Great gift ideas for the kid that has everything
Here are a few gift ideas that I’ve recently tested out to give you some inspiration.
Best for getting them outdoors
You can’t beat a good quality radio control car for getting the kids outside and getting a bit of vitamin D all year round. It’s difficult to choose a radio control car when you don’t know what you’re looking for. The market is flooded with cheap toys that the kids might play with a couple of times, then put on the shelf to collect dust until you finally offload it to the charity shop. Likewise high end models (such as the ones that Lewis Hamilton cut his teeth on before he was an F1 driver) can cost several hundreds of pounds. Best to look somewhere in the middle, or what is generally known in the RC community as the “sweet spot” between the £100-200 price mark. Look for a car with a brushless motor, which will give longer running times before the battery runs flat, higher speeds and reduced wear (giving a longer life to the motor). Likewise you want to be looking for a receiver that utilises 2.4ghz frequency, which many of the low end toy cars don’t. On this frequency you’ve got no need to worry about interference from other cars, which is essential if you plan to race against friends.
I test drove a VATOS 1:16 scale monster truck for this article and was blown away by the speeds that it gave me. The speeds of the VATOS car were unbelievable for such a small (30cm) vehicle. At £129.99, it’s not exactly a toy, and it’s for those who show a real interest in RC cars. The specification for the price is excellent, with brushless motor, 2.4ghz bandwidth, a speed of up to 62km/h and hydraulic suspension. It also has two onboard lithium batteries that can be quickly swapped over to double your driving time. The car looks great, though the shell was surprisingly made of thin plastic rather than durable metal. Still RC enthusiasts in this category are looking at what’s under the hood more than on top of it. The VATOS store on Amazon also has lower end models and alloy models aimed at younger children.
VATOS Brushless Remote Control All Terrain Racing Monster Truck on Amazon
Best for rainy days
Kids love arcades, there’s no doubt about it. But if your children are anything like my two, they would happily demolish their entire trust fund and start working into your life savings in a single afternoon at the local arcade. So I was intrigued when I noticed a range of mini-arcade games in my local Smyths. So intrigued in fact that I decided to check the range out to see if they were a hit or a miss with my kids Harrison and Ella. Three of the range were most definite hits.
The first of which was the Basketball game which is a straightforward head-to-head competition to shoot the most hoops using catapults to get little balls into the net. An electronic scoreboard keeps score as you compete and makes for great family fun. For us this was the best game in the series with both kids loving it.
Second up was the Hover Shot, which uses a fan to make five balls levitate in mid-air, while you try to shoot the balls from the sky using a NERF style hand gun. Again, this is great fun and was a big hit with our kids. If you have any spare NERF style guns lying around, you could probably make up your own head to head on this game too.
In at third place for our family was the Alley Ball game, that has a two-player option and involved each player trying to fire ball-bearings up a long ramp and into one of the holes to gain the player points. It’s a bit like those horse racing derby games you find in old arcades, where players roll the ball into holes to move their horse along. But instead of moving a horse you’re scoring points against the other player. Again it was a hit with Harrison and Ella.
The other two products in the range we tried out were the Air Hockey and the Pinball games. Ella likes the pinball, while Harrison isn’t particularly interested. This might be an age thing (Ella being 6 and Harrison 9). As for the Air Hockey, I’ll admit at this point that we already have a large air hockey table in our garage, so the mini one from Electronic Arcade was a bit of a disappointment to me. The kids didn’t seem to mind though and happily played on it for a few rounds before wanting to go back to the basketball game.
All in all the range was a success and with most of the range costing just £19.99 at Smyths they’d make great stocking fillers.
Electronic Arcade series by Ambassador Games could be found at most of the toy’s retailors.
Best for the long winter nights
There’s something about space that captures almost all children’s imaginations, and adults for that matter. There’s nothing like gazing up at the sky and wondering what’s up there, and with the recent space race between billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson bringing space travel to (albeit very wealthy) citizens, space feels more accessible than ever.
Luckily you don’t have to be a millionaire to explore the wonders of our solar system, you just need a telescope. But just like the radio control cars I mentioned earlier there are toy telescopes that aren’t very good for exploring and there are telescopes that will set you back a few hundred pounds but which are at risk of becoming an expensive (and bulky) item that clogs up room in your house.
Luckily there are some great options in between, one of which is the Celestron FirstScope, which ticks all the boxes needed for budding young astronomers and at just 27cm long will happily sit on the windowsill of your child’s bedroom between explorations. At 58.99, it’s not going to break the bank and, because it comes with all the accessories you need, it’s as fuss-free as astronomy gets.
It’s the fuss free aspect that is the most important when your kids are young too. I once inherited a large telescope from my own dad and it was large and difficult to set up. By the time I’d set it up outside and found an object the kids were either cold or bored. Because of the size of the thing it was impossible to set it up in a bedroom either. But with the Celestron FirstScope I was able to literally open my son’s bedroom window and place the FirstScope on the inside windowsill next to the open window and use it from there.
On our first clear night testing the Celestron FirstScope we were able to quickly and easily find Jupiter using the 20mm lens (included). Once we knew we had our solar system’s biggest planet correctly lined up we then switched to the 4mm lens (also included), which gives a higher magnification for a closer look. Amazingly we were able to see four of Jupiter’s moons sitting either side of the gas giant. Next we switched back to the 20mm lens and found Saturn, which was sitting a little below Jupiter. After switching to the 4mm again we were just about able to make out the rings on the planet. The kids swore that they could easily see the rings, and I’ve worn glasses for over thirty years, but I could just make them out.
We had to wait a few more nights before the moon was visible, thanks to cloudy weather and a few moonless nights. But once we did get a clear view of the moon the FirstScope was more than capable of exploring the craters of our nearest neighbour. Our kids were mesmerised by how clearly they could see the lunar surface. Harrison was convinced he’d be able to spot some of the moon buggies left behind by the Apollo astronauts if only he looked long and hard enough. Hopefully he won’t start to think that the landings were fake after several nights of fruitless searching!
The Celestron FirstScope is currently on sale on Amazon with £11 off the RRP.
Best for getting creative
They say fashion goes in circles and that’s definitely true with the Tybo XL made by Mookie Toys, because – once you’ve loaded it with a white garment and the colours of your choice – your arm will be twisting the handle of this cool contraption in circles until you’ve created your own unique garment. This could be a t-shirt, hoodie or even canvas training shoes. So your little one will always be one step ahead of the in-crowd at school. Don’t just take my word for it (mainly because I know absolutely nothing about fashion) but numerous fashion magazines, blogs and even the BBC have been talking about the resurgence of tie dye over the last 12 months It’s apparently because of the pandemic, and high end designers have even started butting into the world of DIY fashion.
But if your kids are like mine, they’ve always been attracted to bright colours whether they’re fashionable or not! So when we tried out the Tybo XL we had a blast during and after the testing. First we took a white t-shirt apiece for Ella and Harrison, then twisted them and tied the elastic bands (provided) around them. Next, we popped it into the Tybo XL – which my two originally mistook for a gumball machine – and popped in the dyes (also provided) then started twisting as though their little lives depended on it.
And hey presto, we had our very own designer garments. Okay there was a bit of a clean-up process afterwards that I might need to mention – and that the kids made themselves scarce for – but that about sums up the process. Both Ella and Harrison loved every stage of it, from twisting the t-shirts to twisting the handle. They especially love the finished articles. It was great fun for them and to be fair, cleaning the Tybo XL up afterwards was pretty easy too. Highly recommended at just £29.99 from all major retailers.
Best alternative method of transport
When it comes to getting around kids have got a bewildering array of choices. From the timeless classics like bikes, scooters, roller-skates and skateboards to modern day inventions like hoverboards and kneeboards. Personally I like to keep my two active, so electric powered scooters are a no-no in our house and Ella had grown out of her three wheeled scooter by last Christmas, so we really struggled to think of what vehicle to buy her.
And then we came across the Morf Board, which is probably best described as a skateboard crossed with a scooter that has a variety of different ways to use it. The deck (or the part you stand on) is made of plastic like most scooters but is the size and shape of a typical skateboard and complete with a tail and nose at each end. In fact, you can simply use it as a skateboard if you want to. But the beauty of the Morf Board is that you can quickly and easily detach the wheels – using two discs that twist into place at the front and back – and switch it to becoming a skateboard sized scooter. In theory you do this by having two wheels at the front and one at the back, but Ella has two at the front and two at the back, because it’s up to you how you ride it. Consequently, she’s got the most unique scooter on the block and is pretty much learning how to ride a skateboard at the same time. Eventually we’ll be able to switch the front wheels from the scooter disc to the skateboard ones and she should be good to go. Until then she’s just enjoying looking great on the local skatepark.
The Morf Board is available in Smyths and Argos but for a great visual introduction into how it works check out morfboard.com.
What fabulous gifts! I would rather fancy ‘helping’ the children with them myself!
Some good ideas, especially the monster truck!
the hover shot looks like alot of fun
My son would just love the VATOS 1:16 scale monster truck!
my boys would love all of these they all look like such fun
These gifts look awesome. My sons birthday is Feb so I ways tend to look at the Christmas ‘lists’ released to see if I can carry stuff over to his birthday (and it helps my other half is a big kid so I get him some stuff too lol)
The arcade games sound amazing, my boys would love them
Some good ideas the tybo looks the most interesting
the remote control car looks awesome
Fabulous ideas, My nephews would really love these xx