There are two tweens living in our home (one soon to be teenager!), our daughter is 11 and our son is 12. As they both have grown older it has been harder and harder to find a perfect gift for each of them as their interests and maturity changes. I knew I was not the only one that was having trouble so I came up with this ultimate gift guide that has awesome Christmas gifts for tweens.
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Mystery Box of 3 Squishmallows | Uno Game | Ugg Slipper | Echo Spot | Tamagotchi | Mini Cruiser Skateboard | Owala Water Bottle | Fruit Claw Clip | Bucket Golf game | Woobles Crochet Kit | Wearable Blanket Hoodie | Magnetic Marble Run | Mindfulness for Teens | Polaroid Mini Camera |
As you can see by the above list there is a variety of gift options for both tween girls and boys and some that work for both! Some of these items above are items that my kids already own, for example my son has a skateboard and my daughter has several Woobles kits that she likes to work on. I like the Woobles crochet as they are a beginner-friendly kit that comes with everything you need and a special link to an online tutorial.
When buying Christmas gifts I always try to get them something new to wear, a card game or board game and something that they have placed on their wish list. Our daughter’s wish list seems to always include a stuffed animal of sorts and that is why I added the mystery box of 3 Squishmallows to the above idea list.
The marble set above is actually a really great gift for a tween, we have a similar set that we have had for years and our tween kids still have so much fun playing with it. In addition I added an old classic game of Uno, we have several versions of Uno and it is a fun and easy game for the whole family to play.
If you are someone who is shopping for teenage girls then beauty products are usually a great idea. I added a fruit hair clip above but other great ideas are lip balm or lip gloss, mascara, face mask, or nail polish. In addition to beauty products water bottles seem to be a huge hit with teenage girls. Above I included an Owalla water bottle which apparently is the new “it” water bottle, (its so hard to keep up with the latest trends) however Stanley water bottles are still in style as well. The nice thing about water bottles is that they come in different colors which means they can work for girls or boys.
When it comes to gifts for a tween boy it seems that anything related to sports or video games is always a great gift idea. Both of our kids have a Nintendo Switch Lite so if a child already has a game device or console getting them video games or a gift card for Nintendo, Playstation or Xbox is always a good choice.
Another big hit with pre-teen to teenagers is any type of electronic. At this time we have chosen not let our children have a cell phone but they each do have an iPad that they use at home and I think a portable speaker would be great for any kid with an electronic device that can play music. This also includes any type of home device such as an echo dot, echo spot or a Google home device.
It seems like most tweens like gadgets so I included a Polaroid camera and a new and updated Tamagotchi, for those of you who grew up in the 1990s you know all about this digital pet.
Although gadgets and electronics are fun, I always like to include a good book as another good gift idea. Above I included a Mindfulness for Teens book. I think talking about mental health with older tweens is a great idea and something that was not talked about when I was growing up. Some of my favorite memories is receiving some interesting books as a kid, the one I remember the most is the Laura Ingalls Wilder book set.
Some of the above gifts could definitely be a great stocking stuffer, like the Tamagotchi, the Uno game, hair clip or water bottle. I hope that this list helps other parents of tweens with some great ideas
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