It's Christmas morning and under the tree in the living room, there's a shiny new bicycle with a basket or a floppy-eared, stuffed bunny, a miniature train choo-chooing on figure-eight tracks or a sturdy, little red wagon. That's the stuff of sugarplum dreams for children of every generation.
But based on this year's trends, there might be an E-Reader, a LeapFrog Learning Tablet, World Wrestling Entertainment action figures – including one called the "Undertaker" – or a Justin Beiber Voice Effects Microphone with Amplifier.
So what is a good toy? Is it something simple like wooden blocks or high-tech like an iPad? Should it be just fun or strictly instructive?
In fact, "all toys are educational," according to Janet Gregory, proprietor of Over the Rainbow toy store in South Anchorage, "The question is, what are they teaching?"
As it turns out, toys are powerful things – for better or for worse – and good toys help children become good grown-ups.
Child's play is 'serious business'
Child's play is serious business, says Ron Dukes, an independent toy sales representative who lives in Fairbanks, not far from the famous village of North Pole, Alaska.
"The first thing that you have to understand is that children's play is actually work for them … we go to work 8 to 5; children go to play," Dukes told the Catholic Anchor in an interview while at Just Imagine Toys in Wasilla.
Dukes represents 70 toy companies, selling supplies of toys to more than 100 specialty toy stores from Barrow to Ketchikan. Specialty toy stores are typically small, locally-owned, independent shops that sell toys considered to be of good quality and "high play value" and not ones typically found in a mass-market or "big box" store, Dukes said.
Play is important, he explained, because through it, children develop physical, cognitive and social skills, and they learn and practice morality, he explained. He echoes a maxim of early 20th century English writer G. K. Chesterton: "…the man writing on motherhood is merely an educationalist; the child playing with a dolls is a mother."
Since toys are important tools for every aspect of a child's development, Dukes believes, selecting toys requires some thought on the part of gift-givers.
Good toys inspire, nurture development
According to Janet Gregory of Over the Rainbow Toys, a good toy is "open-ended" and "developmental" – that is, it inspires and nurtures creativity in a child that he or she – as well as the world – will need later.
"Who's going to come up with the solutions to the world's problems if they're not developing problem-solving and creativity as a child?"
So toys should require a child be inventive, not an automaton. The child should direct the toy, not the other way around.
"I avoid toys that play by themselves, where the child becomes a passive observer and where the toy is going, 'Push this button! Move this!' and the child goes, 'Okay, I'll push that button. I'll move that.'"
Often electronic toys, including many teaching video games, and toys based on movies or TV shows fall into this category, she cautioned. These toys command children to respond to prompts or re-present characters that have been established by someone else.
"If you're just spewing back something that you've just seen on the screen, you're not developing that kind of open creativity and that open kind of problem-solving that's required as an adult. That's where it all begins."
Good toys should span multiple ages and multiple skills, Gregory added.
"You get a Tickle Me Elmo, and you tickle him and he giggles. And you tickle him and he giggles. And you tickle him and he giggles. And then, you know, we're tired of that."
In contrast, "your basic stuffed animal can be lots of different things. He can come to your tea party and cuddle with you at bedtime and do all those wonderful things." Activities and dress-up clothes that encourage a child to "try on" different roles as an adult also can be good toys. In these ways, a child can consider life as a grown-up from the "safety of my own little toy box."
A good toy can help a child's moral development too. Games that encourage group play and role-playing help children learn cooperation. Even when it's a ball or a stacking toy, parents can reinforce "play patterns" with good moral stories or moral histories about sharing and kindness and "all the things that we as adults try and instill in our children," Dukes added.
Gregory noted that make-believe cooking dinner with a play kitchen set can help children learn how to interact with society appropriately. "That's where you start to learn how to get along in groups, how to share, how to do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Bad toys encourage violence in young children
Can toys – such as ones that involve make-believe violence – be bad? It is a complicated issue.
"Kids have been role-playing cowboys and Indians and pirates and knights with swords since the beginning of time, and the vast majority of us have grown up as decent human beings," Gregory observed.
And when it comes to violent video games, research conflicts as to whether they cause children to act immorally. Gregory's principal concern is what the brain and body aren't receiving when a child watches the video or television.
"They're not getting that physical exercise, they're not getting the stimulation from open-ended, creative play" – like learning how a top works, she explained.
Once a child has solved that problem, she says, "then now you know how to think out of the box and can move on to the next challenge in your life."
Balancing these top toy issues requires parenting, Duke added. "You have to be involved in all aspects of the child's rearing. You just can't turn their rearing over to the iPad or the television or the video game. You actually have to be an active participant in raising the child. That's where a child gets nurturing and love…That's where they're learning all that."
Gregory added a quick prescription: "Get out and play!"
This article originally appeared in the Catholic Anchor, the newspaper of the archdiocese of Anchorage, and is republished here with permission.