Us Holiday Gift Guide: Play Time

Ellen Tien was a columnist in the New York Times Styles section for 12 years and has written for O Magazine, Vogue and Rolling Stone.

Everyone craves toys at Christmas, even adults. While iPhones and Xboxes rule the grownup play-list, there are a few new cult favorites that both work and play wonderfully well.

Left to right:

The Creative Labs Vado video camera is a sleek little pocket-sized camcorder that makes recording—and sharing—memories childishly easy ($129 at www.amazon.com)

Lego’s classic brick has been magnified tenfold and turned into a whimsical clock radio by Digital Blue ($38 at Henri Bendel in New York)

The Jumpsnap ropeless jump rope turns workouts into recess and is perfect for small spaces and reluctant exercisers; computerized handles calculate the number of jumps and calories burned and will also time and monitor workouts. ($49.95 at www.jumpsnap.com)

GIVEAWAY! JumpSnap is giving away 10 JumpSnap jumping ropes to our readers!

To enter, email your name, address, contact phone number and email address to: giveaways@usmagazine.com, with "Holiday Giveaway" in the subject line.

Winners will be selected at random. Limit one entry per person. Sweepstakes begins at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on 12/24/09. All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST on 12/31/09. Open to legal U.S. residents (excluding residents of military installations, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. Territories) age 18 and older. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Certain restrictions may apply. Number of Winners: 90. Click HERE for Official Rules.