Most kids know what they want from Santa, but what about your baby or toddler?

Now that Halloween is over, it’s acceptable to mention Christmas, isn’t it?!

In fairness, that one magical day of the year takes lots of planning and plotting from parents. Only an amateur would leave it all to the last minute, particularly when you have small people to cater for.

Once kids reach a certain age, they tend to have plenty of ideas about what toys they’d like for Christmas. However, when they’re babies and toddlers, there’s no telling what Santa might bring without some guidance.

Our houses are bursting at the seams with toys too, so it’s helpful to have an idea of what toys pack the best punch when it comes to value for money, durability and good old fashioned enjoyment.

I recently asked members of the Letterkenny Babies Facebook page to share some ideas about what they’d recommend for various age groups.

For babies under six months old, practical things like tummy time mats and baby gyms fit the bill. For Lucy’s first Christmas, Santa brought a ‘Kick and Play’ mat with an arch of dangly toys as well as a piano style attachment for her to kick with her feet. She loved it. I’ve also heard of Santa bringing a jumperoo that goes down well as it spares the parents having to make that investment in due course.

The best small toys for babies over six months tend to be things like shape sorters that they can hold in their hands and safely interact with. Fisherprice does a brilliant piggy bank for this age group. Babies love feeding the oversized, colourful coins into the slot. It’s great for their fine motor skills too.

The Big Steps ‘Old MacDonald tractor and trailer’ is also an excellent toy for this age group and is very reasonably priced. The Fisher-Price ‘Little People Toy Big Yellow School Bus’ is a bigger, bulkier toy that can be pulled along by tots and is very engaging too.

The most recommended toy on the Letterkenny Babies post for toddlers is the LeapFrog ‘Scoop & Learn Ice Cream Cart’. We had one of these in the house for years and it was consistently played with by all of the kids in the house. It’s perfect for kids aged two and will last throughout the preschool years.

It’s a fabulous toy and excellent value for money – a firm favourite across the board and definitely one for adding to the Santa letter.

Magna-tiles and various brands of magnetic tiles and blocks also got plenty of recommendations from Letterkenny Babies page members. Regrettably, we’ve never had those in our house, but a quick Google search indicates they are suitable for age 3+.

Parents praised them for providing hours of imaginative play and for keeping bigger brothers and sisters entertained too. It’s great when a toy comes into the house that can be enjoyed by siblings of various ages.

Marble runs were also recommended as a fun toy that provides hours of enjoyment for kids aged 4+ who love to design unique structures and have a flair for engineering! These were the main recommendations for reasonably priced, good quality toys for babies and toddlers, through to school going age. At that point, they tend to have their own notions about what floats their boat.

There were plenty of other recommendations for outdoor toys, boardgames and gadgets that I’ll write about next week.

Apologies to anyone who finds it too early to discuss such things, but it can be best to get some groundwork done before the twelfth month of the year rolls around and the panic really starts!