Best presents for a 7 year old girl

Empowering Toys for Girls

Toys have a significant and lasting impact on the ways children learn to view themselves and their place in the world. While our parents may have grown up with toys that promoted more traditional gender roles, today's generation of girls has access to products that aim to empower them.

The rise of a new generation of pro-girl toys are challenging the archaic gender roles they espouse and changing ideas about how girls play. Proving that the female population can accomplish anything it sets its mind to, these toys for girls include  STEM kits, construction sets and dolls. 

Thames and Kosmos Pepper Mint Great Treehouse Adventure

In this story-based STEM kit, Pepper Mint visits her aunt who is a scientist researching primates. She lives in a treehouse in the rainforest on the island of Borneo. The treehouse is not connected to the electrical power grid, but Pepper Mint and her aunt devise mechanical inventions to accomplish various tasks.

Top toys for 13 year old boys

Best travel toys for older boys

Baffle

Baffle Game is mind bending plastic puzzle based on twist and slide of 'Smarties style' buttons. Mess it up then try to get the orderly rows of bright shiny buttons back. Baffle is a lovely tactile, easily portable and great for travel.

What we're loving: Moonlite

Moonlite is a cute, easy-to-use device that turns your smartphone (most Android and iOS devices) into a storybook projector. Moonlite clips onto your smartphone and uses the phone’s torch light to project vibrant storybook illustrations onto any surface. The free Moonlite companion app contains all of the words to the stories to help you read along while projecting the storybook images. The Moonlite app also includes sound effects to make story time even more magical. Packaged just like a storybook, Moonlite slides right onto your bookshelf and comes with two delightful stories. A great idea to ignite the love of reading and develop your child's imagination.

10 presents for future fashion designers

Creativity For Kids Fashion Headbands

Gorgeous creative kit to decorate and personalise 10 rainbow satin headbands with beautiful accessories. Everything included to make a fashion statement; 11 plain and patterned ribbons; 2 fabric flowers; sparkly butterfly; decorative “jewels”; colourful spotty feathers; glue pen and inspirational instruction and ideas leaflet. A fabulous fashion idea for children of all ages!

5 cooperative board games to avoid arguments this Christmas

Alongside excessive boozing, dozing grandparents and leftover turkey sandwiches, the board game is a Christmas staple. Sadly so is a flipped Monopoly board. Some folks just can’t stand losing. Good news. There’s an alternative (apart from just going down the pub and leaving them to it). You can still enjoy some family board game bonding, without your festive day degenerating into scattered Monopoly money, broken furniture and lower lip wobbles. Yes, there is such a thing as working together to beat the game. And it can be just as fun. Here's our pick of the best cooperative games to play this Christmas.

We Detectives

Serious sleuthing for serious enjoyment! Work together to solve crimes and don’t let the bad guy walk. Each player is a detective and they must work together as a team to uncover the evidence and lock the baddie up for good! Watch out though – hazards and unforeseen events will make your job harder!  For 2 – 4 players.

Age 7+

The best radio control cars

Stunt Racer 360

It lights, it spins, it preforms amazing tricks! This RC Stunt Racer performs truly impressive spinning tricks and the wheels and other parts of the car's body light up to provide a dizzying light-show as it spins and flips. 19cm wide.

Age 6+

10 presents for creative girls

Lite @ Nite String Art

Use a mix of traditional string art skills and stencilling, add fairy lights and you have a shining masterpiece!  Insert the pins into the butterfly outline template onto the pre-cut wood.  A delightful craft activity that will leave girls with a real sense of achievement when the project is finished!  Download the app for extra content. 

Stocking fillers for 2 year old boys

Top science kits for girls

Science4You Soap Factory

Understand why soap is so important for our skin and get to know the complete process of producing soaps. Aside its cleansing functions, soaps also have funny shapes, many colours and pleasant scents, and children will be able to create some with all these features by using plastic moulds, dyes, apple or tangerine scents and all the lab materials needed to carry out their experiments. The kit includes a 36 pages educational booklet with 8 experiments and much more. 

10 family games to play this Christmas

Mexican Train 

This truly fun and addictive game is like Dominoes, but with a little extra bit on the side. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your dominoes faster than any other player, but with 91 tiles in one set you better make sure you don’t block your own train!

This easy to follow game is great fun for all the family, young and old. The set contains everything you need to get started – 91 domino tiles, 8 train markers, 1 train station hub and a simple manual. 

Best escape games

Escape room games began as digital adventures and quickly turned into real-life events all around the world where players are locked in a room and must uncover clues and hidden objects to escape. Escape room games have become insanely popular in the past few years, with numerous businesses popping up in all cities. But for those who might not have one easily accessible or don’t want to shell out the money for one; there’s another fantastic option….. Escape Games. These can be played from the comfort of your own living room and are a great idea for some collaborative fun with the family over Christmas. Here’s a few of the best products available:

Escape The Room - Secret of Dr Gravely’s Retreat

The year is 1913 and you are the lucky winner of a free stay at Foxcrest Retreat, where the famed Dr. Gravely has improved upon the latest in spa treatments and relaxation for those of high social standing. You take a long all-expense-paid train ride to the retreat. Upon your arrival, however, you and your fellow guests may find the "health retreat" is not what it seems...The Objective: Work with your guests to discover the dark secret of Dr. Gravely's retreat by finding clues and solving puzzles. But be careful…in the story, the doors have shut and locked behind you. Will you and your guests discover the secret and escape the room before time runs out?

Age 13+