There’s a Family Dollar about half a mile from my house. I’ve run in for trash bags, batteries, packaged snacks, but I had never checked out the toy section until I got an email from one of my favorite PR firms asking if I knew about the toy deals at Family Dollar. Well, no, I didn’t! I found out that the day after Thanksgiving, Family Dollar published an open letter USA TODAY in which they called on the “Altruistic A-lister, Charitable Celebrity and Savvy Shopper Superstar” to save money and spread yuletide cheer to those in need by spending less on toys and gifts and donating more to their favorite charities this season. Family Dollar offers value and convenience by providing hundreds of $5 toy and gift options throughout the holiday season.

Many people are on a very tight budget this holiday season, but still want to give gifts to their loved ones. Kids love brand name toys by companies like Disney and Hot Wheels, and with $5.00 and $10.00 prices at Family Dollar, gift-givers can pick up brand name toys without breaking the bank. These are the most popular $5.00 toys available at Family Dollar:

Top $5 Toys

1. Hot Wheels 5-Pack
2. Hot wheels Classic Play set
3. Handy Manny Bowling Set
4. Tea Set 29 piece
5. Disney Plush
6. Baby Maggie 12″
7. Bakugan Booster Pack
8. Disney Dress like a Princess

The current Family Dollar ad, which is valid through Dec. 24, has hundreds of toys and gift items for $5.00 and LESS. While you are picking up toys, grab wrapping paper, scotch tape, bows, gift bags, adult and kid’s gloves, slippers, sweatshirts, dish towels, brand name deodorant, mouthwash, baking supplies, cereal….see what I mean? It’s one stop shopping!

But, back to toys-thanks to MS&L (the fabulous PR firm I mentioned earlier), I was sent some Family Dollar merchandise to check out. They sent a Hot Wheels 5-Pack, a Tea Set, and a Radio Control Monster Truck.  Nathan had a friend over when I opened the package, and they pounced on the Hot Wheels and had them out of their box and were already playing with them in the time it took me to get the camera!

Kaitlyn LOVES the tea set, I keep finding pieces of it scattered throughout the house. When I ask her why, for example, there’s a tea cup in the back playroom, she always has a story about how a group of stuffed animals was having a party or something.

One thing to watch for is whether toys at Family Dollar need batteries. This Monster Truck takes batteries but didn’t come with them, we had some already. But that is one thing you will want to look for if you buy a toy that takes batteries.

MS&L is also sending me a Family Dollar gift card so that I can go check out the holiday deals for myself.  Use the Family Dollar Store Locator to find a store near you and let Family Dollar help you have a Frugal Holiday!

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This giveaway is closed.

Today is a very special day!  It’s Toy Tuesday, brought to you by Bill Me Later, the shopping service that makes online shopping easy, safe, and convenient. Go to the Toy Tuesday site to find extra-special deals today on the holiday’s most wanted toys and gifts from leading retailers such as Toys “R” Us, Walmart.com, Step 2, Little Tikes, eToys, drugstore.com, FAO Schwarz, HP, Overstock.com, MacMall, Mercantila and more.

To help promote Toy Tuesday, Bill Me Later chose 12 bloggers to each host a one-day giveaway of a $250 gift card to one of the participating retailers, and today, it’s my turn! I am so honored to have been chosen to be the host of Toy Tuesday itself, and I want to give a shout-out to the eleven bloggers who have each done such a great job over the past eleven days of promoting Toy Tuesday and hosting their own giveaways!

Ellen Seidman – Love That Max, Cassidy Engle – First Time Around Blogger, Elizabeth – A Nut in a Nutshell, Linsey B. Knerl – Lille Punkin Reviews, Carissa Rogers – Good N Crazy , Linda Sellars – Short Pump Preppy, Kim Becker – Mommy Knows, Jodi Grundig – Moms Favorite Stuff, Laurie Turk – Tip Junkie, Briana – Bargain Briana, and Lana Barhum – Loving It, Loving It.

They each shared memories of favorite toys from the past, and how they choose Christmas gifts for their kids, so please pay them each a visit to get terrific ideas for your holiday shopping. Each of these bloggers gave away a $250 gift card AND their winner had $500 donated to a local children’s hospital or charity thanks to the Toy Tuesday campaign. Toy Tuesday has donated $6,000 to charity so far!

Before I start the giveaway, I want to share with you my favorite toy from when I was a child. I don’t have the original any more, but I do have a good story to tell. My favorite toy was my Fisher Price Play Family House, with the yellow roof and the blue walls, that I got the year I was three (1971). It came with a family, and a dog, and some furniture, and a little car, and I LOVED IT. I don’t blame my Mom for selling it in a garage sale after I stopped playing with it; she had no way to know that when I grew up, I would wish I had it to pass on to my children.

Then, the summer after Kaitlyn was born, the kids and I saw an ad in the paper for a sale being held by a former preschool teacher who was selling all of her classroom items. It was held in the community room of a nearby church. Everyone in that room heard me when I let out a SHRIEK upon finding THIS:

There it was, my childhood dollhouse! Sure, the front decal is stained, some of the stickers are ripped, and the wood base is pretty chewed up, but it was MY dollhouse, and it was Only. One. Dollar. It was like fate had brought me and my dollhouse together again! I had to have it. I brought it home and showed it to Kaitlyn, and it’s been hers ever since. Dollhouses give kids a way to act out family relationships, to practice nurturing and caring for others, and to arrange and organize in a way that makes sense to them.

Give your child the gift of a dollhouse or another special toy by taking advantage of these SHOPPING DEALS from Bill Me Later retailers TODAY ONLY:

Toys “R” Us            Free shipping on purchases over $49
eToys                       Free shipping on purchases over $49
FAO Schwarz        $20 off $150 or more with coupon code
walmart.com        Free shipping site to store on toys
drugstore.com    $20 off $100
Step 2                       10% off sitewide
Little Tikes             Free shipping on orders of $200 or more
Overstock               Discovery Kids Digital Photo Video Camera, Today Only $35.99 (12/8) + $1 shipping
MacMall                  6% discount on iPod Nano
Mercantila             20% off scooter; 50% off trampoline
HP                              Savings on Dream Screen, Dv6Quad notebook, Envy
One Step Ahead    15% off $100 or more

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GIVEAWAY

Today, it’s my turn to give away a $250 gift card, and it’s for Toys “R” Us! Woo hoo! The winner of this giveaway is going to have SO MUCH FUN spending that gift card! AND, not only does the winner get the gift card, they get $500 donated to a local hospital or charity in their name from Bill Me Later! What an AMAZING opportunity to give back to your community.

But there is a catch – the giveaway is only good for 24 hours, so please don’t wait to enter! I have this post set to publish at 12:01 AM on December 8th, and comments will close at 11:59 PM – I will be announcing the winner by 1:00 PM on the 9th.

HOW TO ENTER: All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what your kids REALLY want for Christmas this year! The Toy Tuesday retailers are interested in hearing from YOU! I’m also curious to know if anyone else had the same dollhouse as me when they were little, or if their kids have a similar one now. Leave your comment by 11:59 PM tonight, I’ll announce the winner on this post tomorrow!

************************************

Bill Me Later offers great shopping deals year-round, so I hope to be telling you about more programs similar to Toy Tuesday in the months to come! Find out more about great shopping deals by following Bill Me Later on Twitter, or by reading the Bill Me Later blog Free The Shopper!

disclosure: Bill Me Later is compensating me for participating in the Toy Tuesday program by sending me a gift card.

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Some of you might be too young to remember the year that Tickle Me Elmo was released, and toy stores were overrun with shoppers desperate to snatch one up before they sold out completely. I reviewed Zhu Zhu pets back in October on MomReviews, and I predicted that they would be the hot, hot, HOT toy for 2009. Now I know I was right!

We went to Target yesterday and as I was walking to the bathroom, I walked by the notice board where they post the current week’s ad. On a piece of paper, in big letters, was a sign that read “Due to limited supply, Zhu Zhu pets will be limited to four per guest”. So then I checked Toys “R” Us, and they are limiting the purchase to three per customer!  Who would have guessed that a battery-powered hamster that moves on it’s own and makes adorable noises would be the hot, hard-to-get toy this year like Tickle Me Elmo once was?

They really are adorable, and come with tons of accessories like habitats, a car, skateboard, surfboard, rolling ball, ramp, and slide. It’s like having a hamster for a pet but with no messy cage to clean!  Zhu Zhu pets are sold at Target, Toys “R” Us, and Walmart, plus I’m sure other big stores will at least try to get them, so if you think someone on your holiday gift list would like one, go buy it NOW!

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Nathan, my middle child, is 10.5, and it is NOT easy to find things that he still enjoys playing with.  I was happy to discover him and his best friend who is the same age happily playing with the GX Racers 360º Spinway Playset, 1/4 Pipe Ramp, and GX Street Force Skate Pack that I received from Jakks Pacific for review.  Nathan’s friend collects mini skateboards and always has at least one in his pocket when he comes over, so between those and some toy cars, they spent a good hour playing, which is a lot for video game obsessed boys!

What’s unique about GX Racers is the gyro spinning action.  The cars don’t just go forward, they spin on their sides!  Keeping the cars moving AND spinning is the challenge! This is the Spinway Playset, which is a molded plastic track with a handle at one end.  It comes with plastic flags that can be set up to make an obstacle course, then as the car is spinning it’s way across, you turn the handle to move it from side to side. It’s hard but it’s fun!

For more gyro spinning fun, there are GX Street Force Skate Packs, with a mini skateboard that also comes with a gyro. Designed with different cool street styles like camouflage and graffiti, these skateboards practically fly when launched! I recommend setting up the skateboards at one end of a LONG hallway, because they move fast and travel an insane amount of distance. Definitely a cool toy for kids who like skate/fingerboards!

To go with the GX Skateboards, there’s a 1/4 Pipe Ramp with two sides that double the fun! Launching them onto one side of the Pipe Ramp sends the skateboard flying straight in the air, the other side launches the skateboard into the distance. Like I mentioned, this was also fun for the boys to use with their own mini skateboards, pretending to do the skate tricks they’ve seen on TV.

Put GX Racers Playsets on your birthday or Christmas gift list for kids who love cars and skateboards! GX Racer sets are available at Walmart, Target, Kmart, Amazon, and Toys R Us. Thanks again to Jakks Pacific for sending us these cool toys to review!

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Lee-Ann O’Neill is a “Mompreneur” who saw a need for a stamp that printed out dotted letters that little ones could trace to learn to print their names, so she created one, and now runs The Little Stamp Company. You choose a stamp with any name or word up to 9 letters, choose an ink color, and whether the stamp is in all capital letters or capital and lowercase. Your custom self-inking stamp will arrive quickly and your preschooler can get right to work learning to print their name!

What I like best about the stamp we received for review is that the ink is child-safe and washable. In fact, it’s so child-safe, it’s edible (!) and made entirely with FDA approved ingredients. My Mom was a teacher and she had stamps for papers, and those ink pads that were so messy. If your child stamps off the edge of the paper, it wipes right up. There are sites where you can print out traceable letters, but with this stamp, any paper will do. You can take it to a restaurant and your child can stamp their paper placemat while you wait!

Right now, Kaitlyn is having more fun stamping than actually doing the tracing, but we’re working on it. Even if she just stamps, she’s seeing the letters of her name printed out and learning how they are formed. The site says each stamp lasts for thousands of impressions, which I’m hoping means it will last until she actually learns to write the letters. For older kids and teachers, The Little Stamp Company has “funky fonts” available.

Click here to order a custom stamp from The Little Stamp Company. At $24.95 CDN (around $20 U.S), it’s a clever and fun way to teach kids to print their names!

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