My daughter is a hard-core doll fan. She spends nearly all day with her Corolle dolls, and they have quickly become more than just mere dolls; they are friends.
But, while my son is still very much into baby dolls, my daughter alternates between playing mommy and playing with her more grown-up dolls, like the Corolle Les Cheries dolls. These beauties have become my daughter's new favorite toy and she is on a mission to collect every single one Corolle makes.
I am 100% convinced that every little kid needs a Corolle doll. Regardless of gender or toy preferences, I truly believe that every toddler needs to have their own doll to love. And, as it turns out, the experts agree with me.
It was through our co-op preschool that I first realized the importance of doll play for both girls and boys. The textbooks all agree that not only is doll play fun, but it also helps with social and emotional skills, verbal skills, role play, and helping to grow their imaginations.
Have a doll-loving little one like I do? If so, you are going to want to bookmark this page filled with my favorite holiday picks from Corolle Dolls. With prices from $30 on up and for every age and stage, you are bound to find the perfect gift for the holidays.
My daughter loves everything My Little Pony. You may remember how much we adored the MLP movie and RC car last year, but what you don’t know is that the RC car and its pony passengers has been played with almost every day since it arrived. My Little Pony was the first characters my kids ever fell for and they show no signs of giving them up anytime soon.
Especially now that my daughter has found Equestria Girls dolls, based on the new Equestria Girls movie, which is a spinoff of My Little Pony. The basis of the movie and line of toys is that the ponies turn into girls by going through a magic mirror and they must learn about life without four legs, magic, or any of the comforts of home.
Know that feeling when someone catches your eye and doesn't let it go? For me, that someone was Clementine. Compared to other dolls she was a few shades more vibrant, more beautiful, and full of personality. Before I saw her, I thought all dolls were pretty, but next to her they all 
seemed dull and just so… ordinary.
Maybe it was her bright red hair, or maybe it was because her attire was so quaint and old fashioned, or maybe it’s her distinctly British charm, but whatever it was, she really couldn't help but stand out. I knew right when I met her that she was going to be a lifelong friend for my children.
Clementine is the newest doll from A Girl For All Time, maker of beautifully crafted dolls, accessories, books, and more. Each of their beautiful 16in dolls are based on 500 years of the fictional Marchmont family and feature independent, determined women from different eras of the most exciting times in English history.
One look at their website and I was immediately smitten by their exquisite collection of dolls with their beautifully detailed faces and their accessories that looked like something from a museum. It’s not surprising to me at all that A Girl for All Time can’t keep these dolls in stock over in London. The dolls sold out in a mere 10 days at the famous Harrods luxury department store and are selling well now that they have arrived Stateside at FAO Schwarz and a handful of New York boutiques.
But, as much as I loved Matilda, the Tudor girl, and Amelia, the Victorian girl, there was something about Clementine that enthralled me. Clementine is from London in the 1940s and survives the evacuation of London in 1939 as a 12-year-old. She comes in a historically inspired dress with vintage daisy pattern complete with period accessories and trim. After reading her captivating background story online, I knew she had to come home for tea with us.
Since November is the month to be thankful for all the great things in our lives, I thought I would play along. Naturally, I’m thankful every day for my amazing family and my two sweet and talented children, the roof over our heads and food on our table, but I’m going to share something else I’m thankful for that is not nearly as obvious.
What I’m thankful for is the kind of toys my children are drawn to. I see those kids who turn their noses up at “baby toys” and are constantly playing with toys that are far too old for them and I am thankful for kids who still love baby dolls, singing lullabies, and imaginative play.
They have their whole lives to be interested in video games, electronics, and makeup. I’d much rather they spend their time rocking their babies, making fake baby food, and taking them on long nature walks. This is why we’ve always avoided the large chain toys stores with their scantily clad fashion dolls and realistic-looking weapons and opted for neighborhood toy stores with a wall of Corolle dolls instead.
And, wouldn’t you know, they could play all day in those toy stores without ever getting bored, even though our own Corolle collection is nothing short of epic.
My son plays with dolls. He’s had a Calin Sky Corolle doll since he was a few months old, purchased when we realized he was army crawling across our house in order to get to my daughter’s dolls and cover them with sloppy, baby kisses. This doll, named Baby Knox, started out as a comfort toy. Baby Knox was something we would give him when he wanted to babble at something and all of our hands were busy, and has slowly evolved into a friendship that surprised us all.
Now, Baby Knox goes everywhere with us. And, what is really cool is that Baby Knox is both a toy and a comfort item that helps soothe him when he gets sad or angry or scared. He’s become a big part of our daily routine and an honorary member of the family.
I vividly remember when I began to think in miniature. It was one of the many summers I spent with my grandparents in their small town up north. One of our projects that summer was to build a dollhouse for my growing collection of miniatures my grandma and I had collected at swap meets and secondhand stores as well as things we had repurposed around their home that were to scale.
In my mind, my grandpa and I would make a house fit for our treasures, one with intricate details and style that was just like my cousin’s dollhouse my aunt had made from a kit. But, I will never forget when my grandpa and I started to sit down and design my dollhouse and I realized we were making a primitive A-frame house with scrap wood from the garage. My dollhouse would be without doors, windows, or details other than walls.
Don’t get me wrong, I adored the dollhouse we built that summer. It was more than a few steps up from the shelf in my room that had previously housed my miniatures, and it would be perfect for moving a play family into that didn’t mind a little bit of a fixer-upper. I played with that dollhouse for years and did my best to make it feel more homey and inviting by making my own wallpaper and adding realistic accessories.
But, my desire for a real store-bought dollhouse never went away. Even into adulthood, I would look wistfully at dollhouses that were done up to the nines and imagine my childhood dollhouse furniture I had collected filling those big, bright rooms.
In one of those searches, I found Lundby, the Swedish Doll’s House, and it was as if my childhood play family had finally found “home”. I remember bookmarking the site, emailing the link to my husband and asking him how soon was too soon to start buying dollhouses for our baby girl. We both agreed to wait a few years, but I always kept Lundby in the back of my mind.
Last fall, I lost my grandpa after a long battle with illness and I, myself, felt a little lost. My grandpa had been such a strong figure in my life growing up and I wished more than anything that I had held onto that dollhouse we made all those summers ago. I wanted something to help my daughter remember her amazing great grandfather, and wished that they could have bonded over miniatures like we had all those years ago.
So, when a package landed on my porch a few months later with a welcome letter and a “key” to a Lundby Smaland dollhouse, I was beside myself with joy. I knew this was the perfect way to introduce my daughter to the world of miniatures and to provide a link to my past at the same time.
My kids are absolutely crazy into dolls. This means that we do a lot of pretend play here at home. But, where most people think of dolls as an indoor toy that consists mostly of snuggling, rocking, and feeding, we treat our dolls like we do our real babies, and we take them everywhere with us.
This started when my son was under a year old and refused to sleep without his special Corolle Calin baby doll. We couldn’t very well let one child bring a doll and not the other, so we’ve now embraced the fact that wherever we go, we will need a suitcase for our dolls, too. And, our Corolle dolls have been all over the world with us.
I love that they adore their babies enough to take them out into the world with us as it shows the love that they have for their dolls is stronger than just a mere toy. And I also love that it opens up ways to make playing with babies active and makes even more ways for realistic pretend play.
Here are some tips to make traveling with littles easier with dolls:
You may have noticed a new logo on the sidebar announcing my ambassadorship with Corolle dolls. With two doll loving kids at home, you can probably imagine the excitement upon finding out that we would get a chance to review a collection of new Corolle items this fall and winter.
But, before we get to the new products and how much I love their dolls and accessories, I should explain why this ambassadorship means so much to me. Corolle is a brand that I grew up with, playing with their baby dolls in my early childhood and then later collecting them as a young girl. I always dreamed of one day sharing this love of Corolle with my children and was thrilled when they gravitated towards the brand with no outside influence at all, and even more excited that they became such amazing fans themselves.
What started as a love of a company that made me nostalgic for childhood has shaped my own children’s childhood. It used to be that when I picked up a Corolle doll, I would remember all those nights spent hugging my baby dolls in bed, but now my children’s memories are forever intertwined with my own, and that sweet vanilla scent takes me back to both time periods simultaneously.
