Present for outdoorsy DNiece (12)

[Stickerrocks]

My niece is 12, lives in the wilds of Scotland, likes martial arts, rock climbing, walking & baking. Normally we just send a voucher, but this year they will be visiting and Christmas is going to be challenging for family reasons. I would like her to have something to unwrap and preferably keep her occupied over Christmas. Any ideas?

Put together a baking hamper, with things she might not already have. Try the Lakeland website for a few ideas for different cupcake cases, cake toppings, cookie cutters etc.

a few ideas:

aqua dragons, these come in a small container. you put the eggs into the water, and wait for them to hatch. then watch them grow and reproduce.

a polaroid camera and photo album, you could take her out on a 'photo walk'.

a slackline (if you google slackline kits uk, loads come up)

all the best x

What's your budget? What about a rock tumbler or a Diablo?

If they will be staying with you for a few days and you want activities to keep her busy then the idea of a baking kit is a good one. As well as equipment buy a recipe book plus the ingredients to make a couple of the recipes. That way your niece gets to spend time baking and you get to eat the result. Win win!

They won't be staying with us, but staying with very poorly grandparents. Sorry, I forgot to say I usually spend about £30. I was thinking about GBBO type recipe books, as we sent her a stack of Lakeland/Hobby craft baking stuff for her birthday. I'll Google rock tumblers and see how much a Polaroid is.

I know you didn't list art in her interests but an elaborate painting by numbers (grown up one) would provide hours of quiet entertainment. I was crap at art as a child but was given one of these and loved it.

Or a grown up colouring book and nice set of stabilo pens.

And a huge 1000 piece winter scene jigsaw could draw others in. My Grandma always had one on the go at Christmas and we'd add a piece as we walked past.

What about some things for conditioning for her martial arts? Dd is a gymnast and uses Pilates stretchy bands, hand grips for strength training, a yoga mat for exercising on, Pilates bendy ring thing. Etc. You could get a hamper together with maybe some leggings/top to wear under her karate suit.

What about a craft hamper to intro a new hobby eg sewing/ knitting?

I'd love the jigsaw myself, but whatever we give her has to be portable enough to fly back north with her. I googled slack lines as I was clueless, but they won't help keep her busy over Christmas!

A geocaching premium membership and some caches for her to make a trail?

She sounds great! How about a head torch and a couple of books. She could use the headtorch to get snuggled up and read over Christmas and then use it for walks when she gets home.

Rock tumblers were on offer yesterday on Amazon but probably out of budget.

Look at Bakedin, they have a up to 70% sale on baking kits (chocolate brownie kits etc..), you could add these to a little hamper of baking goodies.

Rock climbers always need just one more piece of metallic gear IME. But she would want to choose it. I'm sure some books would go down well too, how about "into the wild" or similar where there is a bit of an outdoor theme?

Will anyone have time to play with her? If yes, a selection of games that are compact might fit the bill:

Dobble
Bananagrams
Pack of cards

etc.

She has a DB (easy to buy more Lego for). Rock tumblers are now officially over-budget - I didn't know such things existed. They have every piece of climbing/camping kit you can imagine, as it's all they seem to do. We need something to do indoors, as they won't be able to be out & about at all (no car). Tempted to go down the games route, maybe with Triv etc thrown in for good measure. BakedIn has deals this weekend too.

Baked In it is, as they do an immediate gift alongside the subscription. Thanks for all of your inspiration.

Good choice, I’m tempted by bakedin for my dd who is the same age but I have already bought her Christmas presents, I might get her the subscription for her birthday.

I have bought the mug kits as stocking fillers for my DD before and I had no idea that they did a subscription and had a website. If we're really lucky, that will solve DN's birthday present as well!