Gift Giving Guy

I love giving kids presents — okay… toys, really. Maybe it’s because I’m a still kid at heart. And maybe it’s because of the challenge: young kids can be brutally honest about gifts. I’ve seen one of my nephews tear open a birthday present, toss it over his shoulder, then open the next gift.

I don’t have kids, so I’m not always up-to-date on trends among the grade-school set. While spending time with my young niece and nephew, I learned about Webkinz plush animals. The toys, made by Ganz, cost about $15. Each Webkinz animal includes a “secret code” that allows kids entry to an interactive web site, Webkinz World, for one year.

Because the kids already enjoy Webkinz, we gave the Cheeky Monkey to my seven-year-old niece and the Tiger Snake to my five-year-old nephew. Both toys were well-received and I helped them “adopt” the new toys with their existing Webkinz accounts.

While the plush animals are great, the online Webkinz World sells the toy. The child sees a virtual version of the Webkinz pet for care and feeding. When my niece logged in, she discovered the monkey (now named Chocolate) was the pet of the month, which gave her bonus items. She started a new room for Chocolate, placing a banana-peel hammock for her bed. Then she fed the monkey her favorite food, the Junglicious Banana Shake. Webkinz World offers happy, health and hunger meters for the pet, so kids can see the results of their virtual pet care.

My niece and nephew play games on Webkinz and earn KinzCash to buy and sell food, clothes and furniture for their pets. They can also interact with friends that have Webkinz: invite their friends’ pets over to a newly decorated room, challenge them to tournament games, and send them phrases from a list (no typed messages) or virtual gift items. Think of it as social networking for ages five to 10 — with training wheels.

The online experience was good but not perfect. Webkinz World sometimes takes maintenance outages in the morning, which frustrated my niece and nephew. Also, Webkinz World forced a logout a couple of times while my niece or nephew played. Logging back in resumed online play.

Some advice on giving Webkinz:

• If the boy or girl does not have a Webkinz already, check with the parents before purchase. The care and feeding of a Webkinz can increase daily Internet use.
• If your young giftee has Webkinz, check with the parents to avoid duplicates. Here is a list of Webkinz pets from Wikipedia.
• You can find Webkinz retailers from the store locator (usually a Hallmark store). Call ahead to see if the particular Webkinz is available. Also, Amazon.com sells Webkinz.