With all of the pink and hearts floating around on Valentine’s Day, it can be challenging to find an appropriate Valentine’s Day gift for a boy.  Here are some very boy-friendly Valentine’s Day gifts  we sell at GIFT HERO.

For two and three year old boys, try the Gingerbread Sort N Snap Cookies. This colorful set teaches fine motor coordination and sorting skills – all in the guise of sweet gingerbread people.

For four and five year olds, you can’t go wrong with the Milk & Cookies Game. This is a really fun matching and counting game that is perfect for those late preschool/Kindergarten years. I love the sturdy construction of the box, board and play tiles. We have had it for a couple of years and played with it many, many times and it still looks brand new.

For eight to ten year olds, try Chocolate Fix, a challenging single player game that is based on the concept of Sudoku.  It is made by ThinkFun, maker of Rush Hour and other mind-challenging single player games.

You can check out our full selection of Valentine’s Day gifts and select your very own.

Last summer, when Stefanie and I first met Miss Brittany, a NYC preschool teacher, and ”discovered” her product, we knew that it was going to be a huge success. It is no surprise to us that Miss Brittany’s Organic Fun Dough has become a national sensation, appearing in In Touch Magazine, the Today Show and now in People magazine. 

GIFT HERO customers have really responded  well to Miss Brittany’s Gift Set,  which inclues 3 packs of organic dough, an organic apron, wooden stampers and a wooden rolling pin. We recently added the Fun Packs, which each include two packs of organic dough – one set is Green/Purple and one is Orange/Pink.

Either of these Miss Brittany’s Fun Dough products make a great birthday gift for a 3, 4 or 5 year old boy or girl. They also make great gifts for Valentine’s Day!

Growing up, on Valentine’s Day my parents would give me one of those huge Hershey’s kisses wrapped in red foil in a cute box. I would do my best to gnaw at the waxy chocolate, starting at the top. Usually, after a couple of days I grew tired of trying to get a decent bite. When I got a little older, my parents switched to those Russell Stover boxed sets, with the chocolates with fillings in them. The only problem was I really only liked the ones with caramel inside so most wound up in the trash.

Alas, perhaps my parents would have been better off giving me something like Chocolate Fix, a fun strategy game by ThinkFun (makers of Rush Hour) that is based on the Sudoku concept. It looks like a box of chocolates so it makes a perfect Valentine’s Day gift for kids 8 years old and up. (It is also great for adults too.)

For the younger set, we also offer some alternatives to real candy for Valentine’s Day. For ages 4 through 6, try the sweet-themed Milk and Cookies game, a favorite in our household.  For two to three year olds, the ABC lacing sweets make a great choice – kids love to make “candy necklaces”. These “candies” include letters so kids can make necklaces with their names on it.

My six year old daughter Maya has a lot of girl friends turning 7 lately.  Maya is quite a precocious child, and has very strong opinions on many things – most notably, fashion. Maya describes herself as having “good taste” and describes her clothes as “very fashionable.” She definitely has a preference for the loud, colorful, hippie type style typefied by Flowers by Zoe, So Nikki and other similar type labels.

So it is really not a surprise to me that this year Maya told me that she wants to select her friends birthday gifts.  Currently her favorite gifts are the charm bracelet gift sets by Charm It! We sell three different kinds on GIFT HERO – Peace & Love (shown here), I Love Sweets and Friends. Maya usually chooses the right set based on her friends’ interests and sense of style.

Each set comes with a bracelet and either 5 charms or 3 charms in a beautiful decorative box  that really provides the “wow” factor.  Also, while these boxed gift sets are hard to find in stores, the individual charms are sold in many children’s clothing stores nationwide. So the birthday girl can buy more charms to add to her bracelet and truly make it her own.  These boxed sets make a delightful birthday gift for a 7 or 8 year old girl.

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, these Charm It! sets also make a fantastic Valentine’s Day gift for that special girl on your list.

We love Pairs in Pears and Appletters, two brand new word games from the makers of Bananagrams! And good news, they are appropriate for slightly younger kids – ages 6 and up. The folks at Bananagrams have developed these games with the Kindergarten-2nd grade set in mind. They make great birthday gifts because they are so visually appealling and the games are entirely educational yet fun.

We also sell Bananagrams for the slightly older set - 8 and up – although you can never really outgrow Bananagrams!

I had the great privilege of working for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, for eight years.  I know firsthand that UNICEF is uniquely poised to respond quickly and effectively to the critical needs of children in Haiti – UNICEF workers are already there – every day of the year, working to save children’s lives. UNICEF has already airlifted critical supplies such as water-purification tablets, tents, and oral rehydration packets (which are critical to reversing the effects of severe dehydration in children), and is working as fast as it can to deliver the supplies to as many children as possible.

I know that there are many worthy organizations that are helping out, but please consider making a donation to UNICEF – 100% of your donation will go directly to help the people of Haiti.

Thanks to generous donations from our customers, we were able to fill most of the wish list of educational toys put together by the Ronald McDonald House of New York. The items we sent, which include Exobonz (pictured left), Zoob, Snap Circuits Jr. and Build-A-Road, are already being enjoyed by the children who use the educational playroom there.  Often teachers will come to the room to work with students who are being educated at the center because they are not able to attend school. Many of the toys requested by RMDH will be used to develop children’s fine motor and cognitive skills.

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet some of the children and their families served by RMDH of New York. I volunteered to make and serve breakfast to the families along with a group of other members of my synagogue.  The children and their families come from all over the country to receive cancer treatment here in New York City, and RMDH provides them with a temporary free place to live.  Some families stay for only a few days and others for years. Families are required to provide their own food and cook their own meals in the kitchen facilities. Occasionally volunteers like our group bring food in, cook it and serve the families to give them a much needed break. On Sunday, I scrambled dozens of eggs in the kitchen, bringing out fresh batches and taking short breaks to meet the children. After breakfast, the children enjoyed decorating homemade cookies, playing musical chairs and freeze dance.   The delight on their faces still makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

It was an incredible experience for me and I have committed to helping out with the breakfast program on a regular basis. I thank RMDH for giving me personally and also GIFT HERO the opportunity to help these children and their families. We have already asked them to think about how GIFT HERO can continue to help, so stay tuned.

Happy 2010 from GIFT HERO!  Thanks to our customers, our holidays were joyful (and very busy). We are excited about the year ahead and are busy finding all of the best new birthday gifts to add to our store.

To make room for new inventory, we are having our first annual January sale!  Through January 25th, we are offering 30% off a selection of our toys, games and puzzles. Some of the too-good-to-miss gifts on sale are the 333-piece Building Set from Clics, the C9-R Sports Car from Automoblox, Air Force One Playset from Daron, Sleeping Beauty Ballet Theater from Candlewick Press, and the Bling by Number Tote Bag from Fashion Angels. To see all of our sale products, visit our sale category.

Shop now for the best selection and stock up on gifts for January birthday parties. Remember, if you spend $75 or more, you’ll get free shipping.

Tonight is the 7th night of Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees defeated the Syrians and won their religious freedom.  Hanukkah is also called the Festival of Lights because after the Maccabees purified the Temple they rekindled the Menorah (a candelabra).  Although they believed they only had enough oil for one day…the oil lasted for 8 days.

Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days and each night a candle is lit, prayers and songs are sung…and gifts are given. When I was a child, I always received a gift each night – not always something big, but something.  We have continued this tradition in our home.  It is joyful to watch Benjamin light the candles, recite the prayers, and, of course, open presents.

Since I co-own a toy business, Benjamin really got some wonderful gifts this year.  Here is what we got for him from GIFT HERO: Do You Sudoku Game for Kids by University Games, Zoobmobile Dragster by Infinitoy, Snap Circuits Jr by Elenco, the World Puzzle by Mudpuppy, and Bananagrams. 

The 8th night of Hanukkah is Friday December 18th.  Happy Hanukkah to all of our Jewish friends, fans and customers!

It’s amazing to me how many “national holidays” there are.  Forget about Memorial Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day…there’s a day commemorating everything from board games to secretaries to popcorn. Today, December 15th, is National Cupcake Day!

Who doesn’t love cupcakes? For some reason they taste better than a slice of cake. They are a classroom classic for birthday parties at school. Benjamin and I are a little obsessed with the Big Top Cupcake pan – we see the commercial for it all the time on Discovery Kids. I promised him we would get one when we move into our new apartment and actually have a functioning kitchen.

For a mess-free cupcake experience, check out the new Bake and Decorate Cupcake Set from Melissa & Doug.  With this adorable set, kids can create their own pretend cupcakes and decorate them over and over again with dry erase markers that look like frosting tubes. This set is a must-have for any play kitchen.  It is guaranteed to deliver hours of fun for kids 3 and up.