Christmas Gifts for the Family

The 1% Percent Club

We love this show as a family. My eldest and I are a little bit competitive when watching and this translates brilliantly at home. It’s all about logic and reasoning skills and has nothing to do with general knowledge. The gameplay is simple, but it’s highly entertaining. Some of the questions are so infuriating, and this often leads to heated ‘discussion’ but that’s all part of the fun. If you’re a fan of the TV show, this is definitely for you.

Buy the 1% Club for £25 at The Entertainer. Suitable for 3-6 players ages 8+.

Traitors card game

This a new addition to our game repertoire, but it has cemented itself as a firm favourite. The Traitors Card Game brings the suspense and duplicity of the hit BBC show to your living room, making it a perfect choice for festive fun (and indeed fun at any time of the year). Designed for 4-8 players aged eight and up, this immersive game challenges participants to uncover the Traitor/s while collectively building a prize pot of gold. Its simple rules, engaging twists, and option for digital gameplay (highly recommended) create a unique mix of collaboration, bluffing, and deception that appeals to both kids and adults.

Read the full review here. You can buy it on Amazon for £11.99.

Mystery Guides

Mystery Guides turn UK cities into giant outdoor escape rooms where you discover lots of history and hidden gems whilst solving a mystery (and stopping off at a couple of pubs). You can read my review of the City of London Mystery Guide, which I bought as a family present last Christmas. We loved it. Coincidentally, my mother-in-law bought me a Mystery Guides voucher for my birthday. We opted for the Cambridge one and enjoyed a wonderful day out exploring a city we’d never visited before.

Buy one of the the 37 city Mystery Guides (£19.99) here.

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is an engaging strategy game, which is perfect for older children and adults. The goal is to build railway routes across North America, Europe or London (depending, which version you have) by collecting various train cards and claiming sections of track to connect cities. The more routes you complete, the more points you score, with longer routes offering higher rewards. Bonus points are awarded at the end of the game for the longest continuous track, often shifting the final outcome. Be prepared for some sabotage—whether intentional or accidental!

Ticket to Ride – Days of Wonder (North America version) is priced at £33.57 on Amazon.

Christmas Gifts for the Creative Child

The Photo Creator Instant Pocket Printer

The Photo Creator Instant Pocket Printer is a great gift for creative teens or tweens. This compact Bluetooth device prints black-and-white photos directly from smartphones without needing ink, thanks to thermal technology. Pair it with the Tiny Print app to add personal touches or generate unique designs and special effects. It’s ideal for scrapbooking, journalling, or decorating, and comes with extras like stickers and pens for added creativity. Read more about this pocket printer.

The Photo Creator Instant Pocket Printer is available at various retailers including Amazon & Smyths (prices vary).

Instax Smartphone Printer

The Instax Mini Link 2 is a sleek and nifty gadget, which combines tech and nostalgia perfectly. It links to your smartphone so that you can print your digital pictures in seconds. All too often, precious memories stay trapped on phones hardly ever seeing the light of day. I love how the Instax printer brings back the now old school process of printing so that your photos can be permanently displayed and enjoyed.

I particularly like the retro-style borders of the Instax mini instant film, which you use for the printer. My daughter loves it. As well as using it for her treasured memories, she also uses it for her GCSE art coursework and to create gifts for friends.

The Instax Mini Link 2 is currently on offer at Boots (£99 from £119).

Christmas Gift for the Tween and Teenager

LED Armoire Storage Mirror

We bought this white LED Armoire Storage Mirror, which has great theatre dressing room-style lights, for my daughter (now 16) quite a few years ago. The mirror opens to reveal ample storage for all those bits and bobs. It also has a handy holder for hairdryers. It’s still a favourite fixture and continues to house her constantly expanding jewellery and toiletry collection. It’s currently on sale at £66.99 on Amazon.

The Big Christmas Gift

Playstation 5

We bought the Playstation 5 last Christmas and it has been used almost every single day of the year since they received it. The PS5 loads a lot quicker compared to its predecessor, has improved graphics and provides an all round enhanced gaming experience, which is more immersive due to the superior audio and DualSense controllers. It also supports all the PS4 games. My husband plays a lot of two-player games with each of the girls and they play against each other. Favourite games include: Rocket League, Uncharted and Fortnite.

It’s pricey at £399 (Amazon), but for the usage it gets and entertainment it provides the whole family, I’d certainly recommend.

Subscription Boxes

Subscription boxes are a versatile gifting solution and there truly is something for everyone. Here are a few ideas that have been popular…

Mysteries in Time

You can give the joy of history and mystery this Christmas with a Mysteries in Time subscription. Aimed at children aged 6-11, each box contains everything needed to take children on an immersive journey through historical periods such as Ancient Egypt (the first box), the Elizabethan Era, WW2, Ancient Greece, Wild West, Aztecs, Ancient Rome, Victorians, Vikings, Ancient China and Stuarts.

Read the full review here.

Mandira’s Kitchen – for the foodie

These are Indian ready meals, but not just any Indian ready meals. Mandira’s Kitchen frozen meals are authentic, made with the finest ingredients and are the sort of dishes you’d expect to be served in a high-end restaurant. You’ll find familiar dishes such as masala (chana), biryani and samosas but also lesser-known ones including kaju dhania murgh, chicken xacuti, meen moilee (fish) and the intriguingly named railway mutton curry.

Mandira’s Kitchen offers a range of monthly subscription boxes of varying sizes and you can pause at any time. More details here.

The London Sock Company

Ok, I know they’re a Christmas gifts cliché. However, my husband, dad and brother all love to put on brand new socks.

With the London Sock Company Subscription, you buy the gift card and then the recipient activates their own subscription where they can select their size and opt for specific styles or choose to be surprised each month. There are different levels of subscription (starting from £42) and time period options.

These are a real quality product and very attractively packaged. My husband loved receiving them.

The Sporty Gift

NET1 Portable Netball System

All three of my girls love netball, playing for school and in a league. I bought the NET1 Portable Netball System  (£109.99) from Little Big Sports for our garden quite some years ago as they were developing their interest. It has remained consistently popular and with five different height settings has grown with them. It is on wheels so completely portable. You then fill the base with water or sand and it becomes fully stable. It is extremely durable and has survived many winters without being covered. I can thoroughly recommend it.

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I’d love to hear what your tried and tested gifts of Christmas past are. Let me know in the comments below.

The post Top Christmas Gift Ideas for 2024: Tried, Tested, and Loved appeared first on The Parent Social.

Instant printer that’s quick, portable, child-friendly and lots of fun

TLDR: This small, nifty Bluetooth printer from Canal Toys enables quick, easy and quality printing directly from smart devices. When used with the free Tiny Print app you can print photos, generate AI images, create and print drawings and stickers, make printable to-do lists and labels, and apply special effects to existing images. The kit also contains stickers and marker pens for customising your designs after printing.

What’s included

• The Instant Pocket Printer
• 1 adhesive paper roll (to print on)
• 3 normal paper rolls (to print on)
• USB charger cable
• 75 stickers
• Three pens to customise your prints

How to use the Instant Pocket Printer

The printer is really easy to set up. It uses very clever thermal technology to produce the black and white images so no ink is required. Yes, you heard that right. That means no messy ink cartridges to contend with and images dry instantly. Charge its built-in-battery via the USB cable, load the paper roll, install the free app and you’re ready to go.

Our experiences

The app is very easy to navigate. We spent a lot of time printing up some of our favourite images from holiday. The printing is really fast; the quality is very good and images are crisp with no bleed. The images are so good in fact, that my eldest has used them as part of her GCSE art coursework.

The girls then had lots of fun experimenting with all the really cool features. They cartooned themselves, made linear drawing of themselves (from existing photos), prompted the AI image creator to generate weird and wonderful creations and personalised their photos with text.

Their two-year-old cousin has a ticket obsession. She loved the printable labels and the stock images of animals (amongst many other categories), which she could colour.

This would certainly appeal to both tweens and older teenagers. Whilst it says age 8+ on the box, younger ones would definitely enjoy with adult supervision. I think this would make a super Christmas gift.

The Photo Creator Instant Pocket Printer is available at various retailers including Amazon & Smyths where it’s priced at £29.99.

Disclaimer:
I have been provided with this product for the purpose of review. I have not received any monetary compensation for this review. All opinions expressed are my own and are based on my honest and unbiased experience with the product.

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What age do they stop believing in Father Christmas?

In honesty, I’m sure my youngest didn’t believe a few Christmases ago (aged 11), and questions were raised way before that. They were hedging their bets and I kept up the pretence. There were lists for Santa and a tray of goodies were left out on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas Day most of the presents were from Father Christmas. Last year it was the official goodbye even though we hadn’t specifically discussed it.

I’m glad they came to their own conclusions. It would have been awkward if they still believed in Father Christmas when they went to secondary school! However, it highlighted again the relentless march of time and the fact that they’re growing up fast .

Does it ruin the magic?

It’s sad that we no longer watch Father Christmas’ progress on Santa Tracker or leave out carrots for Rudolph and that I’ll never again utter the immortal words: “has he been?”. However, there’s still plenty to be excited about. I can see that the kids love and appreciate what the festive season means and offers. They’ve even said that presents are only part of it. They enjoy being with family and extended family, having time together, playing games and sharing special food.

The run up to Christmas minus Father Christmas

The start of advent is a very exciting time for all of us. I don’t let anyone play Christmas music in the house before December 1st. That means everyone’s ecstatic when they can finally unleash the festive tunes. Then of course there’s the advent calendars (old favourites and new)! Starting every day with chocolate; what’s not to enjoy about that!? We also love our annual advent candle.

Whilst we do have an Elf on the Shelf, I’ve never subscribed to the whole narrative. Neither have I spent hours I don’t have agonising over 24 creative ideas for him. Cheerfully, my twins enjoy setting up elf for the rest of us to enjoy. We’ve never done the whole North Pole breakfast thing on the first of December. However, I do dress the table festively and make special hot chocolate on a stick; they even have personalised mugs.

The Christmas books come out with the advent calendars. We’ll still be reading Santa is coming to Surrey and Santa is coming to London alongside other favourites including Mog’s Christmas, which is one of my eldest’s favourites despite being a mature 16!

We might not visit Santa in his grotto any more. However, we always do something special. We’ve been to National Trust Christmas events, Christmas at Kew, seen a production of The Nutcracker and done tours of the London lights.

The kids want to make a gingerbread house, and we generally do a lot more baking in December.

I no longer have to provide explanations/answer awkward questions. I don’t have to do different wrapping and labelling for Santa presents and our presents, which is a huge relief! My husband no longer has to avoid Santa traps at 2am, and can now have his whisky earlier! I’m happy that us hardworking parents now get all the credit! On that note, I’ve noticed that the girls are being more conservative with their lists. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty on there but there isn’t quite the wild abandon of previous years. Plus they all now get a lot of joy from giving presents too.

Embracing the Christmas spirit

The children are looking forward to plenty of family time, and passing on the magic of Father Christmas to their young cousin; and that’s what it’s all about.

It’s a wonderful time even without the big man in red.

PS love some of the ideas here: How to tell your children Santa isn’t real

The post When Children Stop Believing in Father Christmas appeared first on The Parent Social.

Covid Christmas

In 2020 we had a far more quiet Christmas than usual due to restrictions. It was just my dad, who was in our bubble, that came over. My gregarious dad is like having three people all at once so it still felt quite lively, but even he couldn’t come over this time.

It would be the first time we’d have Christmas just us five. The Boxing Day plans, which should have seen my brother and his girlfriend, my mother-in-law and brother-in-laws all coming over had to be cancelled. I won’t lie, it was hugely disappointing.

The kids took the news better than us. They were buoyed, no doubt, by the prospect of presents. They were also happy that I’d taken off the days running up to Christmas Day. Proof yet again of their resilience and positivity.

Thankfully neither had symptoms beyond a mild cough/cold; and that’s the main thing I had to bear in mind to help quell my disappointment. My husband and I felt rather deflated, especially Matt who loves cooking for people. We had all manner of culinary treats stacked up in the fridge, freezer and cupboards ready to feed a lot more than five people over the two days.

Getting busy in the kitchen (just for us)

In the run up to Christmas Day, we made some of the kids’ favourite nibbles of Pizzette and created our first ever gingerbread house (thanks Lidl). We even attempted our first ever ‘Cheat’s’ churros Nutella Christmas tree, which was fun, pretty simple to make and very, very tasty.

Games and puzzle

Isolation meant that the annual Christmas puzzle challenge was completed far quicker than usual. We played even more games than normal. The kids have stayed up really late pretty much every day of the holidays, which has meant we’ve watched loads of films.

Me time

What was meant to be a family pre-Christmas day out, which included the annual tradition of getting our Christmas cheese from La Fromagerie, meeting my uncle, and having a general mooch about London was cancelled. I ended up going to get the cheese on my own. After being in isolation for 10 days I decided to make the most of it and took myself out for lunch. It was surprisingly nice and I enjoyed it.

I was able to get some last minute stocking fillers and do other Christmas bits and bobs super efficiently. However, I felt huge remorse whenever I saw something Christmassy that I wanted the kids to see too. This dissipated when I was greeted with the below scene on my return. They’d spent several happy hours on the Nintendo Switch with dad!

Christmas Eve

Cleaning the house (for Santa?) was followed by more games and a fire outside in the evening where we had some nibbles by candlelight. Then it was linguine alle vongole (linguine pasta with clams) as part of my nod to the Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes.

Later the girls opened their Christmas Eve box, which included treats we could tuck into whilst we watched more films and Christmas TV! It also included a few little pampering items, cosy socks, BrainBox game and ‘Christmas dresses’ for them all to wear the next day. In the evening Matt and I treated ourselves.

Meals on wheels

My dad gets our annual Italian Christmas cake. He brought it over and we cut it in half as he was now going to spend Christmas Day with my brother.

In return, Matt provided pre-prepped beef Wellington, dauphinoise potatoes, and lobsters that he’d cooked that day. Alongside this he also provided some very good wine! It was nice to know that we’d still be a part of their day even though we weren’t going to be together. Matt was happy that he had cooked for people in addition to us five.

Christmas Day

The morning started off as usual with stockings opened in our room. We had a lovely breakfast and then began opening the main presents.

Lunch was fabulous as always. We took time to savour it and the girls remained sat down for over two hours. We interspersed with crackers with their silly jokes and games.

After lunch we took proper time out to play with presents and play more games and watch more films! We extended this into Boxing Day. Though we missed having guests, we filled the day with lots of fun and laughter. We also FaceTimed relatives Christmas was saved!

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This normally signals the start of an intensely busy and stressful time. Aside from the big day itself, we have six family birthdays crammed into the first two weeks of December. I also do my dad’s Christmas shopping for him as he’s clueless. He does so much for us the rest of the year I can’t grumble too much. However, it does add to the stress. 

Christmas reset

This year, strangely even with the upheaval and weirdness of Covid and lockdown, I’m feeling more relaxed than I normally do at this time of year. Everything’s been pared down. I think it’s enabled me to step back a bit and focus more on what really matters. 

Lockdown birthdays

My daughter is fully understanding that her birthday is going to be different this year and that’s taken the pressure off. Instead of booking something months in advance (like you have to for December birthdays), we’ll just have to wing it last minute. Her birthday falls on the last day of lockdown 2.0. We’re hoping restrictions will be lifted and we can hastily organise an outing with friends for the following weekend. However, who knows how it’ll pan out??? What we do know is, we’ll make it special in whatever ways we can.

Christmas and December socialising

December is usually a minefield of social engagements: work Christmas party, lots of dos, cramming in seeing as many people as we can before Christmas day… My husband arranges something for my birthday on December 10th and we try to do something for my dad’s birthday three days later. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE socialising but the logistics of trying to shoehorn it all in are boggling and a bit exhausting. Scaling back is actually quite refreshing. I think I’ll love it all the more next year.

What we will still be doing this Christmas – Christmas reset

Advent calendars, stockings and a letter from Father Christmas

We’ve got our traditional advent calendars that come out each year. There’s the wall-hanging one that we fill with chocolates and The Nutcraker, which has 24 little books to read each night telling the story of the famous ballet.

New for this year will be Sugar Plum Fairy ones from Paperchase, which include stationery and accessories and a Boots Soap & Glory one crammed with toiletries.

Of course the stockings will come out as usual. Covid can’t stop that. Similarly there’ll be letters from Father Christmas.

Christmas crafts and baking

We can also still do our favourite Christmas activities and bakes. Stress-free fun

I might even try to make a pandoro, but I’ll keep you posted!

Christmas Eve box

This is one of my ‘new’ traditions. It’s a lovely way to ease into the main festivities of December 25th. Along with plenty of chocolate and other bits such as a new family film to watch together, there’s a new 1000-piece puzzle that we try to complete by Twelfth Night.

Christmas day food

I would like to go to La Fromagerie cheese shop if possible. It’s become somewhat of a Christmas tradition. The girls and I sit snug in the cafe with hot chocolate (and in my case a glass of wine) whilst my husband queues up to make our ‘Christmas cheese’ selections. We then have a bit of cheese and charcuterie after. The shop is open in lockdown, whether it’ll feel appropriate to make an evening of it remains to be seen.

We’re still going to be able to have our Christmas food favourites including beloved beef wellington on Christmas Day.

Presents

There’ll be plenty of these I’m sure

Different for this year – Christmas reset

I haven’t trawled the Internet to find a place that’s still offering a chance to meet Father Christmas. I know there are still COVID-compliant ones running. However, it is a lot of effort, won’t be quite the same, my eldest doesn’t believe and the younger two haven’t expressed any interest in seeing the main man. Meeting Father Christmas – if I’m honest – is more about me wanting this to be part of the Christmas experience. Instead, I’ve booked a cab ride to see the main Christmas lights of London. Our cabbie will pick us up and take us on a tour of the most festive parts of the capital. Can’t wait.

Not completely different, but we’ll be making an extra special effort to support local businesses when Christmas shopping.

I’ve wanted to learn how to make a Christmas wreath for years. December has always been so busy I’ve never had a spare day. This year I have. The workshop is booked; fingers crossed it goes ahead.

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It’ll be different, but I’m sure we’ll all have a great time still. I definitely feel like it’s a calmer lead up to the big day and we’ll appreciate everything that bit more.

You might also like:

Successful Christmas Presents

Subscription boxes – Christmas present round up

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My three are huge My Little Pony and Frozen fans so other figures aren’t getting too much of a look in at the moment, so I was interested to see how they’d be received.

The dolls are small and very cute and each one has their own mini fox pet friend and a different outfit as well as different boots/shoes and different fox hats (the idea of a fox hat might not be to everyone’s liking). There was a flurry of excitement opening them.

They loved the size of the dolls and the fact that all the outfits and accessories were interchangeable. They did find the outfits and shoes rather fiddly to remove and put back on again so they needed my help but this didn’t dent their enthusiasm. They picked up on the details of what the dolls were wearing, specifically that they had a different fox design on their outfits, which they really liked. I thought the clothes were really nice as some were dresses and others were more unisex all-in-ones.

We were sent five out of the eight dolls available to collect

My six-year-old’s (nearly seven) enthusiasm waned after a couple of days, but my four-year-old twins continue to be really engaged and after coming back from pre-school they were the first thing they went to. They encouraged great role play from them and they were very particular on how they wanted to dress them. You can visit

The dolls are recommended for three and up and were absolutely perfect for my four-year-old testers. There are eight dolls to collect and they’re £7.99 each so I think they make for a very good, slightly bigger stocking filler individually or more of a main present if you’re buying a couple.

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