Noirbaby’s Best Gift Picks:
Useful and Fun Gifts for the Kids and You

Here at Noirbaby, it’s tradition to provide ideas for useful Holiday gifts that won’t break the bank. Our list offers gifts you might not have thought of, and that you might not even have known existed. Let our suggestions make your Holiday season more fun, and a little easier!

The Go fish, Crazy Eights, and Crazy Faces playing cards, recommended for children 3 and up, are easy and fun for kids to read. Delightfully illustrated, these whimsical, oversized cards make classic children’s card games tons more fun. Heavy cardstock boxes with sliding tray storage make it easy to keep everyone playing with a full deck.
($8.00, www.eeboo.com)

The Good Habits chart is a fun way to encourage children to help out with simple tasks around the house without being asked, such as making their bed and brushing their teeth. This product comes with a sheet of stickers with labels so that a parent can make up his own tasks and can reward the child with a star for a good job or good behavior. Good Habits is recommended for children ages 5 and up.
($16.00, www.eeboo.com)

The sturdy Read to Me and Alphabet Tot Towers help build motor skills while promoting language. Each of the blocks nest together and stack on top of each other, teaching the child spatial concepts by having them stack smaller items on top of larger items and fit smaller items into larger items. Younger children enjoy being able to knock the tower over for the parent to rebuild. The Tot Towers are recommended for children ages 18 months and up.
($19.00 www.eeboo.com)

Puzzle Pairs

Opposites Puzzle Pairs helps young minds to grasp the concept of opposites using fun, brightly colored illustrations. This game clearly shows the difference between opposites, for example big and small, fast and slow, and empty and full.

Alphabet Puzzle Pairs helps emergent readers match letters with words and dots to numbers. This is a fun way to teach your child to recognize simple words and numbers.

Baby Animal Puzzle Pairs teaches children to match the parent animal to the baby animal.
All puzzle pieces are self-correcting—that is, only the correct pieces will fit together.

All puzzle pairs are recommended for children ages 3 and up.
($14.00, www.eeboo.com)

Distinctly Me is one of few paper craft companies selling products that feature diverse characters. Latonya McClam and La Tondra Murray Chandler founded Distinctly Me in 2004 to fill an market traditionally underserved in the craft industry. Their first line of stickers includes individually drawn images of African Americans designed to embellish scrapbook pages, picture frames, and adorn baby books, and various other craft projects. Little Girl, Little Boy, Santa, and Christmas are just a few of the themes offered.

Distinctly Me also offers coordinating papers and cork and acrylic embellishments. Visit www.distinctlyme.com to see their entire line of stickers, papers, and embellishments.

At last! CrayAngle Triangular Crayons are crayons that don’t roll off a table. Parents, kids, and workers no longer have to pick up crumbled crayons that get ground into the floor or carpet. The crayons keep kids occupied with coloring and out from under tables, where germs lurk. They feature a comfort grip with a triangular body, and they are sized specifically to fit the average child’s hand. CrayAngle crayons are non-toxic, and they meet ASTM D4236 standards for crayon safety. The crayons come in packs of four, sixteen, and sixty-four.
(www.classy-kid.com)

The Dining Out Kit has everything mom needs to travel light and organized. The Stage 1 Kit comes with 6 disposable table bibs (these cover Baby, high chair, and table); 6 Toss-away bibs, wipes, and a teether toy to keep Baby busy. The Stage 2 Kit comes with 12 Wrap-around place mats, a bottle of alcohol-gel hand sanitizer, and crayons to keep your toddler busy. Both kits come in a slim carrying case with a wet side and a dry side.
(www.classy-kid.com)

Public Potty Protectors come with 12 protectors in a package. These XL size protectors cover and drape over the front and sides where kids hold on. They feature a soft paper-towel like feel for toddler’s bottom (this is convenient for adults, too). The protectors are made of coated cotton fabric with adhesive strips to hold it in place. They should not be flushed. Each potty cover comes individually folded for easy transport, and it fits right in kids pockets.
(www.classy-kid.com)

Let reusable shopping cart covers take the guess work out of grocery shopping. After all, parents never know what has been on a public shopping cart. Protecting your child’s health (and even your own) is very important. The Classy Kid Shopping Cart Cover fits EVERY shopping cart, including those at warehouse stores. Our soft cotton material is padded in the seat and back areas and folds smaller than any other full seat cover. For added convenience, our covers are machine washable.
(www.classy-kid.com)

Alex Finger Crayons will encourage a child’s creativity. These non-traditional markers and unusual crayons are sure to stimulate young artists. Finger Crayons include 30 stackable crayons that are perfectly sized for little hands and fingertips.
($15.00, www.moma.org)

With Trunki Ride-On Luggage globetrotting children can pack, carry, rest on, and ride on this innovative luggage. Generously sized, the bag is made from durable polypropylene in bright colors with a wide stable wheelbase and shoulder strap. This design by Rob Law, designed exclusively for MoMA, is recommended for ages 3 to 6. The luggage measures 12 inches tall x 18 inches long x 8 inches wide and comes in pink or blue.
($40.00, www.moma.org)

Chestnut Cards really does stay true to their motto: “Chic. Fabulous. Pregnant.” The company was created expressly for society's contemporary, multicultural mother-to-be. They carry a line of cards, invitations, and accessories that cater to expectant mothers and families of color. After the founder started to plan a baby shower for her sister and brother-in-law, she quickly became disappointed by the lack of baby shower invitations that reflected her sister’s sense of culture and style. Chestnut Cards was soon born.

Pay particular attention to the Baby Shower in a Box, fun baby shower invitations, thank you notes, and the delightful diaper cakes.
($12.95 – $129.95, www.chestnutcards.com)

Putumayo Kids is a division of Putumayo World Music, whose goal is to introduce people to the music of the world’s cultures. Over the past thirteen years, they have done a very good job of doing just that. In 2002, they established Putumayo Kids to educate kids about other cultures through fun, upbeat world music. Check out such titles as New Orleans Playground, Folk Playground, Reggae Playground, One World One Kid, and French Playground. Available December 5th, Asian Dreamland offers soothing and musically intriguing songs from countries as diverse as Japan, China, India and even the Siberian republic of Tatarstan. This harmonious collection of tranquil songs is perfect for yoga and meditation as well as putting the little ones to sleep.

In addition to their kids’ titles, Putumayo features New Orleans Christmas. In New Orleans, the music reflects the city’s deep love for making age-old holiday traditions new again. Well-known songs are sung with a different feeling, while newly composed songs fondly recall favorite holiday memories. On New Orleans Christmas, Putumayo has captured the unique and vibrant voice of this city with a collection of holiday favorites decked in the blues, jazz, and swing flavors for which the Crescent City is famous.

To date, Putumayo has donated over $200,000 of the proceeds from the sale of its New Orleans CD to local charities and non-profit organizations whose commitment to revitalization is helping restore the city to its former state. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of New Orleans Christmas will be donated to New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity in support of their Musicians’ Village Project.
($14.98, www.putumayo.com)

While seeing is believing, sometimes it’s what you don’t see that gets even more attention. Color Wonder, a mess-free coloring and drawing activity, wows kids and thrills moms because you don’t see the color on skin, walls, furniture or clothing, but you do see it magically appear on the special Color Wonder paper.

Just in time for holiday gift-giving, Color Wonder now features Disney Cars and Disney Princess characters in two special markers and coloring book sets. These new Color Wonder sets each include a 24-page coloring book and 6 Color Wonder markers. And because the coloring book and markers are from Color Wonder, the fun is mess-free for young artists, and stress-free for mom! Color Wonder products are recommended for ages 3 and up.
($8.99, www.crayola.com)

Also available is the Color Wonder Sprayer, an airbrush that allows kids to make awesome artwork that will only show up on the special Color Wonder paper. Themed sprayer activity kits make this toy even more fun. The Color Wonder Sprayer is recommended for kids ages 5 and up.
(Sprayer $24.99, Activity Kits $4.99, www.crayola.com)

The Crayola Telescoping Crayon Tower organizes the largest collection of Crayola crayons ever into a unique expandable tower that puts all 150 colors on display in three-tiers. Kids have a clear view and easy access to all the vibrant colors offered, including metallic and glitter crayons for cool coloring effects. A built-in sharpener means a new coloring tip is only a twist away! And when it’s time to clean up, the tower shrinks back its original compact size for easy storage. The Telescoping Crayon Tower is recommended for ages 5 and up.
($14.99, www.crayola.com)

The Crayola Telescoping Pip-Squeaks Tower is equipped with 50 Pip-Squeaks markers with big color and little names like Teensy Teal, Dinky Pink, and Little Boy Blue. Pip-Squeaks are shorter than full-size Crayola markers and easier for little hands to hold. And their washable formula gives moms even more to love! Like its crayon counterpart, the Telescoping Pip-Squeaks Tower expands into a 3-tier display case and then shrinks down to its original size for easy storage. The Telescoping Pip-Squeaks Tower is recommended for ages 5 and up.
($14.99, www.crayola.com)

If you’ve ever wondered how you can keep all your child’s stuffed animals organized, Boon Inc. has the answer. The Animal Bag is an oversized, plush bag that is covered with large, transparent, zippered windows. Children can fill the bag with stuffed animals of all sizes and then use the Animal Bag as a soft seat.

The Animal Bag comes in three styles:
Oval is made of plush green fur and retails for $59.00.
Otto, designed with an attached ottoman compartment where kids can rest their feet, is made of lush blue fur and retails for $89.00.
Trio has three compartments for storing animals and is made of orange fur, retails for $99.00.
(www.booninc.com)

The Frog Pod helps with children’s bath time clean-up, providing a drainable scoop for collecting and rinsing toys and a wall-mounted base for storing bath products. The Frog Pod attaches semi-permanently to virtually any bathtub wall with adhesive strips that can be removed without harming tile or wall surfaces. Alternatively, the Frog Pod can be screw-mounted to any wall.

The Frog Pod makes bath time clean-up fun and easy. It keeps bath products safely out of reach; stores and organizes bath accessories; and reduces mold and mildew.
($29.99, www.booninc.com)

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