In the 80’s, it was Cabbage Patch Kids. In the 90’s it was Furbies. This year, the Christmas toy craze is Fingerlings – interactive toy monkeys that slide onto your finger.
Like many Regina parents, blogger Tanille Lafontaine has been trying to get her hands on the popular toy.
“It’s kind of an ongoing joke among moms, our search for these fingerlings and our failings trying to find them.” Lafontaine said. “It’s kind of been an ongoing thing. When we find it, we celebrate it.”
Lafontaine resorted to the web in hopes of finding the elusive toys. She’s been searching local stores for more than a month. On Wednesday, her luck changed.
“(I was) kind of being silly and walked up to the cashier and said ‘I’m going to be funny, do you have any Fingerlings in?’ And she did!” Lafontaine said.
While most stores are doing all that they can to keep the toys on their shelves, one local shop decided to never have them at all. Zippity Zoom Toys focuses on retro toys, leaving electronic fads for other stores.
“I try not to promote anything electronic,” owner Tracy Bouche said. “So we didn’t have the Hatchimals of 2016 and we didn’t have the Fingerlings of 2017. I guess it’s just a theme for us.”
Bouche said it’s impossible to know which toy will be the top of kids’ Christmas lists.
“It’s hard to stay on top of all this stuff,” Boshe said. “I guess the whole thing for us is that – I’m an independent (store). I can see what’s going on everywhere else. I follow the toy blogs and stuff like that, and see what’s new and what’s coming.”
The trick to getting the elusive holiday toy is finding it early and getting it while you can.
Based on a report by CTV Regina's Stefanie Davis
