Ask HN: What are you buying your kids for Christmas?

Posted by JamesSwift 1 day ago

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.

EDIT: besides robux : D

Comments

Comment by jayturley 1 day ago

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.

Comment by squigz 18 hours ago

Your grandson is getting little people?

That's a lot of responsibility for a 2 year old!

Comment by cpburns2009 14 hours ago

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.

Comment by djinnrutger 8 hours ago

My daughter and her boyfriend - matching headsets for gaming (one black and one pink). My son (who is a Marine) a box full of snacks that he cant get overseas.

Comment by jdmoreira 10 hours ago

I am giving my 6 year old girl an old acer netbook that boots directly to pico-8. This will be her first computing experience. She never had access to phones or tablets.

Comment by DANmode 52 minutes ago

You’re awesome.

Comment by cpburns2009 15 hours ago

A wooden train set for my toddler-aged son.

Comment by ezekg 13 hours ago

I bought one for my son a couple years ago, when he was 2. He's 4 now and still plays with it every day. Highly recommend.

Comment by sloaken 15 hours ago

Train is always the right answer. Congrats!

Comment by cpburns2009 14 hours ago

He's really into trains right now so he's going to love it.

Comment by mbg721 1 day ago

My 5-year-old loves the British series Numberblocks, and they have lots of licensed toys.

Comment by nomdep 16 hours ago

My 9-year-old still remembers that show and sometimes says things like “did you know that fifteen is a staircase number?”

I think the show gave him an intuitive understanding of numbers and made basic math easy for him

Comment by xp84 12 hours ago

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!

Comment by ungreased0675 1 day ago

The numberblocks theme song goes so hard.

Comment by TimBurman 12 hours ago

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.

Comment by chrismatheson 19 hours ago

One 8 y/o one 3y/o This year:

- 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

(edit formatting)

Comment by JamesSwift 12 hours ago

Third on the magna tiles being a huge win for all my kids.

The metal detector is a good idea. We live by the beach, so doubly so.

Comment by ElCapitanMarkla 18 hours ago

Our Magna tiles get so much use. I should really buy the kids some more.

And that Modu stuff looks so cool, I’ve never seen that before.

Comment by JamesSwift 1 day ago

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.

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)

Comment by kylecazar 15 hours ago

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.

Comment by scaredreally 12 hours ago

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.

Comment by JamesSwift 11 hours ago

Good call. I was thinking about what books to get my 11 year old but I think the gift card would be good too.

Comment by raw_anon_1111 1 day ago

My kids are 23 and 28 and both live on their own. We gave them $1000 each. One to help move and the other to get tires for his car.

Comment by sloaken 14 hours ago

Oh sure set the high bar ... now I need to consider this. Couldn't be something like 50 bucks ...

Of course looking back my dad was giving us money for a number of years and with inflation ... arg I hate giving it away :-)

Comment by raw_anon_1111 13 hours ago

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.

Comment by DANmode 51 minutes ago

One can dream.

Thanks for sharing.

Comment by ElCapitanMarkla 18 hours ago

5 year old - laser tag, brain rot toys 8 year old - roller skates, make up/face paint

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...

Comment by kasperset 1 day ago

Lego and Sketch book with coloring pens.

Comment by pram 1 day ago

3 wheeled scooters and a Switch 2

Comment by rtcoms 13 hours ago

Microbit for my 7yr old kid.

Comment by JamesSwift 12 hours ago

Interesting, never heard of that. Looks cool

Comment by nradov 12 hours ago

College tuition

Comment by miek 1 day ago

beyond the normal stuff: a microscope, speks mini magnetic balls, 3d pen, japanese snacks.

Comment by JamesSwift 11 hours ago

What microscope did you go with out of curiosity. That never crossed my mind but actually might be something my kids would be into.

Comment by ulfw 23 hours ago

A subscription to ChatGPT of course. Not like they'd ever get a job in the new world anyway...

Comment by sloaken 14 hours ago

Nice, I recommend having them take a class to be effective. I recommend this short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFFaKxsz_s

The first 3 minutes and 20 seconds might be a bit tough, but the useful for most people starts then.

Comment by idinnoaname 9 hours ago

This is satire right? I’m just not sure of any of this any more.

Comment by andrewstuart 20 hours ago

16 nearly 17

Chromebook

Some paper books

Battlefield 6

Board game

Comment by 23 hours ago

Comment by butteryKittens 8 hours ago

Another year of life (I have zero kids)