Natural Nursery Blog

Ethical gifts for Christmas

It is easy to fill the children’s Advent calendars and the Christmas stockings full junk, plastic toys which will discarded tomorrow, with of chocolate and sweets. I love looking for special ideas, little toys that will challenge their creativity and their skills. Toys that will give them hours of play for several months.

First on my list are definitely the Hama Beads, especially now that they are on special! The Hama beads stimulate children creativity with the various designs and colourful patterns. Hama beads also helps them develop finger dexterity, preparing them for writing. Children place the little beads on the peg board, then an adult irons them out, securing them in a lovely pattern.

The Lifecycle Layer Puzzle is an other adorable toy that your child will enjoy for hours. Each educational puzzle is built up in layers showing the different stages in the development of the creature, from egg through to adult. It challenges the child’s manipulation and problem solving skills.

The box of magnetic letters can be given as a whole or place a couple of letters in each day of the Advent calendar. The colourful letters are easy for toddlers to manipulate and an introduction to reading through play. They are made from sustainable wood to strict fair labour standards.

Stocking fillers can be a chance to make bath time fun, naturally! Wrap your baby in a blanket of bubbles with this natural baby bubble bath from Burt’s Bees is a mild, with soft vanilla extract scent.

Wooden Toy Fruit

Our kids also loved the wooden toy fruit, we placed a couple of fruit for a week in each day of the Advent calendar. They seemed excited to try to guess what the next day would bring. The wooden toy fruit are chunky enough for toddlers to handle. It was sweet to see big sister and little brother play together with these wooden toy fruit.

wooden toy: eco friendly jigsaws

First up in our pick of Favourite Ethical Gifts for Christmas is this lovely wooden toy collection of children jigsaws.

Your child will be attracted to the cheerful colours and the friendly animal shapes of the Lanka Kade jigsaws. I particularly like the fact that they’re not ‘just’ a rectangle flat board. The 3-D puzzles are more challenging than traditional jigsaws. You can either use the letters to guide the child or do it back to front with the letters hidden. You can use the letters as building blocks to prepare for reading. The chunky wooden toy pieces are easy for children of all ages to handle.

If  you are careful about what toys come into your house, you can’t go wrong with a Lanka Kade wooden toy. These eco friendly products are all handmade by seven family-based companies with whom Lanka Kade has long term working commitments. Toys are designed in the UK and allow each supplier to use their individual knowledge and skills. Lanka Kade’s aims to provide continual employment throughout the year for each company, their families and their employees. Many of the Lanka Kade wooden toys are made from rubberwood sourced from exhausted rubber plantations that are replanted every 10 – 15 years.

The Lanka Kade jigsaws are currently on special at Natural Nursery, like this gorgeous wooden toy train is only £4.16.

Yes, we know it is early, but we have started to list our Christmas stock for those of you who like to spread the load.

So far we have added some lovely wooden, ethically traded stocking fillers.  Prices start at under 50p and many would make lovely pressies for inside handmade Christmas crackers too.

I love these memo clips – fantastic for holding special pictures or notes, they are made from sustainable wood and cost 85p each.

Christmas Stocking Fillers