This is my story of Citizen Kid, a new Sweetbeets retailer located on the very hip Locke Street in Hamilton, Ontario! Last September I was chatting with a friend whose son went to the same kindergarten as my son. She had moved and mentioned that the couple who had bought her house was planning to open a toy shop.

Though I didn’t know it at the time, the toy store turned out to be Citizen Kid! The owners Rebecca Bamford and Trevor Westerhoff independently found Sweetbeets while searching online for potential vendors. I think we were all surprised to discover that we live a short drive from each other. I happily delivered their order in person and learned a bit about their story, which included relocating from British Columbia to Ontario. Via the Citizen Kid blog, I began following the extensive renovations and learned about the design of their amazing logo.

My family and I went to the grand opening of Citizen Kid in May. Despite the dreary day with lots of rain, the shop was packed. There are a lot of summer and fall birthdays in my extended family and I was quite pleased with myself for being so organized and getting gifts in advance!

Recently my boys and I went back for another visit and I was able to take some photos to share with you. I also have a photo of Sweetbeets cards in the shop, but I’m saving that for a future post about greeting card displays.

Citizen Kid specializes in beautiful, eco-friendly, fair-trade, and safe toys for boys and girls age 0-8. It is now my local go-to shop for kids gifts because I love the philosophy and I can find a lot of eco-friendly and/or handmade gifts in the $10 to $30 range. There is no other toy store like it in Hamilton.

I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about Calafant’s line of toys made from recycled cardboard so it was great to see the product in person. I love how the treehouse is on display so customers can imagine the possibilities. It looks like Rebecca and Trevor’s daughter had fun decorating it!

For his birthday, my youngest son received the TOOLS book (wonderfully illustrated by Taro Miura) and the toolbox shown on the bottom shelf.

You’ll find lots of play food for little chefs! My son couldn’t keep his fingers out of this clever market display.

These rainbow colored stacking blocks are very eye-catching when you first walk into the store. In the background you’ll see Canadian-made Ukoonto wooden blocks that I had blogged about after connecting via twitter. If I recall correctly, there is a play table at the back of Citizen Kid with a set of these blocks for kids to play with while parents shop.

You’ll also find lots of beautiful wooden toys. At the grand opening I bought this squirrel for a gift.

As you can see, Citizen Kid is such a beautiful (both in appearance and philosophy) toy shop and I’m very proud that Sweetbeets cards are available there!

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