ResearchHave yourself an Anachronistic Christmas
You cannot outrun the march of the microchips. They're in the cell phones, the music players, the laptops, the portable games. They're starting to migrate into the refrigerators and TVs. Just today, I saw a car commercial where a feature was boasted of, in which the car notifies you by email when it's time for a maintenance check-up. I'm sure it sounded cool on paper - "A car that can send email!" but at the time I thought, "Really great - like I didn't get enough spam from people!"
Kids these days (said the grumpy old person) are surrounded by the beeping, lighting, digital microchip devices. And while all this steeping in hyper-electric media is fine and dandy, we might just once try getting the kids something that doesn't require batteries. Herein, a list of classic gifts for kids that are still as popular now as they were - well, before computers took over the world.
Legos: I try not to just get the pre-formed model sets, but the actual sacks of 1000 bricks that were all Legos were originally. Having things pre-built for you just defeats the whole idea of Legos - to actually build something yourself! Something that takes some imagination and design. Today's Lego enthusiast is tomorrow's engineer. These toys are so popular, that many adults go on building more elaborate models and posting the pictures online to show off. There's even a whole amusement park devoted to them.
Stuffed animals: These have something that all the XBoxes and iPods lack: you can hug them! In our cold metal and plastic world, it is therapeutic to find that furry beanbag teddy bear who doesn't play games or movies at us, but only asks us to cuddle with it. A Christmas tree just doesn't look complete without at least one stuffed animal under it.
Action figures and dolls: Be it Star Wars or Harry Potter or GI Joe, these variations on the theme of toy soldiers still provide a welcome diversion to grade-school kids - even if it's just to act out part of the movie they just watched. Dolls, too, give kids something to be more interactive with than just pressing buttons. Playing with figurines is actually essential for all kids at a certain development stage - they need to practice interactions between people in a scenario where they have to make up the script on their own.
Toy cars: They don't always have to be remote controlled, or even propelled. Plain old cars with wheels are quite adequate to launch across the floor or cruise down the stairway banister. And there's no denying the pride young people take in their collection, should they get a really good Hot Wheels or Matchbox car collection going.
Books: Paper methods of transmitting printed data and pictures that were the primary means of reading before we started reading everything on a computer screen. But funny how you never hear of anybody on a rainy day curling up on the sofa with a good PDA. Books are an often over-looked Christmas gift idea. They're relatively cheap, and can provide days more amusement than anything else you can get for the money.