I’m not a lover of big plastic toys, although they certainly have their place. When it comes to Christmas, I get all sentimental and I prefer to give presents that will last and they can treasure forever. They might not agree with me right now, but they’ll appreciate it when they’re older. So here’s my guide and some inspiration for gifts and ideas for children that they will (hopefully) treasure forever. I’m trying to follow these rules this Christmas:
Photo : Jones Design Company
Reading
For the reading part, I love these personalised books from Lost my name. It’s really detailed, you put in your child’s name and it’s written in the stars in the story.
You personalise it with your address and when the adventurers return home, they see their actual road like in Google Earth, and the number of your house is on the door. It’s all written in verse. Their address is printed in full in the back too, a nice keepsake of their home as they grow up. You can even choose the colours the astronaut child wears. There’s a space at the front where you can write your own dedication. It’s a detailed enough story that he’ll enjoy reading it without it being too babyish, and at 20 pages with lots of adventures, I think he’ll like it and it’s something he’ll keep and be proud of.
Daniel is getting into reading and he’ll say ‘Book’ and come and sit on my lap and helps turn the pages. We’ve started reading to him before bedtime. His favourite at the moment is Spin and Say, he likes to spin the wheel and point out the Elephant (eh-beh). Phoebe is loving the rainbow fairy stories chapter books at the moment.
Clothes
There are so many gorgeous clothes out there, for special occasion wear, we love M & S, and they last so well. We used to get an outfit that we opened on Christmas Eve and would wear on Christmas Day.
Dress: Marks & Spencer
For everyday wear, Matalan, Asda and T K Maxx are also favourites. You can’t go wrong with new pyjamas too! You could even get them personalised like these ones from My 1st years.
Need
Phoebe needs some new ballet gear and Daniel could do with some new shoes. I like to get his from Clarks or Startrite, as they have the extra width fittings and they last well. Considering he broke his leg in the summer it hasn’t slowed him down at all and he runs everywhere. William needs some new stationery for school, he’s managed to break his pencil case already and lost a load of his pencils, grrr. Maybe I should get some with his name on, then at least they shouldn’t make their way into someone else’s pencil case.
Personalised pencils from Gift Cookie
Want
Of course, I’m going to get something big for them that they’ve been hankering after, for example William and Phoebe really want a Kinect so they can play interactively. I know he’ll get a lot of use out of it and he can get other games and trade with his friends. Phoebe has bookmarked lots of things from the Tesco catalogue, who have been very clever and included stickers and activities through their toy catalogue. Well played Tesco, well played. I’m sure I can manage that. Daniel, well he’s happy as long as he’s got some trains or cars. Maybe paw patrol or Blaze. He loves to hoover, who am I to discourage that? So a toy hoover – they’re always popular and he loved the old one. I like this one from The Entertainer.
I just love this wooden leaf puzzle from Etsy, it’s hand made and such good quality, and educational too. It’s in Spanish but you can request it in English, although I rather like that it’s Spanish, it adds to the education of the piece. It’s beautiful enough to become a good decorative piece when they’ve outgrown the puzzle. Daniel is trying to do puzzles and although he throws the pieces, he does try to put them in the right place.
How will you know what they will treasure forever? Well, you don’t really, but anything personalised is a good bet, be it clothes or books, even writing your own dedication in a book will make it so much more personal. Buy good quality toys, and consider some art that they’ll love. Buy them some music that they can enjoy over and over again. It doesn’t have to be all toys, or throwaway items. Don’t be swayed by the ‘must have’ items or trendy things. I hope you have a lovely Christmas and don’t break the bank!
Disclosure: contains affiliate links, which means if you buy any products via my links I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I was gifted the Lost my name book. All opinions are my own.
Thank you for reading - if you enjoyed this content, please consider buying me a coffee here or browse my Amazon wishlist I really appreciate your support and it helps to keep the site running and for my time 🙂