It’s also last day to win £50 hamper of the delicious Burts Bees products in their competition.

So head over the Green Mums and have a meander round – they do SO much more than cloth nappies! I have just spotted the Bunk Bed buddy, and am eying it up rather greedily – is exactly what my boys need in their high-rise beds!

And this adorable 100% organic farm print sleepsuit is down to just £8.79 on their ‘offers’ page. How cute is THAT?

Imagine having one of these handsome pixies ready to greet you every morning in the run up to the big day?

If you’re quick you can still have one of these heirlooms to grace your home this December – today is last day for next day delivery. They’re selling like hot… er… Pixies, and a small (but very knowledgeable) bird tells me they are in very short supply.

So quickety quick, get over there and order NOW!

Oh how my daughter loves her Spotty Dog! The Pull-Along-Pal is a traditional pullalong toy – with a twist. And the twist makes it just-that-bit more adorable.

These little animals really are so adorable. the wiggle-in-the-walk sets them apart from the norm, and the solid build quality tells you just by touching them that they will last for years and years. in fact, it will probably to be one of those toys that gets pulled out of the loft in 30 years time with an “OH! Look, it’s Spotty! He was my FAVOURITE dog!” kind of exclamation.

The comical expressions are fab (I personally believe you can always tell a quality toy just from its expression), and the paint finish is tactile and bright wihtout being foolishly garish.

There are lots of designs (Spotty is my personal fave, but the Basset Hound is remarkably cute too, and the Cat is ve-e-ry sweet!), and the charm is all in the way they move. Every child wants a pet to follow them, and there is an enduring appeal about small wooden animals on wheels trundling through the park behind their owners. These Pull-Along-Pals from PedalPushers simply do it in STYLE…

Our Christmas Gift Guide was such a roaring success last year that we thought we’d repeat the favour – with twice the number of ideas this year :)

So over the next three weeks (until the last feasible online shopping day, anyway) we’ll be bringing you hints and tips of our very favourite top picks for Christmas this year – Whether it’s baby’s first Christmas, you’re stuck with what to buy the 7 year old, or you have no idea which of the latest batch of books is a worthy addition to the children’s bookshelf – fret not. We’re here. We’ll help.

So – sign up to our feed using these big bright buttons here, and you can receive regular updates on our Bestest Christmas Gift Guide sent straight to you.

If you’re keen to get going, you can always take a look at last years Bestest Christmas Gift Ideas, there are some really lovely things featured which are still around of course.

And don’t forget – if you’re hunting for something in particular, do shout at us (but very nicely please!)  – we know lots and lots of lovely people who could probably help!

Stand by… countdown is commencing…

Molly Brown designer jewellery for girls is just wonderful, truly and perfectly wonderful and has even been described as “Tiffany for girls” by Vogue magazine!

Here at LittleStuff we are so very pleased to be giving away one of their delightful sterling silver alphabet initial necklaces to one lucky winner.

Well, you’re cutting it fine, now, aren’t you?

It’s the end of November, and you’re STILL looking for something different? Tsk.

Well – never fear, help is at hand.

Probably all you need to do is take a look at this page on NotOnTheHighStreet – if you can’t find one there then I throw my hands in the air and give up. As a quick pointer, here’s our pick of our own favourite advent calendars:

*want* LOVE this. That is all.

Rusty buckets for an advent calendar. Bonkers, I know. But LOOK how brilliant they are! And so flippin easy to fill, which is ALWAYS good.

Oh! Look! not only is a pocket advent (our very favourite kind), but they come ready filled with gorgeous felt tree decorations. PLUS - the sack makes a fab stocking. Genius!

The traditional route - gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

Okay, if you MUST - here's far and away the nicest chocolate one I could find. AND it's refillable - how brilliant is THAT?

There – how’s that? You asked for advent calendars  with a difference, something traditional, something contemporary – and yes, something chocolate. I believe my work here is done.

Jonny’s Sister are letting us give away six of their utterly gorgeous pink and/or blue letter soaps to one lucky winner!

The pink soaps with hearts are lightly scented with wild heather and hawthorn and the blue soaps with stars are lightly scented with an ocean fragrance. Hand wrapped in glassine paper in a white gift box, they make wonderful presents for children, friends, teachers, or just anyone that appreciates something a little different and personal. Use for initials, spell a name, or how about a word… BATH, WASH, SOAP, SUDS…

Click here for full details and entry form.

If you’re quick, you still have time. NO, not to pop out and grab a cardboard box filled with yukky cheap chocolate. Tsk.

No, to order this gorgeous Maileg pocket advent calendar from the always-lovely Armstrong Ward.

We make no bones about the fact that we love Maileg. The mice are major hits, but I’ve yet to see a Maileg product I don’t adore and *want* – and this calendar is no different. Simple, stylish, but fun enough to appeal to small excited morning people.

Your only problem is what to put in it. We’re going with the Playmobil nativity pieces, but the choices are endless.

Or maybe you should just…

Add.

The.

Chocolate.

It may be £45, but enduring and delightful as it is, this is an advent I’d be happy to see year after year after year.

Just plain beautiful, no?

Well, not plain, obviously. But beautiful, definitely.

We’re huge fans of the Love Mae wall stickers, and when the Quick Brown Fox of Dulwich showed us these, we squeaked a bit.

Sooo pretty, and endlessly versatile aorund your festive home (with not a garish shiny tinsel flutter in sight).

Best of all? On twelfth night you can simply (but a bit gently) peel them off, put them back on the sheet, and tuck them away in your Chsritmas box ready for next year.

I can see already this would become a traditional decoration to match the ‘family history through the baubles we remember’ ritual. And knowing that it will be endlessly enjoyed over the years actually makes the £45 price tag very reasonable indeed.

Peanut & Pip have done it again. Every time I visit their (just plain gorgeous) site I find a little “oooh!” Moment Of Wanting. But these stockings really are very very special. Would you just LOOK at them?

Sort of a contemporary traditional stocking, these most gorgeous of childrens stockings are handmade, sewn and beaded from layers of high quality wool felt.

The simple, but oh-so-very appealing decorations mean they’ll be much-loved, and treasured over the years – and will work for your one year old just as well as for a ten year old. Because I don’t know about you, but I just don’t want to buy new stockings. I like to use the same one each and every year, as yet one more part of our Christmas Traditions.

Each stocking measures a generous 8 inches wide by 18 inches long (from bell to big toe) leaving Father Christmas plenty of room to fill them with lots of goodies. Handmade and gorgeous, warmly endearing without any schmaltz – what more could you ask?

*WANT*

Snug Hot water bottle, Cosy knit, felt birdie and pompoms.

That is all that needs to be said, I think.

But not just any old Happy Families. Oh no. I simply whooped for joy when I saw that Gibsons have re-released Racey Helps oh-so-charmingly illustrated Woodland Happy Families. I just ADORE this set of cards – the illustrations step straight our of my magical childhood imaginings of real animal families (so much nicer than the uber-scary-weird-looking Jaques people variety). The game itself I’m sure everyone knows – a deceptively simply trading game, where you attempt to collect a complete ‘family’. I never fail to be surprised at how quickly young children pick up the complex logic behind the simple rules, working out that if Granny is asking for Mrs Robin, and I saw her already get Mr Robin, and I myself have Miss Robin, then she must hold Master Robin too (you have to hold one of a family to ask for others y’see).

But any game of Happy Families will give you that. This set is just that little bit more special. Having fallen in love with my Mother-in-Laws 1950′s original set which comes out every Christmas, I searched eBay a few years after my first son was born, and happily found a whole heap of the original version. I picked one up in like-new condition for a mere £3.50. But one of the boys tore the box a little, and the new puppy just last weekend nabbed one of the cards and tore poor Mr Rabbits ear. So I returned confidently to eBay… only to find them not only scarce but three times the price!

But what was this? A new, sealed one? How can that be?

And then I understood. My favourite Woodland Happy Families card game all shiny and new but with original Racey Helps illustrations beautifully intact. Like I said – “whoop, whoop!”.

At just over £5, this one isn’t a suggestion, it’s a command. Go. Purchase a pack. Shed a little magical beauty on your family games night, and enjoy the sweet silly fun of Woodland Happy Families.

OOooooo, this is a goooooood one – a Quinny Zapp Xtra pushchair to be won! Wowsers!

Quinny strollers offer today’s parents clever travel solutions, made with both parent and their child’s lifestyle and living situation in mind. Easy to use design strollers. With its sleek and contemporary design, ultra-light weight and compactness, the Quinny Zapp is the ultimate buggy for whatever destination you and your child choose.

For full details and entry form for our Quinny Zapp Xtra competition click here!

This one is another family games recommendations. PIT. But… hands up, who’s heard of it? Mmm, exactly.

Twenty *cough* years ago, when I was a mere wee teen, and visiting my brand shiny new fiances house for the first Boxing Day together, the family gathered expectantly around the table after tea, and reverently placed a pack of cards on the table.

“WHAT? You’ve never played PIT? Oh, well, not to worry, we’ll soon teach you”.

The cards were OLD – my now-mother-in-law remembers playing them when she was small – and I had no idea what kind of game this would be. The table was crowded with a grandparent and two great aunts, fiances parents, himself and his brother. Almost half the room was over 70 – how much fun was I honestly about to have?

Well. The cards were dealt, the (basic, simple) rules were explained, and someone shouted “Pit’s open!”.

The NOISE!

Instantaneous shouts, hollers, shrieks and roars hit me from all sides as everyone tried to deal, swap, exchange (and, quite frankly, CHEAT) their way into a full set of their chosen cereal. It’s just a swapping game – trading cards with everyone in a desperate bid to ‘corner the market’ in your chosen cereal. Easy, simple, loud and raucously funny.

I’m happy to say that ‘Pit’ is still being made, 106 years later. It’s a mere £5.50, and if you have a few noisy guests this year, I promise you will not regret it. Age 6+ is recommended, and it’s a maximum of 8 players at one time – we rotate turns if we have more, as it’s almost as fun to watch!

Now – here’s a thing. Playmobil advent calendars. One thing is for SURE – your child will love it forever. There’s not a child of my acquaintance who doesn’t love Playmobil, it’s simply a fact. So a Playmobil Advent Calendar – what could go wrong? Well, that depends on your point of view. If you’re a child… Absolutely Not. One. Thing.

But… as a grown up, I mind a le-e-etle bit that their advent calendars aren’t more… Christmassy. I know my boy would LOVE the police one. or the Dragons Land. And if the girl came across the Unicorn in Fairy World version next Wednesday she would be most squealsome in her joy.

But… I’m not so easily pleased. I DO think the Christmas in the Forest set is charming, and I know that Pink is going to love it. Thankfully the calendars no longer take an hours construction BEFORE the 1st to make them ready – you simply need to set up the backdrop, and away you go (I can’t say the same for all the sets, but the Forest one is certainly like that).

But my nearly-8 boy is not going to adore it.. much as Playmobil is the love of his life, this set is just too young  for him. I’ll admit I was tempted to dip towards the knights, against my Christmas principles though it is.

But then.

I had a Huge and Brilliant Brain Flash.

We usually have a large wall-hanging pocket advent, which we fill with small and nice things.

What if, this year, I filled it with Playmobil bits instead?

And what if those Playmobil bits added together made their proper, real, and truly Christmassy nativity scene?

GENIUS!

So, I also have the Nativity Manger set (3996) and the Three Wise Men set (3997). Together, over the 24 days of advent, they will help my boy create a very special advent scene (to include the oh-so-brilliant Camel, I might add…). One which after Christmas we can put away and wait for next year – and which will become a much-loved Christmas tradition, I have no doubt.

Hoorah for Playmobil!

The sets are very reasonably priced – the Playmobil advent calendars are £13-£18, and the Playmobil nativity scenes are £18 for the manger scene, with the wise men an additional £7. I have linked to Amazon, as I know they are in stock and have fast delivery, but do shop around as there are possibly better prices to be found!

Family board games. They’re a bit of a dying tradition, aren’t they? Except, of course, around Christmas – everyone drags out a few old classics then. But we wanted to show you a few this week, some old, some new, some very-old-but-maybe-new-to-you ones too.

But we’re kicking off with a modern classic. Pictionary. Twenty five years it’s been around – can you believe that? Which doesn’t make it a ‘modern’ classic at all, but a tried and tested family favourite. It’s been updated and re-released for the 25th anniversary, this time with two levels of clues, making it playable with adults and children together. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

We’re fans of Pictionary already, but have never really inducted the children, knowing they’ll be frustrated at the difficulty of some of the clues. So this seemed ideal – and a recent rainy Sunday afternoon saw us all settle down to play, ages ranging from 7 to *cough* grown ups (with the almost-4 yr old in charge of the egg timer as Master of Timing).

Well.

What a riot!

They  couldn’t get enough – we must have played for two hours straight. And it was genuinely fun for the grown ups too. Not in a nice-to-see-the-children-amused fashion. Oh no. Proper, side splitting, what-the-heck-is-THAT-you’ve-drawn? fun. Genuine jaw dropping How-did-you-manage-to-draw-THAT amazed pride in the small people, and why-can-you-not-SEE-that’s-a-CUP frustration when I was holding the pencil.

The board layout means it’s impossible for one team to streak too far ahead (important for younger players to not get disheartened), and keeps the game moving really nicely. The double difficulty cards (younger players can confidently draw ‘zebra’ while the grown ups are really wishing they had a zebra instead of ‘rejuvenate’) meant that no one struggled with understanding, and the everyone-join-in rounds meant no one got bored waiting for the other team.

Such a total success – and though the box says 8+ the 7 year old played easily. The box also says 4-8 players, but we have Plans Afoot for a mahoosive Christmas family version with a big wipe board and two large teams shouting. Can’t Wait!

Available from all good toy shops, or if you hit the picture you can head straight to Amazon and buy it now :)

It’s odd isn’t it? How right it is to have new pj’s for Christmas? I thought it was just me, but I’ve come to realise that everyone likes to get their small people new pyjamas to snug up in on Christmas Eve.

So there I was, meandering around t’interweb, as is my wont, in need of something acceptable to an opinionated pink one. Robots she loves, but dinosaurs she does NOT. Sparkle she loves, but Mummy does NOT (and ‘No Dora’ is in Mummy’s Pyjama Rule Book too).

Then I tripped and fell through the cyberdoor of Catiouche.

And breathed a deep and gentle sigh of relief.

She would insist on looking at the cat herself...

Here they were, waiting for me all the time. Bee-yoo-ti-ful pyjamas. Soft, stylish, elegantly designed with a touch of whimsy that my girl would adore.

When Pink saw her new pyjamas she squeaked. She did. Then she stroked them gently, literally pink in the face with happiness.

“But – it’s me! On my pyjamas! And look! I have a beautiful big fat happy cat!”

On a practical note, these are really wonderful quality. They have been washed and worn (and washed and worn and washed and worn… she’s not a terribly careful cheerios eater, sadly), and still hold their shape and their softness. The whole range from Catiouche (which includes adorable cat paw print versions for the boys) is made from luxurious 100% organic cotton jersey, and environmentally friendly water-based ink print.

And if that wasn’t enough to win you over to their effortless sweet style, have a read of this:

“Hello my name is Catiouche and this is my cat Max. Max is very soft
but my pyjamas are even softer. They are very special.

NOW tell me you don’t want a pair? At £25 each as separates they’re not cheap; but the quality is wonderful, and they will last and last – the cut has plenty of room to grow. I tell you, they really ARE the cat’s pyjamas.

One of our favourite days out is to Lytham St Annes. We go every couple of months either to walk around the lake at Fairhaven or go to the pier and the fair at St Annes and it was one of the things I knew we’d miss once the cars went for a burton. It hadn’t occurred to me to try and get there on the train, but thankfully it occurred to David and so one Saturday we announced that we were off to the seaside.

“Are we going in the car?” Harry asked. He’s a bright child. Not so fast on the uptake, it seems.

Harry & Keris (and the fish and chips).

We all bundled up and headed for the station. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from our house, but it’s on the same route as the school run, so it’s a walk we’ve got extremely used to doing. The train journey was great. Whereas in the past, Joe would sit in the back of the car yelling at us, he was happy on the train looking out of the window and being fed a succession of various foodstuffs. The sun was shining, I was reading a book, everyone was happy. I was starting to think there was something in this carless thing after all.

We got to Lytham and had a bit of a wander before heading towards the prom to get fish and chips for lunch. Sitting outside, we’d just opened our mushy peas when Harry said, “That looks like a big cloud!” And it started to rain. Hoods up, raincover on the pram, we ate our fish and chips huddled together for warmth.

“This is when you need a car,” I said. “What are we supposed to do now?”

We finished our lunch and scurried down to the pier where we played air hockey, had a go on a few (small, mild) rides before doing a bit of bowling. By then, the rain had practically stopped and a rainbow across the beach heralded the return of the sun. We walked along the prom, looking out across the twinkling bay. Even though it was still freezing, Harry bought an ice lolly. On the way back to the station, we stopped for coffee and cake.

“We’ve had a lovely time today!” Harry said.

And we had.

Shall I gloss over the bit where the train was late and we waited in the wind and the rain? And the drunk woman who spent half of the (extended due to the adverse weather) journey talking loudly to Joe as if he was a particularly simple-minded budgie -

“You’re very clever,aren’t you? Yes you are. I know. I know. You are. Yes you are. Very clever. Aren’t you? Yes you are! I know!”

And then the walk home from the station in the damp and the cold and the dark? No. It was all part of the fun.

Yes, we seem to be changing our definition of fun…

–
Keris Stainton

Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be
the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” – Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and
Girl Meets Cake

http://www.twitter.com/keris

http://www.keris-stainton.com

We all know about the gifts and the turkey and the Wine and the sausage rolls you all have lists and lists all set up for. But before we get into those (we will of course be repeating the fabulousness which was our ‘Bestest Christmas Gifts Guide’ this year, with even more delicious, pretty, unique and just plain gorgeous ideas to help ease the strain of gift buying), we wanted to do the other stuff. The pre-Christmas stuff. you know – advents, stockings, games… the things you need to get sorted This Week really.

So we decided to start with a classic – The Lego Advent Calendar. Now any Lego aficionado knows Lego isn’t cheap. This little box comes in at a hefty £25. But, as with all Lego, it’s all about the play value.

There are pieces in here you can’t get anywhere else – which apparently makes it Very Important, and Really Really Good Mummy. Each day opens a new little pack for you to create a new Lego model, whether it’s a tree, a snowmobile or Father Christmas and his sleigh.

If you’re very very careful, you could keep the figures when they’re made, display them over Christmas, then put them back in the box ready for next year. You could. But that kind of defeats the whole lego purpose, doesn’t it? For me, a little lego time while I’m making breakfast for the massed hordes is a little time spent quietly with my cup of coffee. And the closer we get to Christmas, the higher the excitement grows.. and the more Christmas lego there is to play with. Genius. For me, a gazillion trillion times better than a £4 box of nasty chocolate.

It’s true, it is.. we are giving away A VACUUM CLEANER! A Dirt Devil 2000W High Powered Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner, no less!

Hmmm, yes, ok, it’s not the most exciting of things to be shouting about – at least not at first – but if you stop and think about it, it’s an AWESOME thing to win at this time of year! You know what I’m talking about, you don’t need me to spell it out…

Full details and entry form can be found here.