What were the unexpected small hits last Christmas with your kids?

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What surprised you and brought them some joy? Brazenly asking for my own kids!
They are 7 months 3 and six

I get a few bits second hand and then new bits but we don't go wild

Just looking for some ideas really thank you

Fab!!

Tipp Ex! When my DD was 5, I asked her what was her favourite thing about Christmas was and she said "all the cuddles Mummy and my Tipp Ex"

Popcorn machine, my daughter got one for her 3rd birthday 5 months ago and she is still excited when we use it

A big stream off a lining paper roll. Then googled Christmas clip art images and copied them onto the roll.
stuck to the Floor and they coloured all the images in.
they kept coming back to it too which was great.

Fairy light round their doors

@TwinsAndTiramisu it's this one, but not worth it at 8.99. It's often £3ish on offer: Hamster

Every year my kids love the tub of fake snowballs I bought in homebargins about 5 years ago. Snowballs fights everywhere. I also bought a smaller snowball game some years ago, it had little targets to hit.

One year a 75p ruler from homebargins, had a mini calculator in it.

loud vibrating/flashing ball from Smyths

last year I bought my DD a baby doll car seat for a £1 in a charity shop.

I bought DH a game, it had a hat, like a swimming cap where you can throw balls at it to stick on.

Jaxs, my DDs love playing it.

One of the magnetic fishing games was a firm favourite last year! And he had hours of fun playing with one of those wooden mini car race tracks (where the car drops down all
of the different ramps). He also loves any type of squishy toys.

He's 3 this Christmas so living some of these ideas!

Mini torches. Got a 4pack from Amazon, pink, blue, yellow and green. We use them at night when reading stories before bed. However I do have a panic every now and then about button batteries, so always make sure I put them in my drawer after bedtime

Such fantastic ideas thank you all so much

Those octopuses (octopi?) That turn inside out from sad face to happy face.

Match box cars for my 2 year old son... he adored them.

Blue tac, plain envelopes, washi tape or masking tape, a massive cardboard box and some felt tips. My kids have loved things like that! We give them a recipe and baking ingredients that 'come from Mrs Claus' and they spend an hour or so baking those.

Big bumper pack of multicoloured foam hair rollers, 8 year old and teenager delighted and used several times during that Christmas week.

A projector torch

A Harry potter letter writing set (just envelopes and paper, has asked for another set each year)

The thing is, you never can predict these cheap hits.

I have to second the writing set, as my dd 8 absolutely love hers, she's writing a wee letters to her classmates.
Great idea.

My youngest DS was over the moon about a pair of knitting needles and a ball of wool!

Ha ha, to me this is just a sign of how much Covid has changed things.

It used to be frowned upon to anti-bac your kids' hands (in fact, I'm pretty sure it used to say on them that they weren't suitable for children), now it's marketed at them 😁

Farting putty, they absolutely loved it, played with it for hours!

A giant whoopie cushion that cost £3 🤷‍♀️
Seriously they still hide it under cushions almost a year later and still laugh out loud.

A giant sports direct ball £3, literally my sons favourite gift last year!

used stamps and used envelopes make a post box from an old shoebox

That sounds fabulous. I’ve been planning on doing them same thing this year for a granddaughter who wants a ‘vets set’

Blue tac in stockings is a brilliant idea. Especially non blue blue tac as we have blue stuff in the craft drawer at home (by which I mean all over the house wherever toys are found).

mune loved those natural history museum balancing pterodactyls last year and mini fart machines from B&M the year before. This year I reckon it will be the flying pizza discs from The Entertainer

When mine were babies (especially no 3) they needed nothing so I wrapped up their favourite toys, they were always happy to see them 😁

Spinning bugs, in a set of Kuckoo christmas crackers. They were played with, and shown to everyone who entered the house for months. I stashed them away to bring back out this year.