7 Christmas Stocking Ideas For Younger Kids
Is the size of your budget making it hard to come up with Christmas stocking ideas for your kids
? Finding cheap stocking fillers for kids' Christmas stockings is an annual challenge for parents. With a little forward planning and a bit of ingenuity, shopping for Christmas stocking gifts can become fun and you won't feel tempted to overspend.Here are a few favourite Christmas stocking fillers for younger children.
Jig Saw Puzzles
You can buy jigsaw puzzles to suit any age. A lovely gift for baby's first Christmas is a wooden puzzle with knobs on the oversized pieces for tiny hands to grasp the pieces easily.
Slightly older children will love the challenge of big brightly colored puzzle pieces that fit together to build a picture of animals or characters they can recognize.
Play Doh
All children love Play Doh. The manufacturers recommend this modeling substance as being non-toxic and suitable for children aged 2 years and up.
A basic set of different colored Play Doh is a great cheap stocking filler. You can also get many different creativity sets to make all kinds of Play Doh shapes.
Card Games
Children from about 3 years of age and upward love playing card games. Playing cards is educational as well as fun. Card games help children to develop organizational and matching skills. Playing cards also encourages children to learn about numbers and counting.
There are all sorts of new card games created especially for kids. But you can't bear old fashioned games such as Snap, Rummy and Old Maid for fun at Christmas.
Coloring Pencils and Crayons
Even the tiniest tots have fun scribbling as soon as they are old enough to hold a crayon without attempting to eat it. Drawing and coloring help children to develop their coordination. Drawing pictures will encourage creativity and imagination. A coloring book and a set of coloring pencils or crayons will give a child many hours of fun.
As well as traditional pencils and crayons, washable glitter pens are popular with kids. Make sure it actually says "washable" on the pack, though, or you won't be popular with parents who find their kids, clothing and possibly upholstery indelibly etched.
Beanie Toys
Beanie toys are great as cheap stocking fillers for young children, and they also appeal to older children as collectors' items. Beanies are great for smaller kids as they like the squidgy feel of the toys. But Beanies are usually not recommended for under three year olds, so check the manufacturer's advice before purchasing.
For older kids beanies are appealing because they are very cute. Kids of all ages enjoy collecting. Don't be fooled by the outward sophistication of girls in their early teens; they love to collect cute items.
Beanies come in all varieties. To name just a few, there are beanie wild animals, beanie pets, beanie babies and beanie Disney characters.
Pocket Pals
Kids love anything pocket sized. There are all kinds of pocket size toys. For instance, there is Polly Pocket, Pony in my Pocket, Zoo in my Pocket, Puppy in my Pocket. When you think about the size of the average kid's pocket, you will realize how small these toys are, so they aren't suitable for the very youngest ones.
Board Games
It wouldn't be Christmas without at least one board game.
Monopoly has been a family favorite for many years, but a game of Monopoly does tend to take a long time and younger children tend to get bored long before the game ends.
If you are looking for board games for kids to play over the holiday season, there are plenty to choose from. Ludo has been loved by children for generations. For the youngest members of the family, you can't fail with the old favorite Snakes and Ladders. The hottest holiday board game at the moment is the award winning Qwirkle Board Game. This is suitable for players of 6 and up.
When you are buying treats to fill stockings for younger children you don't have to worry that they will be hankering after the latest hot toy advertised on TV. Young children have no understanding of price tags; they judge a toy on its merits. Everything is new to kids experiencing their first few Christmases. A one or two year old can have as much fun (or possibly more fun) with a pile of cardboard boxes as with a pile of expensive toys. So relax and enjoy hunting down cheap stocking fillers your little ones will love.
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