Christmas Gift Guide for Kids 2020

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In the blink of an eye, Halloween has been and gone, Bonfire night has passed (with more of a fizzle than a bang) and Christmas is now fast approaching! After what has been quite the rollercoaster of a 2020, we are all wanting to make Christmas feel as special as possible for our children and whilst it may not look or feel quite like the Christmases we are used to, there are plenty of ways we can continue to embrace the magic of Christmas and enjoy creating some precious memories with our children at home.

As I do every year at Real Mum Reviews, we have recently been  rounding up some inspiration for Christmas gifts for children. This year more than ever, many of the 2020 Christmas Gift ideas are focused on games and activities that can be played together, really embracing that sense of togetherness and unity that our households have hopefully felt in 2020. With some great Christmas gift ideas for children from activities to games, toys and treats, I hope this round up of gift ideas for Christmas 2020 gives you a few pointers on what Santa could leave under the tree this year.

Games & Activities 

Who says education can’t be fun too!? The kids may be a tad bored of traditional home schooling (and let’s face it, after my near meltdown trying to teach Erin fractions with Gummy Bears during lockdown, most of us parents probably are to). There are however other ways of reinforcing mathmatical skills whilst having a LOT more fun in the process. These MagicCube maths building sets contain 16 MagiCube magnetic cubes and 45 clips which can be used to help strengthen children’s early calculation skills, with the recognition of numbers and first sums. With the bright colours and fun magnetic play element, this learning toy is also great for stimulating your child’s imagination. An educational and fun option for children who respond better to more practical play based learning.

The MagicCube Maths Building set is available at Amazon and retails at £37.

Another educational toy for hands on play is Geomag – the original magnetic construction toy since 1998. These super fun magnetic rods can be used to piece together and create all kind of construction, and with 42 pieces in the pack the opportunities for what you can make are pretty endless! Made from recycled plastic, GeoMag is suitable for ages 3 and above, and the pack comes with two storage boxes inside for safely storing away the rods and balls when not in use.

You can check out GeoMags wide range of products here.

The girls are huge fans of the traditional Rubik’s Cube and Erin has loved playing the Rubik’s Revolution games’ Light Speed mode during Lockdown 1.0! Rubik’s Cage is a new and exciting three-dimensional matching and stacking game which can be played with 2-4 players.

In this exciting colour matching game, you have to stack three of the same colour blocks in a row, while stopping your opponent from achieving the same, all within a rotating cage! The ultimate game of strategy, you must attempt to outsmart your opponent and stack your blocks before they do, whilst turning the cage, reshuffling and flipping upside down to scramble up the game and foil their attempts to win! Fast paced and fun, and a great way for siblings or family members to battle it out!

Rubiks cage is available here and retails at £16.99

Who says board games have to involve sitting still? The Floor is Lava is a great family board game that promotes movement, and imagination and is fun for both children and adults – adding a LOT of laughter to the family home! Suitable for 2 or more players, The Floor is Lava and can be played inside or outside the home.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of floor is lava, its all about finding somewhere safe (not on the floor) imagining that the carpet or floor space has turned into red hot lava. Land on the floor and you may burn your feet!

The Floor is Lava is a fun and interactive game that comes with 25 non slip foam stepping stones and 27 challenge cards and is a great way to get children off the sofa or away from screen time! Suitable for children 5 and above.

The Floor is Lava is just £13.99 and is available here.

There is something about gross things like farts, bogies and poop, that always make children laugh, and this Fartbuster game is no different. This gross but fun farting reactions game is sure to raise some belly laughs with the family this Christmas! The aim of the game? Follow the farts, find the sequence and avoid the poop!

There are 3 different game modes included, with light up arms and hundreds of silly fart sounds. Take on the extreme memory challenge by pulling FartBusters arms and seeing how long you can last in repeating his sequence!

Fartbuster from John Adams retails at £14.99 and is available here.

For fast paced family games with an action filled twist – Emoji Action is just the ticket and a big change from a traditional card game! If the children are always frustrated with the youngest player going first – this will be a refreshing change as the SMILIEST player gets to go first instead! Players must aim to play all their cards, but if an action card appears, the last person to complete it has to pick up all the cards in the centre! With actions being everything from clapping to striking a dance pose or shouting pepporoni, you need to have your wits about you and you need to act FAST to avoid collecting more!

Aimed at ages 8+, Emoji Action comes in a handy storage tin to keep it all together when not in use. Emoji Action retails at £10.99 and is available here.

This year, Marvin’s Magic celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Rubik Cube with the release of Marvin’s Magic Rubik’s Amazing Box of Magic Tricks, a great big box of magic tricks that budding magicians will adore. With over forty different magic tricks to explore including the instant solve, mind-reading puzzle cube, jumping cubes and many more, there are more than enough tricks contained within to create full-blown magic shows for family and friends. A fun one to entertain the Grandparents over Zoom too!

You can pick up the Marvin’s Magic Amazing Box of Tricks here for £24.99

For a game the whole family can enjoy that involves being a little bit – well, SILLY, Silly Sounds is the ideal choice!

A fun packed game for the whole family to enjoy, the aim is to make and guess the silly sounds that are stuck on your headband! Will you guess the ‘elephant asleep on a train’ or the ‘rattlesnake in the shower’, or will you think your uncle Dave has just gone a little bit mental. Only time will tell!

Silly Sounds retails at just £12.99 and is available to buy from Amazon.

Finally for the board game lovers is 5 Second Rule – Spintensity – an all-new, spinfully intense electronic version of the original 5 Second Rule game!

Race to name 3 things in 5 seconds (e.g. 5 animals beginning with C) then press the timer to see what the spinner wants you to do next: name 3 more, 2 more, draw a new card or move on to the next player… or will the timer turn Red and sound you out!

This electronic version is even more frantic and fun than before! You can also combine this with the original and Junior game for even more fun!

5 Second Rule Spintensity retails at £14.99 and is available here.

Kids will absolutely love battling it out to try and be the first player to match 5 in a row in this Frozen 2 edition of Top Trumps Match! Players must attempt to match 5 cubes in a row – horizontally, vertically or diagonally without their opponent knocking them out and taking the lead. The set comes with 25 unique character cubes including kids favourite Frozen 2 characters such as Kristoff and Sven and 15 character cards with official artwork from the Frozen franchise.

Top Trumps Match is available in a variety of other themes from Star Wars to Toy Story, Disney Princess to LOL Surprise! You can see the full range here at Winning Moves. RRP starts at just £9.99!

NEW for 2020 is Pass the Pugs, a classic twist on the beloved family game Pass the Pigs. Game play is quick and easiy to master, making it ideal for the whole family to play together. Battle with your friends and family to be the first to get to 100 points! Simply roll the two pugs and score points depending on how they land – will you get a Face Plant, a Snoozer or a canine combo? The Pass the Pugs carry case comes with a rule book, score pad and 2 pencils making it ideal for travel or on the go. Pass the Pugs is available to buy at Winning Moves along with the original Pass the Pigs products and retails at just £9.99.

Imaginative Play

The girls are getting to the age where they can actually play really nicely together; using their imaginations to act out stories and create scenes with each of them playing a different characters. They are also big fans of Vet Squad – and being animal lovers themselves, they love any sets that involve cute and animals to play with! Now you can take your children on an exciting animal rescue with this Safari Expedition play set from the Vet Squad range.

The animal kingdom needs your help – children can race to the rescue in this special vey buggy which folds out to reveal a  vet rescue station packed full of tech to help make the animals feel better.

The set includes 1 vet squad doll, a giraffe figure and transforming vet vehicle; with lots of accessories to help encourage their imagination!

The Vet Squad Safari Expedition is available HERE and retails at £19.99.

For a creative and eco friendly gift that encourages an interest in growing your own, why not check out Grow & Play with Peppa Pig, George and their friends Suzy Sheep and Rebecca Rabbit!?

Children will love sowing the seeds provided and learning how to look after plants and watch them grow.

The Grow & Play Peppa Pots are designed to encourage children to plant ‘easy-to-grow’ seeds and nurture their plants while having fun playing with Peppa Pig characters. You can even attach pots to each other by clipping the fence from one set to the house of another to make a super special Peppa Pig street!

A really adorable gift, The Grow & Play Peppa pots retail at just £9.99 each and are available at Amazon

For Creative Calm

The girls love craft and creative play, and there is something pretty special about kinetic style sand that creates some quiet and calm (and let’s face it we could all do with a bit of that at the moment!)

With these NEW So Sand DIY Magic Sand Kits, children can create their own satisfying magic sand from scratch!

Using the So Sand DIY Ball Case, they can then go on to make awesome sand creations and use the included cutting tools and ball prints to unlock the sensory relaxation potential of their magic sand. This is a great way of calming the children after a busy day at school or reducing any frustrations and anxiety that they may be feeling during this challenging year!

Trust me when I say there is nothing quite as therapeutic as using the set to shape, cut, slice and crush your sand into any shape you desire! The So Sand DIY Ball Case includes satisfying sand, a slicing tool and decorations all of which can be safely stored away in the base when not in use.

The So Sand DIY Ball Case retails at £12.99 and is available HERE.

If you’d prefer a larger set for siblings to share, the So Sand DIY Vanity Case can help provide hours of relaxing fun! Using the special tools and shapes provided children can create amazing designs and patterns that you can crush, slice and squish. For those worried about any mess, the base of the vanity tray can even be used as a play tray to keep your mess tidy before storing all the contents safely away.

The So Sand DIY Satisfying Vanity Case retails at £20 and is available HERE.

The girls have had a few Fuzzikins products before and loved them, but if you haven’t already heard of them, Fuzzikins are soft fuzzy characters that can be coloured in with washable pens to create children’s individual and unique design. Once they’ve finished, you can rince in water to wash off the colour and let them start all over again.

The Fuzzikins Ice Cream Van Bag is a new addition to the range from Interplay. Children will LOVE decorating their very own ice cream van and accessories (the flocked van, ice creams accessories and character can all be bought to life with the washable pens included). Once they’ve finished, the ice cream van also doubles up as a super cool bag!

The Fuzzikins Ice Cream Van Bag retails at £15 and is available HERE.

For the Gamers

For children who love to play computer games, whether that’s PS4, Xbox One, PC or Nintendo Switch, Outright Games have some great new releases for 2020 that will be a delight for children to find under the tree and can be played and enjoyed by the whole family.

Paw Patrol – Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay- First up is a new addition game for PAW Patrol fans following on from the success of their first game, PAW Patrol On a Roll. With 7 levels to explore, 7 mini games including Pop Pop Boogie and lots of fun collectibles to earn as they explore each mission, this is a fun, family friendly game that has no baddies to worry about just challenges and problems to solve.  Theres even a collaborative play mode so that siblings can play together without the squabbles! See our full review here.

Ben 10 – Power Trip – Another new release for 2020 is Ben 10 Power Trip – Ben is on holiday with his family when evil magician Hex unleashes the power of four mysterious crystals – only Ben can break the curse! By transforming into powerful aliens to battle enemies, solve puzzles and explore an exciting 3D world!

Race with Ryan Deluxe Edition – Race with Ryan came out late last year (see our review here) and this year a NEW Deluxe edition has been released! Play as Ryan and an expanded range of friends, with TWELVE new USA-themed drivers including American Titan, Kansas Gus, New York Lexa and more. Join them on the open road for an American truck tour, featuring 4 new circuits including cruising on the historic Route 66, Icy Land, Forest and the City. Will you be first across the finish line… again? Race with Ryan’s RRP varies depending on the console, but is available to buy HERE

For the Bedroom

My eldest is an absolutely huge Harry Potter fan, and I fell in love with these Harry Potter hand painted resin figures in the  CHARMS collection, with characters interpreted by the popular Japanese “chibi’ art style. The Series 2 characters include Ron, Hermione, Hagrid and Voldemort and all come individually boxes in a beautiful gift box. The book included is coded with the House Gryffindor .

8cm in height, these figurines are not a toy and should not be played with, but make a great room decoration for older children and Potter fans.

You can see all the Harry Potter CHARMS collection characters on the Gift Giving All Wrapped Up website – each character retails at £8.95

For the perfect bedtime companion, Peter Rabbit has received a touch of Christmas sparkle! Measuring approximately 30cm high, this adorable Peter Rabbit cuddly plush toy will make the perfect keepsake for anyone who loves Christmas and comes with a super cute Merry Christmas sack and a winter themed pattern on the ears and feet. Sticking with his roots, Peter Rabbit also comes with his traditional blue button up jacket.

The Christmas Peter Rabbit plush retails at just £9.95 and is available to buy from Beatrix Potter Gifts by Enesco.

If your children’s collection of jewellery, gems, bobbles or bracelets are starting to spread about the bedroom, this adorable Disney themed enhanced rose trinket box is ideal! With the glass domed rose from the classic Beauty and the Beast adorning the lid, this gold jewellery trinket box is perfectly sized for stashing away their most prized possessions. Packed in a Disney branded window gift box the Disney Beauty and the Beast trinket box retails at £15 and is available to buy from the Enchanting Disney Collection at Gift Giving All Wrapped Up.

To add a bit of colour and brightness to the bedroom walls, inkanddrop.com have a huge variety of kids and nursery art prints to choose from, with a variety of posters, prints, frames and accessories to help bring a room to life!

We fell in love with this beautiful green slogan typography print. With cool typographic style fonts spelling out a famous quote from the girls’ favourite book “We’re Going on A Bear Hunt”, I love how this looks hung with a wooden magnetic frame.

If you’re looking for some really special artwork for your children’s bedrooms, then why not invest in some of this stunning limited edition Disney, Harry Potter, Star Wars themed artwork, created by top artists around the world. The Pulse Gallery sell one-off artist interpretations of iconic scenes and moments from classic shows and are the only works in Europe officially licensed by the brands. These timeless pieces are unique ways to brighten up a child’s bedroom but are also rare collector’s items that make for great gifts for kids and adults who are fans of the shows, and they rocket in value over time so are great investment pieces.

This year also sees them selling a range of rare collectable pins released this year, including a Disney Villain series and a Toy Story series which coincides with its 25th anniversary.

Bedtime Reading

Now more than ever, books make a lovely Christmas gift for a bit of much needed escapism and are a great way to help children relax and switch off before bed.

For an adventure filled book for children who love to travel (and whom perhaps have had holidays cancelled this year), The Extraordinary Travellers A Little Museum book is a page turning mystery for children 8 and above with some French language skills thrown in for good measure!

When Lucy and her younger brother, Tom, find out their mum is part of a group called the Extraordinary Travellers they have no idea how much their life is going to change or the adventures that await them. When the Eiffel Tower disappears, Lucy & Tom must help the President of France to locate the missing treasures! With fun French phrases; this is an adventure book with a difference and was a real hit with Erin! 

You can pick up yours here for £7.99

We’ve had a few books from Wonderbly before, and if you’re looking for a high quality book with a person touch and adorable illustrations then you really cant go wrong. Wonderbly have a number of books in their Christmas range that will make the perfect gift for children.

First up is The Elf Who Saved Christmas. When calamity strikes at the North Pole, it’s down to one plucky Elf to save the day – or Christmas will have to be cancelled! With this book, you can make a child you know the hero of the hour, personalising the book with not only their name but their appearance too – with a choice of 6 girl and 6 boy images to choose from to match your child.

Every child gets not one, not two, but four unique Elf names in the book, based on their first name and surname – they’ll laugh out loud at how loopy they sound! This story is a great reminder about never giving up and the power of creativity and imagination. If you think outside the box – anything is possible.

Each book is printed on thick, luxurious paper that’s partly recycled (FSC-certified) and is available in soft or hardback varieties.

The Elf Who Saved Christmas prices start at £21.99.

Another great new addition is The Christmas Snowflake. Snowflake is looking for a place to call home this Christmas – but needs you and your loved ones to help her! This is a charming, personalised book all about the importance of being with the people you love and can be personalised with between 2 and 9 names of family members.

With family members names appearing on Snowflake’s crystals, festive Christmas stockings, and even floating majestically on the wind, the Christmas Snowflake is real treat with beatiful illustrations and heartwarming characters, as well as playful rhyming verse on every page.

The Christmas Snowflake comes in hardback format and is printed on luxurious premium quality paper. You can get yours for £21.99 from Wonderbly.com

Calming Comfort

For younger babies, a little treat that can help them sleep better at bedtime is the Aveeno Calming Comfort range, With oat extract and lavender, the body wash and lotion can help soothe babies skin at bathtime without drying, and help them stay calm and relax before bed. For children and babies with sensitive skin, this is a great little gift for bath time. The Aveeno Calming Comfort Range is available to buy now at Boots.com

 

What ever your little ones are asking for under the tree this year, one thing is for certain; Christmas 2020 will be like no other we have had before.

Keep an eye on my page over the next few days as my FREE downloadable ideas packs for Virtual Christmas games and activities is coming VERY soon!

Lucy xxx