As the holidays near, your good friends at Patch are here to assist you in getting through the season while still shopping locally.
With the holidays comes holiday parties, so this installment of the 2011 Holiday Shopping Guide deals with places to pick up a gift for the kids. Enjoy!
Hobby Town USA - 57 Rockland Center, Nanuet - 845-623-3261
This store in the Pathmark shopping center is the place to go if the child you’re buying a gift for likes remote controlled vehicles. Owner Alex Robins said some of the most popular items around the holiday season are the remote controlled vehicles, including trucks and helicopters, which do fly.
“We have a lot of different kinds of trains, and those are really popular this time of year,” he said. “We hear from people who like to put them around their Christmas tree.”
The store has a variety of train sets, and a number of different accessories to decorate your train sets, from bushes to trees with fall leaves to mountains.
The store also had Fijit Friends, interactive dancing and talking robots. The tiny toys are looking like one of the hottest toys for sale this holiday season, and Robins has a stack of them out on the floor.
“We’ve had people come in looking for them, saying some of the bigger stores are already sold out of them,” he said.
The store also carries a lot of figurines, action figures, board games and puzzles. They also have an aisle with all different kinds of science kits for kids. Hobby Town also hosts kids birthday parties in the store.
“We can do arts and crafts, science or racing parties,” Robins said, adding they can also do parties where they build model rockets with the kids, but can’t launch the rockets afterwards.
Open Monday-Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- 8 South Broadway, Nyack - 845-358-9126
It’d be difficult to look at any inch of Pickwick Bookstore and not see a pile of books. Maybe if you look directly up at the ceiling, but that’s probably it. So it’s not totally shocking that owner Jack Dunnigan thinks books make for a great holiday gift.
“You can never have enough books,” he said. “Get them the classics. When you give a gift like a great book, it’s something that will stay with a child forever.”
One classic he suggested for young kids is The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader, former Grandview residents who in 1949 put out this book about animals gearing up for winter. It was awarded the Caldecott Medal for illustration that same year. Dunnigan has it in hardcover and paperback.
He also suggested buying kids books about local history.
“It’s good for kids to have some background of where they live,” he said. “They should read about the people who built this county.”
Open Sunday-Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Toy Box - 44 East Central Avenue, Pearl River - 845-732-9711
Judy Clements, owner of the Toy Box, recently stocked up for the holiday season and had so many boxes delivered to the store it was almost impossible to walk through one afternoon. But everything is put away and she’s ready for the holiday season, noting that the store carries a ton of Playmobile sets that are very popular this time of year.
“We also have a lot of Thomas the Tank stuff, some of which is on sale for 40 percent off,” she said.
The Toy Box also has a large selection of dolls, and Clements said the Madame Alexander Dolls are a big hit with young girls.
She also said they have a lot of good tinier gifts that make for good stocking stuffers, from little jewelry to sports cards and more. Clements said they carry a lot of Chicken Socks books for young kids and Klutz books for older kids.
Open Monday-Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- 53 South Main Street, New City - 845-634-2384
While it might be hard to ride a bike through the winter snow, bicycles still make for popular holiday gifts. Yuda Avla, one of the owners of Cycle World, said the store carries an array of kids bicycles that come in all different sizes.
“We custom fit the kid with the right-sized bicycle,” he said.
A very popular option this year has been the tiny 10-inch bikes with no pedals.
“You just hop on and let gravity take you,” Avla said.
They also have the small bike with pedals. Avla added that they have bikes for boys and girls, as well as adults, and they can also customize already built bikes.
“We also sell a number of accessories, like gloves and helmets in kids sizes,” Avla said.
Open Monday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
