We buy mostly wooden toys, aside from Little People stuff. Melissa and Doug toys (saw them mentioned earlier) are pretty good, though the paint does come off of them eventually. Haba makes great wooden toys. They sell them on amazon.com. We avoid any toys you can buy in a regular store like Walmart, and even most of Toys R Us too. They are all plastic that just gets tossed to the bottom of the junk pile in the playroom after the batteries run out...I tell relatives to buy clothes or buy wooden toys! Usually we pick a theme for Christmas. Last year she got a big wooden kitchen and I told everyone to buy wooden food and accessories. This year we're thinking about asking for wooden puzzles and things along those lines, and maybe arts and crafts supplies. I specify every year that things with flashing lights, batteries, and 100% made in China plastic will stay at the relative's house for her to play with when she comes to visit, or it will be donated. The thought of having that junk filling up their houses seems to stop them from buying a lot of it.
