Stop Your Holiday Shopping Stress This Year #HotHolidayToys

I don’t know about you, but every Holiday season I tell myself that this is the year that all of my shopping gets done early – no crowds, no running to different stores to find that one special gift my baby just has to have, no stress! Every year, that doesn’t seem to happen! Let’s face it, planning and executing these elaborate holiday plans is like one of those New Year’s resolutions that gets made at 12:00 only to be broken at 12:01. I always have too many things to do, it’s always tomorrow or next week, until finally it’s the 22nd or 23rd and once again I have to engage the massive herds of procrastinators, people just like myself.

Engage you might, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that all your elbow-rubbing, pushing and shoving, and just overall pack-like behavior will go on to be a fruitful enterprise. It’s just as likely, or in my case more likely, that your going-to-war mentality will leave you empty handed as someone snatches that coveted toy only moments before you get there, making you have to run across town in hopes of finding that oh-so-elusive toy that’s now become a personal mission in need of a satisfactory conclusion – your personal gratification depends on it. That only means more gas, more time, more stress while there are no guarantees that you’ll even find what you’re looking for. All of this in frigid temperatures!

Last Holiday season my daughter, Ava, was in her Sesame Street period. She was about 1-year-and-a-half at the time, an age when kids’ minds tend to be quite narrow in scope. It was Elmo and Big Bird and nothing else. She had no cares for any other television shows or popular characters. Her persistent focus on the popular PBS show characters made deciding on what to get for her a straightforward affair. The problem was that Ava’s likes weren’t unique, so when we got to the local Toys R’Us and couldn’t find the furry, cuddly large-sized Elmo we were looking for we had to scramble. After deciding that we were going to go to the Toys R’Us on the south shore of Montreal, we had to face the dreaded holiday traffic of an island city with infrastructure problems. We were lucky to find what we came for, but know that things could have been uglier.

This year, little Ava’s tastes have evolved to have room for more than one love at a time. This is the year when a wish list is most definitely going to come in handy. Perfect timing then to get acquainted with Mattel‘s website which is quite ingenuous in the way it has integrated a wish list built in, a very nifty little feature indeed! It’s perfect not only for mommy and daddy, but for letting grandma, grandpa, and everyone else that’s going to be spoiling our little bundle of joy by using the Find a List feature in the WISH LIST section.

If you want to know what toys are hot, Mattel has you covered this year! In the Hot Holiday Toys section, you can find some of the hottest ideas for that very exciting Christmas present. The one that particularly caught my attention is the Little People Disney Princess Klip Klop Stable. Once it arrived, Ava seemed to share my opinion as I watched the continuous descent of the mounted princesses for what seemed like hours and still do a week later with no signs of it slowing down.  Here is the official description of this little gem taken right off Mattel’s website:

Your little one will bring the much-loved Disney® Princesses, Rapunzel and Aurora, and their trusty horses to life with this beautiful play set. There’s so much to make happen: fun sounds, music, phrases and exciting “klip-klop” action! Place the horses on the colourful ramp, give them a little nudge and they “klip-klop” down the ramp all on their own! There are two royal areas – the 3-tiered tower and a horse stable – and each is loaded with special rooms (like Belle’s library) and surprises to thrill little imaginations. Spin the thumbwheel on the dance floor to start music and make the horses “dance”! Includes Rapunzel character riding Maximus and Aurora riding Samson and a food piece.

Do you have an ‘interesting’ holiday shopping story to share? What techniques have you developed to combat the holiday craziness.

Disclosure: I am part of the Mattel Holiday Blogger Campaign with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.