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My husband just bought a Holmes humidifier. His medication makes his nose extremely dry and now that we have it in our bedroom at night when we sleep, he notices a major difference.
We are going to get the Sunpentown brand for our kids as it was rated better at www.walmart.com. The Crane ones had many people saying they break easily. Good luck!

Yes! It's been so dry where we live (and cold) so we've had the heat cranked up.

My advice when humidifier shopping is to check how big the hole for water tank is. We bought one that was IMPOSSIBE to wipe clean with a sponge because the hole was so tiny! I found another that I could fit my whole arm in to completely wipe clean. I think this Hello Kitty one is very cute but I'm pretty sure it's very tough to get really clean.

We've had a Crane from Target for about a year and a half now (the frog) and have been very happy with it. My only complaint is that it is difficult to clean, though soaking the water tank in the kitchen sink occasionally and a good rinse seems to work pretty well. It's very quiet, unlike another model we tried before it that actually interfered with the baby monitor. Now that our daughter is two, she enjoys watching us fill up the frog.
A humidifier is a great purchase for a nursery--I was very impressed with how much it helped congestion, coughing, and dry skin issues.

we have the Crane frog model, too. for us, cuteness outweighs the difficulty in totally cleaning it. it is much quieter and nicer looking than the big white/blue Vicks model we had before that. Vicks was much louder and acted as the white noise that my son needed to take his naps. but it was so easy to clean that the main, top part came right off, which my son quickly discovered and broke one day so we switched and couldn't be happier.

We have the Crane Frog Too! I read the reviews on all of them and decited it was functional and cute! It works great! I was amazed at the difference it made in my sons breathing at night! I agree with Paris and r8ermom in that it's not the easiest to clean but I much perfer it over the other models!

The best (and least expensive) humidifiers are evaporative cool mist humidifiers. They don't have any of the white dust issues and they also filter the air a bit. The disposable filters (need to be changed about once a month) now contain an anti-microbial, so they don't get moldy.

I also own the Crane (the cow) and think it's the best nursery humidifier out there for 2 reasons: (1) there's no filter to clean; and (2) it actually works well. I cannot overstate the latter point. We owned 2 humidifiers prior to this one and we tested whether they were working with a hygrometer. The humidifiers BARELY raised the humidity level in the small room! The Crane one easily gets the humidity level into the 40-60% range -- where it's supposed to be. HOWEVER, our first Crane (a frog) was defective and broke within a week. We returned it to Target and got the cow -- we've had no problems during the last year. So my only caveat is SAVE YOUR RECEIPT!! P.S. It's super cheap.
Also, it is not the easiest to clean -- but is any humidifier? We clean it with bleach and/or vinegar once a week.

Our Holmes humidifier can go in the dishwasher! It's not cute, but it works and we like the white noise it provides. We got it at Sears.

we have both the cow and the hello kitty humidifiers and, yes, they are difficult to clean but 1) they work. the vicks humidifier i bought broke after two weeks use. 2) they are quiet, cute, and cheap. i just recently bought these protec things that you can put in the tank to help keep them clean and we'll see if they work!

We received our delightful Crane Hello Kitty humidifier as a Christmas gift and have absolutely fallen in love with it. When turned on, the body glows purple and mist shoots gently upward from Kitty's ears. Normally we humidify the room before we go to sleep so as not to hear the motor humming during slumber.

We have the Crane "Thomas" humidifier, which my son loves because the mist comes out of Thomas's funnel, just like it should from a steam engine. However, our first one broke, and now the replacement one is making a loud grinding noise as well. Sigh.