Thought I would start a thread

List the gifts that were real hits, kids or adults, expensive or inexpensive

List those that were maybe hyped up and not liked as well

I'll start...I was at a party with several children. The most played with toy was a pack of "punching balloons" that the Mom said she got at Target Dollar Spot. They would not stop playing with those things!
Also, Glow in the dark gummie worms were a hit, just over $1 at Cracker Barrell, they light up when you pick them up with their own tweezers.

Looking forward to hearing more...

Fun thread!

We bought digital camers for my nieces, cheap $15 keychain ones and they played with those all night. As well as a bottle of perfume each, they all smelled good when they went home! I would love to get ideas for next year!


My kids liked the guitars and remote control quads.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

We are a bit behind the times here- my kids wanted and got a PS2 that they are quite happy with. Auntie gave them DDR Supernova and two dance pads, and grandpa got them Guitar hero 2 w/guitar. They really like them both.

The $30 iPod shuffle was a huge hit! 9yo DS thinks it had to cost at least $100 and keeps bragging about his $15 iTunes gift card.

My boys (9 and 14) each got the personal dvd player from Wal-Mart (49.00). It was a huge hit. I threw in some movies and they have been quiet all day. I got my nephews (7-10) Nerf guns that shoot darts and balls. They played all night with them. The funniest is I picked up a stick vacuum for me at a after Thanksgiving sale for 10.00. Then when I got home, I decided to wrap it and give it to my 6 year old daughter. She loves her little vacuum. She has cleaned the whole house. DH and I are shopping tomorrow instead of exchanging gifts and we will see what goodies are out there. Hope you all had great Holidays.

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my son liked his cheapo 50% off wooden nutcracker I got at Rite aid ( for $3.99)...my dh bought him some Macys $10 nutcrackers ( he collects them ) but he still liked the rite aid one the best. My other ds aged 19 liked the cheapo $45 Ipod am/fm dock with alarm clock..it sounds good for a cheap knock off ( the real apple dock is of course about $300 )...

not so great I guess was the pajamas the inlaws gave.

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I posted about this in another thread but will post it again.

My 6 yo got a play toaster with 2 pieces of fake toast. She played with this before opening all her other gifts. This was a Target brand toy, in the blue box and was bought at 75% off which made it less than $2. I think it may have been one of her favorite things.

Both girls got a Game Boy Advance(yes, we too are a little behind the times but it works for us, lol)and I bought 1 the Dogs game and 1 the Cats game. I had heard about this Dogs game over and over and over.....but they had played the Dogz game on the Nintendo DS and I'm sure it must have been much better because they weren't too excited with their game, which cost about $30 each. But I also bought them a less than $10 game at Walmart, Lizzie McGuire for one and The Proud Family for the other and they LOVED those games....so you just never know.
The best part of it, they were still very appreciative and happy and have said thank you many, many times!

HIts digital camera, nerf stuff, dvds, gamestop gift cards, b&n giftcards.
Flop. Walkie Talkie Watch

Jibbers, where did you get $30 Ipod Shuffles?

I imagine she is talking about the refurbished ipods from the "Apple Store" that are $29.00. They have been in and out of stock for a while now. Looks like they are out of stock right now....but they have been getting them, and some other great deals, in stock quite often. Here is the link: http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

Thank you!

the diego adventure set was a big hit (40.00 ), but not as cool as the spiderman slippers my sister got them (4.00 lol

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

I bought my 3 year old nephew a shark tent from Target for $25 - it was AWESOME!!! You set it up like a normal tent - with the poles that unfold and have string inside the poles. Once it was set up he LOVED it! I also bought him a little flashlight that you attach to an elastic band and put it on your head - he put it on and was exploring all over the house. I bought that at Target too. We celebrated Christmas a week early this year and he has already slept in the tent 2 full nights! A great idea for a kid that loves ocean life.

Ipod shuufles were a hit with DS- 9 and DD- 7. As were the Idogs they got.

The biggest hit was the Wii I got DS -17. Man that is so fun. It was definately worth the 9 hr wait in line!!!

Jen

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Mom to Jake, Zach & Meghan
SJCC STREAKS FOOTBALL!!
CLEVELAND BROWNS FOOTBALL!

Silly string, Legos, and Wii (boys ages 9 and 11)... I also love these three. Wii is great because players have to get up on their feet for most of the games! How cool is that. It was definitely worth the 8 hr wait in line for my nephew who picked it up for me!

Ipods-hit
Air Hockey table-hit
Razor scooter-hit
Bionocles-hit

Most everything was a hit.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

hot items in our house:

Wii (for the 11, 9, 7 and 7 year old) oops forgot to mention the big kid HUBBY

ipod shuffle all 4 of them

Dora talking house for the 3 year old

video nows youngest

Everything they got they really liked and played with already tons today. This year we did great...I don't foresee a lot of the things they got thrown in a corner.

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Tracy S
Mommy to 5 little girls
Victoria
Alyssa
Samantha & Selena
Malaya
Tracy_s5girls@yahoo.com

I asked my 7yr. old ds what his favorite gift was and he said "The tape measure from my stocking", it was a 99cent small retractable one from Bass Pro, he loves it, so funny... I actually added it on to my total at the store in order to be able to use my $5/$50 coupon, glad I did so.

Holy Cow! 9 HOURS in line?? I was crabbing because I had to wait for an hour. The only thing I waited for like that was 6 hours in a line at Home Depot to get a generator after Hurricane Wilma!

16 y/o twins loved their Wii too. Along with Guitar Hero II so now they both have a guitar and can battle each other. 19 y/o DD got her 30 gb Colorware iPod. She couldn;t believe I got her a PINK iPod. ....LOL

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Video games, board games, nerf items, remote control truck all big hits with my 3 boys (10,8 and 6). The only flop were lego sets They each got 2 and only the oldest decided to keep one. All the other sets will go into a box for adopting a family at Christmas next year.

With ds it was the Thomas the Train popup playhouse train.. That was a hit with dh too since he didnt have to put it together, it just popped up into shape out of the box..


With dh it was the heelys i got him.. Hope he doesnt break his neck trying those things.. Saw some little kids with the heely things in disney world and thought they looked cool and found them in a mens size 11 for him when amazon had that shoe sale in november he loves them.

I think my son likes everything he got. He got the Spongebob Bikini Bottom and Build-A-Bob Lego sets (he got the Krusty Krab earlier for his birthday so now he has the entire set), a Matchbox Snow Monster Mega Rig set, Piranha Panic, 2 new shirts, a new robe, a $10 Walmart gift card, $35 cash (going into his bank account), a plastic safe for him to store his treasures (like good YuGiOh cards), YuGiOh cards, and assorted odds and ends.

At first he was ticked about the plastic safe (he was in a mood yesterday - I think he was overly excited and tired) and then he decided it was his favorite present because he could store his good cards in it when his friend comes over so he can't try to trade for them.

I am so glad today is the day after, so now I can de-Christmas the house and get it back to normal!! No shopping for me at 50% off sales, I am de-Christmasizing my house!!

Office Depot had this handy dandy gadget that is a radio, flashlight, and cell phone charger that has a hand crank to power it. It was only $4.95 or some ridiculous amount with free shipping. I got 3 of them for my adult kids just as a filler in gift. They loved them.

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Deal or No Deal DVD game was defintely a let down
Not worht the $20+

The 2 hits in the house were the $9 Tube of Magnetix that Target had the day aafter Thanksgiving. (I wished that I had bought 2 or 3 of them. We have all been playing with them since yesterday.) The other hit is the Cranium Whoonu game. This was one of the $5 games I got at Target with the coupon. What fun this is. I bet it would be great to play with more people.

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Biggest hit were the "Aunt Laura" treasure boxes for my neices (9 & 8). I save up my treasures all year for these boxes anything that will fit in the shoe box goes in it. My SIL was even excited to see what "Auntie" stuffs in there.

I'm really enjoying this thread ... with my 'going to be 12' year old son's birthday coming in two weeks; I'm getting some great ideas! Thanks!

DD -10 - the Massively Media thing I picked her up on hasbro.com when everything was 25% off and free shipping
DS - 8 - GBA with the backlight. He originally had the one without a light. OMG what a difference this one is! Its so BRIGHT and COLORFUL!
DD - 2 - Baby Alive by a mile. I thought it would be VideoNow Jr but it was the Baby Alive.

My oldest and the youngest each got a Wii which they love and the middle son got a playstation 3 so all has been very quiet the last two days, no arguements, no picking, just working at their goal of playing games. All big hits!

sandy

My niece is 6, and her big things were her new Junie B books (I got her a Junie B journal, and a doll- she also got most of the books she is missing), and she liked the how to draw robots book I got from dollar tree of all places- she liked that it was dry erase

She also loved her baby cabage patch doll w/ a carseat carrier. She has a baby brother, so I think she likes to pretend she has a baby too.

Dh liked

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AKA: Airbornearmywife

I asked both my kids their favorite gifts:
Son age 10 said the tickets I got him to a Suns game and daughter(who turned 6 on the 23rd) said her MP3

Hits included:

Rachel Ray cookbooks (various) for mom, sister and SIL
Seinfeld and Entourage DVD sets for dh and BIL.
Pyrex Pro Digital Thermometer for SIL. (..I think she was more thrilled about getting this than jewelry!)
Maglite Flashlight for dh, BIL, FIL (large flashlight, I think was $10 at Lowes)
8 in 1 air compressor/auto vacuum for BIL, Brother, Father – the men loved all the devices attached!
Electric heating blanket for dh
External Hard drive for father
Ipod under the counter speakers/fm radio/tv band – SIL, brother
Beverly Hills 90210 season 1 DVD set – Me!

Misses included:

Tennis clothing for dh. He’s never picked up a racket. He’s a mountain biker. LOL! (gift from a relative)

I got one of thoses for my dad and grandpa (they both have a thing with flashlights and radios) also picked one up for us. They feel a little cheap but the radio works great and runs a long time and the light is really bright. I was surprised, tried to order more after I received the first 3 but they were out of stock.

Other hits were the electric guitar ($100 for DS 8, I think Dh has played it as much if not more then DS), robosapiean (sp?) for DS from grandma (she found it for $25 at Kmart), cloths, my little pony stuff and barbie dolls for DD who's 6.


No flops, everything has been played with.

ddr is the best gift ever dance, dance, revoluton- gives the kids inside excercise

Well my DD is 8 and we got her a remote control 4wheeler and she was so mad that she got it she pouted all morning. Then she took it outside and she loves it. She said well maybe this is not so bad after all. So everything seems to be a hit for both of the kids. Biggest hit would be the bratz bike for my 8 yr old and the dog named roxy that came in a purple carry bag for my 4 yr old.

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We gave our 3.5yo dd Butterscotch the Fur Real Pony and boy was it a hit. This is her first year for getting the whole Santa deal and she was thrilled that he'd fulfilled her wish. She dragged all her other stuffed animals & dolls over to introduce them and give them rides.

Butterscotch is currently in our livingroom, because otherwise she won't leave her room. Worth every penny for the smile on her face.

my 2 younger girls love thier robes & pjs & slippers funny how they are into clotes more than toys!!! And oldest loves the tracphone I got a deal on almost 500 mins & phone for $100 not to bad I guess.

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mom of 3 greats girls

The biggest let down for my kids was Moon Sand. They were soooo excited to get it and couldn't wait to play with it, but after about 5 minutes they were completely bored and had made a HUGE mess! As usual, the X Box games were the biggest hits.

My son (7) loves his robo reptile
My daughter loves her I-Quest

They each got two of the "ology" books and in-between playing with above, they are reading the books.

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Marshmallow blasters - bought one for each of the 8 kids who were at my house Christmas Eve and got in trouble for not buying them for the men. They were outside almost all night with them, alittle expensive at $20 each but the enjoyment was priceless. My lawn is still covered but definately a huge hit.

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Ok.. gotta know where you buy these... these would be a BIG hit for the family next year...

We have a bunch of "big" kids in our family!

X

I bought the marshmallow blasters at Gadgets and Gizmos but I am sure they are sold elsewhere.

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All you can do is All you can do-- But All you can do is enough!!!

My 3 y/o loves the Manetix (for 3+) set I p/u at W-M. He is having a blast with it!

He has no interest in the GeoTraxx set his cousins got him. Maybe next year????

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Just an FYI... there are instructions somewhere online (maybe via Google?) for making these out of small PVC pipe, glue, and joints. My BIL/SIL made these for all of the kids in the family last year. They spray painted with the Fusion spraypaint for plastic... The kids blow into one end in order to shoot the marshmallows. We think frozen marshmallows work best. These come out at most of our get togethers but do sure make a mess of the yard!

We got DDr last Christmas, played it so much that the mats wore out, so this Christmas, we got new mats and the new DDR game- Supernova. Trying to get used to the new songs- we got really attatched to the songs on DDR Max. Best gift ever! Wii is pretty cool to, but I like DDR beter.

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Jackie

Music is what feelings sound like._ ~Author Unknown

Hit: Deal or No Deal electronic game for my 7 year old DS. He took it to my mom's for Christmas dinner and Wow...the whole family couldn't stop playing with it. I thought he (and everyone else) would bore of it soon but nope....still going strong

My 5 year old DD loved Dora's talking kitchen

We are going to buy a Wii at TRU in a couple of weeks. We scored a 25% off anything coupon from The American Express promo before xmas and are waiting til the Nindento DS (for DH) and the Wii (for the family) are both in stock (plus more games). We had a blizzard before xmas and they haven't gotten any new stock yet....it's barren

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Thing that was the most awkword moment was when I opened the Digital Camera box from my husband. Everything was in there except the camera. Surprisingly when dh went back the next morning, they gave him a new one, no questions asked. I still wish I could have taken pictures of the kids opening gifts on Christmas morning, but I will have time to do that.

I thought it more funny that as I am opening it and I realize it isn't there, I said, "There is no camera in here." My husband huffs and says, "here, let me see." Guess what? It really wasn't there lol.

I posted earlier about the video games being the favorite but I have noticed that every single day since Christmas the Cranium Whoonu game has been played. All 3 of my boys like it. Awsome for $5 at target

Huge hit: Tracfones for both ds. I found on the tracfone website camera phones, 1yr dbl min, 400 min w/200 bonus min for about $130. They have downloaded ringtones, played on the web browesers and constantly called each other. They are responsible for buyng their own time.
The wii was also a hit, along with the ps2. They ended up getting both since I couldn't find the wii. I found it a couple of days before Xmas, so they ended up with both.
Misses: Lego mindstorm NXT and the remote control car that ds got and, of course, the boys were not interested in the clothing.

My dd got the Deal or No Deal electronic game and that is a hit with the whole family.

The Wii was a hit with everyone also. The kids played Battleship & Sorry and my dd got beads which she loves as well. The funky ant farm where they eat blue gel is being used as a nightlight for my ds right now since I can not quite work myself up to buying ants!!!

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beth

The Wii that my parent's got the kids was a huge hit! They also loved their video games. My oldest son (15) loved his lacrosse gear. My daughter got one of those chocolate fountains, but it's yet to be used. Maybe DH was right...he said that will just sit in the corner with the ice cream maker and smoothie maker...Hmmmmm...maybe I need to take it back...it's never been opened. It's funny how kids like the cheap, little things sometimes. My youngest son (10) loves the packs of Naruto cards he got in his stocking. My 13 year old daughter loves the inexpensive earrings from Claire's. ~Lisa

The same thing happened to us. Bought hubby the camera and lo and behold, it wasn't in the box. We got it at Target and they were great. Refunded our money, no problem. We haven't replaced it yet since hubby wants to upgrade it.