WHO ARE WE kidding? The Late Late Toy Show isn’t really for the kids anymore, is it? It’s not even about the toys, either. Be brutally honest now, who is more excited in your household for this annual Irish ritual, as revered in our nation and as intertwined with our Irishness as a cup of Barry’s tea and a packet of Taytos?

Is it your very young children who are actually making Santa lists this year and living in their magical era? Or is it you, the grown-ups in the room, who are dying to play Late Late Toy Show drinking bingo and taking a swing every time Patrick Kielty says “There’s one for everyone in the audience”, while you scroll on Twitter/Bluesky for people’s reaction to that hilarious kid who upstages him at every opportunity?

I’d wager a bet it’s the latter because, in the last decade or so, the Late Late Toy Show has morphed from a low-key TV special that genuinely showcased children’s toys before Christmas, into something of a cultural behemoth. Now it is simply a way for Christmas jumper-wearing adults like me, to vicariously relive the nostalgia of their childhood and to reminisce back to the days of Bosco, the Den, Zig and Zag and Gaybo holding the hand of the nation.

The show has changed

It all feels a bit like a cult, one you can slag nicely, but never constructively criticise for fear of being labelled a Grinch or worse a traitor to your nation. But let’s be honest, the show is mostly made up of cringe-inducing moments you’re half watching behind your cushion and wondering how much of your licence fee is funding it all?

It inhabits the very specific sphere of so-bad-it’s-good TV that’s so niche there’s not much else that can equal it. Even if you don’t sit down and watch it all, and I cannot think of anyone who does, you’ll likely flick it on for a little bit for fear of missing out.

Ryan Tubridy hosted the Toy Show for several years. Rolling News Rolling News

Before it became the cultural juggernaut it is now, the Toy Show used to be a more pared-back affair that didn’t bring a nation to a standstill. There were no Late Late Toy Show snack boxes, matching PJs or baby grows. It was a piece of television that focused on the toys themselves and the children road-testing them.

These days, when the credits roll, we never end up talking about the toys anymore; they are simply a footnote. What makes the headlines the next day are the celebrity special guests, the over-the-top budget or outlandish theme, and the child who brilliantly upstages the host.

Outsiders who watch it cannot for the life of them understand the iron grip and enduring appeal of something that’s not got the budget to be a big-scale grandiose TV spectacle and yet is not quite focussed enough on the toys to be an actual toy show. It’s neither one thing nor the other.

Plus chucking it on at 9.30pm because that’s when the Late Late Show is always on and so that’s what we’re doing, regardless of the fact that the very small children who the show is supposedly aimed at are already in bed or so close to sleep they will conk within about 20 minutes of the opening, is hard to understand.

Are kids really into it?

Also, do your young children even find it entertaining? I’ve tried and failed for many successive years to get my two children (now 5 and 8) into the Toy Show with no luck, because like you, I’m desperate to relive the nostalgia with them.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The only thing they got swept up in was the hype surrounding it. The Toy show treat boxes, the PJs and the merch, but once the show was put on, even the next day when they weren’t exhausted, it didn’t hold their attention for more than 10 minutes and they soon lost interest, confused about what exactly the show as supposed to be?

“Mammy, can we watch Netflix instead?”

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Netflix indeed. Gaybo would be horrified.

We should still celebrate it

At its core, though, there’s something good to be found in the Late Late Toy Show. A touch of magic in a challenging world.

One of the best things to come out of it in recent years is the Toy Show Appeal. Launched in 2020, spearheaded by the bravery of the late Saoirse Ruane, who sadly passed away this year at the age of just 12, her extraordinary legacy has helped raise millions of euros to help hundreds of children around the country.

It may be baffling to some, but the Late Late Toy Show remains one of the most watched TV events of the year, and there’s no reason to doubt that this year’s show will change much from previous iterations.

Still, I can’t help thinking that it wouldn’t hurt to give it a bit of an overhaul, at the very least trim some of the fat, and get the next generation of kids watching it so they too can relieve their slice of nostalgia when the time comes. That said, I’ll be like many around the country tomorrow night, PJ-clad, excited children beside me (for a few minutes at least), glad to have something positive to watch for a short time. It could be worse. 

Niamh O’Reilly is a freelance writer and wrangler of two small boys, who is winging her way through motherhood, her forties and her eyeliner.