Here at Fatherly, we’ve spent countless hours discussing, arguing, and thinking about what makes a toy great. We’ve tried to come up with universal rules — they shouldn’t be loud and annoying; they shouldn’t make a huge mess! — only to happen upon one counterexample after another. The only real thing we can agree on, and maybe the only thing that actually matters, is that a great toy is one a kid plays with over and over. So, this year, instead of offering up a catalog of shiny new toys fresh off the production line, we decided to write about the toys that are most present in our kids’ lives. When we thought of toys this way, well, the joy rose up and the annoying things about all that stuff in our lives went away. We hope you’ll bask in some of this joy and maybe even get as many smiles as we did out of some slime, a few games, and one really cool inflatable unicorn.