£20 present ideas for 14 yo boy in care

[TwigTheWonderKid]

We're doing the Met Police Christmas present thing and we've been allotted a 14 year old boy. Rules are £20 max budget, no tech and nothing requiring batteries. I'm fairly au fait with the general needs and wants of teenage boys but realistically most of them are tech based. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I really want to get this right.

Nando's voucher?

My 15 year loves to get Jack Wills gift sets of toiletries, makes a change from Lynx !

Don't get a toiletry set... nobody ever likes them really!

A hype beanie or a hype t-shirt? they are pretty 'in' at the moment.

I would honestly get a voucher, Amazon maybe?

Cordless in ear headphones.

£10 Nandos and £10 Odeon.

Unless you know what he likes I would probably get an Amazon voucher. Buying presents when my son goes to birthdays is impossible so we normally put money in the card! My boys love clothing like Adidas and Nike but some 14 year olds would be really disappointed with clothing!

I did this last year and got a £15 voucher and some juggling balls

It's a minefield and I am totally overthinking it. Clothes could be tricky - what if he's big/small for his age? What if he's got nothing to plug headphones into? If I get a Nando's or cinema vouchers what if none of his friends can afford to go with him?

Amazon-meh, it’s entirely possible that he may not have internet access, other than perhaps at school where amazon etc would be barred, so I’d not do that one.

Nando’s /cinema, I’d go with something like this as he will likely either have pocket money or if he’s in a residential setting, an activity allowance, as would the people he’s in care with would, so he could add to the vouchers with that.

Thank you makingmiracles that's exactly the kind of factual advice I was hoping for re pocket money/allowances etc. I've just found out the budget can go up to £30 so I think I'll do Nando's/Cinema voucher and a small physical frivolous something ,though not sure what!

Vouchers and chocolate.

Yep - vouchers and a chocolate selection box. A poker set went down with a relative that age once. You could argue that it helps with maths skills but might not be a good idea.

I think t would be nice for him to have something to open rather than just a voucher. He probably already has headphones. Teenage boys like all sorts of things doesn’t have to be expensive. I have a ds a similar age and things around the £20 mark I’d get him:
Lava Lamp
Beanie hat and gloves
Jack wills T shirt (the plain ones are around £20 and good quality)
Slipper socks
Pyjamas (decent ones for £20) or a dressing gown
Board game or trivia type quiz- my ds still loves board games and he’s 15 now.
Blue tooth speaker
Portable phone charger

Superdry sport wash set - £10.00
from Boots to go with vouchers

Iv never heard of the Met police Christmas. What is it?

chocolate
designer toiletry set
onesie
wallet
funny mug
calendar of cars

Could do a hamper type thing of small items which add up to £20

Something like a beanie hat (jack wills, super dry etc), or some sort of Aftershave based gift set.
It your wanting to do a voucher Personally I wouldn’t do an amazon voucher (or something that can be solely spent online), so nandos, cinema, Costa, Starbucks etc. Are usually a good bet. Alternatively you can get him a gift voucher for superdry, hollister or jack wills assuming there are some in the local area. You could then do some small token gift. I think Tesco’s do things like wooden planes that you can build that are designed for older teenagers. Same goes for Small Lego kits for 14-16 yr olds which you can get for about £8.

Op how do I go about also doing this scheme?

That's such a good idea. I've just seen my local area did it last year, but can't see anything about this year.

Re lots of little things - I think most people would rather have one gift for £20 rather than lots of little things. The child won't be only getting that one present, anyway.

My son loves graphic novels :)

I guess you might have to think through why he might be in care? If he cannot be trusted to go out on his own or meet friends or if he does not make friends easily then high street, Nando's, Starbucks, cinema vouchers will not be good. He is unlikely to have access to use vouchers on line very easily. I would go with a nice toiletries gift set as he probably just gets whatever the residential place buys for him? Or a good and trendy make of beanie hat?

What about a nice Nike backpack? Nike does one that holds a football in special pouch. You could get the ball as well. Often kids in care don’t have anyway but a bin bag to carry their stuff from a placement.

There's a possibility you may be overthinking this blueskyinmarch. There are all sorts of reasons why kids are in care. The vast majority of looked after children have no restrictions on meeting up with friends, going to Starbucks etc. They're generally in care because they have crap parents.

This is the Met Christmas Tree appeal :)