Looking for something techy or gadgety for Christmas this year? Well I am at any rate. And I'm not talking about just the kids here but the whole family. Oh yes, isn't it about time we looked at some toys for mums and dads too?

There's something about flashy lights, and whizzy graphics, and things that go 'ting'. Or apps. Now apps are great although you can't wrap them and put them under the tree. At least it is one less bit of clutter to have around the house!

Here's a selection of some of the top tech Christmas presents to inspire you. I've looked for hot and trending toys or gadgets for all the family, from mum and dad, through teens to tots.

Also, I've not included toys that we've covered a bit here on PlayPennies, like the Fijit Friends. Or tablet PC toys, the Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer and the vTech Innotab. Personally I'm not sold on them, the tablet PC toys I mean. It sounds like the Innotab runs through batteries fairly quickly. But they definitely sound better than some of those toy laptops I've tried in the past that have just dreadful screens!

Happy Halloween! Now that's not quite how I'd expect a feature about toys for Christmas to start. But there you go. Nearly all the newspapers have begun to run their lists of top Christmas presents, and now the consumer publication Which? has joined in the fray. Which makes it official. The Christmas Shopping Season starts NOW.

If you're all proper frugal parents you'll be starting now anyway. Or have probably started already. Our own PlayPennies Tamsin is so hardcore, she does her Christmas shopping in January.

The key is to know what you want to get so you can have plenty of time to keep an eye out for it in the half prices sales,  or big reductions that suddenly flash by on sites and in retail shops.

So if you're looking for inspiration, then these lists are quite a handy way of finding out what kids might want, or what the huge marketing mechanisms employed by giant toy corporations are going to convince them they want by December 25th.

I'm lucky in a way. My son usually writes his Christmas list in August. So far, for the last three years, he has chosen his big present then and not changed his mind.

The wooden toy traditionalists among us can mutter all we like, but facts need to be faced - we live in a world where kids and technology are meeting at a younger and younger age and become very good 'friends' very fast.

Lots of people raised their eyebrows when my youngest son was given an Apple iTouch for his fourth birthday.  It was amazing watching him get to grips with it and the amount of educational apps that he loves using make it a fabulous learning tool.

He's been suggesting that his dad gets an iPad2 because then, and I quote, "I can have your old iPad can't I!"