I was hoping DD (nearly 5) would fall in love with one of her Christmas presents...

[iwouldgoouttonight]

...so that it would give us some ideas of what to get for her birthday, but no, she's played with each toy a bit but has mainly played with some helium balloons left over from a party.

Family are asking for ideas for presents, her birthday is in a couple of weeks. She says she wants surprises

For Christmas she had playmobil, Polly pocket things, couple of Barbies, jewellery making kit, hama beads, book of paper Christmas decorations to make.

She seems to have enjoyed the creative/cutting/sticking things the most and likes playing 'parties', (ie, bring all teddies downstairs, stick name tags on them, make them some Christmas decorations, wrap up small teddies in paper and unwrap them as presents) or 'cafes' (ie, bring all teddies downstairs, cut out plates and food out of paper, stick name tags on them).

Does anyone have any ideas for presents she might like??

A nice tea set? A kitchen? Build a Bear?

10 helium balloons?

We found (try GLTC) a wonderful case of pens / pencils you could have a name out on. Once the pens are used it becomes an art portfolio.

My dd is also nearly 5, in a few weeks. Her favorite Christmas present was felt tips/crayons/colouring pencils and a colouring book.

Also anything imaginative play. Perhaps a dolls house/kitchen?

We bought DH's goddaughter a big box of helium balloons (delivered by balloonmonkey.com) for her birthday last month - she was delighted and she also got a massive cardboard box to play in.

My dd is similar in age, tastes and the small gap between Christmas and birthday.

Cuddly toys are the only thing she's really interested in. She brings them down every day, put them in a line or a circle. Then has a tea party or plays school with them.

The only other thing that was a big hit at Christmas was some dressing up costumes, would that be something to consider?

Maybe an art/drawing desk? An easel?

What about interactive soft toys like Lucy the Dog?

Does she like anything technology-based, maybe a kids vtech 'laptop' or something?

Cars, leaves, potatoes, corrugated card etc and a tube of paint.

Balloon modelling kit?
Giant bubble maker?

Play party food?

Play food. Tea set.

If she likes playing cafés, does she have a kitchen and till? Play food that you can buy in cafés like Melissa and Doug sandwich set, wooden 'cartons' of juice, milk etc?

craft box
get a box and fill it with pens, scissors, glue stick, packs of paper, ready made cards, packs of sparkles to stick on, paint, big and small paint brushes etc

decorate the box and put a big label on it ''Dd's craft box''

second a tea set, maybe make a toy ''teddy bears picnic basket'' with a tea set, fleece blanket, toy food etc

I would go for some craft consumable stuff- stickers, Pom poms, glitter glue - maybe a cool box to get them in?

Can anyone knit or crochet and could show her how?

Thanks for all the brilliant ideas, you're all a lot more creative than me! She already has tea sets and play food and till which she plays with a lot (with all the teddies!). Craft supplies are a good idea, we do have a 'craft cupboard' (ie, very messy cupboard which ends up as a dumping ground for various tiny boys of paper, glitter, feathers, etc) so it would be nice for her to have a nice craft box of her own. Build a bear is a good idea, we might take her there to make a bear as her main present.

I hadn't thought about electrical v tech type things, that might be an idea too.

I like the idea of making her a teddy bears picnic basket too, think she'd like that. Although I think she'd like to be involved in making it too!

Ok so as a present, you could send her an "invite" to a teddy bears' picnic with perhaps an empty basket. The invite has a list of things she has to "find" for the picnic including toy food etc that you already have, but perhaps clues as to where she could find other items hidden round the house like picnic blanket. The star guest at the picnic could be her build a bear?!

I asked gps to buy my dc premium bonds instead of wasting their money on plastic tat with a hit miss playing record. I end up wasting my money instead but atleast sensible gps are saving something for them.

Posted too soon.
My dd loves craft so I got her a nice box & some bits to go with it. My ds loves musical instruments, toys with flashing lights & cars so I bought him a garage.

Dd 4.9 got a badge maker. She has not stopped making badges since! It was age 4+ so is fairly easy to use with minimal supervision.

I bought my 5yo god daughter a 'toy' from ELC which is a little drawing desk with a projector lamp and slides full of pictures to copy down and colour in. It was a massive hit.

This was the badge maker link if you're interested badges

Love your username btw! Smiths fan?

Puppets of some variety?

Another idea - does she have a bike or a scooter. These are things that my dd (now 6) has got a lot of use out of. She also loves Barbies. They aren't my favourite doll but they don't take up a lot of room and she loves them!

Thanks for the suggestions, sorry I hasn't checked the thread for a while! We've bought her presents now, we've got her a pretend school set so her and her bears can play schools, and several art and crafty things to keep her going. I like the look of that badge maker, wish I'd seen that before we'd bought things.

Family are generally giving her money/vouchers so she can chose something herself when she has some idea of what she'd like, rather than them buying stuff just for the sake of it.

TheHappyCamper, yes I am bit bit of a Smiths fan!