5yr Old Birthday - who simply has too much. Gift suggestions??

[EnigmaticBlonde]

My son is going to be 5 soon - and I have a dilemma I'm sure many of you are familiar with. We simply cannot contain any more crap within our house.

I loathe people wasting money on useless plastic toys - but I also understand that people want to buy gifts rather than give money.

Anyone got any suggestions for useful gifts for him??

We have a Brio box bigger than your head, Hot Wheels collection I could sell back to toy'r'us, a bike, scooter, trampoline, marble run collection, more clothes than Next and the toy list goes on!!!

Help?

xxx

Following - same here with dd.
Audiobooks are a hit here & I'm thinking of getting a swingball set for her & she's asked for a pogo stick.
What about a contribution to a merlin pass? If you have places near you they look excellent value. I'm figuring out if I can afford one atm

You could do what I sometimes do - prune the gifts and rewrap and use for party gifts for other children's birthdays. My 5yos used to have whole-class parties, and everyone brought a gift. It was just too much stuff. So, after all the fun of opening them, I used to hive some off (some were always duplicates anyway) and use to give to other children at their parties.

Sounds mad, but better than keeping presents that aren't going to get used. Also, aged 5, my DC didn't remember all the things that they'd been given so I could get away with it. Probably wouldn't work now! (but they have smaller parties anyway).

I also used to keep some back and take them with us on holiday (DC with spring birthdays), or to bring out on a rainy day at half-term or similar. That worked really well.

Lego? Books (in our case Lego ones, but maybe trains/Thomas if that's what your DS is into)? Board games?

Vouchers for a day out? Annual pass for somewhere?