A new toy shop in downtown Ridgefield is offering families a place to find unique gifts while encouraging kids to step away from screens and explore hands-on play.
Toys On Main, operated by lifelong Ridgefield resident Tara Nathan and her two daughters, opened on Small Business Saturday the weekend after Thanksgiving. The small retail space is located within the redeveloped former Ridgefield Hardware. The building includes a conglomerate of other small businesses under the Ridgefield Floral and Gifts umbrella and has quickly drawn steady foot traffic from families exploring downtown.
Nathan said much of her time at the toy shop has gone into researching and curating toys that offer something different from what customers might find at big-box stores or online retailers. All of which end up being perfect birthday gifts for the prominent age range of 12-and-under.
“Everyone loves it,” Nathan said. “They come in, and they find cute little things. It’s great for when your kid has to go to a birthday party, and you didn’t order from Amazon, so now you have to get something and there’s not a lot of options in Ridgefield. So I try to keep that in mind, like something they can pick up and take to a birthday party.”
The shop carries a variety of smaller toys, art supplies and sensory items that children can pick out themselves.
“I have squishy stuff and little putty and small art supplies; little things that they can pick up that don't break the bank,” Nathan said.
Nathan said one of the shop’s guiding ideas is encouraging “unplugged play,” with toys designed to spark creativity and hands-on learning.
“We intentionally advertise unplugged play, right? Stuff that you don’t need a screen for,” she said. “I think I have one item in the whole shop that takes a battery. And I think grandparents are very big on unplugged play — things that are STEM toys, thinking toys. So we kind of try to hit that market.”
Those toys can help children develop creativity and problem-solving skills, Nathan added.
“Brain growth, development, skill learning, it’s all using parts of your brain that you’re not going to get if you’re just on a screen,” she said.
While many items are geared toward elementary-aged kids, Nathan said the store also tries to carry items for all ages. One of the most popular products right now is a sensory toy called the “Nee-Doh Nice Cube.” The versatile, quiet fidget toy provides sensory stimulation that helps stress relief, focus and anxiety management, has been rather hard to keep on the shelf.
“People are calling me, kids are calling me, ‘Do you have any Nee-Doh?’” She said. “Grown-ups are calling me, ‘Do you have any Nee-Doh?’ They’re all looking for the Nee-Doh.”
Nathan said she anticipates a new order landing on the shelf soon.
Nathan said the small shop arrangement in a corner of the Ridgefield Floral and Gifts conglomerate works well. The Floral business is able to handle transactions, taking the need for staffing the small shop out of play during the work week, as the toy shop is Nathan’s secondary gig.
Nathan plans to continue participating in downtown Ridgefield events and hopes the sense of community continues to grow around the shared love of “unplugged play.”
“I love Ridgefield,” Nathan said. “Even though there’s a lot of growth and I know it’s hard for a lot of people, like you can embrace it or you can be mad about it, but it’s not going away so I choose to embrace it and try to build community with everybody in Ridgefield.”
Toys On Main is located inside Ridgefield Floral and Gifts, at 104 N. Main Ave., open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Saturdays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. To shop online with local delivery, and for links to social media, visit toysonmain.square.site.
