I would like to purchase a play kitchen for my daughter for Christmas. I would prefer that it be one that she can grow into and use for a few years. Any recommendation?
I would go all out and get the nice ones that retail around $200-250. They are so great. My kids have been playing with theirs for more than 3 years now and I know there will be more years of fun. If you don't want to pay retail, look on craigslist.com If you haven't used that site, choose Minneapolis/st paul and then go to the section for "baby/kids". I often see them there for approx $50-100 gently used.
We bought one for my daughter last year and I did a TON of research before I chose. We ended up with the Lifestyle Dream Kitchen w/Maroon counter. (I think you can get it in green too.)
I chose this one because it was fairly light so that I could move it around with ease, it has alot more storage in it than some of the other kitchens, and it came with a larger quantity of cookware, etc. It was also not super cheep, but not super expensive either...sort of a nice balance. We thought it was the best value for the dollar. My daughter LOVES playing with it and she will be able to use it for another 2-3 years or so before she's too old for it.
I research this topic last year for my two year old. I decided to go with the Step 2 and since we didn't have the room for the ultimate long one we went with the one where it has the refrige on the upper right, green counter top, microwave on the left, brown bin on the lower right...I forget the name of it now. My one year old plays with it more than my three year old, but they both play with it.
If you haven't picked one up yet, we got the Grow with Me Kitchen for our daughter last year for Christmas. It is made by Fischer Price. It's not too expensive & she was able to reach everything even at 14 months. It has 2 different levels so when she gets bigger you can expand it.
The best buy you can get is a kitchen. Our daughter has had it for coming up on a year & still plays with it almost every day.
Merry Christmas!
I think any kitchen set would do, my daughter has mine a Little Tykes from 1985! It's in mint condition. My daughter is 6 and still loves it.
I highly recommend the Play Wonder toys at Target. They have a great kitchen set and market set right now. We bought both last year for Christmas when my girls and my girls were 2 and 4 and they love them. They are made of wood, so they hold up great and they look great too. I didn't want to go with the plastic sets where they could break easily or have the stickers start peeling off. They still play with them daily and all their friends love coming to our house and playing with it. We have a few sets of the wood food and the metal shopping cart and basket and love it all.
Peapods in Saint Paul has some lovely kitchens that have everything a kid needs without taking up a ton of space. I heard on the news recently that American-made toys are selling out quickly this year, so shop early.
http://www.peapods.com/browse.cfm/4,695.htm is one example. They carry others in their store and I'm sure could order others as well.
