Believe it or not, the holiday season is looming near and soon it’ll be time to start shopping around for gifts for your family and friends. True, the holidays can take a toll on your bank account, but there are ways to avoid this, especially when your kid rips open his expensive, new toy on Christmas morning only to accidentally ruin it five minutes later. Advanced technology has been popping up in children’s toys and gadgets this year, but the surprising and awesome part of this is that price tags are not being hiked along with it. In fact, here are some ideas of gifts for the kids that won’t have you painfully handing your debit card over to the cashier.
Don’t Stress About Your Wallet
2010 seems to be the year of techie toys, not just for adults, but for their kids as well. Toy companies have seamlessly incorporated advanced technology into their products, which are sure to be hits during the holiday buying season. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that to get a great toy you’ll have to take out a new loan. Since the recession started, many toy companies have realized that parents can’t spend $100 on one toy, so they’ve somehow managed to keep prices reasonable. I’m talkin’ new high-tech gadgets that’ll cost you as little as twenty bucks.
Toy Stores Are Prepared for Your Business
Toys sales have been fairly resilient during the recession and retailers are hoping they’ll be strong for the next few months. Major toy retailer Toys R Us is even opening up 600 temporary stores and hiring 45,000 seasonal employees for the holidays, and stores like Sears are expanding their toy sections as well.
Toys You’ll Be Seeing
Toys that topped the "cool" list take all forms. From Spin Master’s Air Hogs Moto Frenzy, 4-inch motocross racing bikes, to Mattel’s Hot Wheels Stealth Rides, cars that are about the size of a deck of cards, you can satisfy the boys with these remote controlled goodies for only $24.99.
An Old Classic With A New Twist
Revisit your old favorites with a game like Hasbro’s Scrabble Flash, which, for only $29.99, will have you trying to remember all those two letter words you never knew existed. This electronic game has five cubes with digital screens on them that click together to form words. Even more impressive is Mattel’s Loopz game ($29.99) that uses motion detection technology as the basis for memory games. Your big kids will also love the new Lego MP3 player. Lego partnered with Digital Blue to create these building block electronics priced at only $39.99. Another old classic? Barbie, of course. But now she’s a webcam. Barbie wears a camera necklace on the front and has an LCD screen on the back. Pretty cool for only $49.99.
The Price of Learning
For all your intellectually-minded kiddos, learning can be fun with new toys that make it seem cool and novel. VTech’s V.Reader is a $59.99 electronic-book reader for children that works with VTech software. Think of it as a Kindle for your kid. Or you can take it a leap further with LeapFrog’s Leapster Explorer. At $69.99, this electronic device is loaded with games, e-books, a video recorder, and other features for your slightly older child. In addition, Crayola has created an EZ Type colorful keyboard for your little ones to learn to type. These days typing is just as important as writing, so why not start teaching them early, for only $29.99?
Go Out and Conquer the Toy Aisle!
Hopefully you’ve lost the angst and are starting to get excited about all the high-tech fun this season’s toys will bring your kids. If only adult electronic toys had these kinds of prices!
