirlwind of gifts between birthday and christmas for my just turned 3 twin dds. So, I can't rate everything yet - some things haven't even come out of the box!

big hits:
Calico critters - a last minute suggestion for my sister, she got one family (squirrels) and the furniture for the baby room - they love it! They are in a major teeny tiny phase right now.

Duplo - thomas starter set (I had wanted the town set and freaked when it disappeared) this has been HUGE from the minute they opened it!

medium hits:
Melissa and Doug classic deluxe kitchen (on sale) to replace our beat up old plastic one (now outside). and cutting food and new dishes. they seem pleased with it, but it hasn't been the major wow gift.

doll prams. their old strollers didn't last and one of them has been begging for a pram style one ("bed car"). So I got them. They like them, but weren't as bowled over as I thought they'd be.

Candyland castle
play doh set with accessories
penguin slippers
mittens (for play, we don't actually have cold weather )

misses:
not sure yet. They received approximately one thousand baby dolls (including bitty twins) and none have received any attention. I tried to warn people that they aren't into dolls

will report more later!

To the pp who bought Pengoloo - can you tell me about it? is it too hard for 3 yos? My girls are really into penguins now and it looks cute, but I can't find any reviews.

TIA!

[WatchingThemGrow]

DD 2.5
hits:
Candyland Castle
Magnatiles
the Alex Dirty Dogs whose spots wash off in the tub (hours-worth)
new Fridge Phonics
FP medical kit

misses:
can't tell yet

DS 13 mos
****plastic fish guiro http://www.westmusic.com/ProductDeta...=200888&ID=172

misses:
everything else

We're still waiting to open some gifts as 1)my mom spent Christmas in Vegas and will come here in Jan. We're saving her gifts until then and 2) my dad still hasn't sent anything, despite the fact that we spent 17 hours in the car driving TO his town THIS month, and he chose to spend about 10 min. with our kids while we were there. (Sorry, had to get that off my chest.) Maybe some more gifts will be hits once they arrive. We did have a great time with the ILs and DH's family, though!

Oh, DH's hit was some loose tea he wanted. His family was perplexed and thought he got a bag of weed, LOL.

[sste]

DS, 14 months:

HITS:
1. Laugh & learn home (thank you for all who advised going for it!)
2. Remo gathering drum (HUGE hit, thanks to either watchingthemgrow or melissa, I can't remember who rec'd it but this drum is gorgeous and he can use it through early elementary at least)
3. Playmobil 1-2-3 from aunt

MISSES:
1. M&D hippo pull toy from relative - - poor construction, it squeaks and doesn't do much of anything
2. stuffed animal curious george - - DS has no interest in stuffed animals, relatives insist on cluttering our house with them. I will be attempting to return!
3. Haba ball track - - maybe he will grow into this but so far only moderate interest. At least I only paid $42 at babycenter.

[kristenk]

To the pp who bought Pengoloo - can you tell me about it? is it too hard for 3 yos? My girls are really into penguins now and it looks cute, but I can't find any reviews.

TIA!

I think I'm the PP. DD will be 5yo in February. DH has played Pengoloo with her and he thinks that she'll outgrow it soon b/c she's really good at memory games.

I started to type up the instructions, but I think I confused myself so I stopped! If you want to know how to play, I'd be happy to refer to the actual directions and summarize for you.

In short, it's a memory game. You roll dice with colors on them and you try to find the colored eggs that match the colors you rolled. When you match a colored egg, you get to put the penguin on your board. If you match both of the colors, you can take another turn. There's more detail, but that's the general idea.

It's definitely a cute, cute memory game. I love that's it's all wooden. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Clarity]

HITS

DD 2.5:
The Learning Resources Cash Register (thanks so much for passing along that deal, she loves it!)
A wooden castle/doll house from my mother
Vtech toddler camera
Selecta Memory Game
Snap-n-Style dolls (a little hard for her to snap on the clothes but she does like them very much...just needs help)
Stomp Rockets - we've been playing with them regularly here.
Twilight Turtle

Misses
Candyland (too young yet)
Learning Resources Dr. Kit - I don't like this one. Everything seems just a bit too cheap. I worry it won't last long at all before the pieces are broken.

DD2 3 months:
Hits
Haba Ramba Zamba Rattle
Tiny Love Wind Chimes