When I got older, my parents would regale me with stories about the efforts they undertook to get my brother and I what we wanted for Christmas.  There was my Dad had to go into one of the “better neighborhoods” to go purchase Prince Adam.  There was also the year my Dad helped someone unload a truck in the promise of him holding back a couple of Game Boys for my brother and I.

While they didn’t mention it, there must have been more than one occasion where they had to go to my Aunt for toys.  Each Christmas, she turned into Dwight Schrute:

I still recall the year she had almost all of the Cabbage Patch Kids.  Oddly enough, even though she lived with us, I was not one of the children that got one that year.

Last year, I had my own experience.  Because someone out there is evil, they promoted The Great Railway Show all over the place.  And yet, there was an extremely clumsy release of all the toys.  I remember my son wanting very specific trains, and they were not in stores . . . at least in stores in the United States.  That led me to have to go to eBay and UK toy store sites to track them down.

Well, like most parents I want to avoid the stress of the last minute mad dash for whatever the hot toy will be this year.  For similarly minded parents, USA Today published Walmart’s list of the 25 hottest toys for Christmas (unless a Walmart exclusive links are for Amazon):

1. Hatchimals Surprise (Not available until 10/6)
2. Fingerlings
3. littleBits Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit
4. Num Noms Nail Polish Maker
5. FurReal Friends Roarin’ Tyler The Playful Tiger
6. Barbie DreamHorse and Doll
7. Fisher-Price Zoom ’n Crawl Monster
8. L.O.L. Surprise Fizz Factory
9. Soggy Doggy Board Game
10. Mayka Toy Block Tape
11. Frozen Sleigh (*Walmart exclusive)
12. Adventure Force Light Command Light-Up Motorized Blaster (*Walmart exclusive)
13. Monster Jam Grave Digger (*Walmart exclusive)
14. Huffy Electric Green Machine Trike
15. Nerf Rival Nemesis MXVII-10K
16. RECOIL Starter Set
17. New Bright Radio Control Tumblebee
18. VTech Pop-a-Balls Drop and Pop Ball Pit (*Walmart exclusive)
19. Radio Control DashCam (*Walmart exclusive)
20. Dusty the Super Duper Garbage Truck
21. Imaginext DC Super Friends Batman Batbot Xtreme
22. Paw Patrol My Size Lookout Tower
23. Disney/Pixar Cars 3 Ultimate Florida Speedway
24. Mickey and the Roadster Racers Transforming Hot Rod Mickey
25. Disney Junior Doc McStuffins Baby All in One Nursery

Personally, I’m not sure how accurate these lists are, but they do hit the common themes from the past few years: (1) Frozen; (2) Paw Patrol; (3) Mickey Mouse; (4) Nerf; (5) Hatchimals.

Obviously, your own child’s interest in any of these toys will depend on whether they are a boy or a girl.  Personally, my son has loved all of the Cars toys since the third movie came out earlier this year.  Also, as a parent, I love the idea of a toy designed to encourage a child to pick up their toys.

Whatever your child wants, I hope you are able to get them the toy without a hassle even if it makes for a good story years down the road.