Buying presents for your kids should be a fun, rewarding experience, but what if you’ve run out of ideas or you’re lacking inspiration? If you find shopping for presents stressful, or you need a bit of help in the run-up to a birthday or special occasion, here are some tips to make gifting easy and hassle-free.
Channel their interests
The best way to ensure you buy presents that your kids will love is to try to channel their interests and hobbies.
Do they love cars, animals or spending time in nature?
Are they fans of music, or do they enjoy painting or getting messy in the garden? Are they fascinated by space, or do they live for playing sport?
Use their interests as the starting point for your search.
Once you’ve established areas to focus on, you can explore ideas that complement their hobbies. If you have a child who is passionate about playing with trains, looking at cars, spotting planes and helicopters in the sky or your teenager enjoys watching Formula 1 on TV, for example, why not buy a new track, purchase models to make at home or check out the latest remote control cars or helicopters?
Alternatively, you could treat them to an experience, rather than a physical gift. Examples include child-friendly track days for older kids, trips to attractions that have ride-ons or simulation machines, going to watch a race, or attending an event such as a truck show or a classic car rally.
Make learning fun
Lots of parents like to buy educational gifts for their kids as a means of encouraging them to learn at home. This is a great idea, especially if you can make learning as fun as possible.
Look for ingenious presents that enable children to have loads of fun while developing new skills or expanding their knowledge bases.
Examples include science kits that enable you to do basic experiments or create volcanoes or rockets at home, nature trail sets and interactive games you can play to learn about different countries, animals or flowers, plants or trees.
Consider time together as a gift idea
Many of us run out of ideas for our children because they already have a mountain of toys, books and games. If this scenario sounds familiar, have you thought about spending quality time together as a gift idea and planning something fun to do as a family?
You could go camping for the weekend, plan a beach day, go to a theme park, organise a movie night with a trip to their favourite restaurant, or book a holiday, for example. This is a brilliant idea if you have hectic schedules, which mean that quality time is limited, or you want to make the most of weekends and holidays and make memories to last a lifetime.
Buying presents for your children can be an incredibly fun and satisfying experience, but there’s often pressure to deliver incredible gifts. It’s not always easy to buy for children or teens, especially if your home is already packed to the rafters with toys and games.
If you’re looking for inspiration, use their interests to conjure up ideas, consider planning experiences rather than buying physical things and make learning fun.