jurgrace's Full Review: Fisher-Price Fisher Price Little People A Christma...
As a child, my favorite of our Christmas decorations was always my mother's Nativity set. It wasn't my favorite because I was a good Catholic (I think one needs to attend mass more frequently than "when Grandma and Grandpa are around" to earn that distinction); it was because it was the only decoration I could play with. Somehow, the association stuck, and I have slowly acquired a Nativity collection over the years. When I saw that Fisher Price had a Little People Nativity Set, I knew I wanted it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Fast forward a few years and my middle child received one for her first Christmas from her godmother. I was specifically not told what my daughter's gift would be because it was also partially a gift for me, a major Little People fan.
What's in the box This Nativity Set includes a manger that is about eight inches long, three inches wide and three to four inches in height. It is made of a semi-hard* plastic with rounded corners, with a "straw" roof and floor carved and painted on it. On top of the manger there is a little post that an angel can sit on. Pushing the angel down onto the post/button prompts the manger to belt out the music to "Silent Night" and lights up the little star embedded into the peak of the roof.
The Little People who come in this set include the three wise men, a little baby Jesus laying in his hay bed, a Mary, a Joseph, and the angel that can sit on top of the manger. For those who are new to the Little People, each person is a stubby little chunk of plastic that is about two inches high. Just about every Little People figure has a little round hole on the bottom, so they can be positioned into various chairs and vehicles in the Little People world. This hole is what enables the angel to sit on top of the manger without falling off.
The set also includes a sheep, a donkey, a camel, a cow, a little box with removable "hay" cover, and three fence sections. A lot of Little People sets come with fence or wall pieces that can connect with each other and with the fence sections from other sets. The fence sections that come with this set are gray "wood" and "stone."
Play Time As seems to be typical with a Nativity set, all of the pieces do not fit in the manger. In fact, there are three little indentations on the floor of the manger, leading me to believe it is just intended for Joseph, Mary and Jesus to stand on.
My kids have fun playing with this set, but in all honesty, we have so many Little People toys at home, they all get played with together. Because of that, the three wise men can often be found sitting on the Little People school bus together and the manger set is most often found with a whole rag team of Little People animals playing in it.
Final Thoughts I got nervous this past winter when my girls played with the Nativity set I grew up with, as parts of it are definitely not aging well, so I should have pulled this set out and put it next to the other Nativity set, but it was already jumbled in with the other Little People toys, so I forgot about it. This year, I plan to separate it out from the rest of the toys and display it near my other set, which, at the very least, will prevent some of the turn-taking battles my poor childhood set endured last year.
If you are looking for a distraction from your more grownup Nativity set at Christmas time, I would recommend storing this during the year and just pulling it out at Christmas time. Regardless of where you put this, if your kids like Little People, this will get played with.
The only drawback I can see for this toy set is for people who do not believe in the Catholic or Christian religions. In that case, I would never recommend buying a product that is blatantly against your beliefs.
However, for those who put out a Nativity set every year and have kids who think those sets are toys, this could be a great distraction to pull them away from the more valuable set.
As this was a Christmas present and has obvious ties to Christmas, this qualifies as an entry into Bruguru's Christmas in July Write Off.
*By "semi-hard" I mean that the product is not soft enough to move upon impact, but not the kind of super hard plastic that was at risk of the lead paint recalls. This product was made in China, but I have not seen any Little People products on any recall lists to date.
Celebrate a most special day, from long ago and far away! Children will love learning about the Nativity and retelling the story through play. With th...More at Toys R Us
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