Frugal 5 year old girl Xmas present ideas

[sunflowerandivy]

Hiya,
Please help, I am on maternity leave with an 8 month old and my daughter is 5 and we are pretty skint because of mat leave and I want to start buying a few bits for Xmas but I am so sleep deprived I just don't know what to get. She has everything! She has a scooter, bike, dolls house. Don't really want tonnes of plastic crap.
She likes drawing, colouring and writing.
Her hobbies are ballet and swimming.
She's had a tough year emotionally due to new baby, my postnatal depression, starting school and some bullying from a horrible girl from nursery (luckily goes to different school) so really want her to be excited by Xmas day. Thanks x

New ballet shoes and bag for them.

New pens / pencils and paper - the works are usually good for this.

Jewelry? maybe a charm bracelet, or that might be a bit old for her.

Science kit? Not a chemistry set but there are sets for 5 year olds.

Lego - you can never have too much.

I'd go down the craft route if she likes drawing and painting. The Works do those craft bags that are quite a good cheap gift. Baker Ross do craft sets. The Galt rainbow Lab set and Hama beads/make your own jewellery sets are good too.

Could you get a craft book and work through some of the activities with her so she has a bit of quality time with you?

Oooh I forgot about baker Ross.
Ballet bag sounds nice too.
Thank you @sashh and @MoreTeaLessCoffee

At that age my creative friend wrapped a massive cardboard box, filled it with balloons and some lovely clothes/dress up. It's as much about the presentation!

Would she like a tutu dress for play at home - So something like this

tuclothing.sainsburys.co.uk/p/Pink-Ballet-Tutu-Dress-%282-10-Years%29/136437906-Pink

Im thinking you could put in a tutu dress, ballet bag, pink, white balloons and some sparkle?

PS noticed M&S had some nice ballet things in too - ballet onesie, pyjamas

• Bike/scooter accessories - Maybe handlebar streamers, reflective beads for the wheels, lights, stickers?

• Flippers, goggles or a new swimming towel with her favourite patterns/characters

• Books with classic ballet stories like The Nutcracker

• A board game that you can play together with her

Does she have a toy kitchen? Aldi have all their gorgeous wooden toys at the moment think it's £34.99 for the kitchen! All set up on Christmas morning it would look lovely if you have the space!

Hobbycraft colour in playhouses (rocket, castle, fairy house, shop etc) are £10 now. Club5 gives and extra £5 off.

It's free click and collect over £10 so you could make it up to 10 with some nice pens or other craft stuff.

Bright Minds have lovely things to educate and engage children

Look in The Works and TK Maxx for toys, books and crafts. Primark for some T-shirts, jumpers or clothes.
Supermarket for chocolates.

Make the whole run up to Xmas nice with baking, film nights, reading and winter walks.

What about an A5 sketch book? Or my girls really enjoy watercolour pencils and fancy colouring in sheets/outline drawings. We bought some from aldi last year but the works etc would do them too.

I wouldn't bother with a toy kitchen at that age as she might not get much use out of it.

A light up tracing pad might be a good option if she's arty - they are not too expensive (£12 ish on Amazon for the Crayola one). My daughter has one and gets lots of use from it. You might also be able to print off or even make some extra tracing pictures for her.

Usbourne sticker books. Quite often 241 type deals on those in Waterstones

Floating bath light that changes colour - Amazon £10 and a variety of bath bombs and bath foams or even a make your own set . Home bargains have the bath things very cheap!

Hobby craft have 3 for 2 on craft sets, lots to choose from

Easel / chalkboard (may be some on FB Marketplace), rolls of good quality lining paper to use on easel (makes great cheap drawing paper), a nice box / bag / case filled with craft bits, plasticine, lego, poster paints, large beads and some nice cottons to make home made necklaces, mobile for her ceiling

Get a nice medium gift box, make a craft hamper. Fill with art paper/ card/ stickers/ Google eyes, glue etc. you can buy from various places. Wrap up box with big ribbon.

zogg diving sticks, hamman towel

schleich - balala set or figures maybe ( look on marketplace secondhand also)

hair bobbles/ clips/ bands she might like, and useful for ballet.

I bought my DD some chocolate making stuff from lakeland at that age. A thing to microwave chocolate in to melt and pour it and then some moulds/lolly moulds. Cheap and she loved it.

Age 5 ours got an MP3 player and headphones. One of them got a microphone to go with it too. They were a massive hit and all in, didn't cost that much. I recall getting them pretty cheaply on Amazon.

Could you get something for her that the baby will also like in due course? Or maybe a slightly too old present for baby and DD can "help" baby with it this Christmas. Doubles as an extra present almost.

I got DD Duplo at a similar age which her older siblings liked and age 5 it still gets played with now. Bought second hand.

So many good toys on second hand selling sites. I got barbie toys for DD last year at a fraction of the price. Also will buy stuff second hand this year as some of it is as good as new.

I'd be tempted to get a big box and hit the works for craft basics and a couple of kits. Pound shop has some cute £1 crayola craft kits for different ages too. It'll also double up as special time you can spend together just the two of you while baby is with dad/napping. I had to start this recently for my ds, he was a bit insecure suddenly about his 8 month old sister! He loves doing books of maze puzzles together too, we each have a pen :)