Present for 4 year old

[HettyMeg]

Our daughter turns 4 a month before Christmas and we are finding it challenging trying to decide on what her main christmas present should be.
She doesn't have many bigger toys. She likes drawing/crafts, books, dressing up, playing with small characters and making up stories/worlds. Already has a toy kitchen for playing cafes etc.

Current ideas:

• marble run
• more magna tiles/accessories
• more little people (she has some already)
• paw patrol tower

What things have your 4 year olds enjoyed and kept enjoying?

Sylvanians ? Schleich

Sylvanians are great for children who like small world play and crafty things.

They can move on to making little clothes for them (even out of christmas paper etc), decorating their homes, shoebox homes for them, little clay foods. All sorts...

Marble runs are also great but not if you have other younger children.

But I'd probably get her a family and something like a Sylvanian car or playground set for her birthday then a new family of "friends" for them (stocking?) and a building/home of some sort as a big Christmas gift. Getting to "know" an animal family ahead of Christmas would make it even more fun for them to move into a new house/treehouse at Christmas!

I find they last well and don't break.

My youngest will be 4 just after Xmas, for Xmas she’s getting:
Sylvanian Families
Filled pencil cases by Smiggle
Copy colouring books (she recently did some copy colouring at a friends house and loved it! A bit more like a puzzle I guess).
Mazes
Bluey Scratch Art
Bluey cupcake making kit
Bluey doctors kit

I remember but sylvanians for my DD’s at that age….they never got played with, I think I bought them more for me because only certain children got them when I was a child. Marble run on the other hand…..got played with loads and for many years.

My DD doesn’t play with her Sylvanian Families as much as I thought she would. She absolutely loves small characters and making up stories but she seems to enjoy the hodge-podge of characters (Rapunzel going on an adventure with Paddington and Skye from Paw Patrol). The little accessories seem to break easier than some of her other small figures too.

My DD absolutely loves her ice cream cart (it is big though). She loves her Bluey figures. The Disney store also has some figure collections (such as Up!) which I’ve been considering for her.

Would she like Lego? Bluey & Toy Story have just released sets. And I think Smyths have got the non Lego Bluey figures on sale at the moment.

A dolls house? Doesn’t have to be a pink plastic Barbie one, just a wooden one you could decorate for her or with her. Or I did see an ikea hack where someone had used a Kallax unit, put a thin sheet of plywood on the back and gone to town on eight different rooms. That would be something that would grow with her.

What about a craft desk? You could get an old school one where the lid lifts up from eBay if you didn’t like any of the newer furniture from Ikea or the high street. Sand it down and varnish it and it would look beautiful. You could get one of those rolls of colouring paper from ikea, fix up a couple of brackets on the top of the desk and slot it in there. Fill the desk with pens, pencils and crayons and call it ‘DD’s Creation Station’.

Same with mine. She's 9, but small-world play was literally the only thing she did from about 18 months to recently. However she barely played with SF. Started off with Peppa Pig figures (we still have them for my nostalgia as they were such a big thing for her), then Paw Patrol, Playmobil, the Learning Resources rainbow sorting people, then Barbies.

Playmobil....on repeat, in our family 🙂

Schleich - they do different sets my daughter has the safari at our house and the farm at her grandmas she has had it since she was about 4 and still plays with it now adding new items to it and now her little brother also likes to play with it.

leap frog ice cream cart / bbq

tonies box - I’ve got one for my 2 nearly 3 year old for Christmas not tried it yet but you get different characters for stories and songs and games to play along with it.

Melissa and Doug ice cream

My DD turns 4 just after Christmas.

For Christmas she’s getting a bike, dressing up bits, real live pet dog, football, puzzles, Barbie styling head and Polly pockets.

She loves dolls and anything related to this so for her birthday she’ll be getting baby born doll, bed, highchair and doll clothes, twin pushchair and whatever other bits I see. She has lots of doll stuff already but bits need replacing.

Other things we have that she plays with are her scooter, leap frog ice cream cart, tea set.

i have two older ones so we already have lots of drawing stuff, orchard games, puzzles, duplo/lego, magnetic tiles, kid knex, books

DD is 4, she likes to play with her older brothers paw patrol tower, they both have some V-tech marble rush sets we’ve bought them so we have a huge box of it now (you can combine them to make bigger marble runs and they are quite stable and easy to build). Trampoline is also well used by my two.

Lego sets - Bluey, Gabby Dollhouse, Disney princess sets are the ones my daughter has. But we also have loads of other sets as DS is nearly 9 and we’ve been buying it since he was 4!

If she likes magnetic tiles- have you looked at the magnetic marble run- looks amazing!!

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4884064?rec=GPDP

Currently on offer

I’ve got her a gorgeous jewellery box with a little ballerina that spins and plays music. I know she will love it and hopefully it will last a lifetime! Got it from Etsy for £38.

My daughter really started to love at this age, and still does, the Orchard Toys games, Shopping List, Rainbow Unicorns, Crazy Chefs. She has a few more too, but these are her go-tos.

Do you have a link? I’d love to find a good quality one for my daughter

Lego or Playmobil. Maybe a zoo set?

Playdough machines and lots of colours. When my DD was 3 or 4, my sister gave her a Hello Kitty cake stand, silicone cupcake cases and a pot of pretty, shiny, metallic 'confetti'. I added some used candles. DD would spend hours and hours making 'cakes' and decorating them. 14 years later, visiting kids are still playing with these (playdough gets replaced). DD has amazing handwriting and I think it was decorating/ manipulating the playdough which developed fantastic fine motor skills! It's spay great for creativity (she got an 8 in her Art GCSE).

Doll house
Dressing table (for kids)
Gabby’s doll house
Plastic jewellery
Hair accessories
Nail polish
Dress up outfits - Red riding hood, Elsa
books
football

These are my 4 year old’s wish list

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1886614641/?ref=share_ios_native_control

and it’s been reduced!

www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1886614641/?ref=share_ios_native_control

My 4 year old is getting a scooter for her main present. She never really liked a balance bike but tried a friends scooter and enjoyed it. We got a fold up one so it’s easy to get in the car etc.

Last year I got a really good quality wooden dolls house ( plan toys.) I bought it second hand off eBay and it came with lots of furniture. We set it up with the furniture for her to uncover and she loves it. She got some sylvanian families as gifts and they live in there as well.

My DS turns 4 just after Christmas and so far he is getting the following

Scooter
Hot wheels transporter
The floor is lava game
A floor puzzle
Microphone
Self moving train for his wooden train track
Magnetic tiles
Yoto cards and card holder
Bluey and Spidy figures

I'm looking at the Playmobil pirate ship but not sure yet.

Things he plays with a lot at the moment are

Wooden ice-cream shop
Marble run
Playdough
Red riding hood by smart games
Duplo
Foam swords
Lots of hotwheels
Wooden train set