Present ideas for a 13 year old male

[Guest]

Evening all! Hoping for some ideas - work are doing gifts for children in care and I'm hoping you can help inspire me! No sweets, no chocolate. One of the others at work has a 12 year old boy and has got a football & top trumps, another has brought a handheld console.
Budget is £15. We know nothing else about the child at present.

Thank you!

[Jakey Neverland]

My son is 13, primarily he is a gamer so loves anything game related but he also loves gadgets. One thing he goes through a lot is headphones and he always appreciates new ones. Board game wise I am getting him a game called 'what is in the box' for Christmas.

[sparklepants]

I’m doing something similar and also have the same age group. I’m struggling but think I’ll go for a little drone gadget and either a voucher for the cinema or somewhere similar. I’ll add some toiletries and some sweets as well x

[°o°-Hannah-°o°]

I’m not sure about some of the ideas on here as you just don’t know what they will have access to - for example headphones but will they have something to use then with? Cinema tickets, can someone take them?

Many children in care literally have their whole lives in a black bin liner, I’d suggest a backpack. A teddy. Notebook and pen.

[Tigger71]

- Football
- Heliball Footy Flyer (Amazon £13 - my DS 15 loved it)
- cheap radio controlled car (check Argos or Amazon)
- LEGO 75877 Mercedes-AMG GT3 (£12 at Amazon)

[Guest]

Ah yes I thought about lego - thanks everyone!

[Floridatilly]

How lovely that you are doing this. A boy in my sons form is in care, a while other thread but in a nut shell is in now getting himself in trouble but it’s his way to protect himself, he smells of BO and poor hygiene, teeth etc so gets called. I have had a long talk to my son regarding this but back to gifts...
I would avoid anything that needs batteries etc as they may be unable to replace them.
Boots have a half price deal on lynx gift sets at the moment, a really nice large tub with a body scrubber, shower gel, deordrant and antiperspirant £6 (the lynx body scrubber are £5 alone) they have other ones too but make sure you get antiperspirant as body spray won’t stop BO
You could put this in a gift box/bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, hair gel, joke book (really good, cheap ones in the works), infinity cube (only a couple of pound on e bay and they are really relaxing)
My son is 12 and he and his friends have different tastes etc but all would appreciate all of the above x

[Bee happy]

My ds is 12 and hasnt played with his lego for a few years, I would suggest a nice backpack (sporty make), a hype gift set from boots or maybe a nice sporty t-shirt (hype,Nike etc)
Very kind thing that you are doing and I'm sure he will appreciate whatever you buy.

[not2old4disney]

I'd avoid lego to be honest, kids of that age find it like marmite - they're either really into it or it'll just get ignored. I have a 12 yr old DS who has loads of lego and i can't remember the last time it was touched, my 13yr old DS loves the architecture sets (aspiring architect currently) but no longer looks at the other stuff at all and he was really into lego previously!

Some aftershave might go down well - previously we've picked up gift sets from the likes of sports direct and home bargains for under £5 that have aftershave and shower gel in - they always liked the adidas ones and some of the David Beckham ones. Little gadgets like previously suggested would also be good, i'd check places like red5/menkind for their stocking filler type gifts - maybe fidget cubes or stress balls etc. I also agree that the works is a really good place to look for small gifts, my kids all like books to do with optical illusions or funny signs around the world or things along the lines of ripleys believe it or not that can usually be found in there for a couple of £. Totally agree with the idea of backpack too, i'd go for a reasonable name brand if possible - superdry/nike/adidas/hype etc and for them within the budget i'd be looking at sports direct or the brand's ebay outlet shops (as long as theres time to wait for delivery) - I know i've picked up some brilliant bargains from the outlets in the past!

[sparklepants]

Originally Posted by °o°-Hannah-°o°

I’m not sure about some of the ideas on here as you just don’t know what they will have access to - for example headphones but will they have something to use then with? Cinema tickets, can someone take them?

Many children in care literally have their whole lives in a black bin liner, I’d suggest a backpack. A teddy. Notebook and pen.

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The organisation I’m doing this through is encouraging the giving of vouchers as it gives them some independence.

I’d thought about a backpack actually, think I’ll go with that too.