Inexpensive things that look more for 2.5 year old

[Itsamumone]

We have got him a bike already, and it’s more than we intended to spend (it’s a good one) 😥 So now I’m just thinking he’s going to walk in on Christmas morning to only one gift. What else could we get him that would be exciting for him but not end up another couple of hundred pounds

And if you can get to charity shops in a naice area even better. I found Bath, Cheltenham and Wilmslow particularly happy hunting grounds 😀

My eldest was 2.5 last Christmas. We got her one big gift equivalent to the bike, and then a stocking with little bits in. From memory it cost about £20?

It had:

Orange
Tube of sweets
Stickers
Toothbrush in her favourite character
Flannel in her favourite character
Dressing up princess accessories (crown, wand etc) from the pound shop
Duggee board book again from pound shop
Little set of cocomelon figures from B&M

It was plenty. Don't forget that when they come down all they want to do is play with the big toy! And other people buy them gifts. In fact her grandparents came over later in the day and had 4 gifts for her and it was too much, she got overwhelmed and cried and didn't open 2 of them until the next day!!!

We got my DD the ikea easel as her ‘big’ present last year, with some chalks and pens and stuff - about £30 if I remember rightly. She was obsessed with the one at playgroup. Looks huge wrapped up! You’d probably want to buy a paper roll as well though, and I can’t remember if there were dry wipe pens/ chalks included or not so maybe ends up being a bit more than you were thinking.

She got other little things too - some dressing up, a toy doctors kit from either lidl or Aldi, some puzzles. Some plastic figures of her favourite characters (from Vinted those actually) etc. Looked like a lot but we didn’t spend much at all.

This is a good deal on magnetic tiles - we have this set and have bought more for Christmas - we paid more than this and it was meant to be a prime day bloody deal though, typical! Anyway, considering they’re not the big name ones they’ve been really good, sturdy and been played with every day. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07MGYKZ36?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Look on Jaques of London too, they usually have a selection of good stuff in the sale - nice wooden puzzles, role play stuff etc.

I never understand people insisting that a child under 3 won’t understand it’s Christmas. DD wasn’t even quite 2.5 last year and she definitely knew what was going on, talked about Father Christmas etc (was at a childminders with older children so picked up a lot there).

@Itsamumone hope your little one loves it as much as mine did! Xxx

The year we got the DCs a console between them we got them each beanbags and plastic sledges (luckily we got a lot of snow after Xmas). They were big and inexpensive. The DC sat in the sledges watching all the Christmas animations, it was really sweet.

Big plain box, crayons and stickers - let him create his own box for all his belongings. We did this when we moved and DD did a box for the things needed on the first night in the new house. The box stayed for a year for her dressing up stuff.
If you need a more fany one, I think IKEA did a colouring in one in the past.

Charity shop for books and toys. I had sometimes issues with jigsaws and games unfortunately so don't buy these anymore.

Do you have any NCT sales around? We got a massive Brio set one year for £20

Do you have any Nectar/Clubcar/Boots points? Sainsbury did 1/2 toy sales in November in the past.

I found with my eldest when they were 2 years old that about 6 presents is ideal. After that they got overwhelmed and stopped caring and started playing up.

I have another at that age now and will only be getting a few things, as I think they enjoy it more.

So don’t feel you have to bulk it out with lots of other stuff.

We've been cheaper than that.

Any large cardboard boxes have been used by my DD to play in/with before we have got rid of them. She still has two of them. One of them she decorated last year as a rocket.

Second hand!!! Facebook marketplace would be great. He will have no idea and be thrilled.

The works is pretty good, has lots of colouring books, sensory toys etc

My 2.5 year old will probably just demand to play with all the Christmas cards, especially if they are sparkly. He likes opening things, but would have no idea if they were expensive or new! I'm leaning towards not buying him anything because relatives will have got him loads of stuff already, and we've got a mountain of hand-me-down toys in the attic that he'd be just as excited by.

Don't forget helmet, fun bike accessories etc that are separate to unwrap!

At that age mine loved balloons in between the presents as well.

At that age I really wouldn't worry too much, he will be impressed by anything, but second hand and he won't have a clue. You can buy pound shop toys for stocking fillers and just spread everything out flat to make it look more, that's what we do. Much harder to impress now they are all double figures tho!

Rookie error to spend on a "good bike" for a 2.5 year old, they grow out of them so quickly! I know it's too late now but I really recommend buying things like bikes second hand until they're bigger.

In terms of gifts, as others have said I'd look on Vinted/eBay/FB market place for second hand sets. Things like arts and crafts items from places like The Range are often cheap and hours of fun. Also have a look at Amazon on Black Friday they tend to have things like Duplo for good prices, has the Sainsbury’s half price toy sale happened yet? That's usually good too.

Disney currently have a 20% off code.

2.5 year olds are easy to impress and their toys are pretty cheap. But remember he's really young and won't remember it, so don't go overboard, and think about what he's likely to need over the year.

Books, craft stuff. Do a good look around charity shops and pick up some bits and pieces? Will he Def not get anything from friends or family?

I’d definitely have gone cheaper on the bike, at 2.5 it will be grown out of pretty quickly but you’ve got it now.
At that age, although they might have an understanding of FC and presents, they won’t remember the previous year and they won’t have expectations of how many presents it’s usual to receive - they will just know ‘presents’. A bike and a few other bits to open (that you would be buying over the year anyway) will be fine and a small stocking filled with little toys etc can be done for £20 or less.
I wish I’d started with small stockings, I gave my 2 dds pillowcases to decorate when they were 2 and 3 (think we used others before that but don’t know where they went), these were really easy to fill when they were small and they had toys which bulked it up nicely.
Now they are 18 and 19 and still use their original pillowcases 😂 expensive makeup is very small in those 😂 (they do get other things too but generally it’s all small!)

@yeekls @TheChosenTwo one of the issues is finding decent second hand bikes.

Where I am they sell like hotcakes so if you want one at the time your child needs it you spend the nearly the cost of getting it new. One of my friends with older kids actually sold her kids bikes for what they cost. We gave our DD balance bike away to a friend who then gave us the exact money it cost for it.

The cheaper bikes are too heavy for them to pick up when the bike falls over.

I actually spent 6 months looking for a second hand bike for my DD at 2 and in the end bought her a new one that was on sale. She is still using it at 5 but will grow out of it in the next year.

Tbh I'd probably go further and say he won't be bothered about only having one present either. I mean fair enough if you want and can afford to buy more, but your post implies money is an issue given your comments about overspending on the bike. He doesn't need anything else, the bike is plenty and I'm sure he will be happy with it.

Appreciate I'm an outlier with these threads though as we only do our kids a stocking each!

Hot Wheels cars, a pound in places like Poundland, B&M etc. B&M are doing their two for 25 toy promotion at the moment.

Vinted is good for toys. Colouring books, crayons, something cuddly maybe?

Please don’t give yourself a hard time about this, at 2.5 he will just love everything and be so excited. You can get some great stuff on vinted and other than that just fill it out with charity shop books, sticker books, a cup cake baking set that you can do together on Boxing Day, colouring book and new books end etc. can get all that in the pound shop. Most of the fun at that age is unwrapping them, so just wrap everything and he will be so happy.

He's 2.5. He wont be expecting lots of presents. Set a precedent from now of a few thoughtful gifts.

I feel like this could be a way of setting expectations (although a 2.5yo won't understand, really!) for the future, you don't need to have masses. When my DD (first grandchild) was this age she was just overwhelmed at too many presents and it was all too much. So don't overthink it!

I second this. My DC still play with the wooden food and kitchen stuff now at the age of 5. It's great quality and very robust!

Will he get a stocking? Gifts from aunts/grandparents that will be under the tree as well?

At 2.5 he'll be overwhelmed by a huge pile, you're only setting awful expectations of an unnecessary huge pile in future years.

Its fine just to have a stocking and one thing from parents, there'll be things to open from other family beside.

A big box full of balloons