Christmas (and Birthday) Shopping Early - Shopping for Kids
Last week in the comments I received this question from TopazTook:
OK, here’s a question: I prefer to get my Christmas shopping done early — for my daughter and my three nieces. I generally birthday shopping for at least two of the nieces at the same time (one’s birthday is in November; the other in January). But I find that it is very hard to start any earlier than September — and that’s pushing it — because of the way kids’ development and interests change each year. (And they already have most of the basics and/or classics.) Any ideas?
I had already planned on addressing the shopping early for kids issue this week so the question came at a perfect time.
My short answer - I generally can’t shop as early for kids as I can for adults, but there are a few things I can suggest to help. The most obvious thing is to get all of your “adult” shopping done earlier - then you are looking for just kid stuff as you get closer to Christmas.
Now - I’ll do like I did last week and tell you how what we’ve done for our daughter, 5 year old niece, 8 year old nephew and 11 year old niece - Youngest to oldest:
First Lil Sugar who will celebrate her 1st birthday in less than 2 weeks (where has the time gone?)
All of the toys we’ve bought for her so far have come from Tuesday Morning. Back in April or May I stopped in and saw “Betty Butterfly” a plush rocking toy. I already knew that I wanted to get something like this for her and it was on clearance there for $30. So I came home did some research showed it to my husband and went back a couple of days later and picked it up. It’s been hanging out in the closet ever since. The cheapest I found the toy online was at A Rocking Horse To Love they are selling it for $90 the most expensive I found it online was $130 (I don’t remember the store - but that is the listing I showed my hubby!) So I saved $60 to $100 and the only other things we are giving her for her birthday are a couple of books which also came from Tuesday Morning. I’m a bit of a book fanatic and all the kids usually get a book from us for their birthday and at Christmas.
One of my sisters also asked me to pick up something for her since they live so far away - she and I decided to do puzzles so I stopped at Tuesday Morning again and was able to get two Melissa and Doug wooden puzzles. They both retail for $10, I paid $4 for one and $5 for the other.
I haven’t really picked up anything for Christmas for her yet because I wanted to wait and see what she got for her birthday. I do have an outfit I could give her that was $38 at Kohl’s and I picked it up on after Christmas clearance in January for $6, also I picked up four or five books when I was buying them at Tuesday Morning so a couple of those will be for Christmas too. I have some ideas and might just try to finish decorating her room for her for Christmas - if that is what I do I already have a lot of the stuff I just need to get things made.
Next my 5 year-old niece, “C”.
She’s actually at a difficult age, partly because she is the youngest of 3 and partly because she’s already got so much stuff. Also her birthday is near the beginning of November so I’m hesitant to do too much until after we see what she gets for her birthday. She is a “girly girl” and loves clothes and shoes so I’ll often get her an outfit and a small toy for Christmas. For her birthday I try to buy her boots because those are her absolute favorite kind of footwear - she normally ends up with two or three pairs of boots and by the end of winter they are all worn out. She’d wear them all summer long too but her Momma won’t let her. I saw a game I thought she would like the other day at Tuesday Morning and mentioned it to my sister-in-law who agreed with me so I’ll stop next time I drive past there to see if they still have it and if they do I’ll pick it up.
My nephew “V” is next and he just turned 8 years old:
He’s another one I haven’t done anything for Christmas for yet, but his birthday just passed so I’m looking now. I often wait until TSC (Tractor Supply Company) gets there toys in to buy him any toys - also I look at the sporting goods stores, places like Cabela’s, for gifts for him. I have a knife I was going to give him but his Momma says not yet so I guess I’ll keep it another year. He loves horses, hunting, and any sport that involves a ball so he’s really pretty easy to do something for - it’s just figuring out what exactly to do! I got a good deal on one of his birthday presents and a great deal on the other.
First the good deal is an outdoor game called Jarts. I saw it at TSC at the beginning of summer and it was marked $20 so I started watching and a week before his birthday they marked it down to $15 so I bought it, the next week they were sold out. The great deal I bought back in January or February at TSC’s 80-90% off toys, gifts and houseware’s sale - it’s a pop-up book called “The Wild West” it is a really neat book with a lot of history, guns, horses and cowboys - V really liked it and so did his mom - it will be a great Rainy Day book.
My 11 year-old niece “N” is next:
She is probably the easiest of my nieces and nephews right now. I actually think kids between the ages of 8 and 12 are about the easiest to buy for - especially if they have a special interest. N’s birthday was in July and for her birthday I gave her a photo album and picture frame gift set I had found at Michael’s during the after-Christmas clearance. Retail price on the set was $20 and I paid $5 for it. N also loves to take pictures so I developed 100 of her pictures for her that cost $20 minus the $5 coupon I had!
She loves arts and crafts, science, history, reading and anything that doesn’t involve spending a lot of time outside so I will shop at Michael’s, Hobby Lobby or JoAnn’s and will get her something there. She is also getting into Scrapbooking now and I have lots of scrapbook supplies that I might use to put together a gift for her as well. She will be easy - it’s just deciding exactly what to do that is hard!
Next week I’ll talk about shopping for teenagers and how to find unusual, unique gifts for anyone.
