Growing up, I never had a stocking, oh no I had a pillowcase that we could hang downstairs for Father Christmas to leave our gifts in. Yes all our gifts pretty much fitted in to a pillowcase, except for the large ones, like my Sindy house (which was pre loved and already assembled and covered in a bed sheet. This was something that carried on for me until Maxi was born when I made a Christmas Stocking for him and the following year when I made one for Mini too
So when Idealo, a UK based price comparison website asked me what I would buy for one of the boys with £75 for their Christmas presents, it reminded me of my childhood growing up and I accepted the challenge.
Why £75? Well Idealo have discovered the average spend of parents on their children at the festive period is now £168, whilst in 1995 it was only £75.
So they challenged me and other bloggers to put together our christmas list for one child for £75 and I decided to do one for Mini, so here is what I chose and why.
Dragon Hama bead box set £8.95
Mini loves all things crafty, but to be honest Hama beads have passed us buy and I thought that this selection would really excite him as he loves Dragons. Merry from Craft Merrily suggest this as the perfect set for a 5 year old lad, plus they are great for improving manual dexterity and hand eye co-ordination.
LEGO Creationary Game £22.40
We are huge LEGO fans and we have this on the Ipad and thought it would be fantastic to play together as a family. We hvae lots of LEGO games and find them to be perfectly suited to us and the boys. Plus we can always make up our own rules too.
LEGO City Truck £19.97
Mini is particular loves LEGO City, he has great fun building it with MadDad, sometimes this can take a few nights, but then he really plays with the sets once they are constructed. We have the airport and I thought this would be the perfect companion.
Wheres the Doctor book £4.49
Mini adores Wheres Wally and we have all the books and he loves Dr Who too, so this is pretty self explanitory really.
Boys activity book £3.99
Dark nights over winter time often means books, puzzels and crafting for us, so I hoped that this would be really interesting for MIni. His reading skills are great and I wanted to keep him occupied.
LEGO mini figures magnet kit £2.50
Can a boy ever have enough LEGO?
Bike horn £3.00
Mini is now riding his bike pretty efficiently without staibilizers and loves these old fashioned horns, so I though this would be a perfect small gift for him.
In total I spent just under £75.00 and I think that I got quite a large and varied selection for him, but I can see how parents would spend a lot more, especially when it comes to the cost of electronics and games. I tend to buy small things throughout the the year for the boys and I also ban TV with adverts during the build up to the festive period, as otherwise all I would hear is “Mummy, I want that”.
Did you have a stocking as a child? Do your children have one now?
Disclosure: Idealo purchased the items on my gift list for me for Christmas
what a lovely post to be able to do.
we had pillows, the kids have santa detailed pillows now.
This year they will have an average spend of about £80 each but I have been picking up bargains through the year!
Last year was maddness they get so much from friends and family as well so we never get round to playing with it all.
What a fun task! I think you can still be clever with things and not spend a complete fortune. I did have a pillowcase and actually loved it. I plan to make the children ones out of Christmas material soon. If you made those stocking above, they are beautiful…you could sell them!
Love those stockings, we have named ones in our house too!
We also had pillowcases at Christmas (and there were 6 of us), but my girls also have sacks.
Nice choice of gifts, I’m sure your son will love them x
A pillowcase is brilliant! Some of my grandchildren are visiting this Christmas and they probably aren’t bringing their Christmas stockings, so perhaps I should offer them a pillowcase to lay by the woodstove on Christmas Eve…I could tie a red ribbon around it to fancy it up!
I got a preloved Sindy house to. I loved it so much. My mum threw it away years back and I wanted one so she bought me another preloved it’s up the loft as it was too flimsy for the boys but it’s coming out when they are older. It was all I played with as a child I truly loved it.
You did fantastic with your Christmas list, Mini will love them. I loved doing this challenge http://www.susankmann.com/2011/11/fill-christmas-stocking-on-budget.html
Well done you x