Where dolls come to life

These are the top toy brands girls will be writing to Santa about. Now keep in mind no two kids are exactly the same. Some girls like Ninja Turtles and some boys like Doll Houses. That is totally cool with me.

Let’s start with #10

Project MC2

Smart is the new cool with this beautiful doll line of 11” dolls. The doll line is based off of a new Netflix series. The series is about 4 super smart girls who use their science and spy skills to save the world. The leader MeKeyla McCalister is a genius and works as a spy, Adrienne Attoms is a culinary chemist, Bryden Bandweth is a tech genius, and Camryn Coyle is a construction queen.

The dolls are approximately the same height as Barbie and remind me of Liv dolls. They have glass inset eyes and beautiful eyelashes. The core dolls are approximately 15.00 and come with a brush. The core dolls are the economy version and do not feature articulation and do not come with stands. The deluxe dolls all come with a fun project based off of each characters abilities and arrive with a stand and have moveable elbows and knees. The deluxe dolls are approximately 20.00.

These dolls are easy to find at Target, Walmart, Toys,R,Us and pretty much anywhere fashion dolls are sold. This line is not very big yet, but I hope the line expands. I would love to see fashion packs.

#9 Bratz

That’s right, Bratz are back. Much to Barbie’s surprise the Bratz are making a comeback. The line features 5 main characters, Jade, Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha and Raya and even boy doll Cameron. If you love fashion, than Bratz dolls might be something you would enjoy. These dolls are shorter than Barbie at 10in but feature a much larger head. Their shoes are connected with leg pegs and the dolls feature articulation in the knee. Each doll typically comes with a bunch of accessories.

This line has tons of clothing and accessory packs. They even have movies, and adorable animated stop-motion videos.

They recently featured My Froggy Stuff on their main page which was a Create-Your-Own Trendy Bratz Yasmin Outfit review. My Froggy Stuff is my favorite crafting YouTube channel and I think Bratz was very smart in inviting them to their studio for a featured video.

These dolls range from 15-23.00. The Fashion packs are about 13.00 and the shoe packs are about 7.00.

#8 Barbie

I am pretty sure everyone knows about this blond lady by now. This year Barbie partnered up with Tokidoki to produce adorable limited edition dolls. These dolls are harder to find and retail at $80.

This year Barbie is launching the new Hello Barbie. Now, you can chat with Barbie® for 74.99 starting November 20! Many stores are offering pre-orders. Using WiFi and speech recognition technology, Hello Barbie™ can interact uniquely with each child by holding conversations, playing games, sharing stories and even telling jokes! It's a whole new way to interact with Barbie®.

#7 Lalaloopsy

These line of dolls are SEW CUTE. There are currently four different sizes to collect. Tinies, Minis, Littles, and Large Dolls. My personal favorite are the two littlest ones the Tinies and Minis. The tinies currently have 4 different series. There are many to collect and come in a variety of different packs. Girls will surely want to collect them all and they can also be used as adorable jewelry charms.

Series 3 have adorable baby characters and Series 4 has new pet pals. You will also see these carried over into the large doll sizes.

One of the most popular dolls this year is the pooping baby. Lalaloopsy Babies™ Potty Surprise™ which magically poops a surprise shape on her potty!

Feed the baby her magical lalaloopsy baby food, place her on the potty and watch her magically poop different shapes every time! It includes three different food colors! Do it over and over again for more magical fun!

#6 LPS

This year LPS has come out with new family packs. Most girls loves baby animals. There are four different packs to collect Dog, Cat, Bunny and Panda Bear. Each comes with a Mommy pet and four babies.

This year the pets still have the deco pieces. Each pet has at least one tiny hole where deco pieces can be added.

I love the fact that they have little stores and rooms you can connect and create an entire village of Littlest Pet Shop.

There are fun apps and movies as well. Popular sets this year include the Pawza hotel, Pet Jet and the Backstage Set.

#5 Ever After High

Ever After high is a Companion line to Monster High, but instead of having Monsters for parents they have Fairy Tale parents. There are several web series videos, a film, and two book series. The stories are based around students attending a boarding school located in the Fairy Tale World. In the Fairy Tale World you are either a Royal or a Rebel.

The dolls and accessories are very well detailed and have great articulation. This brand features a very large assortment of different dolls, furniture sets and accessories.

#4 Disney Princess

Disney Princess is a media franchise owned by Walt Disney. You will find a large assortment to choose from at the Disney toy store itself, but through special licensing partnerships, you can find dolls at other places like Target, Toys R Us and Walmart.

Currently Mattel has been the one to produce the majority of the dolls found in stores, but starting next year Walt Disney has cut ties with Mattel for this line of dolls, and has given the licensing rights to Hasbro. Next year we should see huge clearance sales on the mattel versions and a very different looking line of princess dolls.

Frozen is still very popular going into the holiday season. With a huge chunk of store inventory dedicated to promoting this brand. Little girls will probably still have a couple must-have Frozen items on their list. However, this year frozen is not nearly as hot as it was last year.

#3 Lego

Lego has made huge strides in gaining popularity in the girl market. They currently have 3 very popular categories Friends, Elves and Disney Princess.

The LEGO Friends are a group of very different and very talented girls living in Heartlake City. Girls can build and expand their own Heartlake City with colorful bricks, dozens of new details and mini-doll figures.

The rich LEGO Elves fantasy world means children can easily create an epic quest with the elvish companions. They can discover secret functions in the sets, and watch the magic turn into reality. These sets are very colorful and really engage imagination and creativity.

They also have a smaller but adorable line of Disney Princess themed sets, including a Frozen Ice Castle, Ariel’s Undersea Palace, and Cinderella’s Romantic Castle. All three sets are sure to be on a lot of Santa lists this year.

#2 Shopkins

Once you shop, you can’t stop. These very colorful and very collectible pencil toppers are still extremely popular with boys and girls.

The hottest items for Shopkins right now are the Food Fair Packs, Fashion Spree Packs and the new Shoppies Dolls.

There are currently 3 different dolls to choose from, Popette, Jessicake, Bubbliesha. They are 6in tall and have very large heads and colorful hair. The dolls arrive with exclusive shopkins and a couple small accessories. Online they are hard to find, but in the stores they are usually about $17.00 each. I am hoping these dolls will have more friends and fashion packs added in the near future.

#1 American Girl

American Girl is a specialty doll brand which features 18” Historical dolls, 18” Contemporary dolls and 2 lines of Baby dolls. Each year they have a featured Girl of the Year doll. This year the featured doll is named Grace. She is into baking and loves Paris France where her grandparents are from. She has a huge collection to choose from including the City Fun outfit and a Bistro set.

The Truly Me line is a line of 40 different dolls that have a variety of different skin tones, hair color and style and eye color. There is no customizing on these dolls, but if you are looking for a certain combination, you can usually come pretty close to a match with this line. None of these dolls feature story books or names. Girls are encouraged to create their own name and story with these dolls.

The BeForever line is a historical line of dolls. Each collection is set in a specific time period and each doll comes with a story book. These dolls are a great way to get girls interested in history.

There are also Bitty Twins and Bitty Babys available for the younger ones.

These dolls cannot be found in the regular stores, but there are several American Girl store locations throughout the US, and now also in Mexico and Canada. You can also shop online at americangirl.com

The 18” dolls are $115-$120 and the Baby dolls start at $60. Although the pricing is a higher than most doll brands, the quality is significantly better than alternative doll lines. Most families keep the dolls as heirlooms and pass them down to younger generations. And you can expect to see these items show up on most girls santa list this year.