Holiday time is approaching, and we have some fabulous gift ideas and savings to make your preparations easier. Avoid the lines and parking headaches … browse online and shop from the comfort of your computer for everyone on your list.
Eko Bear Sponsored Listing Shop for top eco-friendly toys of 2011 and more all made with your children and the environment in mind! We offer free local pick-up (Kanata, ON) and low flat rate shipping within Canada. Save 10% with discount code KidsCan until Dec 31/11.
Petite Posh Sponsored Listing Spoiling even the smallest member of your family couldn’t get easier when shopping at petiteposh.com. Shop for personalized gifts, big kid toys and everyday essentials Great gifts, warms smiles and big hug! Use coupon code kids at check out for 15% off your entire order (over $30 & valid until Dec 15/11) and don’t forget, free shipping on orders over $99.
Applause! Toy Store Sponsored Listing Applause! Toy Store is a magical place filled with toys, games, puzzles and crafts for kids of all ages. Find award winning toys like the Spooner Boards pictured here, Perplexus and Green Toys. You’ll also find a full range of Play & Hape Wooden Toys, the latest baby gear, and lots fun-filled stocking stuffers! Coupon Code KIDSCANADA for 15% off until Dec 31, 2011
Exceptional Coffee Sponsored Listing: Jump start your Christmas morning this year with better tasting coffee! Planetary Design French Presses leave in the tasty aromatic essential oils unlike your average filtered coffee machine. Pick from a variety of sizes, styles and colours of Planetary Design at the Polka Dot Pond Shop! Offer: Save 15% on all products with code KACHGG15. Expiry: December 31st, 2011
Citrus Silver Sponsored Listing: Citrus Silver designs meaningful jewellery that is stamped with names, words or dates. All of our stamped pieces are sterling silver and made in Canada. Affordable, personal, and beautiful. Order online and we will ship within 1 week.
Name Your Tune Personalized CDs Sponsored Listing Celebrate the special little ones in your life this holiday season with a music collection that celebrates them! Name Your Tune Personalized CDs feature your child’s name throughout their favourite songs including Old MacDonald, If You’re Happy and You Know It and 5 Little Monkeys. Available in 2 Volumes. Coupon Code: KidsAround for $5 off your order of Name Your Tune CDs.
The Clay Room Sponsored Listing Paint a handmade gift while spending quality time with family or friends. Put children’s prints on a piece for a treasured keepsake. WALK-IN CUSTOMERS are welcome. Gift certificates available. Private parties for both adults and kids to celebrate any occasion. Over 300+ items to paint. 279 Danforth Avenue, Toronto.
“Adopt” an Animal from Toronto Zoo Sponsored Listing “Adopt” an animal from Toronto Zoo and give a unique gift. How about a bear for Baby or a penguin for Papa? “Adoption” packages begin at just $25. Our Holiday Special packages feature “Waddles” the plush penguin and a DVD that takes you behind-the-scenes where you’ll meet zoo keepers and amazing animals. Each purchase helps with conservation efforts at Toronto Zoo.
The Second City ’s Miracle on Mercer St. Sponsored Listing The Second City’s Miracle on Mercer St.. Adorable puppets and their funny human friends tell a delightful musical tale that The Toronto Star calls “the best holiday present of all”. Matinee performances until Jan 1. Ages 4+. Tickets $12.
Second City Winter Camps & Intensives Sponsored Listing: Comedy comes in many different packages! Campers learn how to define their own voice and point of view through the exploration of improvisation. Full day camps for grades 5-8, half day intensives for grades 9-12! December 27 -30 and January 2-6.
With the holiday season coming up we wanted to let you know that our wonderful Delicious Dishes columnist, Nadine Hughes, now has a 2010 Winter Catering Menu available (see The Cook’s Companion) for Toronto and the GTA.
Specializing in intimate events, Nadine can take the stress out of your next party.
For years, I’ve been a subscriber to the American magazine Family Fun. It’s been my reliable partner in crime throughout my kids’ childhood and it might become yours too during the coming Family Day, the Valentine’s Day fuss or the March Break.
In Family Fun, I’ve found a mom’s advice on how to visit an art museum with my young son (turning the visit into a fun “I spy” game to look for specific items on the paintings). I’ve learned how to create a super card game that caught a slice of our daily life (teaching my kids about the different things one needs to know to run a house).
I’ve had a blast at the expense of my kids by using fabulous tips for April’s Fool pranks (I normally buy milk bags but for the occasion, I put a milk pint on the table, in which I surreptitiously added blue food coloring. The look on my then 8-years-old son when he poured the milk into his bowl was totally worth the trouble!).
When I was involved with the School Council, we would often choose the theme for the school parties according to the best craft activities I found while browsing through my Family Fun copies.
Years ago, prior to the internet, the magazine’s main appeal already lied in the fact that they’d been able to get hundreds of creative parents to submit their great ideas to them. Now we can all access this amazing resource online for free.
Their crafts section is the best. You can search by age, type or even by material but the Holiday & Seasonal category is such a time saver. You won’t find a Family Day section in there since it’s an American website but Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day will all come handy in the coming months.
Just to get an idea of the spread of crafts they offer, check the bottle-cap tambourines in the Recyclable Crafts category under Crafts by Material, or the newspaper fashion show (if I still were a member of the School Council, I’d use that idea to complement a Literacy day event for the students!). As soon as we get some snow, even just a little, I think we should try their Beach Bum Snowman. It would definitely cheer up the whole neighbourhood.
Most pages are followed by a Show & Tell section where you get to see pictures of craft ideas submitted by families just like us. Very often, parents also submit photos of one of the Family Fun crafts they tried for themselves. I should send them my daughter’s picture of the bubble bather costume suggestion we used during our school’s Crazy Bubbles end-of-the-year party.
The crafts are just the tip of the iceberg. Their Playtime section offers hundreds of games suggestions for all occasions and contexts. Their Parties menu allows to search by theme or age and includes Themed Cupcakes and Party Printables categories. They even have a how-to video section for cakes and cupcakes for the bakery-challenged among us.
Tips • Crafts offered online are not there forever. You can subscribe to their magazine online (or through the magazine sales of your school if they have one of those fundraisers). Check their website at www.familyfun.com.
In her personal yet practical 480-page guidebook, author Nathalie Prezeau describes hundreds of outings in and around the GTA she tested with her family and friends over the past twelve years. The 4th edition is out! It includes a new chapter on things to do with the kids around the 69 subway stations in Toronto, as well as exciting city walks to play the tourist in Toronto. Available in the Travel Section of GTA bookstores as well as Mastermind Educational Toys stores and currently at Costco. Visit www.torontofunplaces.com to learn more.
Birthday party places and entertainers have made party planning easier for busy parents ‘on-the-go’ .
The convenience of party places can be measured in: (a) the ability to avoid mess at home, (b) ‘built-in’ entertainment for the children, (c) blending the excitement of a birthday party with a new experience, and (d) party planning options that can include invitations, food and lootbags.
At the same time, children’s party entertainers in your home, or at an alternative venue (including a local community centre), offers its own allure in: (a) not having to transport food and party favours, (b) having the ’active’ part of the party taken care of by professional fun-makers and (c) inviting a favourite character or activity to visit especially for your child and their guests, i.e. a princess, super hero or craft.
Visit the birthday party headquarters in our local directories to learn more about options in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver (and visit back often as the available options and coupons available continue to grow regularly).
If you are hosting a princess party, consider welcoming your young guests with the chance to make their own ‘princess crown’.
Either cut out shapes in advance for the children to decorate or let your child develop their spelling skills and create crown printables with their guests’ names in the Golden Crown Spelling Bee (in Super Why Games at PBS online).
Then leave out crayons, markers, pencil crayons and/or stickers and watch the children create special crowns.
Shop for top eco-friendly toys of 2011 and more all made with your children and the environment in mind! We offer free local pick-up (Kanata, ON) and low flat rate shipping within Canada. Save 10% with discount code KidsCan until Dec 31/11.
Spoiling even the smallest member of your family couldn’t get easier when shopping at petiteposh.com. Shop for personalized gifts, big kid toys and everyday essentials Great gifts, warms smiles and big hug! Use coupon code kids at check out for 15% off your entire order (over $30 & valid until Dec 15/11) and don’t forget, free shipping on orders over $99.
Jump start your Christmas morning this year with better tasting coffee! Planetary Design French Presses leave in the tasty aromatic essential oils unlike your average filtered coffee machine. Pick from a variety of sizes, styles and colours of Planetary Design at the Polka Dot Pond Shop! Offer: Save 15% on all products with code KACHGG15. Expiry: December 31st, 2011
Citrus Silver designs meaningful jewellery that is stamped with names, words or dates. All of our stamped pieces are sterling silver and made in Canada. Affordable, personal, and beautiful. Order online and we will ship within 1 week.
Celebrate the special little ones in your life this holiday season with a music collection that celebrates them! Name Your Tune Personalized CDs feature your child’s name throughout their favourite songs including Old MacDonald, If You’re Happy and You Know It and 5 Little Monkeys. Available in 2 Volumes. Coupon Code: KidsAround for $5 off your order of Name Your Tune CDs.
Paint a handmade gift while spending quality time with family or friends. Put children’s prints on a piece for a treasured keepsake. WALK-IN CUSTOMERS are welcome. Gift certificates available. Private parties for both adults and kids to celebrate any occasion. Over 300+ items to paint. 279 Danforth Avenue, Toronto.
“Adopt” an animal from Toronto Zoo and give a unique gift. How about a bear for Baby or a penguin for Papa? “Adoption” packages begin at just $25. Our Holiday Special packages feature “Waddles” the plush penguin and a DVD that takes you behind-the-scenes where you’ll meet zoo keepers and amazing animals. Each purchase helps with conservation efforts at Toronto Zoo.
The Second City’s Miracle on Mercer St.. Adorable puppets and their funny human friends tell a delightful musical tale that The Toronto Star calls “the best holiday present of all”. Matinee performances until Jan 1. Ages 4+. Tickets $12.
Comedy comes in many different packages! Campers learn how to define their own voice and point of view through the exploration of improvisation. Full day camps for grades 5-8, half day intensives for grades 9-12! December 27 -30 and January 2-6.
WRITTEN BY
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Most pages are followed by a Show & Tell section where you get to see pictures of craft ideas submitted by families just like us. Very often, parents also submit photos of one of the Family Fun crafts they tried for themselves. I should send them my daughter’s picture of the bubble bather costume suggestion we used during our school’s Crazy Bubbles end-of-the-year party.