There’s something special about unicorns.
There must be, right? After all, these fanciful creatures have been prancing around mythology for more than 2,000 years.
In The Natural History of Unicorns, Chris Lavers, a lecturer at the University of Nottingham, traces the unicorn’s origins to 398 BC, when Ctesias of Cnidus wrote of a white-bodied creature with a dark red head, blue eyes, and a foot-and-a-half long horn on its forehead.
These creatures, Ctesias wrote, were “exceedingly swift and powerful,” fierce defenders of their offspring, and apparently also in possession of enviable ankle bones (umm….weird). In Ctesias’s telling, drinking from a unicorn horn had curative powers that would leave you free of epilepsy or immune to poison.
Magic and myth. Adventure and imagination. Beauty and courage. It makes for quite a combo.
If your little one is all-in on unicorns, you’re in luck. These days there are loads of unicorn books, outfits, puzzles, and crafts. As one writer observed, “unicorn-everything is seemingly everywhere.”
Plush, for starters. Unicorn toys immediately evoke images of giant stuffed animals and figurines. We’ve included a few of these, which can be excellent for games of pretend.
But a child’s love for unicorns can also be a tool for enhancing other types of play. For the unicorn enthusiast, unicorn-themed toys may nudge open the door to crafts and puzzles. We’ve included a few of these types of unicorn toys as well.
Hope these unicorn faves help your little one (and you!) have a magical day.
