Caption
Cheery, holiday spirit of parents Christmas shopping can melt like snowflakes in an open fire when they enter cram-packed toy stores. Swept along on crest of excited holiday throngs they are lucky to whisk up a toy here and there. To bolster thoughts of goodwill amid merry ding-a-ling of cash-register bells, Canadian Toy Testing Council has helpful booklet of advice and recommended brand names to help parents decide on gifts before entering stores.
Date
October 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB101385
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177541
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Children themselves are best judges, so council keeps sharp eye for radiant reactions. Most sophisticated and educational toy must have magic appeal or be tossed from play-pen in preference to wrapping paper. For little girls dolls still come first, whether flaxen-haired beauty or chunky mannikin.
Date
October 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB101436
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177543
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
With one arm under repair who can drive a truck properly? But a cuddly puppy dog -- that's different. Especially one which takes up so little of the hospital bed and will help to brighten Christmas away from home.
Date
October 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB101371
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177540
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Testing toys is child's play to Philip and Tessa, children of Council Chairman, Mrs. Jasmine Pocock, who jots down reactions to toys on trial. Own home is ideal place for making day-to-day observations.
Date
October 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB101425
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177542
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Many old-time toys, made by parents for their children during long, snowed-in evenings, are as durable as Christmas itself. Made with loving care to suit just one special child, they were highly treasured for years. But modern toy markets with their bewildering variety of multi-purpose products have long needed practical advice given by these voluntary members of the council, here listening to Phil Weiss and Carl Lochnan, Canadian design consultants.
Date
October 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB102006
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177549
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
In progress Photostory 4/4.
Photostory #300: Canadian Toy Testing Council has Year-Round Task: Testing Toys for Santa's Pack
Photographers
Maker
National Film Board of Canada
Release Date
December 11, 1961
Collection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Main Text
Toyville -- yuletide arena where parents and relatives with girded loins joust for the spoils from Santa's workshop -- is once more in full fray. For many an uncle and aunt, however doting they may be, Christmas toy shopping is a matter of seizing upon the most attractively-packaged and novel toys, paying up, then retiring to the peaceful, snow-muted street. But help is now available for tousled toy buyers in the form of a booklet, What's What for Children. Produced by the Canadian Toy Testing Council it gives definite ideas on how the $60,000,000 spent yearly on toys in Canada should be handed over. The council acts as a go-between for toy makers and children, helps guard the parental pocketbook and arranges toy testing by children in homes, hospitals, schools, institutions, to rate toys for design-quality, play-value and durability. Advice on toy buying shows shoppers how to keep their heads while losing their buttons on Christmas crowds and helps prevent broken toys ending up in the garbage among the turkey bones.
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