“Get back to the presents,” instructs the young lad to the memory-keeper and narrator in Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. There were useful presents and some not so in Thomas’s charming recollection of his childhood holidays.
At Levenger, we offer only useful presents—and this is the first holiday season ever where we bring you educational games and toys. But while our toys instruct, they also beguile, beckoning both children and grownups to join in the fun. And that’s the real magic behind our selection. They’re a chance to trade Wii for we and bring the generations together. How very useful indeed.
Have a three-year-old, a tween, a teenager on your list? Our merchants have some suggestions for you.
For the littlest readers (ages 3+). Endearing wooden blocks in their own pull wagon spell F-U-N with A-B-Cs. They’re lovingly made by a family-owned American business, passed down from father to son. Instant heirloom: we’ll personalize the wagon.
More fathers and sons: it was Frank Lloyd Wright’s son John who invented Lincoln Logs, and they still lure curious little hands. So do seemingly simple wooden blocks and marbles when they become a European-style marble run.
Young readers need places and spaces to call their own. Why not give them their own, kid-sized hideaway reading tent, bookcase or desk?
Ideal for the smarty-pants (6+). A simple game of matching colors and shapes is smarter than it seems. Qwirkle has earned a Mensa award.
Calling all strategy meisters (8+). Get the tweens on your list thinking about strategic thinking. Eight is the magic age to begin playing games that involve strategy. All three of these games—Dao, Quantumino and Monumental—have “strategy” in their names. These are excellent opportunities for bringing in other-generation perspectives. The kids might even think you’re smarter than you seem.
Best in geek and green. Snap Circuits held every guy at Levenger in thrall, and quite a few of the women as well. All those cool ways to make a doorbell work and a light switch go on! (And all safely battery-powered.)
From battery power to solar and wind power—these are two of several eco explorations your favorite environmentalist can embark on with the Power House Science Kit.
The families that play together. We culled the time-tested and traditional for what we think are some of the best of the classics: Scrabble in a deluxe edition, Wooden Dominoes and our own Crossword Dice, and our game-room-in-a-box. Checkers, chess, backgammon, cribbage, cards—there’s a reason why these nostalgic names and games are still around.
For train buffs and puzzle nuts. If the very words Lionel Train Set make your pulse beat a little faster for a time when life was slower, come aboard this Christmas model. 
And for puzzle lovers, our exclusive woodcut puzzle takes a page from the Bodleian Library’s medieval manuscripts and Alexander the Great. The whimsies are sure to seduce. These are the puzzle pieces shaped liked the dragons and angels and knights on grand horses in the picture.
Has this gift list helped yours? I do hope so. Let me know if there are other toys and games that you would recommend—both those in our selection and those that you wish were. Just click on the Comments link below with your submission. (If you’re reading this as an email, click here and you'll connect to Comments.)
By the way, all of our toys and games come with a message for the grownups: be sure to succumb to the joy of childhood wonder this holiday. As Dylan Thomas knew so well, it’s the stuff of happy memory.
P.S. Mim Harrison, the editor of Levenger Press, collaborated with me on this blog.