As Christmas approaches, I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling slightly panicked about the long list of Christmas gifts yet to buy! If you’re in the same boat, read on, because I’m sharing some really lovely gift ideas for children in this post.
This year I decided to try something a little different here on the blog and create some really fun alternative gift guides for children – all based around food! As Eats Amazing is all about encouraging children to have fun and experiment with their food, I thought it would fun to come up with lists of gift ideas for foodie children – either those who love food and/or cooking already, or those that could do with some encouragement to be more adventurous with food.
I’m working on a lovely list of child friendly cooking and baking gifts and a more general ‘foodie kids’ gift guide to share with you later this week too, but today it’s all about food themed games and toys and I’ve got some gorgeous finds to share with you!
PLEASE NOTE: In order to keep the guide as accurate as possible, all prices shown are the RRP – actual prices may vary (do check out the links, you may well find some bargains!). This post contains some Amazon affiliate links, which means I may receive a small amount of commission on items purchased through the links.
I’m starting with some really lovely play food sets. My boys have both spent many happy hours playing with their toy food – it’s such a great way to spark their imaginations and I’ve witnessed (and taken part in!) many hours of food based role-play over the years.
You may know JoJo Maman Bébé for their gorgeous children’s clothes, but did you know they also have a great range of toys? I always start there when looking for something a little bit different for the little ones in my life and this year I completely fell in love with their Kitchens & Play Food range! Honestly I want to buy it all, but I’ve picked out some of my favourites to share with you, like this super cute wooden pots and pans set (£20) and lovely fruit and smoothie blender set (£35) – this one’s going straight under the tree for my youngest this year – what a great way to encourage little ones to be interested in healthy food!
Also from JoJo Maman Bébé is this beautiful picnic basket and wooden food set (£29.00) – perfect for indoor picnics when the weather is chilly or a trip to the park when the sun starts shining again. It arrives all packed up inside the picnic basket and would make a lovely gift for any child.
Every child needs a tea set in their life and this dotty tin tea set from JoJo Maman Bébé (£18) fits the bill perfectly! Pair it with the Mr Kpling Cake Stand (£10) for a delicious (pretend!) afternoon tea!
If pizza is more up their street, I found this lovely wooden toy pizza (£12.95) over at dotcomgiftshop. The pieces fit together with velcro and can be ‘sliced’ with the toy wooden pizza cutter and it even comes with it’s own pizza box!
I must also mention Melissa & Doug play food – the food groups wooden play food set (£14.99) has been a staple in our play kitchen for more than 5 years and it’s still going strong.
All that play food needs a kitchen to go with, and we’re huge fans of the IKEA DUKTIG wooden kitchen (£59) which is still going strong in our house after more than 5 years of play! We also own the child-sized stainless steel pan set (£6) and toy kitchen utensils (£2.49) and can highly recommend the whole range. It’s sturdy, durable and very affordable too.
Moving on to something a little more creative, the Ice Cream Treats set from Play-Doh (£7.99) caught my eye – what a fun foodie way to play with an old favourite!
We always like to buy a game or two for Christmas that the whole family can play together and the fun Yeti in My Spaghetti from University Games (£12.99) will be under our tree this year! The aim of the game is to remove as many spaghetti strands as possible without dropping the yeti into the bowl – tricky fun even for mums and dads!
Another fun game I’m looking forward to playing with the boys this Christmas is Doh Nutters from John Adams (£19.99) – this brilliant game involves scooping up donuts with your very own elephant trunk – I foresee much hilarity with this one!
For a lovely gift that’s a little bit different, these lovely wooden threading toys – the Threading Apple (£9.99) and Lacing Cheese (£7.74) are great for helping improve fine motor skills and would be lovely to pop in a stocking.
For little bookworms, I’m recommending three of my favourite classic food themed books. No childhood is complete without a copy of the Very Hungry Caterpillar (£6.99 for the board book version) – an absolute favourite of both of my children in the toddler/preschooler years. If you already have the book, there are some really lovely themed toys and games available to go with it. I love these beautiful Hungry Caterpillar themed wooden dominoes (£9.99) and the Hungry Caterpillar soft toy (£8.99) would be perfect for a younger child.
Also on my book list – classic story The Gingerbread Man (£4.99) has been a great tool for getting my littlest enthusiastic about baking – he loves making gingerbread men of his very own! And of course there is no greater foodie adventure than a visit to the chocolate factory – paired with some chocolaty treats, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (£6.99) would make a great gift for an older child!
Last but not least, if your children are anything like mine, they’ll love little collectibles, and the super cute scented Num Noms definitely fit my food themed criteria! There are loads of different sets to collect, all with different foodie themes, like the Diner Jumbo Deluxe Set and Deluxe Freezie Pops Set shown below (both £14.99). You can mix, match and stack the squishy ‘Nums’ on top of the motorised Noms to create different scent ‘recipes’ – the more you collect the more recipes you can create!
I hope you’ve found some fun present ideas here, be sure to keep an eye out for my cooking and baking gift guide coming soon too!
Do you have any favourite food themed toys or games?
Grace
Disclosure: Some of the products mentioned were provided for inclusion in this post however all opinions expressed in this post are my own. Many thanks to JoJo Maman Bébé for sending us the play food sets, Casdon for sending us the Mr Kipling Tea Set, University Games for sending us the Yeti In My Spaghetti game, John Adams for sending us the Don Nutters game, Num Noms for sending us some deluxe packs and dotcomgiftshop for sending us a voucher to spend on gift guide items.
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