Count Down to Christmas - ELC HappyLand Store and Play!

We are big fans of the Early Learning Centre in our household and having small children it’s the perfect shop to buy lots of presents which are value for money, will last a long time, be loved by the children and never go out of fashion. The HappyLand collection is just one of the many ranges they offer which is a major hit for us and we have steadily been getting a rather magnificent collection of our own. This Christmas Florence will have something added to it and I know, without doubt, that whatever it is she will enjoy playing with it. On top of that, I know that when Jimmy is bigger he too will enjoy playing with them. They are tough, durable and timeless and they promote ‘small world’ play dramatically! I’ve said before that Florence has a wonderful imagination but if she didn’t have the HappyLand bus and farm would it occur to her to walk the characters to the bus stop, hop on and take a trip to the farm? They facilitate her imagination to run a bit wilder and I love that. There’s absolutely nothing offensive about them, they’re multicultural and farmers and bus drivers take tea with the queen so the class bridge is easily defied in HappyLand. It is, as the name suggests, just very happy!

So I’m always pleased for the collection to grow and the only problem about the children having more toys is where on earth will they all go? Obviously we will put some of the younger baby toys away soon but Florence is very attached to everything she plays with and I’m not sure she’d be terribly happy to put anything in the loft. And why would she? It’s not her fault we live in a two bedroom flat in London! I’m always moaning that we have terrible storage in our flat too! We don’t even have an airing cupboard! It is that reason then that I am always searching for storage solutions and I’ve found some pretty good ones over time. Our flat definitely doesn’t appear crowded although we have the same stuff everyone else does and we are not over run with toys on display and that is how I intend to keep it. You just need to apply some really clever solutions and then storage isn’t a problem. One toy storage solution I have recently found doesn’t even take a lot of clever thinking (ELC have taken care of the clever bit for me) and being part of the HappyLand range as well as being a storage solution is just one of its many perks! The HappyLand Store and Play. is ideal for any HappyLand collection and if space is a premium then it’s an utter must!

So, what is this I hear you ask? Well, not only is this a toy box to hold your HappyLand collection but it is also part of HappyLand and can be folded out flat and used as a play mat. On both sides of the box there are drawn details of pathways, roads, farm land and city for the children to dot their houses and characters around and drive their vehicles along! Then when play has finished (usually after the children are in bed in my house) simply re-assemble the box, pop everything inside it, lid on and then carry it (with its handy handles) to its storage place. For us this is on top of another box and underneath a basket, all containing toys! It is utterly, utterly genius!

The clever box as a box!

And in use as a play mat!

The plus points do not end there however, because it is a toy in itself it can be given as a gift and the children will love it as much as you do… Flat and small to wrap up, it makes a great Christmas present to give and for a little one to open and play with! How good!?

Points to note:

If you don’t want to use it as a storage box it folds down flat with the lid on top and is easy to store in itself!

I struggled for a bit trying to work out how it pops up to a box… It has zips which are really easy to use but I just didn’t notice them to start with.

It has HappyLand ground scenes on both sides, one is green land and the other is city!

Even the lid can be used as play scenes!