In the Night Garden

Imagine a place you can find in your dreams, just as you are drifting off to sleep. A magical place that exists only in your imagination. Somewhere you go on an incredible journey and meet the most caring and fun characters. Well that place is In the Night Garden. This BBC television programme is a bit like a nursery rhyme and can be used by parents to help prepare, calm and relax children for bedtime right through to where they are beginning to drift off to sleep. Each story starts with a different child in bed as they float off into In the Night Garden land. The toys you can buy here help bring the stories alive and settle them down to sleep along with helping them to experience their In the Night Garden friends at home. They might like, for instance, to cuddle up with one of the plush characters in bed. Whilst covering bedtime the programme also has activities for both sleep time and awake time.

The programme has a lot of musicality and rhyming songs with catchy tunes so parents and children can enjoy this together. A number of the toys here have gentle sounds and the Vtech In the Night Garden Sing & Slide Nursery Book includes many of their popular songs.

The range is aimed at the very young (say 1-4 years) although some of the characters are enjoyed by older children. That’s why this range of toys includes some suitable for babies such as play mirrors and mobiles.

Have fun and care for each other just like these characters do and join them in The Night Garden. Let us introduce you to some of the community and places within it:

Iggle Piggle is a big, bright blue bouncy teddy like creature with spiky red hair and red comfort blanket. He has a special walkway called the Stepping Stone Path and only he can use it and it leads him right to the Gazebo handily enough. ‘Don’t worry Iggle Piggle’ says the narrator, because he can be a bit of a worrier. He shocks easily also which makes him fall over. Don’t worry though he doesn’t stay down for long! He is the first character you see on the program and the last one at the end as he settles down for sleep in his boat.

Tiny Makka Pakka has a vehicle called the Og-Pog, handily it has a basket on the front to carry his Agga Pang (his soap and sponge), and other slots for his Uff Uff Dryer, which looks like a set of billows, and his Trumpet (Hum Dum). The Uff Uff is used to dry the faces of the Pontipines plus anything else in need of a dry, including his stone collection, only after he has given them a good wash though. The trumpet also makes a very strange noise so you certainly know when he is arriving. He sleeps in a cave on a stone bed with his most favourite stone. Mikka makka moo!

The Pontipines are red peg doll type people and also live in the Garden at the base of a tree in a semi detached house and the blue people who live next door to them are called the Wottingers.

>Upsy Daisy says Daisy Doo and lives in a patch of daisies alone and looks like a big rag doll. She has a quiet voice but likes to be heard all over the garden, being ultra confident, so she is equipped with a Megaphone. She's the only Upsy One! She is best friends with Iggle Piggle and has a beautiful bed to sleep in, that's if she can catch it as she is often seen chasing it or it chasing her.

The Ninky Nonk Vehicle is a bit like a train, with five carriages, albeit it some very strange ones. Some characters have their own carriages and travel in those but they are allowed in others too. It can be a bit of a bumpy ride on this train as it goes all over up and down trees, through hedges, along branches so the toys need to be certain they have buckled up for a safe journey. It has a series of lights which light up and change colour before departure or arrival.

There are three Ombliboo Tombiloos, Unn (Red & Green), Ooo (Brown & Pink) and Eee (Pink and Yellow) and they wear stripy suits and have strange balls on their heads. They have trouble keeping their trousers up. They are a very musical trio as they play the drums, piano or stack blocks. They live in a bush and always remember to brush their teeth before bedtime.

Hahoos are gigantic billowy characters rather like very large shaped pillows. They include shapes such as a flower, star, X, circle and a figure of 8. Because of their shape and speed they do not travel very quickly, rather wander around at a very leisurely pace making pleasant noises. Generally they are gentle, harmless creatures when undisturbed however are able to stop Ninky Nonk in his tracks should this be required. They sleep in a big pile, deflating slightly.

The Gazebo is a great meeting place for the characters to sing and dance and as bedtime approaches the top lights up and other lights come on or spin around.

Other goings on include: The garden has some very strange flowers called pom pom flowers and they come in a number of different colours including red, blue, yellow and pink. Are seen in twos or threes and look like big squishy balls. If the characters need a wash or a drink a special spring can be found in the garden, but only if they stamp their feet three times. Trubliphones are all over the garden and can be used to speak to each other on. Designed for bedtime wind down times wrap children up in the love of In the Night Garden and let their imaginations run wild.

Pip-Pip Onk-Onk from us!