Holiday Gift Favorites for Children

The little ones in your life have high hopes this holiday season, perhaps rivaled only by little old Ralphie’s desire for that Red Ryder BB Gun.

Just what is hot this year? MainStreet asked Reyne Rice, a Toy Trend Specialist for the Toy Industry Association, to provide a break down of popular toys for various age brackets.

 “Different activities and different brands appeal to children so there’s never one hot product," says Rice. However, holiday shoppers should still begin early: The slowdown of the U.S. economy means that toy makers have less of an inventory to avoid overstocking stores with toys that might not sell if parents and shoppers cut their budgets.

Here's what Rice thinks kids of all ages will love this year, and the price we found for the toys at Amazon (STOCK QUOTE: AMZN).

Toys for children age 3 and up
The Wild Planet Animal Scrambler uses RFID (radio frequency identification technology) inside a toy giraffe that asks questions to help children identify animals such as a monkey, tiger or elephant. Amazon recently cut the price in half, and is selling the active learning game  for $14.99.

Leap Frog allows parents to view how children are learning through the tag reading service. The learning devices comes with a $50 tag from Amazon.

Toys for children age 5 and up
U Dance by Hasbro gets rid of the floor mat, and provides a tower for kids to dance in front of and watch as the moves are shown on the screen. It’s something that has appeal for a wide variety of age groups, and remains challenging because of its multiple levels. Amazon is offering the motion sensing dance game for about $68.