Fair Day's Play Toys & Games — Local services in Takoma Park

This small shop is crammed with wonderful toys and books, and the owner is a superb guide who knows her inventory extremely well and gives great advice about current favorites, tried-and-true, and best matches for your favorite kids’ ages and interests. It’s like an overflowing treasure chest of toys, games, and books, at all price points – the special strategy games that my older grandkids have heard of, the simple toys that fit my two-year-old grandchild, cuddly creatures for new babies, hula hoops and jump ropes and so many classic toys, the surprise small new things (LED party balloons? Yup, and I bought them as stocking-stuffers!) -- really everything I’ve ever wanted is in there, and there is no more patient guide than the owner. She is also a wonderful collaborator when I come in with a child; if a child clearly wants something and I whisper a request, the owner will whisk it behind the counter and help me pay and smuggle it out without the child knowing – which isn’t really hard because children always find something fun here to distract their attention. I also love knowing I can trust these playthings. Today I bought some well-made plastic farm animals (plus more exotic ones I couldn’t resist) and I am very grateful that I don’t need to wonder if they were made with toxic paints; the owner wouldn’t stock them in that case. Because of the personal attention, this isn’t a store for rushing: instead, it’s a store to love year after year after year. I always smile going in, and smile even more going out with...

I had the most amazing experience with fair days play. My wife and I were looking for a hard to find game that we learned is no longer in print. I called the store and they immediately knew about it. For perspective, I had called six other toy stores in the Washington DC area and only one other had heard of it. The owner of fair days play offered to look in her storage shed to see if she could find one for me.She said it might take a while and she would call me back, which she did the very next day. Believe it or not she had one and found it! I was so excited but our plans were to leave town and I wasn’t able to get it from her store when she opened.

That’s when the most extraordinary thing occurred. She offered to meet me at a highway exit near her store and sell me the game in a parking lot. I was pleasantly surprised that she offered to do this and no this could never happen and the other kind of store, other than a sole proprietor ship with an owner that cares.

This is the kind of service and interest you only get from someone who loves what they do. It’s sort of reminds me of what you might see on a TV commercial but we all cynically dismiss it as father. But this store totally helped me. I will always go to the store first for my game needs and recommend that if you have something hard to find or just main stream, this owner cares about games and her customers and it’s worth going to. We need more...

Great, quirky, independent toy and game store. They have the beautiful, high-end board games like Catan, ticket to ride, and tokaido. Made-in-America dress up clothes worthy of handing down. Wooden baby toys, science kits, puzzles, Arts n crafts, puppets and stuffed animals. Magic cards, Pokémon, dice, you name it! Its kind of amazing how much is under one small roof! The owner is super knowledgeable about age appropriate toys and what’s the latest craze, which is great for selecting birthday presents. Highly recommend- hope this is one place that can survive the big-box store...