When is too early to buy for young DCs?

[Simplygreen]

I have a DS 18 months who has quite fickle tastes! He can be into one thing then not bothered by it the next minute. I’m due DS2 on Boxing Day so want to get organised but I’m wondering, how soon is too soon to buy?

He will get some ‘classic’ bits like pjs and a balance bike but I would like to get a couple of bits of plastic rubbish that I know he will really love.

Black Friday should be about right time-wise. But if they are into something now, chances are they will circle back to it in the future anyway so I wouldn't over- worry it.

Haha, I have one around the same age and I think you just described their attention span (I expect even something he is delighted with will only occupy for 5 mins at a time!) I would just go ahead and choose what you think you want to get whenever. I’m not going overboard because I think mine will be overwhelmed anyway from all the gifts from relatives.

When mine were this little I’d buy most stuff well in advance, and would just keep a little bit of the budget back for character stuff to buy closer to the time based on what they were into. I generally kept these gifts quite small though (think toothbrushes, pjs etc). For most of their gifts I’d avoid going too character/brand specific and focus on toys that have good play value.

At that age I think you can really buy any time as he's likely to enjoy opening everything and be so excited by the occasion anyway. He's not going to ask for anything so no risk of him being disappointed as an older child might be.

When mine were little I usually had almost everything bought, wrapped and stored back in the loft by the end of October! I had a similar approach to SpamIAm with selecting toys with good play value over brands, with the odd small gift matching a favourite character/brand bought in the run up to Xmas to fit in with their current obsession. For the bigger stuff, I knew the sort of thing that would appeal to DCs at their age & stage (even if it was a toy they had yet to learn existed), kept an eye out for those toys to be on offer from the Summer, then bought and stashed them away.

DCs are now 11 & 9yo, and I have been able to buy some of their gifts already based on long-held interests, but most now will have to wait until closer to the time as they don't want many toys and their interests linked to trends are harder to guess in advance. I still plan to have 90% bought by the end of Black Friday.

It’s not really character toys, perhaps it is just his age but he was obsessed with his train set and now barely plays with it! At the moment it’s tractors but that will probably change again. I agree we are trying not to go overboard as he had so much from grandparents last year that he didn’t even open presents from us until NYE!

At 18 months I don't remember it being a big deal to get things early.. but by 3-5 I found it best to wait at the earliest until after Halloween in November. I've seen quite a few things come and go so quickly that I dare not buy earlier now.

at that age they can start to get that once it is on the list, it is locked down.. which is nice. Makes it more definitive. No changing your mind after it's on santas list