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Here is part 2 of this Christmas Gift Guide for kids, with loads of brilliant gift ideas. Lots of books and fun board game suggestions that children will love to receive this Christmas!
The Phoenix is a high-quality weekly comic that is perfect for girls and boys aged around 7-14. It has really varied and entertaining content, such as action-packed stories, fascinating non-fiction comics covering history, science and more, puzzles, as well as art and storytelling tips that inspire kids to spend more time reading, drawing and writing!
A subscription to The Phoenix is a great Christmas gift idea; it’s the gift that keeps on giving, as children will receive a brand new comic through the letterbox week after week, so they’ve always got one to look forward to. It gets them off screens and enjoying reading, creating, and becoming engaged with learning new things instead.
Each issue costs less than £2 with a subscription so it is way cheaper than other kids magazines, and you can get either a six-monthly or yearly subscription.
The magazine is delivered to the recipient each week, with a special superhero name just for them, such as ‘The Amazing’ or ‘The Awesome’, which is really sweet, and kids love getting mail addressed to them so it’s really exciting for them.
Ava’s getting them to ‘The Fantastic Ava’ and she has really been enjoying reading them each week. It’s something that she will keep picking up and sitting down with to read for a while and it’s really nice to see. It’s something different to a book, but really keeps her attention and engages her and it is perfect for her, at age 8 to enjoy independently.
The Phoenix is created and printed in the UK by a small family-owned business and the comic is made by some of the best comic creators in the UK, including the UK’s leading children’s comic book artist and writer, Jamie Smart.
It’s a perfect gift for children who have tons of toys already as something different, and children seem to really love it.
Where to buy: Find the best offers available here at Phoenix Comics
This is a lovely book for children, especially with the way everything is at the moment when they are even more likely than usual to have worries and concerns to deal with.
Have You Ever Had a Stressor comes from iSpace Wellbeing and Paula Talman, creators of the really important mental and emotional wellbeing curriculum for schools and children aged 4-13. The book is designed to help children, parents and teachers to continue the conversations in the classroom and at home, to support their mental, emotional, social and physical health.
Our children’s mental health is something that is always so important, but right now especially, when their school lives have been so chaotic all year and they are hearing bits and pieces about Coronavirus and people dying, then it’s even more important that we help them in any way we can.
This book is a lovely way to encourage them to share their worries with us, without making it into a big deal for them. Have You Ever Had a Stressor focuses on those things that cause us worries and is designed to help children to open up and talk about what’s worrying them so that they can identify the cause and understand who and how to ask for help.
Have You Ever Had a Stressor gives children a fun and engaging way to start gently thinking and talking about their feelings so that they recognise when they – and others – are struggling and can develop strategies that help them to deal with life’s ups and downs. But it’s also just a lovely story for them to read and enjoy, either alone or with parents.
Where to buy: iSpace Wellbeing £9.99 plus p&p
Danny’s Dream is a wonderful book for children that is inspired by the achievements of disabled athletes competing at the Paralympics. It teaches kids about diversity and inclusion and is brilliantly illustrated by a disabled artist. Ian Parker, who was born with AMC, a condition that rendered him with permanently unusable limbs, spent two years painting all 34 illustrations in the book using a pencil and brush in his mouth. Isn’t that so incredible and inspiring!?
This is the first time a disabled artist has been involved in creating a children’s book that features a disabled child as the central character.
Danny Dream is for ages 3-8 and is a heartwarming tale about overcoming adversity and never giving up.
The book is great for parents to read at bedtime to their little ones, or for slightly older children to read themselves. During these times where children are faced with adversity now more than ever, teaching them that you can overcome anything you put your mind to is so important and this book is a lovely way to reinforce this. Plus it opens up discussions about diversity and our uniqueness.
Where to buy: MFPA (Mouth & Foot Painting Artists) £10.00
As a kid I always loved getting an annual in my sack and this year Little Brother Books have 13 new ones for 2021. They have loads of great ones that children will love; there’s Little Mix, Roblox (my daughter’s new obsession!), the classic Beano, L.O.L, WWE, CBeebies and more!
They are available now from most major retailers (Morrison’s, Lidl, Aldi, WH Smith, Smyths Toys, Asda, Sainsbury’s and more) as well as online.
They’re fun for kids to read and enjoy, and they make a great stocking filler.
Where to buy: Amazon, major retailers in-store or Little Brother Books RRP £7.99, currently £3.99 at Little Brother Books
I love giving and receiving games as gifts – I think they’re brilliant for children’s presents as they’re interactive and fun and it’s something the whole family can do together, plus they tend to last for years on end (I still have some board games that I had when I was little!).
Burping Bobby is a new one to me and one that kids of all ages will clearly love. It’s simple and quick to play and can be played with as few as two players. To play, you feed Bobby his treats and then turn the handle and watch him eat! But if you’re the one who overfeeds him then be prepared for his terrible burp! It’s suitable for ages 4 and up but I would think younger kids would be able yo join in too. This one does require batteries so don’t forget to stock up for Christmas morning!
Where to buy: Argos or Amazon RRP £22.99 Currently £14.49 at Amazon!
Sketchy is a brand new and very fun game from Drumond Park. Sketchy is a fun drawing game that is perfect for the whole family to play.
One player – the Sketcher – grabs the Sketchyscreen and slots in a card and then draws pictures onto the screen, which then appears on the reverse side for the opposing team to guess! It’s all about drawing quick, simple pictures so your teammates can guess what they are.
The Guessers get a huge hint about the topic and then the Sketcher has 30 seconds to sketch 6 simple pictures that “explain” the subjects on the card for the others to guess.
It’s suitable for all ages (recommended age 8+) and is great fun to play.
It’s a really unique game that is straightforward to play, but loads of fun, and can be played by people of any age. You don’t need any batteries, and it’s creative and very enjoyable.
I have giveaways running right now to win 1 of 9 Sketchy games on here as well as Instagram and Facebook: Sketchy Giveaway
Where to buy: Amazon or Smyths Currently £19.99
I think most adults will remember playing Screwball Scramble when they were young, and now there is a new take on the original game, with Screwball Scramble Level 2! I loved playing the original as a kid and I can’t wait to play this new version!
Screwball Scramble Level 2 gives you all kinds of new challenges as you try to guide the marble through a brand-new maze. You control the action with clearly marked buttons, twisting, turning, guiding and triggering the obstacles different ways to guide the screwball through each one.
It also attaches to the original TOMY game via a connecting bridge so you can create an epic maze if you have both or someone you know has the first one!
Screwball Scramble is also an educational toy as it’s great for developing dexterity and hand-eye coordination within children. It lets kids master each task using skill and patience to control the sliders, wheels and buttons that operate each obstacle and try and get to the end!
It makes a great, fun Christmas gift for kids aged 5 and over and everyone will want to play and compete against each other.
Where to buy: Amazon or Smyths Currently £19.99
Top Trumps Match is a fun new game to play with kids and it’s also great for memory development too. It has an all-in-one carry case design so it’s really portable so you can play it anywhere.
To win you have to match five of the characters in a row, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally but your opponent can still win the game at that point if their Top Trumps card matches the winning character!
It’s lots of fun for all ages and makes a great Christmas gift for kids.
Where to buy: Amazon or Winning Moves RRP £15.99
You’ve probably heard of Pass the Pigs before, but now there’s a brand new Pass the Pugs game available too! I know my daughter will love this version. It’s a small and compact game so it’s brilliant for playing at home or on the go and it’s lots of fun to play.
In Pass the Pugs you have to throw the little pugs like dice and see which way they land and you get different points based on their positions.
The handy carry case also contains a rulebook, a scorepad, and 2 pencils for keeping track of your scores.
This is a great game for families to play together and makes a fun gift that they probably won’t have seen before!
Where to buy: Winning Moves RRP £9.99
This is such a fun and energetic game for kids and adults to play together. Active Snap from TOMY gets families more active by combining a traditional snap game with keeping fit!
You need to be the first to shout ‘SNAP’ and everyone else has to jump up and do the action that is shown on the card – from jumping jacks to shadow boxing – so it’s very entertaining and fun to play with people of all ages.
It makes a brilliant stocking filler and will encourage the family to get moving this Christmas too!
Where to buy: Amazon RRP £4.99
With this pack of playing cards they can unite with their favourite Marvel characters including the valiant Captain America, the formidable Thor and the invincible Iron Man, alongside 52 much-loved Marvel heroes and much-loathed villains.
They can play snap or Go Fish and all of their favourite card games with these new Marvel Waddingtons No 1 Playing Cards deck.
Where to buy: Amazon or Winning Moves RRP £3.99
Everybody loves a game of Top Trumps and dog lovers will love this sweet new Top Trumps Lovable Dogs version. This new pack of Top Trumps is loaded with dog facts and tips and you can discover all about your favourite canines, seeing how the fiercest compares to the cuddliest and most mischievous. This pack is also fully playable with ‘Cats Top Trumps’, which is cool.
Top Trumps is an educational and fun card game to play as a family and it’s perfect for taking out and about with you for when the kids need entertaining.
Where to buy: Amazon or Winning Moves RRP £4.99
Harry Potter Lex-GO! Word Game is a fun-filled educational word game with a magical twist. Lex-GO! is a super-fast word game that’s great for older children and adults. You race against other players to get rid of all your playing card tiles, swapping letters and even adding your tiles onto other players’ words. This game comes in a portable bag so it’s great for on-the-go.
In this special Harry Potter Edition of Lex-Go!, there are 4 spell tiles to increase your chances of winning, the Polyjuice Potion tile can be used as any letter and if you can spell the word SNITCH you win the round!
Where to buy: Amazon RRP £14.99
I can also highly recommend Dobble, Monopoly Deal, Uno, Avocado Smash and OK Play – all of which we love and play all the time (they’re also all small and very portable so perfect for travel). Oh and we love the old version of Frustration if you can get it.
I hope these lovely products helped you find the perfect Christmas gift for the children in your life!
The products featured in this gift guide were sent to me for inclusion, but all words are my own. See my full disclosure policy here.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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