This has been a difficult one, nothing too girly, nothing too old fashioned oh my, the tweens are a hard bunch to please but we think we’ve done it.
The top ten gifts for tweens is here!
A Girl for All Time
This is a wonderful gift for teens but also younger girls too. Our 12 year old adores this though. She’s just started to enjoy history in secondary school and Clementine is perfect for giving her a glimpse into the past. The doll is expertly made and is of the highest quality, she comes with a diary that lets your tween absorb her real history. Every doll is from a different point in history so you can choose a Girl for All Time that completely suits your child’s personality. Visit the website and read the blogs, discover the story behind the creation and be bowled over by the detail that’s gone into making such a wonderful, timeless toy for our generation.
3D Doodler
The 3D doodler is a great affordable way to bring 3D printing into your home. Any Tween will love it, it’s given us hours of fun. It’s a little tricky to start with but once you get the hang of it, it’s fun and you can build anything your imagination allows you to. It’s quickly becoming one of our favourite go to craft tools of all time.
3Doodler Start
Suitable for ages 8+
The first 3D printing pen that’s designed to be totally safe for children, the 3Doodler Start is an affordable, yet unique gift for younger family members, who’ll be thrilled at being able to draw in the air and bring their imaginations to life! Perfect for arty children or for introducing kids to DIY or engineering, as well as being good for parents who don’t want loads of mess after a crafts project, as there are no glues, inks or harmful chemicals involved.
ArcKit
If your tween is a budding architect they will adore the ArcKit, it models on real architectural design and allows your tween to create stunning buildings.. This is a construction kit for the older child.
Arckit GO Colours is fun way for children to learn design skills. This colourful building kit allows them to create different structures with large floor plates and easy ‘click and connect’ components. It retails from £49.99.
This product can be purchased online from Arckit.com
Cat Ear Headphones
These are amazing, they look so cool and feel so great on. What a way to stand out from the crowd.
The headphones also have built in speakers so the choice is yours… listen to your music your way or simply flip a switch to change your private sound studio to a party-rocking sound system that everyone can enjoy as your music pumps through the external cat ear speakers. With bright LED lights that can be controlled independently from the speakers, the Cat Ear Headphones are a perfect gift for kids and also for gamers – simply plug in the detachable boom microphone and you’ve got the coolest looking headphones around!
The Cat Ear Headphones retail at £99.99 and come in a range of 4 different colours.
Keplar Virtual Reality
The best virtual reality headset we’ve tested (we tested another that showed the night sky), this range from Keplar is cosmic. Only just in the shops, you can find yours at Tesco. Hurry though, these are flying off the shelves now.
The ‘Keplar Series by iCandy’ range of virtual reality (VR) goggles allow the user to watch 3D movies and get immersed in new worlds or galaxies, see places around planet Earth as if on location, learn about the stars, fight zombies and intergalactic forces (and save the universe in the process!) all from the comfort of their own home. With applications being developed all the time, the opportunities are endless.
Polk Boom
A lifestyle audio brand targeting active, adventure driven consumers – continues to increase the ways and places people can listen to music. Introducing a new and improved Swimmer Duo, a rugged Bluetooth speaker that pushes the limits of where music can be taken. This water, dirt and shock proof speaker, with flexible tail design, delivers hi-fi sound within an extremely compact and portable package from as little as £49.99.
Featuring a detachable and versatile looping tail (an inch longer than its predecessor), which twists, folds and locks the speaker into place for multiple mounting options, the Polk BOOM Swimmer Duo provides the perfect excuse to get creative. So why not approach portable sound in a fun way by looping it, twisting it or gripping it, making it the elite gymnast of Bluetooth speakers.
Polk BOOM is with you every step of the way — Enjoying music anywhere demands a product that’s ready for anything, Polk Boom has this and then some!
Selfie Mic
SelfieMic™: a selfie-‐s+ck with a built in microphone so that users can make their own music videos – karaoke or lip synch style. Created in conjunc+on with the Starmaker app, pick a track and sing along to record then share your own pop videos, or lip sync to a favourite hit and share the results with pals online. You can also also add filters and effects, even autotune if you wish and it works perfectly well without the app too, meaning that people can use it to record their own YouTube-‐style narra+ve content too. RRP £19.99, suitable for ages 5+
Odeon Giftcards
Giftcards can seem a bit boring but not with the Odeon as you’re basically gifting an experience. All tweens have their eye on a new movie for 2017 and so this is the ideal gift IMHO. (Get Me!)
Lucky Voice
Lucky Voice is ramping up the festive spirit this Christmas, with an array of at-home Karaoke Kits, perfect for kick-starting everyone’s party mood.
The karaoke lovers have even given the kits a special twist this year, launching a limited edition range of Christmas-jumper inspired microphones, available to buy exclusively from shop.luckyvoice.com from Tuesday 1st November. Festive fun aside, all Kits come in a host of fun colours (from hot pink to electric blue) and are priced from £50 (£60 for the Gold and Festive versions).
Lucky Voice’s at-home kits are a stress-free addition to the Christmas shopping list, being available to buy everywhere from QVC and Amazon to Urban Outfitters, Selfridges, Toys R Us and Maplin. They’re also easy to use (no midnight assembling for tired parents here); simply connect the laptop and speakers to the kit, create an account and get singing.
Zapper Interactive Books
Zappar recently launched a new range of ‘Super interactive Annuals’ – including Temple Run and Angry Birds. These books are augmented reality-enabled, meaning you can ‘zap’ them with your phone to unlock hidden content and games.
Poptropica!
Hamleys Biggest Bear
We love the biggest bear in Hamleys and recommend it as a top toy for Christmas too. This bear will be well received and no matter how old your tween is, the joy on their face will be magical.
This beautiful and premium bear is the ultimate teddy bear; its Hamleys Bakewell Bear, at your service and ready for cuddles. Bakewell Bear supersizes the cute-factor and gives the best hugs in the world. Thanks to his generous proportions Bakewell can be climbed on, hugged, played with and pulled about at your childs leisure. At a whopping 110cm tall, he also makes an adorable addition to the bedroom of older boys and girls – youre never too big for a bear like this! As with all Hamleys Bears, Bakewell is constructed from the softest fabric and boasts a super plush and very strokeable fudge coloured fur. His friendly face has been hand finished and he wears the Hamleys red logo bow and classic red foot stamp with pride.
Robo Maze Game
The Phoenix is the gift that keeps on giving, offering children aged 6 to 12 something to look forward every week as it drops through his/her letterbox.
They offer a range of subscriptions to suit every budget. Our most popular subscription is for 6 weeks and costs £19.99. It comes with the comic book How to Create Awesome Comics plus a gift certificate to present on Christmas Day, perfect as a stocking filler or gift for a reading-mad child. You can purchase a subscription online at www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk.
After much success with Sphero, the leaders in connected play, recently announced the launch of their next generation app-controlled robot Ollie.
Ollie takes connected play to the next level by combining the technology that Sphero 2.0 is known for with innovative controls and integrated gameplay for a whole new experience.
Engineered for high performance driving and tricks, Ollie has the ability to:
- Drive up to 14 MPH, and thanks to the tubular design, can do so with complete control and agility
- Execute tricks including spin, drift, jump and flip moves
- Through apps, provide automatic feedback and points based on the difficulty of the manoeuvres and tricks performed
- Programming, educational apps also available
Ollie is available in the UK at £79.99 and Sphero at £99.99 from the following stores: Amazon.uk, Apple, Firebox.com, Harrods, John Lewis, MenKind and Selfridges.
Using bone conduction tech to enable you to hear sound, there are no speakers! The new Spy Net Vibrasonic Walkie Talkies (RRP £34.99) will enable you to get a-head of your enemies! Sense and hear the sounds vibrating through your head as you converse with your cohort on the latest Spy missions, using the dual-headset pack.
Smiggle. For tweens you can’t go far wrong with Smiggle this year. They allow every girl and boy to look cool in the classroom with their high quality, coveted stationary. An incredible brand that are growing their product selection as we speak and one to definitely keep an eye on. Be the coolest parent ever by spotting the trend before your tweens do as soon every tween will not be seen without Smiggle stationary at school. It seriously is cool!
They are a great christmas gift for kids as they are fun and quirky, but also practical when going on sleepovers or camping, as they are super comfy but small enough to fit into a rucksack.
Cushion Friends are 100% made in the UK, inspired by Japan. They are six brightly coloured cushions, each with their unique, eye catching design and personality!
They are made from 100% high grade emerized cotton which makes them super soft and huggable, perfect for the young at heart, regardless of age!
They are the perfect accessory for brightening up any room just by adding a splash of colour, and make a great unusual gift.
They are currently for sale in a number of shops as well as online at Bluesuntree, Red Candy and The Pea’s Knees to name a few.
For more information and a gallery, please take a look at www.cushionfriends.com
Urbanista Seattle Headphones
These Swedish headphones, both music and fashion combine,
Comfortable, stylish, the ultimate in sleek design
No sleeping in Seattle with music through the night
No wires to tether him, so borrow them you might!
Urbanista Seattle headphones, £49 Wired/£89 Wireless, www.urbanista.com
Finally, our no.1 Pick for any TWEEN!
Teen Dream – the Christmas gift that allows 11-years olds to get motoring
Stocking Fillers
