Every Christmas I buy my grandkids one big present, and by February I can tell you whether it was worth the wrapping paper. Most years the big one loses. Two years ago it was a ride-on toy that ended up behind the lawnmower. Last year it was a talking dinosaur that made Sophie cry. So when I bought the YLL mini karaoke machine the week before Christmas, I did not expect much. I expected a loud week, and then a quiet corner of the grandkids' room.
Ten months later it is still on that shelf, and it is the first thing Mia asks for when she walks in the door on a Saturday. That is the short version. The long version is ten reasons, written for grandparents shopping from a kitchen table or standing in a store aisle with a phone in one hand, plus an honest list of what I would skip instead.
The one Christmas present that was still on the toy shelf in September
Four wireless microphones, songs from my phone over Bluetooth, and nothing to download. The YLL set is the gift that got used on a Saturday instead of stored in a closet.
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The box says four wireless microphones, and I expected two of them to be decoration. They are not. Mia sings the song, Eli takes the second one and mostly shouts into it, and when Sophie is here all three of them have a microphone at the same time. When the neighbor girls come over on a Saturday, four is exactly enough. If you have ever refereed a fight over one toy microphone, you already understand why this is the first item on my list. The YLL machine carries four channels, so four people can sing at once instead of tapping their foot in line.
It gets me out of my chair instead of watching
I sang in a church choir for thirty years and I still dance in my kitchen to Elvis records, so I am not a neutral witness. What I did not expect is that the machine would pull me off the couch. There is a key that pulls the vocal down out of a song so you can sing the lead yourself, and one press brings it back. I use it on Elvis, and Mia laughs so hard she has to sit down on the rug. A gift that gets a grandmother singing is a gift that gets used.
No app, no subscription, no account, no screen
There is nothing to download and nothing to renew. Songs come off my phone over Bluetooth, and the YLL speaker picks it back up when I turn it on, so most Saturdays I hand Mia the phone and she chooses. You do need a phone or a tablet in the room with it, and I want to say that plainly, because it is the one thing I would want a stranger to tell me. It also takes a TF card if you want a card of songs sitting in it, though I have never bothered. For a woman who does not want another password, that is the whole point.
Small enough for a shelf, light enough to survive a drop
It sits on the toy shelf in the grandkids' room and it is about the size of a thick paperback. The listing gives 3.94 by 1.97 by 3.15 inches and 340 grams, which in practice means a seven-year-old can carry it into the living room one-handed. The enclosure is plastic. Eli has knocked it off that shelf twice and it has not complained. Anything that lives on a floor in a house with a four-year-old needs to be light and simple.
It has survived ten months of Eli
Eli is four, and his way of enjoying a microphone is to hold it two inches from his mouth and yell. Ten months of that. The machine has been dropped on the kitchen tile, sat on, and used as a drum during a marching parade through my hallway. It still pairs, it still plays, and all four microphones still work. I do not treat it gently and neither do they. Knowing there is a two-year warranty behind it helps a grandmother sleep, though so far I have not needed it.
It mails well to a grandchild who lives three hours away
My son and his family live in Oklahoma City, so Sophie gets a lot of gifts in the mail, and half of them arrive needing batteries and a screwdriver. This one does not. At 340 grams and small enough for a modest box, there is nothing to assemble and it works the minute it comes out. I have mailed a lot of toys to Oklahoma and watched them get politely ignored on a video call. If you love a child from a distance, put this on your short list of gifts that survive the trip and still get played with on the other end.
It turns a plain Saturday into a show with a soundtrack
Mia is seven and she has always put on shows, but the machine gave the shows a soundtrack. The costumes come out of the dress-up trunk in the closet, Eli wears the tiara for laughs, and I sit in the good chair and clap like I am at the Grand Ole Opry. She introduces herself into the microphone before every single song, which is the funniest part of my week. It takes an afternoon and it is the best thing in my house.
Five watts is right for a living room, and I mean that as a compliment
I want to be honest about size. The YLL speaker puts out 5 watts, which is right for a living room and wrong for a backyard party. Turned all the way up in the kitchen, it is loud enough that I close the door to the porch. That is exactly what I want from a toy in my one-story brick house. It will not fill a yard and it will not annoy a neighbor, and after ten months of Saturdays I count both of those as good news.
One machine works for a two-year-old, a four-year-old and a seven-year-old
Sophie is two, so she does not sing words yet. She holds a microphone upside down, hums, and dances to whatever Mia picks. Eli shouts his version of the lyrics. Mia sings the actual melody and hits most of the notes. One machine covers all three of them, which is more than I can say for most of what I have bought over the years. The toddler and the seven-year-old are getting something different out of it, and all three of them want it.
It gives us something to do together on a phone call
Daniel calls on Sunday afternoons, and Sophie is not much of a talker on the phone. She is a performer, though. She will take a microphone, hum two bars of whatever she has been singing, and hand the phone back to her father. It gave us a thing to do on a call instead of a thing to talk about. That is worth more to me than any toy that lights up and gets played with once. Ten months in, this is the one still on the shelf.
What I'd Skip
Skip the big karaoke machine with a stand and a screen. I looked at those, and they are furniture, and furniture in a grandkids' room becomes a place to pile laundry. Skip anything that needs an app, an account or a subscription, because the day the subscription lapses is the day the toy dies. Skip buying a second machine for a second house. And be honest with yourself about the small irritations here. The microphones are small enough to vanish under a couch cushion, the YLL speaker needs a phone or tablet nearby to play a song, and a four-year-old with a microphone is genuinely loud. I would buy it again anyway. I have already talked it up to two women in my Sunday school class, and one of them bought it for her granddaughter in Amarillo.
Mia sings the melody, Eli shouts, Sophie holds hers upside down and hums. Three kids, four microphones, and not one argument about whose turn it is.
Ten months later, it is still the first thing she asks for when she walks in
Of everything I bought those grandkids last Christmas, the YLL mini karaoke machine is the only one still getting used. Four wireless microphones, Bluetooth from a phone you already own, and a two-year warranty in case Eli gets ideas.
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