HN Explorer

Ask HN: What are you buying your kids for Christmas?

38 points by JamesSwift ↗ HN
I thought this would be a helpful thing to read what others on the site were getting for their kids, along with the age of those kids. Doesnt have to be tech-oriented.

EDIT: besides robux : D

30 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 53.1 ms ] thread
JamesSwift
All 4 of my kids are into scratch but are sort of hitting a wall doing it online, and they also have expressed interest in robotics, so I did research on the two and came up with the mBot series of robots.

For the 11 and 9 year old: the mBot Ultimate (https://www.makeblock.com/pages/mbot-ultimate-robotics-kit)

For the 7 and 5 year old: I wasnt sure whether to go with the mBot Ranger or the mBot2 Rover and went with the Rover (https://www.makeblock.com/products/buy-mbot2-rover-emo-robot)

kylecazar
That mBot Ultimate would have made me very happy at that age. I had a 1st gen Lego Mindstorms NXT when I was a little older than they are, it was a blast.

Hopefully adding hardware into the mix will spice things back up for them.

pram
3 wheeled scooters and a Switch 2
kasperset
Lego and Sketch book with coloring pens.
jayturley
My daughter (29) is getting a filing cabinet and pastel folders. And a cute EDC kit with knife, pen, and screwdriver. My grandson (2) is getting books, little people, and a cheap drone that floats and is controlled by hand movements.
squigz
Your grandson is getting little people?

That's a lot of responsibility for a 2 year old!

mbg721
My 5-year-old loves the British series Numberblocks, and they have lots of licensed toys.
nomdep
My 9-year-old still remembers that show and sometimes says things like “did you know that fifteen is a staircase number?”

I think the show gave him an intuitive understanding of numbers and made basic math easy for him

tsoukase
My kids were watching it at 5-6. But I believe they didn't understand that a staircase number is a sum or a rectangular is a product (they had to relearn that later in school).

"Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them", John von Neumann

euroderf
OK, I just tried Numberblocks on my 6yo and it was a HIT
miek
beyond the normal stuff: a microscope, speks mini magnetic balls, 3d pen, japanese snacks.
JamesSwift
What microscope did you go with out of curiosity. That never crossed my mind but actually might be something my kids would be into.
raw_anon_1111
My kids are 23 and 28 and both live on their own. We gave them $1000 each. One to help move and the other to get tires for his car.
sloaken
Oh sure set the high bar ... now I need to consider this. Couldn't be something like 50 bucks ...

Of course looking back my dad was giving us money for a number of years and with inflation ... arg I hate giving it away :-)

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ulfw
A subscription to ChatGPT of course. Not like they'd ever get a job in the new world anyway...
andrewstuart
16 nearly 17

Chromebook

Some paper books

Battlefield 6

Board game

chrismatheson
One 8 y/o one 3y/o This year:

- Transformer robots

- Origami book & papers

- Some ski gear

- Metal detector

- Climbing harness & slings etc (small climbing frame in the grander they like to attach to and just kinda swing about)

- Kids Cookbook

Past Years Winners:

- Magnatiles - both have loved these, one of the most used toys and reasonably open-ended

- Diablo - the circus toy thing

- Modu - https://modutoy.com

- Potions kit - just a bunch of small pots etc with random glitter and what not in them. pretty good one for an upcycling project

- Playdough - classic for a reason, also DIY'able Little printer roll instant print camera

(edit formatting)

cpburns2009
A wooden train set for my toddler-aged son.
rtcoms
Microbit for my 7yr old kid.
scaredreally
I think it will be B&N gift cards for my just-about-to-be-teen daughters. It will encourage them to buy and use something physical whether drawing supplies or books. Fingers crossed.
TimBurman
I've been giving cash and encouraging them to put it into diversified exchange traded funds. I may offer to match any returns for a year this time, so they are less likely to spend it all. It's a tough sell for young people but I want to help them develop good habits early.
jdmoreira
I am giving my 6 year old girl an old acer netbook that boots directly to pico-8. This will be her first computing experience. She never had access to phones or tablets.
djinnrutger
My daughter and her boyfriend - matching headsets for gaming (one black and one pink). My son (who is a Marine) a box full of snacks that he cant get overseas.
tsoukase
My 10yo wants a shirt of footballer Alcavo Carreras and my 9yo a book about earth minerals. I refused them a 1.2E payment to Roblox.
firefax
I don't have kids and my family is abusive, so I'll probably find the homeless folks I used to vent to during COVID around the neighborhood and pay them to listen to another airing of grievances with pizza on Festivus[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus