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Every year, it’s a challenge to figure out what to get my boys. I don’t know why, but boys are much harder for me to shop for than girls. I always find a hundred cute things that my daughter would like and I don’t have a problem coming up with ideas for the other girls in my life. But boys are hard. It seems like the only thing they ask for is legos or video games.
We aren’t a big video gaming family. Don’t get me wrong; my kids love video games. But we put time limits on them and most of the time, they prefer to be outside playing with their friends anyway. They love to go on adventures in our neighborhood. We live on a golf course and right behind our house are bushes and shrubbery and a pond. They love to go exploring with their friends. Sometimes they make videos and movies on their cheap cameras while they are on their adventures, and my 10 year old has been asking for a video camera to make better quality movies. I love their creativity!
Aside from both boys wanting cameras for Christmas, I’ve been a little stuck on what to get them that would be meaningful and that isn’t legos, video games, or useless toys that will collect dust. I put my thinking cap on and Jeff and I have come up with some creative ideas. I wanted to do something for them that they would actually use in their everyday activities. Since they love to be out and about and exploring, we thought it would be fun to make them an “adventure pack” for Christmas!
For their packs, we found these cool hiking backpacks. They aren’t as big as their school backpacks, but are just big enough to fit the essentials for their hikes: water bottles, snacks, walkie talkies, chapstick, first aid kits, etc (we’ll talk more about what we are filling it with below!) The boys have been using their old, falling-apart, backpacks and they really are too big. These bags are just right and serve the purpose perfectly!
What essentials would you put in a tactical bag? We were thinking of putting the essentials of hiking: a compass, whistle, survival kit. Jeff stumbled onto this awesome bracelet that is a 4-in-1 survival kit! It is designed to snap on your wrist, but can be taken off and converted to a survival whistle, compass, scraper and flint fire starter (just a note of caution about that: my boys are scouts and they absolutely know the rules about fires and safety and whatnot; I would only recommend this under adult supervision or if your child is responsible and understands the laws of safety and the outdoors). These will be the perfect stocking stuffer!
They also love climbing trees right behind our fence. They often put on their cheap Dollar Tree gloves, but these gloves looked like something they would love while they are out climbing!
Walkie talkies are the perfect thing for an adventure pack! Plus, it would be fun for them to have with their friends across the street!
Of course no adventure pack is complete without a first aid kit of some sort. They aren’t that far from home, but it never fails that someone has to run inside real quick due to a scratch or cut from the brush. We’ll be adding their own mini first aid kit to their packs!
And now to make all their dreams come true, they are getting video equipment so they can hone in on their creativity and make their movies! We have searched high and low on which camera to get for Cody. He’s very responsible and takes good care of his things, but he’s still only 10 years old, so we didn’t want to go with something super expensive. But we also didn’t want to get something cheap that will quit working after a few months. After looking at several options, this is the one we went with. It had good reviews and we figured it was a good beginning point for him.
This is the other camera we were looking at. We loved the microphone feature, but it was a little pricier and the other one had more features and seemed like a good starter camera. If he really sticks with his movie making, we may upgrade in the future.
While we are on the topic of movie making and such, for Cody’s birthday last year we bough him a Stop Motion Animation kit. He loves to make videos with his legos. He even entered a video into a contest at school and he just found out last week that his project won and is going on to compete at the district level!! (More details about that to come!) I love this creative skill and talent that he acquiring. Here’s a link to the kit we bought, for anyone who has a kid into stop motion animation!
Ryder has been wanting a Go Pro so he can do videos as well. He wants to do videos while riding his bike and skates and also in the pool, which is why the Go Pro makes most sense. He is only 7 though and there’s no way I’m spending that kind of money on him. I found a Vivitar Action Camera which is similar to a Go Pro but a fraction of the cost. I bought mine at Kohl’s on Black Friday, but I found it on Amazon with all the bells and whistles. His cost less, but it didn’t come with the additional memory card (we had to buy that) or the case, cleaning kit and tripod. I’m wondering now if I got gipped. I may have to make a return to Kohl’s and get this one from Amazon!
Cody learned to play the guitar about a year and a half ago, and this year he was invited to play in a Ukulele number for a Christmas program at our church. He’d never touched a ukulele before, so before we said yes, we borrowed one from a friend to see if he could figure it out. Fifteen minutes and a few YouTube videos later, Cody had learned to play the ukulele. I am amazed at how quickly he picked this up! I found a beginner’s ukulele that is almost identical to the one he’s been using. It has great reviews and is priced well!
Funny tidbit about my boys: they love listening to music in their room; Ryder, in particular. He has a Pirate’s party CD that he listens to over and over and over, mostly because it’s the only CD he really has. I hear the pirate song on repeat, the lyrics singing “Yo-ho-ho with a bottle of rum” getting stuck in my head. It’s getting a little old. Both boys love to watch silly parody songs on YouTube and I’ve introduced them to Weird Al and shown them some videos, which they cracked up over. So this Christmas they are going to get Weird Al CD’s in their stockings. It sure beats listening to that darn pirate track!
We were debating a laser tag gift set, but decided to put this idea on hold. There are so many to choose from and I know the boys would love it!
Here are some other ideas that we’ve done for our boys in the past.
Fort Building Kit:
Rocket Launchers:
Rock Tumbler:
Spy Gear (my boys went through a spying phase, lol):
Remote Control Helicopters (my boys LOVE these!!):
Ryder wants one with a camera:
Now that I’ve shared my boy ideas with you, it’s your turn to share with me! Comment below and tell me what great boy gift ideas you’ve found!
