Water guns, art supplies, physical games like twister or Jenga, beach or snow toys, stuffed animals, tickets to the zoo

I’m confused as to the age range? Is it for a specific child or a group of children?

Legos and books. All ages and they always fit

Another fun thing for different aged kids is stepping stones and fort kits. The bigger kids might take the reins for making up rules to some new game, but the littler ones can still participate. My niece and nephew absolutely love obstacle courses and this is a fun way to engage with them. Tons of options on Amazon for both of these items.

Squishmallows

Matchbox cars or lego

Aqua beads kit Bracelet making kit

Marble Run. £15 ish a set. Big box (looks impressive!)

When I was a kid my favourite babysitter would take me and another girl out to the cinema and we’d watch TWO films of our choosing plus food in between. Popcorn and snacks too. It was my absolute favourite day of the entire year and my parents must’ve loved the childfree day too!

Fun stuff they haven't already got. I've had the enormous pleasure of buying for a little girl that age - some I can remember are

• A £10 megadrive with a couple of hundred classic games on it

• Magnetic floating globe

• Scooter

• Fugglers

• Tamagotchi

• Water pistols

• Minecraft pyjamas

• Hair dye, face paint, henna tattoos

• Furry animal hats with lights for eyes

• Sweets that work like toys - pez, push pops, that sort of thing. Corner shop stuff.

Books, experiences, board games, or clothes are the things that I really appreciate people giving my kids because they tend to be useful and not clutter up the house.

I give kids art supplies.

Almost every parent I know will thank you for not getting their kids any more plastic junk. Like others have said, experiences, books, or art supplies are great. Depending on their age and family dynamic, a baking project would also be nice.

We ask for and give experience gifts. Movie tickets (my 3yo was SO excited for his first movie at the kids showing), play land tickets, museum, zoo, aquarium trips. Taking them to an art class, a sports event, or play (and I’m talking high school/college events with $7 tickets). When money was tight we’d do manicure days, cooking ‘lessons’ (this is what you do with the spoon while the brownies are baking ;)), free local events, game nights with just them. Heck my own kid LOVES when he and I do a movie night, just the two of us, his choice of movie, I pop popcorn and then we usually throw in a few cookies too.

We actually ask extended family members to just either give a donation towards a membership or an experience instead of actual things. Sometimes it even works,

My most popular gift by a mile is going to the bank (I’m in the US) schmoozing the teller when it’s slow into letting me take the prettiest shiniest gold one dollar coins. Obviously I pay for them but letting me pick through for clean shiny ones isn’t always easy. I get a pile of like 30-40 of them, I then look at goodwill or a local store for a bag or box. Label it pirate treasure and give them that.

The 8 year old will know what treasure and money is and the 2 year old will notice the 8 year olds reaction and get hyped as well.

Have yet to find a kid who doesn’t like it. Parents don’t seem to mind. Hopefully the 2 year old is moving away from the oral fixation stage of development but the coins are bigger so my 2 year old didn’t put them in their mouth. Bonus points if you learn a magic trick and pull one of the coins out of their ear a few times a year. If you want to really be extra leave a treasure map that leads them to it.

I’m over the top and turn nothing into presents by making it a whole experience. Last Christmas my nephew discovered all his shoe laces were gone and one pair of all his socks. A rouge elf locked it in a box but left clues. We had to solve the clues and open 5 locks to get it back while he wore mismatched socks. He was 6 and said that was his favorite. His gift was shenanigans with me and getting back his own basic stuff. Actually I think I left a tiny crayon and note in the box and he loved the elf crayon.

Kids like time with you and theatrics the most usually.

I recently got my niece and nephew (4 and 6) a bunch of office supplies and they loved it.

Clip boards Name tags Labels / label maker Adult pens Envelopes Steno pads / graphing paper

Also Mad Libs for the older kids!

For the girls: bracelet making kits/legos

Boys: legos

Skipping rope, backpacks (personalised with their name on it?), colourful gel pens... a mini fridge? (Gave one to my neices after one had tonsils out and they loooved it).

Kids like to build. Magnet tiles. Marble run. Lego. Yard games. Board and card games such as Uno, Sorry, Trouble.

Lego (Duplo for the 3 year old) always goes down well. Also, Playmobil. You can buy basic sets, not tied to a franchise, so I'd go for those.

Any type of slime, or kinetic sand is always a hit. Hex bugs are amazing! Little boys love them. My son recently said he wants more actually.

A little vault for kids. He got to set his own code, he gets to put his money in there. it sits on his desk, he loves it.

https://a.co/d/iuEmMlh

Legos

Lego

For Christmas this past year, my six year old asked for duct tape, post-its, twine and a stapler.  Oh and he really likes dominos sets to set up and knock down. 

Western food and snacks are much more expensive. They're just about the only thing not made in China too.

You can get basically any toys, but licenced ones like Lego are more expensive, but not prohibitively so.

The only other one I can think of is maybe sporting gear. NBA is pretty popular so many you could get something along those lines?

Whiskey from tennessee

Lol, jk. Nowadays its just so hard to find anything you cant get from China. Aside from chocolates, which you def should bring it, pistachio! GET PISTACHIO. They are expensive in China.

Interesting… Lego are widely available in china . Just saying 😆

dont forget popmart

Check the age range, but my Chinese nephew LOVES legos. They have the big ones (Duplos?) for younger kids, but I usually get a small kit that increases with age. 

You're not going to change these kids' lives by getting them a physical toy. Do you know what kinds of shows they watch or games they play on their tablets? You could get them Bluey (for example) slippers or disney princess nightgowns to match their interests.

Check with mom first: a year pass at a water park, movie theater passes, offer to pay for fun classes like how to play the guitar or computer coding. Depending on where they live passes to visit museums , my city had an observatory that we could visit.

How about some super cozy blankets, popcorn bowls, popcorn, and maybe a family movie to do a movie night together? 

A metal detector. I got one for my daughter when she was about 9 and it propelled even the most screen addicted kids into our back yard for hours. They were digging up old horseshoes and nails and marvelling like it was treasure. Which it was really.

For girls I just go to Sephora and ask whatever the latest tiktok lip gloss obsession is. It's never failed to please.

Check out Busy Toddler on Instagram. Everything I bought last season for birthdays & Christmas came from her recommendations, and they’ve all been a hit. I’ll be looking again this year.

Is there a zoo, aquarium, kids museum, or other local attraction that offers gift memberships? A family pass to a local attraction could be fun for everyone

Have you thought about a play couch?

Musical instruments (Hape and Plan Toys make good ones!), a learning tower, a wobble/rocker board, or some Holztiger animals. Those are all things my toddler enjoyed at 1 that still get a ton of use today.

I have a 2.5, 4.5, and almost 7 y/o and for their big gift we’re gonna get one of those fort building kits. I don’t think my 2.5 y/o will be able to build a fort yet but I assume he’d enjoy playing in one or tearing it down 😹😹😹

Somebody in my parents group said their kid had asked for seeds for Christmas. Seeds! It really touched me. Made me remember growing bean sprouts back in kindergarten - just a plain dried bean stuck into a clear glass with some wet paper towels so we could watch it grow and sprout. I would love to see this become a thing during holidays - a seed is such a perfect symbol of faith and hope for the new year.