I am very excited for Small Business Saturday!  This is really the year to "vote" with our shopping patterns for what really matters.

Of course, Christmas shopping for many of us involves hitting the toys stores for the childrens in our lives.  For those of you in the Tacoma area, I have a couple of suggestions of where to shop this Saturday.

www.learningsprout.com

Learning Sprout is in downtown Tacoma at 809 Pacific Ave.  It is a 2 story shop and is huge and full of all kinds of things from wooden toys, to costumes, scooters, musical toys, books, science kits and lots lots more.   We love to visit this place.  Make sure you pay for parking if you come before 6pm.  (and make sure you put your parking sticker on the correct window- Tacoma PD loves to give warnings and/or tickets for having the sticker on the wrong side!)

www.teachingtoysandbooks.com

Teaching Toys is in the Proctor District, North Tacoma, at 2624 North Proctor.  They have similar stock to Learning Sprout, though not as much space.  Parking is free in this area, though, and Proctor has the benefit of having a plethora of other neat small businesses near by (Try the Pacific Northwest Shop just across the street for lots of exciting LOCAL goodies).

And finally, I want to give a shout out to the brand Green Toys.  I am hoping to purchase a few of their items as gifts this year.  Green Toys is not a Tacoma business, but their items are awesome and made from recycled milk jugs and other recycled materials!!!  Totally awesome.  The really exciting part is they are MADE IN THE USA.  Some of the other green/recycled toy companies are having their items made in China.

I know Learning Sprout has Green Toys for sure.  Or there are online small businesses that carry them too.  Find your retailer here http://www.greentoys.com/buy/index.html.  I like madeinusaforever.com's selection.

Happy shopping!