What Happened to the HearthSong Catalog

If you've been trying to request a HearthSong catalog by mail and can't figure out why the order form has disappeared, here's the short answer: HearthSong is no longer operating as the beloved wooden-toy catalog it once was. The company began layoffs in November 2023, cut the remaining staff in early January 2024, and in February 2024 Big Lots acquired the entire HearthSong toy inventory in a roughly $22 million deal, then liquidated the merchandise at 50-70% off MSRP in Big Lots stores. Industry press including Retail Dive, RetailWire, and The Toy Book covered the closure — the latter memorably headlining its piece "HearthSong's Swansong."

The hearthsong.com website is technically still online, but nearly every product displays "Sold Out" or "Out of Stock," customer-service complaints have piled up on public forums, and the contact information on the site now points to Regal Games LLC in Arlington Heights, Illinois (630-587-6700, sales@regalgamesllc.com) — a classic-toy vendor unrelated to the original HearthSong operation. The Sebastopol, California flagship toy store — the same town where founder Barbara Kane started HearthSong in 1983 with a black-and-white catalog of pencil drawings mailed from her home — is marked permanently closed. Chinese private-equity firm Everpine Capital was reported to have acquired the Children's Group LLC name (which also held sister brands Magic Cabin and CWDkids) and stood up a China headquarters. In short: the HearthSong most families remember — the developmental, natural, heirloom-quality toys, the giant slingshots, the Hearthlight Fairy Houses, the play silks, the Big Book of Playthings — no longer exists as a going concern.

No free print HearthSong catalog is offered or requestable in 2026. Searches for "hearthsong catalog," "hearthsong catalog request," "hearth song," "hearth and song toys," "hearthsong catalogue," and even misspellings like "hearthsaga" all land on a site that can no longer fulfill an order. If you were hoping to page through the Big Book of Playthings for a 7-year-old on your list, an heirloom baby gift, a Waldorf-inspired birthday, or a Christmas-sale wishlist, the good news is that several nearly-identical catalogs are still mailing their print books free of charge — and we've lined them up below.

Top Alternatives Still Mailing Free Catalogs

The catalogs below share HearthSong's DNA: natural materials, open-ended play, developmental focus, and the kind of curated assortment that made the HearthSong Big Book something families kept on the coffee table for months. Each one still mails a free print catalog on request.

Chinaberry

Chinaberry has been mailing its distinctive book-and-toy catalog since the early 1980s — almost exactly parallel to HearthSong's founding — and shares the same values-driven, developmental, heirloom-quality curation that HearthSong shoppers came to love. Expect wooden toys, dolls, imaginative-play props, and one of the best-edited children's book selections in the mail-order world. Free print catalog available by request.

Nova Natural Toys & Crafts

If you're looking for the closest living replacement for HearthSong's core assortment, Nova Natural is it. Waldorf-inspired wooden toys, play silks, wool felts, natural dolls, seasonal decorations, and craft kits — the visual language and price tier are strikingly similar to the mid-period HearthSong Big Book. A free print catalog is available on request.

Bella Luna Toys

Bella Luna is a family-run Waldorf toy catalog featuring wooden toys, play silks, watercolor supplies, wet-felting kits, and open-ended play goods at a comparable mid-premium tier. Their curation leans slightly more Waldorf-classroom-authentic than HearthSong ever did, which is a plus if you're gifting for a Waldorf-schooled child or building a natural-toy nursery.

Fat Brain Toys

Family-owned, developmentally-focused, and strong in exactly the two categories HearthSong shoppers ask about most — outdoor play (climbers, swings, slingshot-style toys) and STEM/building. The free print Fat Brain Toy Catalog is a great fit for the 4-to-12 gift-giver demographic and often carries direct analogues to HearthSong's outdoor-play best-sellers.

MindWare

MindWare is the brainy-toys catalog: puzzles, logic games, art kits, brain teasers, and craft sets. If HearthSong's arts-and-crafts, dress-up, and puzzles pages were the ones you dog-eared, MindWare is the most direct swap. Still mails a free print catalog and runs frequent seasonal sales for Christmas and back-to-school.

Magic Cabin (verify before ordering)

Magic Cabin is HearthSong's sister catalog — same Waldorf/natural-toys DNA, same design language, and (importantly) the same Children's Group LLC parent that also owned HearthSong. Because of that shared ownership, we recommend verifying current fulfillment status before placing an order. If Magic Cabin is still mailing, it's the single closest visual and product-mix match to the HearthSong you remember.

How to Request an Alternative Catalog by Mail

Requesting any of the alternatives above is free and takes about 60 seconds. On Catalogs.com you can browse each brand's page, click the "Request Catalog" button, and enter your mailing address — no credit card, no obligation, no strings. Most catalogs arrive within 2-4 weeks, and once you're on the mailing list you'll typically receive seasonal editions (spring, summer, back-to-school, holiday/Christmas sale) automatically.

A few tips for HearthSong refugees specifically:

Request two or three at once. HearthSong's Big Book was famously broad — toys, outdoor play, dress-up, arts, books. No single alternative covers all of that; a Chinaberry + Nova Natural + Fat Brain trio gets you close.
Ask for the holiday edition. If you're shopping the Christmas sale window, most alternative catalogs mail a dedicated holiday book with gift-guide sections organized by age (perfect for the "7 year old girl" or "3 year old boy" gift-giver query).
Ignore old HearthSong coupon codes. Searches for "hearthsong coupon," "hearthsong coupon code," "hearthsong cash back," and "hearthsong black friday" still surface in Google, but any code found is either expired or applies only to Big Lots liquidation stock. The alternative catalogs above run their own promotions — sign up for their email lists at the same time you request the print book.
Don't trust the current hearthsong.com contact page. The Regal Games LLC contact now listed is a separate business; orders placed there are not fulfilled by the original HearthSong team.

Why Print Catalogs Still Matter

It would be easy to assume that a brand like HearthSong disappeared because print catalogs are dying. The opposite is closer to the truth. Print catalogs for children's toys are one of the most resilient categories in direct mail precisely because of how families shop for kids: the catalog gets passed around the kitchen table, dog-eared by grandparents, and used as a wishlist prompt by the child themselves. That's exactly the experience HearthSong was built around in 1983, and it's exactly the experience Chinaberry, Nova Natural, Bella Luna, Fat Brain, and MindWare are still delivering today.

A well-made print toy catalog also solves the "what do I get a 7-year-old" problem in a way no search engine can — you flip through age-appropriate spreads, spot three or four things at once, and pick a gift with context. For heirloom-quality, developmental, and Waldorf-inspired toys especially, the print format lets the photography and product descriptions do work that thumbnails on a phone simply can't.

HearthSong is gone, but the tradition it helped popularize — a beautiful, seasonal, free-in-the-mail toy catalog full of wooden climbers, silks, dolls, fairy houses, and honest play — is very much alive at the alternatives above. Request one (or three) at Catalogs.com and you'll have a new coffee-table book in hand well before the next gift-giving occasion.