Can you give me some ideas for easily packed presents for my DDs please? We're having Christmas in Oz

[MrsCantSayAnything]

And I know that toys and books there are FAR more expensive than here...and not such a good range.

The idea is that we give them small presents over there and Father Christmas will be visiting our UK home to leave larger things. They know this and are prepared.

They are 8 and 4. They like the usual stuff...Moshi Monsters, Princessy crap....little DD wants a sword helmet and shield which I am worried about packing as customs might make a fuss about having a look...so think I might have to have that one waiting in UK....same with her Slime Lab...I think that the biological nature of it will cause bother.

I am getting them both some kind of gaming thing Leapster or whatever for small DD and KindleFire for big DD....what can i pack in one case people?

I have thought of things like trash packs...and shrinkies so far...

I can see the benefits of getting some travel friendly presents like leapster ... the only other thing I could suggest to you is packing some little flat pack boxes similar to like cupcake boxes, some wrapping paper and them just print out little pictures of their presents... they still have the fun of unwrapping a box and finding out what theyve got and then they have something to look forward to when they get home.
If your there for holiday likely hood is youll want to make the most of your time rather than staying in and playing with knew stuff if your visiting family will they not get things to play with straight away.
We wrapped little boxes / pictures when we went away to save packing stuff we were just going to bring back

What about wrapping up "activities" ....eg. a pass to Australia Zoo ....if that's where you are going to be or tickets to the theatre/aquarium/boat ride ....with a bit of imagination you can make them exciting.
Also things they will enjoy using in Aust ....flippers, snorkles, arm bands, new swimmers, bucket and spade etc. Some of their favourite sweets/food.
Disposable camera, bag of marbles, string for cats - cradle, pack of cards ...easy small things to travel with and keep them amused. Klutz makes some of the best things for traveling.
Have a great time.

I would do small items as others have suggested ie.. books sticker books, card games moshi monster stuff is everywhere at the moment and the gifts are small enought to pack.

Wow Australia what's made you decide to do christmas there? we have family there my sister and always think about going but then think noooooo stay here! also not sure we could afford flights although my parents said they woudl treat us to them for our christmas pressie one year

Ooh we're going to aus for Christmas too :) ds is only 3 and wouldn't understand that he had some presents waiting for him at home so were taking his with us and the room the boxes take up can be filled with new buys on the way back :)

Playmobil have a cool shield set with a foam sword and in the shield is a play set :) sainsburys had it half price too!

mumma DH is Australian. His family are desperate and so they chipped in...we could never have bought the tickets alone.

I like the wrapping up pictures ideas....but might think of doing a little book....like a photo album from Santa with illustrations or photos of their bigger gifts....they both believe in Santa (or DD aged 8 is happy pretending to)

I think they'd be dissapointed unwrapping a gift to find a picture tbh.

We went to Australia for Christmas last year. To save taking all the presents with us I just said that Santa had decided to bring them early. My kids were only 4 and 1 though.

That's a good idea too Pink I did consider it tbh because the kids hand held game things would be good for the flight over...and tbh Christmas is so different over there that they'll be happy with a load of small things....I could give some before...and some to come home to. OR and this is a good idea imo....I could get my Mum to get some things AFTER christmas in the sales, wrap them up and leave them under the tree at home...then I'll save a lot of cash.

I thought about using Argos online or click and collect from toysrus etc.....would Mum need my bank card to collect though?

Because we wont be back in UK till the 10th Jan.

Could you give your mum money beforehand , then she can pay on her card or something ? If you write a list and then just give u back the money she saves in the sale .?? Gotta love complicated Christmas strategies.

I would buy lit's of toys in the uk and fly then out with excess baggage companies. Tots are literally double the price out here.

We are going to NZ for Xmas this year so same situation with DS 4yrs and DD 2yrs. We are having an early Xmas with my parents on the 16th and will give the kids their bigger presents from us, stuff that I bought before we knew we were going to NZ! I have put away a few things to take down to NZ for their stockings and placed an order with a NZ based company last week to send a bunch of stuff to my In Laws house, MIL will wrap for me and when we arrive at 11pm on Xmas eve (!!!!!) we shall put the kids to bed and load up their stockings with that stuff plus those bits (wrapped before we leave).

Do Target do online shopping, thats the only OZ company I can think of but obviously there are loads of others. I found a site that was having a sale so for $100 NZD I got LOADS of stuff suitable for stockings - Melissa and Doug puzzles, net for the beach, buckets for the beach, a couple of beach games (a theme here plus we dont have to think about bringing them back!), some wooden animals for DD, a wooden Dino sculpture thing for DS and a few other things. MIL has also bought a new beach towel, rash suits and aqua sox to be from santa too - towel can stay at In Laws and rash suits can be used for UK summer. MIL is now on the look out for trashy fun stuff / colouring pens / whoppee cushion type stuff plus chocolate coins etc

Mosman it will cost a bomb to do that and then to do it again on the way home.

Or will it?

kiwi I wanted to do an early Christmas but we fly on the 6th! That's a bit too early no?

kiwidreamer what website did you go to in NZ. We move to NZ in Jan so would love to have some new bits and bobs for when we arrive! Sorry for hijack.

Have PM'd you longwhitecloud :)

You don't need to PM website recommendations here you know. You are allowed to share.

Misunderstood didn't realise you'd be coming back so soon. It would cost a fortune

I didn't want to bore / hijack OP's thread is all, sites are NZ and OP is off to OZ, was trying to be polite but if anyone feels like shopping kiwi styles...

www.littlefunkymonkey.co.nz/store/
www.thewoodentoybox.co.nz/
www.woodentoystore.co.nz/

Bah copy n paste link fail but can't be shagged relinking :)

How about you take some smaller items, brief their grandparents over there to buy them bigger stuff, but ship those bigger items back here rather than you taking them in your luggage? There will be a delay in them getting their presents back, but since they will get home to their 'big' presents from you, hopefully they will not mind. And it should be cheaper than the extra luggage costs.

Good luck with it all - we did Christmas in Oz last year (as the username shows) and lots of it was great as a sunshine holiday but the actual Christmas arrangements got quite stressful - lots of people and places involved. But it'll be a great experience. My DS took my explanation that Santa could only deliver a few things to him in Australia because otherwise there would't be room for all the Australian kids' toys very well