Too posh for plastic
A pretend Aga, a mini espresso maker... the VERY middle-class wooden toys aimed at families for Christmas
FOR decades, toddlers have played happily with basic kitchen sets – busily frying up plastic sausages in plastic pans. But for some parents, it seems, that has all become a little too common.
And to cater to their demands, new ranges of much posher kitchen toys made exclusively of wood are hitting the shelves.
The sets include coffee-makers, US-style fridges with ice-dispensers, smoothie-makers, Aga cookers – and, of course, that middle-class staple, avocados.
The wooden ranges are being sold by major store chains, including Aldi, in an effort to capture a slice of the vast Christmas toy market.
Peter Jenkinson, who follows toy trends and runs the Toyology website, said the sets were part of a ‘pushback against plastic’, adding: ‘Often consigned to the back of a cupboard when not in play, plastic playsets are being replaced by highly crafted wooden sets that are left on display when not used.’
Aldi is expanding its wooden toy range in October. It will sell a wooden Nespresso-style machine, complete with changeable pods, as well as a wooden smoothie-maker.
‘Our wooden toys have become increasingly popular with the range selling out online in a week last year,’ said Aldi’s Tony Baines.
‘There is demand for wooden toys based on modern kitchen appliances, as children love to mimic their parents.’
Galway-based online retailer Little Dreamers has a range of wooden play kitchens, as well as wooden play shops (with optional purchase of wooden sausages, €4.75), market stalls and shopping trolleys. One German toy company, Donkey Products, has brought out a wooden smartphone, which retails on its website for €12.95, and a wooden laptop, where the screen is a blackboard. The firm’s Lewis Dawson admitted most buyers were ‘middle-class, affluent parents and grandparents – there is a certain snob value to them’.
In the UK, the high-end department store John Lewis began selling a wooden Aga and coffee machine last year, while Asda’s Gemma Bergin said its new Smeg-style wooden fridge and kitchen toys were coloured light blue ‘to ensure they are tempting for children, while appealing to parents looking for toys to complement their homes’. And Kieran Elsby, a spokesman for British toy firm Hape, says sales of role-playing wooden toys are up 16%.
‘If you’re slicing an avocado or aubergine in the kitchen, children enjoy copying that.’