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Wednesday November 21, 2007

Are your kids on stuff overload?

These gifts help parents keep it small and simple

by karina ioffee
correspondent

Your child already has hundreds of books and so many toys you can’t even keep the top of the toy box closed. Every day, you wage a battle to get them to pick up their collection of trucks, Nora dolls (each with at least five outfits) and countless stuffed animals you think they might have outgrown yet can’t seem to part with.

And then you look at the calendar. Chanukah is approaching. That means more trucks, Nora dolls and stuffed animals. What will you get them this year? You want to be different. You want to be original. You want to be a cool parent.

Luckily, local Judaica shops have thought of kids and have ample gift ideas for children of all ages. Among new gifts this year is a bee that wears a yarmulke and belts out Jewish songs — a Macca-bee! Others are Hebrew Sudoku and Apples to Apples, a card game that forces players use their noggins.

“People love it because it’s inter- generational,” says Ellen Bob, owner of bob and bob in Los Altos, about Apples to Apples. “Grandparents can play it with their grandchildren. You can be serious with it or absurd, and they both work.”

The game works this way: Each player gets seven cards with nouns on them. The judge then draws a card from the adjectives pile and shows it to the group. The others then have to put out a noun they think will best fit with the adjective, occasionally resulting in some hilarious pairings.

“It’s a fun game and it’s been very popular this year,” Bob says.

On a recent day at Afikomen Judaica in Berkeley, the staff was sorting through a new shipment of toys, including a battery-operated fan that plays Chanukah songs. (Hey, it gets hot frying all those latkes!) There were also plush dreidels for the babies, Alef Bet dolls for the toddlers and Jerusalem needlepoint kits for older children. For teens and adults, there was a Jewish magnetic poetry kit, with phrases such as, “Oy vey, we never schmooze anymore.”

But Helen-Anne Mertsching, buyer of kids’ merchandise for the store, was especially excited about the children’s crafts, such as the beeswax candle-making kit, do-it yourself window clings and biblical Felt Tales, where kids can move felt figures around and make up stories along the way.

“I love the craft gifts because they

really engage children in a way that a general toy doesn’t,” she says.

A parent herself, Mertsching had a bit of advice for parents: Shop early and keep it simple.

At Alef Bet in Los Gatos, owner Nurit Sabadosh was oohing and aahing over the Macca-bee, a plush bee sporting a yarmulke and a Star of David on its chest and singing Chanukah songs. “It’s

so cute,” says Sabadosh. “ It’s for kids, but I think adults will enjoy it too.”

A gift idea for older kids this year is a hannukiah made out of a circuit board with “candles” that can be lighted by hitting a button, says Sabadosh.

At bob and bob, owner Ellen Bob says her store is carrying lots of little gifts, good for giving on each night of Chanukah or sending off to a child who is away at college.

Among them is a “Happy Chanukah” hacky sack, a tzedakah box in the shape of toy trucks and a 5-in-1 pen that stamps, lights up, makes bubbles, draws and has a doll on top, a perfect for a child with a short attention span.

Over at Dayenu, inside San Francisco’s Jewish Community Center, wooden Chanukah and Shabbat sets are all the rage, with fake challah, candles and other items kids can play with, said Eva-Lynne Leibman, one of the owners.

“A lot of stuff nowadays is plastic and not so durable, but this really lasts,” she said.

To get families talking, there is the Chanukah Box of Questions, which has open-ended questions like, What are you thankful for? and What kind of gift can you give that doesn’t come in a box?

But at the end of the day, most storeowners favor books when it comes to children’s gifts. They also encourage families to make at least one night of Chanukah a family book night.

“What’s really great about a book is that it doesn’t get lost on the bottom of toy chest in two weeks,” says Ellen Bob.

And for those parents scratching their heads about what to buy the child who has everything, Bob reminds them that giving gifts for Chanukah is far from obligatory.

“If you like giving gifts, you give them,” she says. “If not, you don’t. It shouldn’t be a stressful thing.”

Karina Ioffee is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and editor whose Web site is www.karinaioffee.com.

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