From the mouths of babes: What toys to buy this holiday season

If there are children in your life, you probably have a good sense of what toys are popular gifts. But, if you're an aunt, uncle, cousin, sister, brother or grandparent, gift giving can be a bit of a test.

Well, get ready, we've done the homework for you. Host Angela Davis sat down with Sarah Jackson, the editor of Minnesota Parent, to talk about their annual gift giving issue that was published in November. They sit kids in a room with toys and test which ones are worth the price tag. She's also a mother to a 10-year-old son, so she knows what works and what collects dust in the closet.

Joining her was Dennis Green, a senior reporter at Business Insider. He spoke about what's flying off the shelves nationally and how to do your best when you're holiday shopping. Brick and mortar stores might be low in stock, but don't despair. He knows where to go. Here's another hint: Amazon.

But first...

Advice from the experts: First and second graders

Angela spoke to kids at Horace Mann Elementary School in St. Paul about the best and worst gifts they've ever received.

"I used to get really cold in my house. So my mom, for my seventh birthday, I was sick and I threw up, and after that my mom got me this mermaid tail blanket," 7-year-old Isra Abdi said.

"A really good gift is an Easy Bake Oven," said Maija Kain-Malmberg, who is 6, adding that what makes it so great is that you get to make your own things with it.

The entire panel said that they also like books and gift cards. "That's probably the best gift I ever got," Abdi said of gift cards. Why? Because it gives you "freedom."

The gift of an experience can be really fun, too, they said. "So, last year, mom and dad let us go to Lutsen and go skiing," said 7-year-old Otto Mayer.

"We got an ice rink for Christmas out in our backyard. And we got sleds for Christmas last year," Sullivan Deming, 7, said.

So, what about the worst gifts you can get? This was also unanimous: Clothes!

"Well, you can't really play with them or anything," Kain-Malmberg said.

Mayer had a particularly bad experience when his uncle gave him a cheese-head hat.

"I'm a Vikings fan ... he's a ginormous Packer fan," he said.

Abdi also had a personal story about the time her mother bought her two dresses, both had cherries on them, but one was black, and one was pink.

"And I didn't like the pink one. So I tried them on, and I pretended that I lost my pink one but I just shoved it in my closet," she said.

One last piece of advice? They like to be surprised!

Tips from the grown-ups

How to know what to get?

Start at the source, the kid you're buying for! Children change their minds, Jackson said, but if you ask them to write a letter to Santa to lock in their top choices it can give you some solid ideas to start with.

Looking at what stores are stocking up on can be helpful, but remember, at the start of the holiday shopping season retailers are also still guessing what's going to be popular. "They're making big bets, and some of them pay off and some of them don't," said Green.

Talking to the people who work at and run the stores where you're buying gifts can also lead to valuable information about what your options are and what's been popular, Jackson said.

Another piece of advice: "We recommend, at Minnesota Parent, that you buy that you like," she said. "Because you will want to hang out with your kid and play them more."

Are gift cards off limits?

Absolutely not. While it may seem impersonal to you, kids can appreciate the freedom that comes with a gift card. It can also be a great way to get around the clothes as gifts problem. Finding a new shirt under the tree might not be exciting on Christmas Day but giving them a gift card to a clothing store and letting them pick out their own outfit adds some fun and discovery to the process.

What about educational gifts?

Toys that integrate math or science can make for fun gifts that you also feel good about giving.

"Coding is huge," Jackson said. Meaning, toys that can react to instructions from the child playing with it are becoming more popular; "and it kind of is [coding] because you're telling a computer to do a thing in a specific order and it's doing it."

Slimy substances have also made a resurgence. That might not seem educational on the surface, but you can also buy kits so your kids can make the slime themselves. "It's like chemistry or baking. It's a good thing," Jackson said.

What are some ways to give 'experience' as a gift?

Keeping the educational aspect in mind, a trip or membership to the children's museum, the zoo or the science museum, to name a few.

"Another thing is theater. Those theatrical performances can be really memorable, 'Oh remember when we saw the Grinch?'," Jackson said.

You can listen to the full discussion using the audio player above.