wishing for a wooden christmas

I've never made a secret of my fondness for wooden toys.

They seriously outnumber the plastic in this house by a lot

and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Wooden toys are classic and hard-wearing,

they are often more unisex in their design

(which is obviously a big selling point for us)

and are always a clear favourite with our children.

So it should come as no surprise

that Father Christmas will be kindly delivering our children

some toys of the wooden variety this year.

We don't go overboard with gifts for the children,

they are too young to really appreciate them after all,

and instead stick to one main present each.

This year we have had a word with the man in red

and our children might just be getting one super main present to share,

but shhhhh, don't spoil the surprise.

But just for fun,

I've put together this wish list of Christmas toys,

for if we had limitless money

and limitless space to store everything.

Plan Toys Wooden Chalet Dollhouse

I've been fantasising about dolls houses since before I even had children. I didn't have one growing up and I always thought they were amazing. My little man is just getting to the age where he is really starting to play imaginatively, and I love that this doll house is so simple and unisex. Both my children could happily play with this. And I could play with it too once they'd gone to bed...!

Haba My First Ball Track

We love any toy that really allows open ended play, and this ball track looks like a great example of that. I can see my two children taking this apart and putting it back together again to test out new tracks for hours on end. And the teacher in me cannot ignore the amount of scientific learning that would be going on at the same time.

Tidlo City of London Train Set

Can you believe we don't own a train set? It's been on the list of things we'd like for so long, but we've just not got round to getting one. And I can't even tell you how much I love this set. Because we don't live that far from London, all the children's experiences of the train have been going to visit London. I love that with this set, their play could mimic what they've been up to in real life.

Haba Fit Together Building Blocks

Building blocks are the kind of toys that never go out of fashion. We can build towers and knock them over, just to build them again, all day long in this house. But they can be tricky to place and balance when you actually want to build something properly. These look like they'd solve that problem by allowing us to fit the pieces together.

Haba Pegging Game Rainbow Whirls

This game looks like it would be really good fun to play. My little man is going through a phase of LOVING matching things up with each other, so this would be right up his street. And I can see our little lady enjoying playing with the pegs and loops too. 

P'kolino Playful Xylophones

What kid doesn't love an opportunity to make lots of noise? And my two are no exception. Both my children are also quite musical and enjoy singing, making rhythms and dancing. These xylophones look so much fun to play, I just love the design of them.

Janod Magnetic Rocket

I've been in love with this little toys for a while now. I know my beautiful boy would love it. It is almost like a 3D puzzle; the rocket can be taken to pieces and put back together again, and is held together with magnetics. Such a clever little design. 

Plan Toys Fairytale Blocks

I've already confessed my love for building blocks, and I love that this little set can turn a simple game of building blocks into the setting for a fairytale. We love a good fairytale in this family and it would be great to have these to help us transfer the stories into play.

This post is our entry to be considered as Toy Toad Testers for The Toadstool in 2014.

Two little kiddos I know (and there mummy) would love the chance to test out some lovely new wooden toys next year.