Birds & Lilies Christmas Gift Guide for Children 2023

30th November 2023

Hello, and welcome to this year’s Christmas Gift Guide for babies and children!

I have so many gorgeous products to share with you this year for the little ones in your life, both from brands big and small.

There are toys, games, books and more in this gift guide so I hope you enjoy having a browse through it and perhaps finding some great gift ideas for your loved ones this Christmas.

Birds & Lilies Christmas Gift Guide for Children 2023

JD Bug Pro Commute 185 Foldable Scooter

This scooter is so cool and I particularly love that it folds so it’s easy to carry or put in the car or take on a bus. The JD Bug Pro Commute features a Dual Bearing System which means that it offers a longer and faster ride as each wheel has 4 bearings instead of 2 so it’s great for long rides.

It’s also great for riders of all ages and heights as it has a lower footplate and a higher handlebar height that is adjustable, helping to reduce stress on the lower back and give a better posture whilst you ride.

It is suitable for ages 8 and up and for both recreational use as well as transport! So due to the design, it can be used by adults for commuting, getting some exercise or just having some fun! The single-lever folding mechanism allows it to be folded quickly and easily.

The JD Bug Scooter is from Skates.co.uk, who sell a huge range of scooters, skateboards, roller skates, and all the accessories you need. They have a really wide range of prices so you can find the right gift – I think a scooter makes a brilliant gift for a child (or adult!) as it is loads of fun and something that they can use for years.

Where to buy: Skates.co.uk £89.95

Paint Pop Paint Sticks

We’ve loved paint sticks for years – they are so good for younger kids when you don’t want a ton of mess, but older ones (and adults!) love using them too.

They twist up and down like a glue stick and allow you to paint without the mess and they’re so lovely to use. I much prefer using these to regular paint and a paintbrush and they’re both easier to use and way easier to clean up afterwards! They have a nice chunky shape, making them perfect for little hands.

The colours are lovely and bright and they work on a range of surfaces including paper, card, canvas, wood and even glass!

They also dry really quickly – usually less than 60 seconds – which is a big plus when it comes to little ones!

Importantly, they are water-soluble and non-toxic, and all packs and tubes are recyclable, too.

For Christmas I’m giving my niece this 20 pack of assorted colours and storage tub, which includes 12 Classic, 6 Neon and 2 Metallic Colours, and I think she’ll love them!

Where to buy: Amazon £12.99

Futliit LED Backpack

This backpack is brilliant for kids, especially those at secondary school who walk home alone as it’s getting dark.

The Futliit LED light-up backpack has two strands of bright white lights which give you different lighting options – 2 flashing modes, steady-on and off – as well as reflective panels so you’re nice and visible whilst wearing it. The LED switches are positioned so that they’re easy to reach and turn on and each strand can be turned on individually.

It’s a really good size so you can fit plenty in it and also comes with a padded device sleeve to keep your tech safe. The backpack has a padded back and adjustable, reinforceds padded straps so it’s really comfortable to wear. As well as the main compartment there is a zipped front pocket with a key holder and 2 organiser pockets inside as well as 2 deep water bottle pockets on the outside.

Since my daughter has started secondary school and now walks part of the way home by herself, I get so worried about her walking alone and crossing roads safely. This backpack really helps to give me a bit more peace of mind that she will be seen and visible on the roads and pavements on dark winter mornings and evenings.

Where to buy: Futliit £79.99

Jixelz Pixelated Puzzle Art Set

I’d never come across these before but I think they will be so much fun for kids and make a great gift. Jixelz are precision-cut micro jigsaw pieces and you can follow the templates that are included or create your own designs! They fit together easily so younger children are able to do it on their own, and they hold together strong so you don’t have to iron them.

This ‘Under the Sea’ set comes with 1500 brightly coloured micro jigsaw pieces, and you can make four mini designs with them or one giant design with all the pieces!

Jixelz make a fun and creative present for children from the age of 6, and I think kids will have so much fun with these.

Where to buy: Amazon £9.89

Hey Clay Aliens Air Dry Clay Set

These air dry clay sets are so much fun and come in a range of sets, such as this alien one, as well as animals and dinosaurs! Modelling the soft, colourful clay is great for sensory development and play-based learning, helping with fine motor skills and encouraging imagination and creativity.

The set comes with 15 cans of quality, non-toxic, non-sticky, and stain-free clay and sculpting tools, and Hey Clay air dries and hardens in 24 hours so kids can keep their masterpieces afterwards! Or you can put it back in the tubs to play with again.

It comes with a free app so you can follow along with the interactive 3D step-by-step instructions to mould your creation, starting with simple steps. This helps teach useful techniques such as rolling spheres, cylinders, facial features, textures, and more and then kids are inspired to create their own.

It’s suitable for ages 3 years and up (although I would give it to younger kids with supervision, too), and so it is great for helping with learning colours and shapes, too.

Where to buy: Amazon £14.99

BoxBollen

Boxbollen was very popular at Christmas the last couple of years as it’s great fun and perfect for when the family gets together at Christmas.

Boxbollen is a game that you play alongside an app, where you have a ball tethered onto your head which you ‘box’ and compete against each other or go solo! It’s fun and active and both kids and adults will love it.

The Boxball App, which is connected to a smart TV, phone, or tablet, provides performance-tracking, charity-linked challenges, and nationwide and worldwide social competitions with cash prizes!

A Boxbollen set comes with a Boxbollen soft ball and elastic string, an adjustable velcro headband, a water-resistant carrying pouch, and a QR-code licence to The Boxball App.

Where to buy: Boxbollen or Amazon £22, currently £19.99

Pear Shaped

Pear Shaped is a fun game that is great to play as a family. It’s a real-time matching game but it’s not as simple as it sounds with the different ways to match cards as well as the wobbling pear! It’s a really portable game so great for travel or taking out with you to keep kids entertained.

I think games make great gifts for children as they are something that they will likely get lots of use out of and have fun playing with their family or friends at Christmastime!

Where to buy: Camden Games or Amazon £14.99

History Heroes Card Games – Space & Children

These award-winning card games from History Heroes make great stocking fillers for kids, and they’re perfect for travel or popping in your bag to play anywhere. A range of topic packs are available, from famous explorers to British kings and queens.

Each pack contains 40 illustrated cards with facts and figures to do with that topic so that children can have fun playing the game and learn about history at the same time.

In History Heroes Children, there are 40 people who made history or did amazing things under the age of 18. Each card is packed with facts about the forty different children and child groups who helped shape and make our world. The facts range from easy to difficult, and each has a joker fact for entertainment. The aim of the game is to win the most cards by guessing who the characters are from the facts on each card.

History Heroes Space card game is officially licensed by the Science Museum, London and consists of 40 of the most significant characters and objects that have made space exploration possible, from Aristotle to Einstein, novelists Jules Verne and HG Wells, plus the Solar system and the people and objects who have travelled to Space.

History Heroes card games are fun for all ages (best suited to children from age 8), and the difficulty can be increased for those who want more of a challenge.

Where to buy: historyheroes.co.uk or Amazon £9.99

Mini U Fizzy Plops and Bath Bombs

Mini U make a range of award-winning haircare, bath and body care for little ones, and these bath bombs and fizzy plops will make lovely stocking fillers or as part of a hamper – they are so much fun for kids and make bathtime more exciting.

They are gentle on sensitive skin and vegan, cruelty-free and free from gluten, soy and dairy with no artificial nasties. 

The 6-pack of bath bombs are mess-free, and each one contains a special surprise inside! My daughter loves a bath bomb and she would be extra excited to find the little sponge toy inside!

Mini U’s Fizzy Plops are fun water colour-changing tablets for the bath to add a burst of colour at bathtime! They are gentle on the skin and don’t stain or leave a mess in the bath. My daughter and my niece both love adding a few to their baths to make bathtime more colourful!

Where to buy: Mini U or Amazon Bath Bombs and Fizzy Plops £7.99 each

Women’s European Football Champions Top Trumps Card Game

We love Top Trumps in our house, and this new Women’s European Football Champions version is great and very inspiring for my daughter and nephews, who all love playing Top Trumps.

Top Trumps is easy to play and quick for younger children to pick up and a game doesn’t last for too long so it’s a great one to fill a bit of time. It’s also really portable in the small plastic case, so it’s great for keeping in your bag when out with kids or for taking away with you.

There are 30 cards in the pack, each representing a player, including Mary Earps, Lucy Bronze, Jess Carter, Jill Scott and Beth Mead. Each card features a bio and information about the player, with categories including height, appearances, goals and trophies, so you can learn more about them whilst playing the game.

It makes a great stocking filler this Christmas.

Where to buy: Amazon or Winning Moves RRP £8

HARIBO Christmas Sweets

Haribo has a great selection of seasonal gifts that kids (and adults!) will love. My daughter is a huge fan of Haribo sweets, so I always get her a bag as a stocking filler.

The HARIBO Sharing Medley box contains a bumper selection of HARIBO favourites, including Tangfastics, Starmix, Giant Strawbs and Supermix, alongside Jelly Babies and Rhubarb & Custard Z!ng! This is great as a gift or brilliant for a get-together as it comes with a serving tray, so all you need to do is pour the treats out and share away!

Where to buy: Sainsbury’s and other supermarkets £5

Enchanting Hedwig

This moving Hedwig is so sweet, and I know any children who like Harry Potter will love it. It makes over 15 realistic sounds and movements, and her ‘ruffle detection’ sensor means that she can sense which way you are stroking her, and her movements and sounds change depending on that. She’s not keen on her feathers being ruffled backwards, though, and she’ll let you know about it!

Where to buy: Smyths or Amazon £34.99, currently £29.99

Monster Jam Megalodon Storm

This remote control Megalodon is so much fun and can do a lot more than your average remote control car. My nephew got it for Christmas a couple of years ago, and it still gets played with all the time. It has survived a great deal of rough play!

It’s brilliant fun and not at all delicate, so you can really drive it fast and put it through its paces. It can even drive through puddles and on water, on snow, across rocks and more due to the water-resistant body and lightweight custom tyres!

The remote control is easy to use and can be used from up to 100 feet away. The controller requires 2 AAA batteries (not included), and the Megalodon is USB rechargeable.

This toy was massively popular the last few Christmases and very difficult to get hold of, and I think it will be popular again this year – it’s lots of fun!

Where to buy: Amazon, Smyths or Argos £49.99, currently £46.65 at Amazon and Argos

STABILO Woody 3-in-1 Colouring Pencil Set

These colouring pencils from STABILO are brilliant, especially for younger kids. The thick pencils are easier for little hands to grip and can be used as a colouring pencil, wax crayon and even as watercolours.

They work on a range of different surfaces: dark paper, leather, plastic and perspex, and you can even have fun using them on windows – they wash off easily, so you can let kids go crazy without worrying!

This set contains 18 vibrant colours, a pencil sharpener, and a brush for painting. They’re really enjoyable to use, as the thick, soft lead glides smoothly onto paper. Each 10mm lead contains as much colour as eight standard colouring pencils, so they will last for ages.

They’re great for kids of all ages (and adults, too!), and they are recommended by occupational therapists and special needs experts.

Where to buy: Amazon £29.85

Children’s books

I am Coco: The Life of Coco Chanel

This beautiful book tells of the inspirational Coco Chanel, her early life after her mother died and her father left her and her siblings, and how she came to have her amazing career and become an icon.

The illustrations throughout the book are beautiful, and it’s a really inspirational story for children to enjoy – it can be read to younger ones, or older children will be able to read it themselves. A great role model for children, Coco Chanel’s life and career are told simply and interestingly in this book by Isabel Pin, encouraging children to follow their dreams.

Where to buy: Waterstones and Amazon £12.99, currently £10.79 at Amazon

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Inspiring Young Changemakers

I love this series of books – they are so inspiring and interesting, and this fifth volume in the series is no exception. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Inspiring Young Changemakers features young women who are making their mark on the world today, such as Zendaya, Greta Thunberg and Bindi Irwin, who also wrote the foreword to the book (and who my daughter loves).

The cover is so beautiful, as is the whole book, and it’s great for flicking through and reading these young women’s stories and reading them together and chatting about them.

It is written and drawn by young women all over the world, about young women and for young women (and of course, young men too who can enjoy learning about these women), encouraging them to dream big and stand up for themselves whilst celebrating the amazing women in these stories who are changing the world.

Where to buy: Amazon RRP £25, currently £19.50

Where Are You? Save the Multiverse Personalised Book

This personalised book is so beautiful and of incredible quality, and my daughter and nephews absolutely loved receiving it when I gave it them for Christmas. It lives at Grandma’s house, so they can all enjoy it, and they still regularly pick it up and read it together.

I love giving books as gifts, and I know they will treasure this one for years to come.

In this search-and-find book, kids go on an epic quest to save the multiverse from an evil criminal mastermind by finding themselves and saving each other!

You personalise the book with the names of up to 3 children as well as choosing their characters’ hair colour, style, and skin tone, all drawn by bestselling illustrator Marija Tiurina. You can preview each page before you order and then choose from the original softcover, jumbo softcover, hardcover jumbo or premium lay-flat hardcover.

I chose the premium lay-flat version, and it is just so beautiful. I imagined the three of them lying on the floor together with the book open flat and excitedly looking for themselves and each other, and that is exactly what they do.

The quality is amazing – so sturdy but soft to the touch, and the illustrations and characters are bright, fun and wonderful.

It’s recommended for children aged 4 to 10, but I think it would be suitable for any age and they can treasure it as they age. Each book is printed and shipped in 48 hours, so it’s a great one if you leave your Christmas shopping a bit late!

Where to buy: Wonderbly from £24.99

Your Treasury of Nursery Rhymes

This is another absolutely beautiful book from Wonderbly. This personalised treasury of nursery rhymes features the child within the rhymes themselves with over 30 classic songs and stories. It’s such a special keepsake, and I love that my sister and niece can enjoy it together. She can recognise her name within the book, and then she can enjoy it herself when she’s older.

It’s recommended for ages 0 to 3, but really it would be enjoyed by older children too, and I can imagine it being passed on to their own children one day!

It’s a stunning book of great quality, and it would make a beautiful and special gift, whether for Christmas, a first birthday, or even a Christening. It will be cherished.

You can choose from different colours for the cover, add the child’s name and a character who looks like them, and you are able to preview each page as well as choose from soft or hardcovers and add a dedication.

Where to buy: Wonderbly from £24.99

For babies & toddlers

Galt Pop-Up Toy

My daughter had this when she was little, and I’ve bought it for a few babies since. The little wooden brightly-coloured figures pop up when you press down on them, so it’s really fun for little ones (and me!) to see how far they will go.

I really like that it’s wooden, so it looks nice, and you can talk to little ones about the different colours. It also encourages hand/eye coordination, colour recognition and fine motor skills in babies aged 12 months and up. It also helps to teach them about cause and effect whilst encouraging curiosity.

It makes a lovely gift for the babies and toddlers in your life this Christmas.

Where to buy: Amazon £10.99, currently £9

Toomies 2 in 1 Eggventure Train

Toddlers will love this Tomy Toomies 2-in-1 Eggventure Train, which cleverly has different ways to play with it. It combines a spinning Ferris wheel and a push-along train with colourful and cute characters and carriages which means that it will last them through different ages and stages and keep them entertained.

It’s brilliant for helping to develop their motor skills and logic and problem-solving skills, making it fun and educational. The egg characters and their shells are easy for little hands to pick up and fit together, and they can colour match and even shape sort with the classic Hide & Squeak Eggs that you can get separately. My daughter had these eggs when she was little and loved them, so it’s great that you can play with them together if you already have the eggs.

Suitable for ages 12-36 months.

Where to buy: Amazon £22.99

I was sent most of the products in this post to include in this gift guide. See my full disclosure policy here: About this site.

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