The Thoughtful Boys and Girls Gift Guide

The Thoughtful Gift Guide for Boys (and Girls!) – Curated with Mindfulness and Sustainability in Mind

Finding the perfect gift for children can be a real challenge, especially when you want to buy something that’s meaningful, sustainable, and sparks their creativity. As a parent, I understand how tough it can be to choose the right present, particularly for boys. That’s why I’ve put together this carefully curated gift guide, featuring some treasures from small businesses I’ve discovered and fallen in love with—and of course included will be things from my 7-year-old son's current obsessions.

Whether you're looking for a birthday gift or something special for Christmas, I always try to stick to a thoughtful, minimalist approach: focusing on a handful of meaningful items that both nurture creativity and provide lasting value. I follow a simple rule for gift-giving: 5-10 things that strike a balance between practicality and fun. These usually include:

• Something creative (to fuel their imagination)
• Something to read (for quiet, enriching moments)
• Something they really want (because wishlists matter!)
• Something to wear
• Something they need (practical yet thoughtful)
• Something to eat (treats that surprise and delight)
• Something for family play (because shared moments matter most)

I hope this guide inspires you to make your next gift purchase with purpose, and of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below to share your favorite finds from the guide or any gift ideas you’ve discovered along the way.

Here’s to gifting with intention, and making memories that last a lifetime!

Kim x

Crafts

My son came home from his after school club this year, marvelled at his pom poms he made. I thought it would be good fun to have a kit at home. We can use pinterest for ideas to turn them into monsters or animals!

I got mine from this small business YarnyBobs on Etsy for £15.95.
There's also this option as a stocking filler for £6.99.

My son has loved doing origami this year, including building his own paper aeroplanes. I think a set like this would be fun in his stocking!
I fell in love with the brand PocketKids at a small business event, here's their kit for £11.99.

There's also this kit for £11.45 for dinosaur lovers!

I really love this small business I found for bath bombs!
They do such a large collection of things, including potion making!

Board games

Anything that inspires my boys creativity is a win.
I found this board game for £23. I found it from the small business market from pocket kids. But look out for UK suppliers of Londji kids because their things are beautiful.
I was originally thinking of pictionary as Ivan and I have starting playing our own 'guess what i'm drawing', but this trumps that I think!

This game is still going strong in our house, 4 years on! Ivan originally loved clicking the pieces in to place on the game board as a 3 year old. Now we actually play the game and it's great fun.

A few others Ivan's really enjoyed this year is the muddles (it says 10+ but he was playing it at 6!), sushi go party and ticket to ride.

Toys

Make your own lego character

This might be one of my favourite gifts for Ivan this year, because I kind of 'made' it myself! He absolutely loves creating his own lego figures at the moment, which inspired this present.
I got a tiered craft storage box here, and then ordered a bunch of random bundles of lego legs, arms, headgear ect from an ebay seller which does this very thing! I found them here.

I'm going to tell him that we can keep collecting different parts, or save up his pocket money and order more random bundles. I think it'll be very fun!

He of course has asked for the very typical things like a nerf gun and lots of lego... He was really thrilled for his birthday with this £8.99 ninjago character.

For his main christmas and birthday present, we always get one big set. This year he chose a huge ship. Luckily we had some vouchers to use. Some years I wait for black friday as they have some quite good lego deals, too.

I haven't succumbed to nerf guns and the like yet.. but he does have one on his list. When I went to look at the options, I thought this nerf bow was pretty cool. I'm imagining using it for target practice and A) drawing a target on a window with our window pens or B) setting up some empty cans for developing hand eye coordination?! Win! ;-)

I've been thinking about this marble run but i'm not sure yet. It seems like the next 'step up' for his age.
Nick loves doing stuff like this with Ivan so perhaps a present for the both of them to do together. I'll let you know what he says! ;-)

He asked for some minecraft legend figures, but I couldn't believe the cost for what you got! So I went onto vinted and found a little bundle for so much cheaper! Keep your eyes out on there.

Books

On the topic of lego, he's obsessed with ninjago right now! So I found this lego ninjago characters encyclopedia here.

He's also read entire collections of the colourful comic books for his age group, like dogman, the multi storey treehouse and specifically bunny vs monkey. There's some new ones in this collection in his stocking!

He's also really liked reading us facts in the mornings from emily's new book.

Here's a shameless plug for my calendars. I think these are the perfect gift for his age range and this year I made him a ninja themed one!

and that's a wrap!
I really hope you enjoyed looking through this gift guide.

I'm striving to gift with thought and intention, especially as he gets older and things get more expensive! I always think 'how often will he use this?' or 'are there multiple uses for this?' with everything.

Let me know what your favourite is below, i'd love to hear!

Kim x