Want some REASONABLE gift suggestions this year??

The internet is all aflutter with hot toys and gadgets and must-haves for this Christmas season. Now, I’m not pointing fingers or saying that is wrong, and I’m not calling out any specific products either. But I AM saying that USUALLY… the “hottest” items also have really hot price tags. Yowza!

And some of my readers might be looking for gifts a little less Yowza.

I am very blessed with kiddos who are very down to earth – or at the very least – take it reasonably well when Momma brings them back down to earth. (No sweetheart, nine year old girls who home school and stay home all day don’t need cell phones.) Like any kid they’re enamored with toy catalogs and my middle child falls prey to each passing toy commercial. My four year old has probably asked for EVERY. SINGLE. THING. he could think of under the sun. But when we actually sat down to make lists for family members, we ended up with some pretty decent lists.

No high priced, overly obnoxious, excessive or cheaply made (hopefully) items on these lists!

Are you also blessed with good, level-headed kiddos, grandkiddos, or nieces and nephews?

Consider the Classic Housewife 2009 Reasonable Gift Guide For Kiddos (catchy, ain’t it?) 😉

1. Board games. Remember those good ol’ classics? The ones that never grow old? Board games are regular guests on our shopping lists. How about these faves of mine:

• Littles: Sorry, Connect Four, Chutes & Ladders, Hi Ho Cherry-O, and Cootie
• Or for the older set: Life, Battleship, Perfection, Operation, and Clue.
• Fun “grown-up” games: Monopoly, Scattergories, Scrabble, Phase 10
• Not Classics, but fun: Pass the Pigs, Apples to Apples

1. Toys that never go out of style. Seriously, can you ever go wrong with these? I think we have ALL of these.

• Legos & Lego Duplos
• MagnaDoodle
• Mr. Potato Head
• Play Dough & Playsets
• Pretend food, cash registers
• Little Mommy and Baby Alive Dolls
• Stuffed Animals, especially Webkinz

1. Boy-mania. I’m just getting into the boy stuff here but as far as I can tell you can’t go wrong with stuff like this. Or at least for pre-teen boys. I don’t know much for pre-teens and up.

• Tonka Trucks
• Hot Wheels
• Action Figures: GI Joe, Transformers, Superheroes
• Superhero & Community Helper type Dress Up Costumes

Combine automobiles and superheroes and you have a winning combination. My son received this spiderman plane for his birthday and LOVES. IT.

1. Girly-Girls. Okay, this I know. My girly girls never tire of frilly, pretty, shiny things or toys, dolls, animals with sparkles, glitter, jewels or whatnot. My girls are happy to receive holiday dresses and even regular clothes. Because they loves clothes. And shoes. And hats. And all things girly.

• Polly Pockets
• My Little Pony
• Barbie Dolls or Loving Family
• Fancy Dresses & nice clothes

1. Books. We love to read. And we have a lot of favorites. There are too many to list here, but some of them include:

• Nancy Drew
• Caddie Woodlawn
• Disney Fairies Series
• Charlotte’s Web
• Rapunzel
• Boxcar Children
• My Truck is Stuck
• The Way Home: A Princess Story
• The Goodnight Train
• I’m a Pirate Captain

1. Movies. We also watch a lot of movies (it’s one way we are avoiding all the Christmas commercials right now.) We either own these, or have seen them and want to own them.

• Nim’s Island
• Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
• UP!
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (You can’t buy this yet, but you can pre-order it. Not so great as a Christmas gift, I suppose.)
• Monsters Vs. Aliens

1. Electronics. Seems to me that kids are graduating from toys and moving into electronics pretty quickly. Still, there are several things that make good and useful gifts for children.

• Portable Cd Players -these have come in handy on long car trips, to block out noise while doing homework and for use at quiet time. Just make sure you purchase over the ear phones, not earbuds, to protect young ears.
• LeapPad & Leapsters
• Handheld games (like this electronic Hang Man.)
• Educational computer games
• We also have had a Ninteno DS Lite for a few years and have several games, but it was given to us and don’t know that it qualifies as classic or reasonable. Still, it broke this year and I am hoping to replace it as a big joint gift for the whole family. At least if you get the bundle at Wal-Mart, you also get 2 games and an accessory kit, too. Not a bad deal, right?

And what about the grown up crowd?

Well, I really stink at buying gifts for adults, but I usually try to find out what they collect or do in their spare time and if that fails, there’s always the never-fail Amazon.com gift card. Seriously. Big Daddy and I are pretty simple, too. Pretty normal, reasonable, down to earth stuff here in the Classic Housewife household. Of course, there was the time I stuffed a beautiful nightgown for me down in Big Daddy’s stocking. =0)  (Go ahead, I dare you to do it!)

Actually this year, I really am asking for something nicer. I’m breaking out of my mold a bit. I’m asking Santa (I talk to myself anyway) for a personal media player, one that can play music and video both. Someone recommended the Zune, but that’s a little out of my price range. Actually, twice the max I wanted to spend. So I want something like that. Just something a little less….well… yowza.

Oh, and of course, my favorite “reasonable” gift to give is the one on sale found at a really good bargain. Of course. And with Christmas drawing ever closer, Amazon is adding tons of toys & games to their list of Hot Deals. With their super saver shipping (which you have to order early enough to get!) you can get those deals straight to your door for free.

Now: You should know that I’m an Amazon affiliate, but you should also know that Amazon is one of my top two online places to shop (Christianbook.com being the other one) and that as I mentioned, we already have most everything listed above. No hanky panky here.

So that concludes the 2009 Edition of the Classic Housewife’s Reasonable Gift Guide for Kiddos. What would YOU add??