christmas gifts Archives

Choosing Christmas gifts for men from Uncommon goods

Everyone loves a bit of shopping. I actually hate physically going to the shops but I can quite happily window shop on the internet for hours at a time, especially when I am looking to buy gifts for family and friends. One of the wonderful things about the internet is that you are now able to easily see what is available to buy, all across the globe. In theory this is fantastic, but quite often you are faced with a ‘we only ship to the continental united states’ Or ‘international shipping not available at this time’ which means you either a)need to find a similar product available in the UK, or b) need to know someone who lives in that country to borrow their address. But then you are effectively paying double the shipping costs and also putting someone else out.

I am always quite excited when I find a website that are happy to deliver goods to the UK so imagine how pleased I was when I was approached by the website Uncommon Goods to take a look at their website and not only was international shipping available but they also had the option to view prices in your own currency. So much easier than trying to figure out exchange rates!

I’m not sure if it’s just me but I usually find it particularly difficult choosing gifts for the men in my life. However whilst I was browsing I kept coming across things I thought Lee, or my dad, would love. In fact the entire selection of men’s gifts was quite broad and I expect you’d easily find something for even the fussiest of men.

Here’s a small selection of items I thought Lee would love this Christmas. He usually ends up with smellies, funny socks and a new video game or gadget. These things are all just a little bit different from the usual run of the mill gifts and vary in price from under £10 for the mug to £136 for the handmade, driftwood pen.

Having read into Uncommon Goods a little bit more I was quite impressed by the way they run their business. Not only do they strive to offer unique gifts for men, women and children (let’s just say they certainly live up to their name!) They also seem very ethically minded on the whole, with about one third of their products incorporating recycled or upcycled products. They also seem to appreciate the environment. They endeavour to supply products that are created in harmony with the envirnment without harming people, plants or animals, which in the plastic, throwaway age that we are currently in, is quite hard to come by.

I loved the fact that the artists of the handmade items have their photo right there next to the items they make, you can read a bit about them and the other items they make. This makes everything so much more personal for me and makes me feel that UncommonGoods actually care about their creators and employees. They don’t just mass import cheap products from China just so they can sell them for huge profit!

If you are looking for something that’s just a little bit different this Christmas I really do recommend you give Uncommon Goods a browse. You might just be pleasantly surprised!

This post was made in collaboration with Uncommon Goods, however all thoughts about the website and the products are honest and purely my own.

Christmas Gifts for Older Children

The third of my Christmas gift guides is for the older children your family. This age can be difficult to buy for, especially if you are trying to find something that isn’t merchandise for the latest big film or video game release. But there are plenty of great products out there that will keep any older child occupied for hours.

For more inspiration please check out my gift guides for teenagers and younger children.

Moochies for Kids
If your anything like me, you will worry about where your child is whenever they leave your house. LV is of the age now where he disappears off on his bike or scooter and often looses track of time and rarely has his phone on him. The Moochies watch solves this problem bynot only being a phone, your child can phone two preset numbers and can be contacted by ten. But it also has a gps tracker so as a parent you can see exactly where they are and even get contacted if they go outside of the predetermined ‘safe zone’. There are four designs so there is something that will suit every one.

4×4 Salt Water Engine Car Kit
Construction kits are always high on the list when I’m looking for Christmas presents. This impressive looking car needs to be put together before adding a few drops of salt water to get the wheels turning. This is a simple and fun way to encourage engineering skills and also teach children about clean, alternative energy.

Kano Computer and Coding Kit
I wish I had found this kit before Santa had finished buying everything on a certain young lad’s Christmas list. This kit comes with everything you need to build a computer (apart from the screen) and even start to learn coding, a vital skill for any child growing up in this day and age. Kids love computers and playing games so getting to build their own games is a real winner in my eyes and to them it will seem like nothing but fun, which is brilliant!

Dining Table Ping Pong Set
Even the least sporty child will find it hard not to enjoy a game of ping pong. I myself can’t hit the ball for toffees due to a major lack of hand eye coordination, yet I still enjoy trying. Unfortunately a table tennis table is huge and completely impractical to have in a normal sized house, but this dining table set has everything you need to enjoy a game of ping pong, from the net right down to the wrist bands, and it all packs away into a sturdy red tin. This will be a real winner while the grown ups are snoozing off their turkey dinner.

Santa and Friends Paint your own Mug
What is Christmas day, without a Christmas craft to wile away some time while dinner is cooking? This mug set comes preprinted with a festive image and your child uses the special paints provided to jazz it up. You can bring it back out year after year as their very own special Christmas Mug.

The Art of Children’s conversation Game
This is a great little game, which helps develop communication skills simply by getting kids talking. Packaged in a small box it’s handy to keep in the car and hand luggage if you are travelling. It consists of a pack of cards, each printed with various questions and conversation starters aimed at getting kids to think about their answers. All mine join in when we play, although a game often takes hours because the kids keep expanding on the original question. O, who granted is a little young for the game only ever answers by putting his finger to his chin and saying ‘Ummmmm. Two!’ which is hilarious.

I’m sure you can agree that all these would be great gifts for your children who are too old for kids toys, yet not quite at the teenage stage yet!

Disclaimer: I was sent a few items on this list to review, these were items I requested and thought would be great gifts.

A Very Merry (Poorly) Christmas

I hope you have all had a great time over Christmas and aren’t suffering too much from a post turkey & booze overindulgence hangover?

We have had a quiet few days here ourselves. With the littlest member of our brood feeling none too hot. Well, actually I tell a lie, he’s been feeling much too hot for the majority of the last week! Apart from his raging temperature which has caused him to be almost delirious at times, he’s had no appetite, been full of snot, coughing his guts up and generally been a very poorly little boy. But for the sake of the other children we tried not to let that put a dampener on our festivities!

A Blogging Christmas Gift Swap

A few weeks ago myself and a group of bloggy friends got together and decided to do a Christmas gift swap. A bit of a Secret Santa. Well, I say secret, we actually knew who each other had, but until today none of us have known what anyone else sent to each other. This is actually the first real Secret Santa I have ever been a part of (besides a little one we did with the kids last year) so I was completely flummoxed trying to decide what to buy, while staying in the £5 limit.

The Ultimate Christmas Stocking for Tween/Teenage Girls

So here we have it, The ultimate tween/teen girl stocking fillers. I was actually dreading putting together this one as I was originally a bit stumped but I have actually given myself lot’s of great ideas of what I Santa can add to the girls Christmas stockings this year!

As I mentioned in my Stocking fillers for boys post we always have a few traditional items such as the orange and the chocolate coins so again pretend these are tucked nicely down in the toe of this stocking too!

Great Stocking Fillers for Boys

As I mentioned on Monday in my toddler stocking post I have a little series going on this week all about Christmas Stockings. This time we are on to the boys, especially those in the 8-10 age range. This age group can be REALLY hard to buy for. Most are ‘not really into toys anymore’ (even though they still happily play with the action men under the bed when their friends are not around!) yet they are still too young for ‘grown up’ teen/tween stuff. Here are the stocking fillers I have put together for this age group.

I already put the orange, the socks and the chocolate coins in the toddler one, so I won’t add them again, so just pretend they are there 😉

The ideal Toddler Christmas Stocking

This week, on the blog, is all about the humble stocking. We start off this mini series with the ideal toddler Christmas stocking. Toddlers can be quite hard to fill stockings for. Most typical stocking fillers aren’t suitable for the under 3’s due to small parts but I think I have put together an ideal stocking, with items small enough to fit, yet large enough not to be a hazard. They are also fun too!