To have no idea what to buy a 4 year old boy

[whattobuy4]

My daughter has been invited to her first birthday party of a friend. It's a boy who is turning 4 years old. It's a soft play party on Saturday.

I thought I'd spend about £20 for a gift, but husband thinks it should be less.

So my questions are

What on earth do I buy?
How much do I spend?

(Sorry it's not an AIBU, but I need the traffic AIBU seems to get)

£7-10 here, though I often buy in sales and stash to make it go further (Rex London sales are normally good; ditto the Argos toy promotions). Agree with Lego, games (Dobble etc.), books and sweets, stationery, esp for girls (girls also tend to like Ty Beany keyrings or Ty/Squishmallow soft toys), Playmobil, Galt kits, for slightly older kids those crystal growing kits are fab and often on the Argos toy promotions. At 4-5 Flying Tiger has some great puzzles/games/boys and pieces.

After a while when you start having parties yourself you end up with a bunch of duplicate things or stuff your kid isn’t as into, and you can start regifting those too — though always keep a note of who they were from so you don’t give it back to the original gifter 😂

At that age my DS would have got everything he wanted from relatives already so the excitement for him would have been getting a large number of suprise presents in general and he wouldn't have been too bothered about what they were.

I would buy a gift of around £10 with a gift receipt from a shop that's easy to exchange from.

At age 5 I'd probably do a gift card from a local toy shop.

6+ I'd do a tenner in a card.

I think the best gamble at this age is Lego as it starts at 4 so they're unlikely to have much already and even if they don't like it straight away a lot of kids may get into it at a later date.

a toy car!

A toy gun, boys love these. Either a police style thing or a cowboy type one are fine.

A book.

Honestly I would avoid buying any weapons/violent toys.

Any picture books by Aaron Blabey, Julia Donaldson, Mo Willems, went down well here.

Stick £5 in a card and give him some Milky Way bars.

No one wants or needs more cheap tat in their house.

Lego.

I usually spend 5-10 pounds on a classmate present, more for a best friend. Lego is good at that age. I wouldn't buy slime or kinetic sand unless I hated the parents.

Same. I keep a selection in the gift cupboard for DS to choose from each time.

I can't believe people are suggesting Kinetic Sand: most parents I know would consider legal action if you brought it into their home. (Lighthearted)

I also think Lego isn't great at 4, we were still firmly in the Duplo stage until 5.

Lego. I'd spend about £12-15.

Orchard toys are also good, though some are significantly better than others.

Lunchbox/Shopping List are fantastic though

I have a 4 year old and at his party people either put £10 in a card or bought a toy car, you know the type you pick up from Tesco. Similarly when we went to their parties we did the same, spent either up to £10 on a toy car or money in card x

I wouldn't buy guns, some parents are very against their kids having pretend weapons!
I would go for lego, dobble, orchard games or paperback books.

Hot wheels or hot wheels monster truck.

Hi. Recently I've been making for children's party that my daughter goes to. Colouring and creativity gift bag. If you have a home bargains near you they are a god send. I got the following for around 12 pound including gift bag (quite large and official character birthday card)
Colouring pens
Colouring book
Stickers
Mosaic set
Paint pallet child can hold or lay down which has a brush and 12 paints
Large See through pencil case/messy pouch - which all of the above bar books fit in
Huge bag of jelly babies
Gift bag
Card

Home bargains has a fantastic assortment. The one in my town is only small but I got all this. If you have one near you that's larger its even better.
My daughter got so many toys at her last birthday loved them but they things she got like above and kinetic sand etc and Playdoh she has definitely kept using the longest xx

WTF??? This is like my sibling, a mountain of crap turns up that's never used, instead of one Lego toy or similar that could be exchanged or regifted if it's not wanted. Just get ONE gift. Also a handy hint, kids who like crafts already have that stuff. If you're giving a thoughtfully themed colouring book with pens then great. Painting kit - great. Jelly babies - fine, mine wouldn't touch them but whatever. Kids get so much at birthdays, the last thing parents want is a sack of stuff.

Ask the mum for ideas

At that age my son loved kinetic sand, hot wheels cars, and fancy dress. Oo he adored his soft cotton play suit, he wore it til it fell apart. It was the ‘knight’ from
this shop, their stuff is fantastic

www.amazon.co.uk/stores/PLAYNWEARPYJAMASFUNHOMEWEAR/page/AE92B043-7BD1-4057-8B40-FE52A23D6D8D?ref_=ast_bln

DD1 had a party in December, again, little boy turning 4, I went to the works and got a 'Hungry Dino's' game.
She now has another party coming up. A girl turning 4, so we went to home bargains at the weekend and she picked a Frozen stationary set 😊
Both gifts were less than £5 each

£10 is about right budget. And just get him a small Lego or toy truck or anything like that.

Spend max of £10
Playdoh
Paw patrol
Other TV characters e.g. Spiderman

£10 is fine!

watergun?! Art stuff? Orchard toy educational game?!

no need to go for £20 unless it’s your kid’s bff!

A PJ set! I asked two mums to get PJs when they asked me as he's just moved into 4-5 and somehow never bought new PJs xx