Homemade Toys for the Holidays

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post #1 of 5

11/16/09 at 11:04am

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536 Posts. Joined 7/2009
Location: Portland, Oregon
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One way to cut costs and still have a green holiday is to make homemade gifts. Here are ten ideas for kiddos, and if you have any ideas add them below :)

Seriously amazing homemade baby blocks! Use scrap wood or sustainable wood and non-toxic paint. Found here.
Build a Bubble-Powered Rocket – with recycled paper and film canisters. This rocket actually lifts off.
Awesome collection of old-fashioned, handmade toys from Mother Earth News.
Homemade Organic Paint Soap for Kids
Pumpkin Pie scented play dough - although if you're crafty you could make lots of other scents.
Christmas Elf Doll - use scrap and organic fabric.
Recycled Cardboard Playhouse that your tot can decorate all on her own.
Recycled crayons - big and chunky - great stocking stuffer.
Fabric covered journal for kids learning to write. Not exactly a toy, but cool if you use recycled fabric and paper.
Recycled Wallpaper Blocks - really cute!

Do you have other ideas?

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post #2 of 5

11/16/09 at 11:25am

447 Posts. Joined 3/2008
Location: Middle of USA
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Great post!

One thing I've made for Tris was matching card games by cutting up old cardboard shipping boxes (I never buy then, and we ship plenty of things and always reuse ones that have been shipped to us but we still end up with a huge stash of shipping boxes, and you can only get rid of the bigger sized ones on freecycle really, no one wants the smaller ones, so this was a good project to use them)

I just cut the cardboard into equal squars and then cut pictures out of old magazines of different items in about the same size, with two of each kind of item. So two teddy bears, two apples, two people waving. That sort of thing.

I like this because it's a little different then the normal matching games in that he's looking for the same concept, but it's going to look a little different, so he has to think about it a little bit more.

I used cardboard but you could also use old plastic like from old folders or use wood.

post #3 of 5

11/16/09 at 12:26pm

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536 Posts. Joined 7/2009
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I like that idea for the matching cards a lot. I like that you didn't just use two exact matches - that is a much more think-worthy game. You could use that idea for lots of card-like games or flash cards for little ones.

Oh, and I just remembered two posts I recently did for gifts that are good too - Nine DIY play kitchen options and DIY Play Kitchen Food & Dishes.

post #4 of 5

12/6/09 at 2:33pm

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536 Posts. Joined 7/2009
Location: Portland, Oregon
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I just found lots more awesome homemade gifts you can make for the kiddos. Most you can use recycled goods for too, even if the instructions don't call for reused items.