Present ideas for a dd who will be just 3 at Christmas.

[austin2586]

In need of some present ideas for my youngest daughter, her birthday is only a few weeks before christmas so struggling for ideas. She didn't really have very much last birthday/christmas due to a lack of time and we didn't really celebrate them as we usually would has my mum was diagnoised with terminal cancer at beginning of December (it came out of the blue) and she needed a lot of care, I lost her shortly after christmas. It wasn't until everything went back to normal or a new type of normal, after dealing with everything that death brings with it that I realised. I feel absolutley alwful about this so please no negative comments, but don't regret for one minute the time I spent caring for mum. We did lots of extra day trips this summer to easy my guilt like our surprise weekend to Legoland resort and this christmas we're going to spoil dc to make up for it. I have plenty of ideas for dd who is 8 and ds for is 5 its dd soon to be 3 that I'm struggling with.

For her birthday so far I have bought:

1. Ikea wooden kitchen (both upper and lower sections)
   
2. 7 packs of wooden cuttable play food
   
3. John Lewis wooden coffee machine, food mixer and toaster
   
4. All ikea kitchen utensils
   
5. New tea set, cuttlery set and Dinner plates
   

I would like to get her something that is non kitchen related to go with it.

For Christmas so far I have bought:

1. Wooden dolls house for Barbie sized dolls. ( it's the one she picked)
   
2. Singing Airel Barbie, Light up magic Cinderella Barbie, Rapunzel barbie, Tinkerbell Barbie, a couple of the basic Barbie dolls and a three pack of one mermaid barbie with 2 little sister mermaids. ( the dolls house has patio and pool)
   
3. Lego duplo Ariel Boat Ride
   
4. Lego Duplo Ariel Castle
   
5. Interactive Doc McStuffin and Lambie
   
6. John Lewis wooden till with chip and pin machine.
   
7. John Lewis shopping basket set
   
8. Magic colour changing bow Minnie mouse.
   

I would like to get her a few others playsets to go with this.

It probably looks like a lot but at the moment all she has in her toy box is 3 ELC rosies world dolls, 2 rosies world horses and rosies world car. The large Minnie mouse and Daisy with the clip on dresses, shoes and bows. And the minnie mouse polka dot areoplane and boat.

[walde]

Is that not enough? Sounds like plenty to me! My nearly 3 year old would love all of that. We're getting her a scooter, 2 Disney DVDs and a dressing up dress. Maybe some chocolate coins and a satsuma!

[Teladi]

She is a lucky girl! My DD got a Learning Resources magnifying glass for her birthday which she likes, and I would never have thought of that. I then got one for another of her friends who also likes it.

[walde]

My dd would love a load of tat from Claires like clips, bobbles and purses. Fairy wings and a wand would be popular too.

[Wolfbasher]

My 3yo would like to come to live with you, I think! If you want to get anything else, maybe just some stickers/crafty stuff?

I find that mine do better with fewer toys in circulation - so rather than one big blast at Xmas, i try to spread new things out over the year. But, having said that, I do always overdo it at Xmas too, and always swear I won't next year.

[austin2586]

Thanks for the ideas she does like dressing up, hadn't thought of fairy wings, wand etc. She also does like arts n crafts and will quite often help her older sister, I'll check out ELC website.

[ScrabbledLeggsAndToes]

Home Bargains do some nice (reasonably priced) dressing up outfits.

You could get:-

Toy hairdryer
Nice wooden threading beads - Wilkinsons do a tub of chunky, brightly coloured wooden beads for £5
Floor Puzzles - Elc have quite a few nice puzzles (not necessarily floor puzzles) in their 2 for £10 range
Playdoh
Mr Potato Head
John Deere Store and Carry Case - £15 on Amazon. A tractor which opens up, with a little farm inside.

[ScrabbledLeggsAndToes]

You could also get Saxoflute - Although only if you don't mind noisy toys!

[FixItUpChappie]

every year Santa brings our family a new game. It's a great tradition and there are lots of good starter games out there a 3 year old can play. Here are a few my little ones like:

-Feed the Woozle (even my 20 month old can join in)
-Hisss
-Pengolo
-snails pace race

this year we've bought Melissa and Dougs "puppy pursuit" game

[IssyStark]

My almost 3yo (birthday 16/12) got a homemade kitchen from stuff bought in Ikea last year and it has been a massive hit. As well as all the pretend food, plates, cups, keels etc, he has some cut down 'real' stuff such as a small melamine chopping board, a pan scourer, dishclothes and tea towels (cut into half or quarter so the right size for little hands) which he loves.

Honestly 'though, it sounds like loads.

Also don't feel guilty about not celebrating her second birthday - no child remembers their second birthday and you had more important things to be doing.

[Wolfbasher]

yes, don't feel guilty at all or that you have to compensate. With DC1 we had massive parties for every birthday from the start. By DC3 we just didn't bother for the first couple - a cake and a small present and that was it. Because we were really busy and we'd realised that it made NO difference to the child.

I thought we'd get away with it for the third birthday, but she'd started nursery then and become very aware of parties! If she hadn't, I would have done the same then. This is definitely the first Christmas that she cares about presents too - for the last couple I even wrapped up stuff we already had for her to open! She really didn't care.

[austin2586]

Thanks for the reassurance it's what you need some times. There is some good ideas there to pop in her stocking, it just seems when we play there's not much choice but saying that she's not bothered. None I.have written it all down think there is plenty there to be getting on with plus she'll have thing from grandparents and great grandparents. I agree once they go to playschool they know all about birthdays, parties and Christmas.

[BadtzMaru]

If she likes princesses you could get her one of the palace pets playsets, my 3 year old DD loves them and I've got the royal carriage playset put by for her christmas. It's 15% off with code FIREWORKS15 until the end of today too.