Ask HN: What are you buying your kids for Christmas?
I thought this would be a helpful thing to read what others on the site were getting for their kids, along with the age of those kids. Doesnt have to be tech-oriented.
I've been giving cash and encouraging them to put it into diversified exchange traded funds. I may offer to match any returns for a year this time, so they are less likely to spend it all. It's a tough sell for young people but I want to help them develop good habits early.
I think it will be B&N gift cards for my just-about-to-be-teen daughters. It will encourage them to buy and use something physical whether drawing supplies or books. Fingers crossed.
My daughter (29) is getting a filing cabinet and pastel folders. And a cute EDC kit with knife, pen, and screwdriver. My grandson (2) is getting books, little people, and a cheap drone that floats and is controlled by hand movements.
I'm sure you know, but for those who don't know: "Little People" is a Fisher-Price brand of American-chibi-style figurines. They're basically the kids version of Funko Pops. I got my son the Fellowship of the Ring set.
It really is a genius-level show. I’m so happy it exists. Every detail is just perfect and both my kids love it and have learned so much from it.
It doesn’t hurt that it’s so entertaining they love watching it over and over, making it even more impossible to avoid committing its (very useful) memes to memory!
All 4 of my kids are into scratch but are sort of hitting a wall doing it online, and they also have expressed interest in robotics, so I did research on the two and came up with the mBot series of robots.
That mBot Ultimate would have made me very happy at that age. I had a 1st gen Lego Mindstorms NXT when I was a little older than they are, it was a blast.
Hopefully adding hardware into the mix will spice things back up for them.
I told my (step)sons shortly after I met them at 9 and 14 I would make sure that they went to college [1]. They both decided not to go. I’ll gladly help them out a little if needed. It’s a lot cheaper.
[1] My wife and I met at a startup and worked together for over two years before we started dating. We got married 7 months later.
That's a lot of responsibility for a 2 year old!
- Transformer robots
- Origami book & papers
- Some ski gear
- Metal detector
- Climbing harness & slings etc (small climbing frame in the grander they like to attach to and just kinda swing about)
- Kids Cookbook
Past Years Winners:
- Magnatiles - both have loved these, one of the most used toys and reasonably open-ended
- Diablo - the circus toy thing
- Modu - https://modutoy.com
- Potions kit - just a bunch of small pots etc with random glitter and what not in them. pretty good one for an upcycling project
- Playdough - classic for a reason, also DIY'able Little printer roll instant print camera
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The metal detector is a good idea. We live by the beach, so doubly so.
And that Modu stuff looks so cool, I’ve never seen that before.
I think the show gave him an intuitive understanding of numbers and made basic math easy for him
It doesn’t hurt that it’s so entertaining they love watching it over and over, making it even more impossible to avoid committing its (very useful) memes to memory!
For the 11 and 9 year old: the mBot Ultimate (https://www.makeblock.com/pages/mbot-ultimate-robotics-kit)
For the 7 and 5 year old: I wasnt sure whether to go with the mBot Ranger or the mBot2 Rover and went with the Rover (https://www.makeblock.com/products/buy-mbot2-rover-emo-robot)
Hopefully adding hardware into the mix will spice things back up for them.
Of course looking back my dad was giving us money for a number of years and with inflation ... arg I hate giving it away :-)
[1] My wife and I met at a startup and worked together for over two years before we started dating. We got married 7 months later.
And just random stocking stuffers / books, etc.
One neat thing we found was a frog dissection toy - https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/p/slimy-dissect-mini-frog-wit...
Chromebook
Some paper books
Battlefield 6
Board game
The first 3 minutes and 20 seconds might be a bit tough, but the useful for most people starts then.