Green Toy Stores
Shopping for Eco Friendly and Natural Wood Toys in New York City.
Jan 20 2010 By Marcy 
We recently wrote about some wonderful places to Shop for Handmade Toys and Children’s Items in New York City.
We wanted to complement that list with some other great suggestions where you can buy natural and green toys. What’s the difference? While some natural toys are indeed handmade too, others come from eco-certified production facilities. Most importantly, all differ from commercially mass-produced, run-of-the-mill wooden toys in terms of quality, origin, and construction from sustainable, safe, natural, non-synthetic materials. For many parents natural toys allay safety worries, are environmentally friendly, promote fair trade or local business, remain durable and long lasting, offer aesthetic appeal and tactile/sensory enrichment and, invariably, are “open-ended” (there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to play with them) thereby nourishing a healthy imagination and longer attention span, so say the experts. But, even if you’re not looking exclusively for green toys, these wonderful toy stores are filled with interesting and unusual finds that you certainly won’t see at Toys R Us.
NYC GREEN TOY STORE GUIDE:
Playing Mantis 32 North Moore, Manhattan Natural toy heaven here with truly extraordinary and unique selections from all over the world and back again (yup, even New York artisans are represented). Proprietress (and natural toy conjurer) Imelda McCain knows the provenance of every item in the store and often she’s forged her own special relationships with the craftswomen and men making these toys especially for her shop. Kids will delight in these play-worthy wonders crafted from sustainable woods or hand-woven wools, always honoring fair trade and community support in the originating country. Plus they’re easy on the eyes. Charming costumes, perplexing puzzles, and many unusual large scale-pieces (giant barns to drool over—and I don’t mean the cows!).
