I only have £50 to spend on DS age 3.5 from us & Santa

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My DS is 3.5 yrs and I'm so stuck what to buy as our Christmas budget is limited to £50. He's into his vehicles, emergency services, paw patrol. Should I get one present from us and a few bits from Santa ? Sweets to pad it out from Santa? Please help with some ideas

Facebook marketplace is your friend. Toys don't have to be new to be great! Pyjamas wrap up big to go under the tree.

We never did a present from us. It was all from Santa. Would you buy secondhand? I've given stacks of nearly new to charity shops.

I only ever spend around £50 on my dd (now 4). Agree pp, Facebook marketplace, charity shops. Its Black Friday soon too.

Any points? Sainsbury usually have a double up nectar point events around November.

Aldi and lidl toys are cheap and good value

Last year my daughter was really into Peppa Pig so I went on eBay and bought a Peppa pig bundle for about £20. Had four or five vehicles and a load of figures. Then I got a Christmas gift box from the local card shop and put it all in there with some shredded tissue paper. She was non the wiser and the toys were immaculate.

Have a look at Paw Patrol stuff on eBay and Facebook market place. It's hard wearing plastic so there's a good chance it will be as good as new.

I was looking at our local facebook selling pages last night and feeling sad that I didn’t have a little one that I could buy all the toys for. £50 is more than enough for a 3.5 year old even if you were buying new.

Honestly £50 is plenty for a little one if you’re careful. Can you check Facebook marketplace for a second hand main gift? I got the Octonauts octopod and figures for £15 for my 4 year old just this week. They don’t care that it isn’t in its box. You could probably get two bigger presents for your budget if you’re willing to buy second hand, one for you and one from Santa and still have enough left over to fill a stocking with cheaper little bits and bobs.
The great thing about three year olds is that their expectations are quite low. Try to keep him away from the Argos/ Smyths catalogues and toy adverts on TV, that helps! And remember he will get presents from family and friends too, so he’ll have plenty. I sure you’ll have a fantastic Christmas!

FB marketplace! I've bought a wooden dolls house and furniture for £15 and a garage for £10 with loads of cars.
These are for great nephews. I did the same for my dcs years ago.

That's plenty. Remote control Marshall fire truck is £17 on Amazon. PJs from primark or matalan, new book, selection box, leaves you a tenner to buy some second hand duplo and a toy car. My DS will be 2.10 and will be getting very similar.

Car boots are good too, plus bric a brack stalls at Christmas fairs. B&m do good deals too on craft things and playdoh etc which should help bulk it out a bit!

When my boys were that age, they were really into cars. We bought packs of cars (the metal type, packs can be very cheap in Wilco or get them from charity shops) and wrapped them up individually. It meant they had lots to open and got to focus on each car. Kept them busy for ages!

Home Bargains and B&M are great for cheap toys, especially things to pad it out if that's what you want. I got my DS loads of toot toot stuff last year for £10 on FB marketplace.

For £50 I don't think you even need to go second hand, but obviously you'll be able to get more if you do. Buy one biggish gift you from you and fill a stocking from Father Christmas with some little things like bubbles, a car, a book, some chocolate coins.

Obviously going by this thread lots of people think masses of gifts = a good Christmas and you need to bulk it out, so what do I know

Argos have some really good toys in the 2 for £15 sale you could get him a Lego set and a bigger as his main ones then bulk it out with £1 books plus the pound shop do hot wheels in there now so you could get a few of those and a selection box , some chocolate coins. For that age £50 is reasonable as there’s so many deals about.

This is the point where you can establish that you don't spend crazy money on lots of plastic that will be broken / discarded in weeks. We only had one decent Santa present for each child, then their gran would buy what she called "tree presents", little odds and ends she'd picked up like gloves, purses.

£50 is more than enough!

Honestly that is plenty. Join the bargain thread and sign up for newsletters from all the sites you might normally buy from so you'll get emails when there are discount codes etc.

I would just buy 1 gift from Santa and don't feel it has to be a 'big' one - this rubble paw patrol set is only £10 for example.

Honestly it's such a good idea to set santa expectations at the smaller end when they are little. It stops them asking for games consoles from Santa in a few years time!

I agree with going second hand. I bought a massive bin bag full of peppa pig stuff when dd was about 2 for £25. Nothing wrong with it at all. The characters in the bag would have cost more than that to buy new and we ended up with all of them and lots of duplicates. A 3 year old won’t care if the present is in the box or not and actually if it’s not, at least they haven’t got to wait an absolute age while you try to get the toy out of the packaging. Hopefully if you start looking now, there will be fewer people looking so you will get a good choice.

Lidl and Aldi are selling great wooden toys now.

Do a small stocking from Santa. Crayons/pencils/pens, small colouring book,bubbles, stickers, pair of socks, chocolate /sweets.
Then I'd have a look at either secondhand or the 2 for £15 at Argos. There's a chad valley car transporter that comes with 8 cars which sounds particularly up their street. But loads of other stuff in the offer. Or if you purchase secondhand you'll get even more for your money.

Do you have nectar or boots points? I tend to save them over the year and use them for Xmas so the 'real money' spend is less. Sainsbury's have their double up on now (to 5th nov for exchanging online or the week after for the app).

The supermarkets also tend to have offers on toys like 50% off, Argos 2 for £15, the entertainer is really good for lower priced toys, the book people/the works have great offers on books (10 for £10 for example) and Black Friday is coming up.

eBay and fb marketplace are good, around now everyone is clearing out ready for Christmas too.

I’d definitely look at second hand pages on FB. I have seen a few Paw Patrol bundles selling for £10-20, so you could get a few bits for that.

As someone else said, Argos have great toys in the 2 for £15.

Give a stocking from Santa. Pound shops often have crayons, Hotwheels cars, craft bits etc in the run-up to Christmas.

So, he could easily have a little pile under the tree and a stocking, and you might even have some change!

FWIW, we are able to afford more, but our children have often had 2nd hand presents, and especially when they have wanted themed toys which we know they will grow out of within a year or two. My nearly seven year old still remember a Santa sack of Brio that he received the Christmas he turned 3. He still describes it as his favourite present ever, but it was £40 worth bought on eBay, and that, together with a stocking, was all we bought him that year!

Afree with everyone else about marketplace. I got a little tykes kitchen with all the accessories for £10! It was in amazing condition and it would have cost me £70odd new. I got my eldest ps4 secondhand for £40 from the market place too.

If I could go back I’d keep expectations a lot lower.
Do you give something from parents as well as from Santa? Just a stocking from Santa? One gift and a stocking? Or high piles? 3 is the age to establish your family’s normal as he likely won’t remember last year.

If you do stockings a tip I got on here years ago was to put something big in to pad out the stocking - like a rolled up colouring book - so you’re not filling it with pointless and expensive plastic tat. You could even print off paw patrol colouring and activity pages, roll them up and tie with a ribbon for free.

I’ve bought bundles of figurines second hand and run them through the dishwasher in a mesh laundry bag. This year I’ve saved €80 on a box by buying dd’s main present second hand! It’s actually given me a bit of a jolt to think about it that way. €80 for plastic packaging! And it will be all set up ready to play instead of spending ages snipping at plastic ties and risking chopping fingers! it’s good for the environment too!

There are lots of ways to extend the fun on Christmas morning. Wrap a box within a box within a box! Leave lots of evidence of Santa to find. Fill a box with shredded paper and small presents hidden inside to find.

Having tried out many a wooden train set I'd say go for lidl over aldi wooden toys, DSs lidl fire station is as good quality as his expensive brio stuff.

I'd do one present from you, one from Father Christmas and a stocking.

Fill the stocking with tangerines, sweets, character pants (always cheap at Asda or primark) and lots of wrapped up little 50p cars from the charity shop.

Then you've got £40 left for two presents which is lots at that age.
Last year we got DS one of those electric ride on trains off gumtree for £30 and a big bundle of fireman sam toys for £15 from facebook.

If facebook selling/gumtree are impractical or you'd prefer new Argos do 2 toys for £30.

Have a look on argos. They do two for £15 on toys, two for £20 and two for £30. Also, if you spend £50, you'll get a £5 voucher.

Studio also do really nice personalised pyjamas for £6-£8. I honestly think £50 on a 3 year old is fine. A couple of toys, nice pyjamas, a bag with colouring books, crayons, nice bubble bath. He'll be over the moon 🙂

Shopping for others on a budget you could use boots 3 for 2, Amazon do some buy 2 get 2 free deals (but nearer Christmas, I think some suppliers over order and want to offload Christmas sets and things). Try to order most of your stuff from a few places and reach their free delivery amount to avoid the hefty delivery fee's too

50 quid for a 3.5 yr old is fine. Aldi have toys in at the moment that would be great, Aldi and Lidl both do christmas chocolate that is great and as others have said facebook or ebay are great for second hand items and they really know no different at that age