In case you missed last week’s 8BD podcast, Zach and Bryan crapped all over our current culture’s more excessive Black Friday activities such as mobbing at Wal-Mart, or camping outside of Best Buy before the Thanksgiving turkey’s delicious carcass has even cooled. I fully support and share in their disgust, and I am usually perfectly happy making soup out of leftovers on Black Friday, instead of waking up before dawn and shivering in lines.

Anyway, if you’re also fed up with the commercialism involved with holiday shopping, and you’re tired of looking at Amazon.com’s “Top Gifts for Kids” menus (brought to you by CITI, natch), you might enjoy an article by Jonathan Liu who writes for WIRED’s GeekDad blog. Ordinarily, WIRED goes hi-tech, finding the raddest and latest gadgets and gizmos, but in this post Liu reviews some timeless toys that every kid has played with over the years. Toys that should probably be sought out by parents before the holiday supplies dwindle down.

These toys are some of the best toys ever – toys like “stick,” and “box,” and “dirt.” You know…the essentials. The article even links to some cool user guides and includes some safety precautions for parents. So spoon yourself up some leftover soup, and get the inside dope on what your kids really need this Christmas, or any time of the year.