Please list some of your best buys for other children's birthday presents.

[hulababy]

DD has loads of birthday parties coming up. We have 5 birthday parties (plus a Halloween party and a Bonfire party) all within 4 weeks of each other! LOL

So, I have to get more organised with this birthday present malarky, and thought others might benefit too.

I normally spend up to £10 on a birthday present, but more than happy to get bargains

ur birthday parties are mainly for 5 year old girls, but have some boys and some different ages coming up as well.

So, what have you bought that has been a success recently - how much and where from?

Please

Waterstones have 3 for 2 on all Children's books. DD went to 3 parties recently and they all got books!

Paint your own mugs, bowls etc from Tescos, bead boxes,clickits

A friend bought DD (3yrs) a little ruck sack of 'baby accessories' - bowl, spoon, dummy, bottles etc . DD played with it all afternoon of her party, she loved it!

I bought a nice puzzle in M&S the other day for a friend of DS1's. It was a planet one - £5.
I really like their puzzles!

Hama bead sets - Toyrific in Broomhill have princess and animal sets among others. DD enjoys doing them as does DS - he has space sets, and all children I have bought them for have enjoyed them - and it is a clean craft activity

Hula - you and I are thinking along the same lines as I asked this question recently for 6 year old girls. There may be some good ideas for you there. Here's the thread (hoping my link abilities don't evaporate):

Power rangers from Toys r us - perfect for boys of 4 upwards (hope my ds gets lots )

Girls - much more difficult but agree with hama beads unless young siblings to choke on them.
Tend to go for crafty things that get used up so do not clutter up cupboards - colouring sets from Disney, pom pom sets etc

To be honest it's hard to know. If it's a child in the school, DW or I will grab something from Woolies or ELC - and then maybe a week to ten days later you get back, depending on level or literacy, politeness and bothered-ness, a note which is either written by the child, in which case it will say "thank you for my lovely present", or by the parent, in which case it will say "Thank you for X's lovely present." (Or "preasant", as we had last week. ) That's if you're lucky. They very rarely collar you tell you how much Demelza loved the interactive Barbie printing set and that it has occupied all her waking hours, or to bring you examples of her lovingly-handcrafted work to prove it. And to be honest, you don't want them to.

As the father of a 6-nearly-7-year-old girl, though, I would say NO MORE FECKING BEADS. Please. Thank you.

Try again...

Hula - you and I are thinking along the same lines as I asked this question recently for 6 year old girls. There may be some good ideas for you there. Here's the thread (hoping my link abilities don't evaporate):

Talk?topicid=2401&threadid=220204&stamp=060930124707

I have neither the time nor inclination to source yet more plastic crap for other people's kids (let alone my own.)

Everyone gets a book voucher from us.
Not as coarse as money,and I think a trip to buy a book is a special occasion.

We state specifically that we don't want presents when our kids have birthdays too.

Soooooo liberating.

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I know.
Am getting worse.
Positively bristle with self righteousness.

Am considered village loon.

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Thanks earlybird - I'll have a look.

By PandaG - we go there too Hama beads are a current bugbear here. DD's satchel is full of the. Her and a friend did something or other the other day. I can only assume that they weren't ironed enough before they went in her bag. Argh!

Boots are doing buy 2 get 3rd free on their toys , lots of games in there i noticed yesterday
HTH

I'll have to check out this Toyrific place. We're not far from Broomhill.

It's really nice. A proper little independent toy shop. It is close to DD's school so we often go up to the Broomhill shops and have a mooch round the toy shop, and the book shop, after school.

This is brilliant for a girl or boy, say age 3. The pieces work like a jigsaw to create lots of different routes for the train (train is part of the set).

I bought a whole load of swingball type tennis/football trainer sets from Tesco when they were selling off the outdoor toys at the end of summer. 75% off at £2.24, and perfect for all the 5 year old boys parties which ds will be going to. I think the shop assistant did wonder why I wanted so many of them though!

what about games?
orchard toy games have some nice ones for that age
or kerplunk/connect 4/ that sort of thing

connect 4 is a fiver at Asda at the moment

and agree about the artsy crafty stuff - we could open a store here with all the stuff that dd has!

but tescos do a big pack of sugar paper (A4) for a fiver - I've bought that before with some funky markers for girls - we get through a lot of paper, so I figure other girls do as well!

Successes in this age group have been Orchard Toys games, Polly Pocket, girly bags with hairclips etc and stationery sets, elc craft sets(wooden bead making was a good one), Lego Racers and City . Got some Clickit sets (reduced in TK Maxx), Playmobil puzzles and Lego ready for the next few !