Beyond the Videogame: Six Christmas Gift Ideas For Bigger Boys
Christmas shopping for little kids is pretty straightforward, and thus, a whole lot of fun. Dolls? Check! Dinosaurs? Check! Building blocks? Check! Easy peasy.
But once kids get up into ‘tween and teen territory, I’ve found that it gets trickier to find gifts that the young ‘uns will love as much as they once enjoyed their Barbies and Hot Wheels, and that’s particularly true when it comes to boys between the ages of about 12 and 16.
By the time a boy hits middle school, the pickins seem a lot slimmer when it comes to finding Christmas gifts. The toy aisles seem to narrow down to mostly electronic gadgetry. And while it’s tempting to rely heavily on video games and gaming systems when gifting our adolescent offspring of the male persuasion, Playstation and Wii and the like aren’t the only game in town when it comes to fun stuff that bigger boys will actually be excited to find under the Christmas tree.
As the mother of two boys and multiple nephews, I’ve had some hits and some misses with my Christmas shopping as they’ve grown (and grown), and I thought I’d share some of our own adolescent-boy holiday hits of recent years.
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Razor Dirt Rocket MX Electric Motorbike
Here is my 13-year-old E on Christmas morning year before last, riding his new Razor 350 electric motorbike up and down a dead end street in our neighborhood. This was Santa's "big gift" to Elliot that year and boy oh BOY did he love it. This was a huge hit, and I was very impressed with this toy's sturdiness.
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At Home Air Hockey Table
Santa brought E an at home air hockey table last Christmas, and it remains a big hit. It's set up in his bedroom and whenever he has friends sleep over, I hear them up there battling it out on the air hockey table until the wee hours.
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Annual Ripley's Believe It Or Not Yearbook
Who knew that the gross, daring, unimaginable and otherwise boy-centric exploits of those wacky Ripley's folks could get more extreme each and every year?! Well, I did know this because my sister has been giving my son E the newest Ripley's book for Christmas every year for as long as I can recall, and even now that he's 14, E reads (and shares) the weird and often disgusting items of interest in his collection of Ripley's books. He looks forward to getting the newest one every holiday season.
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Indoor Arcade Basketball
The indoor basketball game was one of our biggest holiday hits of all time. Not only do E and all his teenage friends play it continuously, everyone else in the family loves playing it too. It's REALLY fun. If you are looking for an activity you can do with your bigger boy kid, I give this thing a double thumbs up. If you do end up asking Santa for one of these items at your house, I recommend that you go with the double basket, electronic scoring version so that family members can battle it out, one on one.
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RIPSTIK!
Both of my boys loved the Razor Ripstiks that Santa brought them in 2008, when Henry was 15 and E was 11. And the Ripstiks have remained a big hit every since. Highly recommended..
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Nerf! Nerf! Nerf!
Here's E holding the a Nerf Elite Hail-Fire model, which he recently got a chance to test drive with some of his fellow 9th grade buddies. All of the boys had as much fun playing with this thing as they had with their Nerf guns back in elementary school. Let's face it; boys of ANY age generally love running around and shooting things at each other, and this particular Nerf model has a SEVENTY FIVE foot range. I suspect that E will still love getting Nerf weaponry for Christmas for at least the next few years. Heck, I'll bet lots of adult men would be psyched to get a high powered Nerf shooter for Christmas this year.
If you are the mother (or grandmother or aunt or godmother…) of a tween or teenage boy, what holiday gifts have you found to be big hits? Have you ever given a gift to a boy in this age range that just fell completely flat? (In my case, that was the year E received a little “home gym” thing that he’s never once used. He has also never played a single round with the Bocce Ball set he got last year…
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A big thanks to Target for sponsoring this campaign. Click here to see more of the discussion.
Do you know a deserving family, school, or charity this holiday season? We’re giving away one grand set of 20 toys from Target, including those mentioned in this post! To nominate, simply comment and tell us why you’ve selected them!
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READ MORE FROM KATIE OVER AT MAMAPUNDIT (HER PERSONAL BLOG)
My boys still enjoyed Bionicles until they were around 14. We also did the game table thing–we got one with tables you could change out for 6 different games. They enjoyed it but it wasn’t high end so it only lasted a year or so. We don’t have a video game system so that was never an option, but they liked getting lots of DVDs.
Leslie ,
Henry loved Bionicles well into Middle School. Good addition to this list of gift options for bigger boys.
Katie
A lava lamp- my son loved it and his sisters were so envious. However, we have more than our share of failed gifts – every board game sits unloved and underused.
[...] Babble [...]
I loved this post. As a mama of a 12 year old, he’s the hardest one on my list. He likes sports, outside and video games. I’ve really had to put some thought into what to get him – I love the idea of an air hockey table, they are reasonable this time of year. Also, tickets to a professional sports game/college team are also on my list too. I hate giving gift cards, but I’ve passed that idea along to extended family.
Giving your tween an electric or gas motorbike is giving an implicit okay to an eventual motorcycle. In my opinion.
I’m an ER doc so it goes without saying that guns, motorcycles, driving while texting, driving while drunk, and drug use are all firm “don’t think about it” with my kids.
My now 22 year old son is still the hardest person to buy for. He still likes Lego’s tho! He went through the nerf gun phase, even into college. Books are probably his biggest like. We’ve done the Ripleys books and also the Uncle John’s Bathroom readers—LOL. He assures me you don’t have to be in the bathroom to read them. Because he’s a music guys, concert tickets are always a hit too. Games are big with him, Magic cards, the game Pandemic is big this year and Carcasone (think I’m spelling that wrong) Now, my teenage daughter is really, really hard to buy for…..any suggestions on that would be appreciated…….
I’d add the annual Guiness Book of World Records. Also, if you have a kid who’s really into Legos, you can get Lego Mindstorm, or the educational kits from Lego Education, or the complicated architectural ones like the Fallingwater model.
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-4643329-Architecture-Fallingwater-21005/dp/B002IXYSGO/ref=sr_1_fed1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354816342&sr=8-1&keywords=fallingwater+lego
(I’m not personally recommending this one since I’ve only seen it, but my 10-year-old has liked others in the Lego architectural series.)
I have two boys, 10 and 14. We’ve gone through Legos, Bionicles, Nerf guns, and skateboards already.
My 10 year old is easy to buy for. He wants everything! My 14 year old, however, doesn’t want anything except an electric guitar, which isn’t going to happen until he puts in a little more effort at school. Last year I got him a subscription to Rolling Stone (and my goodness, I should have bought and read an issue before I did that, he is getting quite the education) and Mad Magazine. I’m also adding him to our family cellphone plan and he’s getting a (free) smartphone, which will satisfy his desire for an Instagram account. Other than that, I’m kind of at a loss! We have a Wii, but he doesn’t even play it that much and hasn’t expressed an interest in any new games.
My youngest is on swim team and loves sports of all kinds, so he’s getting some swim gear he wants and he, my husband, and older son are getting tickets for two different pro sporting events right after Christmas. He’ll be happy with everything I pick out for him!
Both are big readers, so books are a perennial present at our house.
I love the idea of an air hockey table!! I have wanted to buy something like that for my boys. However, we have a pretty small house and it would have to go in the main living area (also small). So not really an option for us, unfortunately.
my son wanted an easy bake oven… and he also wanted his *guys*… (Rescue Hero’s and Power Rangers)… even at 12, he *still wanted those things. Now he’s 14, and he wants an I-pad, and comic books. And colored pencils. And I’ll get that for him. He’s a love. (I stopped getting him video games when he was 12, and he got himself a job…he buys all that now…)…but I have to say, he’s always really excited to give *me* a gift he picked out, just for me;) (which makes me proud)
For stocking stuffers, a pair of chopsticks were a big hit. Also, if the boy is outdoorsy, Smartwool or Wigwam socks. Shoes are always popular. For older teens, a really nice blazer/jacket, tie, shirt, pants, and handkerchiefs. Not as exciting is an etiquette book and a book about how to write anything (mostly various kinds of letters).
We have a wii, but my 15 year old son doesn’t play on it much.
*He loves getting cds (we don’t have ipods and I can’t afford one, but he might like that, too).
*Movies or tv shows on dvd are also a hit.
*He is a skateboarder, so a gift certificate to one of our local skateboard shops is always a plus.
*There are some games that are just so much fun, even a teenager likes them! Someone already said “Pandemic,” but if your kid isn’t too serious, “Fluxx” is one of the best card games I’ve seen. It can be played with two or more players and is hilarious.
*Someone else mentioned concert or sporting events tickets and we’re doing that, too.
*Books based specifically on the boy’s interests are often much loved–my son loves comedy so I bought him Steve Martin’s autobiography and Russell Banks’ book, too. These can be a bit racy, so if you’re not prepared to talk to your kid in depth about sex and drugs, I’d stay away from them.
*The “cool” version of necessities–like hoodies with favored bands or hobbies. My kid loves the skateboard stuff because he skates regularly.
* This year, my boy wants these gloves with LED lights on the fingertips because the kids are doing this funny thing with making patterns with the lights in a dark room.
Because we’re Jewish, my teen gets 8 gifts from me. They range from very big (tickets to the Book of Mormon musical) to very small (Monty Python version of the Fluxx card game–purchased used). It’s hard to buy generically for anyone, but I’m not finding my kid too difficult to buy for this year :).
I’m a Mom of 15, 3 and 1 (last week) year old boys! Over the years the most popular things for my 15yo at Christmas were the uber-expensive Jordan clothes shoes and accessories (since he plays HS Basketball) that I refuse to buy as a regular wardrobe staple and will only buy for the special occasion of Christmas. He always gets some kind of special light for his room such as a disco ball or neon light, lava lamp, etc. Stocking stuffers can include things like headphones (he always loses them) and cologne and jewelry and DVDs.
I think my grown-up adult husband wants that mini motor bike! Haha!
I just remembered…last year my son said that he wanted his own “toiletry kit”…(sheesh!) and also a Playboy magazine. I got him both. ;)
Love the air hockey and basketball games. It’s always nice to have games for bigger kids without a million tiny parts that older kids could get injured with. The nerf gun looks equally amazing!
@Katie – I’m a huge Nerf fan, but I must warn you that the darts can be as slippery to find after they’re played with as some of those small plastic toys. Periodically I have to restock the Nerf dart supply at our house.
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Mine’s 14. He’s pretty sporty so we get him things (past 3-4 years) like soccer balls, tennis racket, soccer goalie gloves, sunscreen swimming top, skateboarder gloves, a skateboard, itunes gift cards, books, DVDs of a favourite TV comedy series, underwear, clothes…
As the oldest of six, also three boys and three girls, I have long felt that my mother was a saint. If you don’t mind, I’m nominating you to be cannonized at the same time as my mother! (Oh, yeah, my Catholic friend says you have to be dead to be a saint; see, it is true that no one notices what you do until you aren’t around to do it!)