Skip to main content

Christmas Kits - 11 Non-Toy Gift Ideas

Christmas Kits - 11 Non-Toy Gift Ideas

I love Christmastime. I love the sights and smells and activities and all that is the holiday season. One of the things I love the most is giving gifts to all of those I hold near and dear. I spend hours thinking about gift will be the perfect fit for the people on my ever-growing list. I also have three boys who have so. much. stuff. And tons of people who want to buy them more stuff every year. Enter "stuff anxiety." This year I have been trying to think of gifts that will either be useful, consumed, educational, fun, or otherwise played with more than once. They also have to be cheap because I'm frugal and in charge of keeping things under budget while still full of memories.

So without further explanation here are ten kit ideas to put together to spark creativity in children without taking up too much space. Also the majority of ideas can be found at your local dollar store.

For every idea all ideas can fit into a standard size plastic shoe box with lid, which makes for easy storage for busy parents. I bought my at Fred Meyer, 5 for $5.

Under $10

Sensory Kits - Sensory element such as rice, beans, flax seeds, aquarium gravel, genetic sand, sand, dyed pasta noodles, or anything that can be scooped and poured. Other ideas to include are scoopers, funnels, cups, or cars or construction vehicles.
Construction vehicles in aquarium gravel.

Rice bin - we dyed it yellow and added lemongrass essential oils for an extra sensory experience.


Play Doh Kit - Playdoh in various colors. Other ideas to include plastic knife, safety scissors, printable play doh mats, birthday candles, shape stampers, rolling pin, and cookie cutters. We love making play doh birthday cakes from time to time. 
Play Doh "cake" with candles.


Creative Kit - Ideas can include white and colored paper, safety scissors, googly eyes, Number Crayons, glitter glue, craft sticks, mini coloring book, clay, pony beads, yarn, sticker books, felt, stampers and ink pad.
Example of a Christmas craft bin.


Inventor Kit - This kit can hold anything you think a child might like to invent robots, crafts, and other cool things. Some ideas might include pipe cleaners*, craft sticks*, toilet paper tubes, nuts and bolts, cans, string*, and wood craft kits*.

Mad Scientist Kit - Goggles and rubber gloves are a fun and safe addition to this kit. Other ideas can include eye droppers, beakers, magnifying glass, science ingredients (like baking soda, vinegar, corn starch and food coloring), books about scientific subjects, printables for experiments you think might be fun like OOblek, volcanos, and walking water or other experiments.
Mad Scientist Kit


Bath Time Kit - Tub crayons or paint, fizzy water changing color tablets, soap, scrubby animal hand mit, squirting toys, scoops, cups, and funnels.

Active Kid Kit - Jump rope, balls or frisbee, chalk (to make relay lines, balance beans, shape hop, and hopscotch), balloons (to play balloon volleyball or balloon ping pong), and this printable active Simon Says game.


Under $15

Outdoorsy Kit - Magnifying glass, bug catcher house, printable animal track chart or nature scavenger hunt, nature books, mini  shovel, observation notebook and pen.


Music Kit - Any instruments you find that will fit in including a kazoo, harmonica, small drum, drumsticks, maracas or egg shakers, microphone, bells, recorder/flute, or tambourine.


Games Kit - Small games that can be played by kids about 3 and up. Spot it is our favorite! Also Uno, Skipbo, regular cards for war, slap jack or go fish, dice, banagrams jr., and small puzzles.


Cooking Kit - Small cutting board, child safe knife, spatula, wisk, mini muffin tin, apron, and oven mitts. Can also include favorite recipes and baking mixes.


Other ideas if you don't want to put together a kit but still want a gift that will be used: Books!, Legos (bricks that you can actually be inventive with rather than a specific designed set), Magnatiles or other magnet blocks,  Playmobil sets, and special treats (chips, candy, iTunes cards, fast food cards etc.). One year my five year old really wanted Dill Pickle Chips since I rarely spring for chips. Boy was he excited on Christmas morning and I was happy to not have to store one more thing once they were gone.

What other ideas or suggestions do you have? Please feel free to leave a comment!

Comments

  1. These are all great ideas! Very thoughtful, creative, and useful! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are great! I like the way you think! I think i'll make my son and nephew a truck box with gravel just like that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The truck box is very well loved!

      Delete
    2. Okay - I had to come back and comment again because it was such a hit. We had our Christmas a few days ago (we travel over Christmas) and my son has played with it nonstop! Thank you :)

      Delete
  3. Great ideas. Excellent ways to stir a child's imagination and curiosity.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do's and Don'ts of Birthdays and Parties

My oldest son just turned 7 and since we are watching every cent going out I tried to be as creative as possible when coming up with the birthday of a life time (until next year).  Do: Make Them Feel Important Without Spending Money Waffles with chocolate syrup for breakfast are ok on a special day like this! (I love using a pizza cutter to slice waffles and pancakes for the little guys, especially Lincoln who is still learning to feed himself with a fork) Measuring on the wall of fame, we only write on it once a year now to make it exciting. Dylan grew about 3.25 inches in one year! This momma gets tired quicker than ever being 30+ weeks pregnant and chasing after a rowdy toddler so I didn't do the fanciest cakes (remember the volcano cake from birthday 4 or the mint chocolate chip cupcakes from last year) but I did find some cute stickers that have been in the house for years, put a matching one on both sides of a flat tooth pick and voila, cupcakes to compete with the best ...

Blending In, Lazy Fall Days and a Birthday Too

 I have a picture of Dylan taking a nap in Daddy's camouflage a year or two ago. This year I thought it would be fun to get one of Lincoln in the same pile of clothes. I love how all three of these were taken within a few seconds of each other but his facial expressions are so different.  Today when Dylan got home from school he was grumpy and said he didn't feel too well so he zonked out for a nap on the couch while I also got Lincoln down for a nap too. Danielle stayed after school for some help so I actually got part of dinner ready and cleaned out the dish washer. Of course I didn't get to finish this before the little one woke up, but hey I had a small moment of silence complete with a picture of a one handed baby and a little boy turning into a little man with a little smear of pink frosting on his cheek from a girls' birthday party at kindergarten. Danielle is 17 today! I can hardly believe it. This picture was taken a week or two ago by Danielle's frien...

cha cha cha changes

Well what do you think? Pretty close for doing it myself! I got my hair cut professionally a few weeks ago and decided that I still wanted to go shorter and finally today was the day. Dylan got a buzz cut and the dog is next, watch out!