It’s Cyber Week!
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been scrambling to track down the best sales and wracking your brain to determine whether the 45% off sale on this year’s hot gift makes it a worthwhile purchase for anyone in your life. For me, this is especially true where my kids are concerned. I never know what to get them. Does this make me a bad mom? I hope not.
I constantly find myself weighing the cost of the item, the amount of room it takes up in my house, and how hard it is to clean up versus the joy my child will find in the item and the potential learning benefit they may reap from it. I find myself giving a hard pass for most kid gifts based on this calculus.
But, I have found a few things that pass the test (or that my 4 year old has begged to receive from Santa and I am not ready to kill the magic for him yet) and I wanted to pass them along in case you need some help. I understand that this is very age and interest specific, but my lists for my kids may inspire you, even if you don’t purchase exactly the gifts I did. I’m just trying to help out my comrades in arms, who are other overworked, exhausted, burned out parents.
Here are the details: I have a 4 year old boy and a 1 year old girl. The boy just had a birthday, so I’m going to include what he got for his birthday in this list too. No, this doesn’t mean I love my son more than my daughter. He just gets a lot of gifts this time of the year, and I didn’t think it was smart to leave off his birthday gifts.
So, without further ado….
4 Year Old Boy
My son is a very stereotypical 4 year old boy. He likes sports, he likes to build things, he doesn’t sit down much. In other words, he is the easy one.
Yoto Mini + Cards
Nerf Gun
I am so hoping that he ends up loving this contraption. He has just recently dropped his mid-day nap. Let’s all pause to mourn my break from parenting that allowed me to cook dinner uninterrupted. He’s finding the shift from nap to quiet time to be pretty difficult. Like I said, he doesn’t sit down much. After much research, it seems like the Yoto mini might help him get through quiet time. It’s a non-screen based device that plays audio cards that can contain stories, adventures, and games. The separately purchased cards range from Disney stories to mysteries to Lego play alongs. Fingers crossed he loves this!
The time has come. My son has discovered Nerf guns. We were at the store the other day shopping for Christmas presents for the Angel Tree kids we pulled and he saw them. He immediately grabbed the nearest one off the shelf and asked (in a voice an octave lower than usual), “Mom! What is this!?!” I explained that it was a Nerf gun that shot foam darts and he decided then and there that he had to have one. He changed his Santa ask on the spot, which is unusual for him. He’s usually the type of kid who wants something for months and never wavers. But throw a Nerf gun into his reality, and he’s ready to abandon everything else. I opted for the Junior model.
Watch
My son sees my husband and I both wear a watch daily and has always been interested in trying them on his own wrist. We never let him keep the watches on long, though, because a) we needed to tell the time and b) we didn’t want him to lose or break our timepieces. He has decided that, despite not knowing how to tell time yet, he needs a watch of his very own. The one he said he wanted is approximately the size of his head, so I went with a kid-sized Spiderman digital number instead.
Lego Classic Set
This kid never met a building set he didn’t love. Mega blocks were his jam for a while when he was a toddler, then he switched to Duplo blocks, and Magnatiles have been a constant. He’s recently been spending quite a bit of time in the room a year ahead of his at preschool, and they have regular lego blocks. He loves them and is constantly asking why we don’t have any at home. We (and specifically his grandmother) is planning to fix that at Christmas. I know he’s going to be so excited, but I’m a little nervous because of their small size around his sister. Any tips you might have on keeping my 1 year old from choking on them are more than welcomed!
Golf Mat Chipping Game
2023 has been the year of golf for my son. He is obsessed. I think we went outside to hit golf balls every single day this summer. And he’s good. We are still using a plastic ball because he could legitimately break the neighbors’ windows with a real ball. That’s where this chipping game thing comes in. My husband is hoping that it will teach him to control his swing so he doesn’t just slam it to smithereens every time he hits the ball. My neighbors really hope my husband is right.
Stuffed Moose
My son gets a new stuffed moose every year. I started with a small Jellycat moose in his stocking when he was only 3 weeks old, which he still sleeps with every night by the way. Every Christmas, I find another moose to add to his collection. At this point we have Moosey (the original), big moose, huge moose (an extra moose that my sister got him for his 2nd birthday), and winter moose (he’s wearing a fuzzy hat). We will name the newest moose to herd in time, but you’d better believe he’ll be under the tree.
BONUS - Hockey Birthday Presents
The kid is almost as obsessed with hockey as he is golf. For his birthday, he asked for all the hockey things. He wanted a basement hockey set and an outdoor stick, goal, and puck. He also got a toy Zamboni and a nightlight that is a 3D hockey player that he can make glow orange, his favorite color.
1 Year Old Girl
Y’all she is hard. We have all the typical age appropriate things from her older brother, and she’s too young to demonstrate any real preferences for the most part. She doesn’t really need anything, but to keep the Christmas magic alive for her brother, we need to get her enough that Christmas doesn’t seem one-sided. This is what I have so far, but I’m still looking, so if you have any ideas for something else I can get her, please help!
Baby Doll Stroller
We were over at my brother-in-law’s house recently to celebrate my niece’s birthday. Just like our basement, their basement is toy central. The one thing that my daughter really focused on was my niece’s babydoll stroller. She had a ball pushing it around and finding dolls to place in the seat. The only downside was that my daughter and my other niece (who is 3 months older than my daughter) were fighting over whose turn it was to push it around the basement. I was thrilled! As soon as I got home, I added 2 babydoll strollers to my cart. Now there will be a babydoll stroller in every basement!
Helmet
My kids are just starting to fight over toys. It’s not really bad (yet), but the one thing that they fight over consistently is my son’s bike helmet. We have a bike and a scooter, and both require being helmeted to enjoy. This is a problem with only one helmet. So the easiest gift idea for my daughter this year was a helmet all her own. Thanks, Aunt Katie!
Ball Pit
I may have brought a world of trouble on myself with this gift. I have purchased a pop-up ball pit and 100 plastic balls to fill it. Yes, I did this immediately after my son received lots of hockey sticks for his birthday. I think the over under on the lifespan of this gift is 3 months. Any bets?
Stuffed Penguin
Like her brother’s yearly moose, my daughter gets an annual penguin. This will be #2 in her collection. He came vacuum packed, so I’m a little concerned about what he will look like when I break the seal, but my options for stuffed penguins with sewn eyes were limited. Hopefully she can actually keep this one. Last year’s penguin has largely been taken over by her brother because she couldn’t fight back at 8 months old. I figure she’ll get lots more penguins in her life, so one living across the hall shouldn’t be missed.
Bath Toys
I haven’t actually pulled the trigger on these yet, but this is a bit of a hole in our collection. Of course, we have some toys that her brother got when he was her age that she plays with, but their numbers are dwindling as they break or get moved to the shower where her brother hides the things he wants to play with. There are some bath safe Duplo toys that I’m particularly considering.
I’ll throw (mostly consumable) small items in their stockings, but that’s pretty much it for Christmas 2023. What are you getting your kids this year?