We follow the hilarious Ruth of Love it Love it slavishly, not only does she have impeccable taste and an amazing website choc full of great clothes for kids, but she’s real and rude. Often found tweeting well past midnight whilst lovingly crafting the hand made labels for her copious deliveries we asked her to round up some of the very best places online to gift the wee un’s in your life. Seems like we’re not alone in our appreciation, check out this Guardian write up!
Buying Christmas gifts for little kids is easy. You just go to your nearest out of town or online toy retail behemoth and grab something. But if you’d rather get something that doesn’t make a noise that leaves the child’s parents plotting your grisly death or so laden in gender stereotypes they’d make Barbara Cartland burn her bra in protest, then it’s a smidge harder.
An old maxim says that when giving gifts to children, you should get them something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. That seems excessively generous to me, but there you go. Let’s lob in something to do as well for good measure, even though it doesn’t rhyme.
Something they want
Jane Foster cat £15 
Retro style design classic alternative to sickly sweet stuffed toys.
Handlebar Heroes £9.99
Turn the ubiquitous Micro Scooter into a horse!
Something they need
Rabbit nightlight £5.99 at Hunkdory Home
Keep monsters at bay the kitschy way.
P is for Puffin cushion by Lettiebelle £65
Yes, £65 for a cushion. But Laura hand stitches each eco-friendly felt cushion herself, with her actual hands, not a sewing machine in sight.
Something to wear
Obviously, everything ever from my store Love It Love It Love It. For a Christmas jumper, you can’t go wrong with Tootsa MacGinty.
Molo Rainbow wellies £22.99 at Little Stomper
If the weather is miserable and grey then you need some colourful puddle jumpers to brighten things up.
Something to read
Everybody Poos by Taro Gomi £4.99 from Baltic Mill Shop.
I went to the Baltic website looking for an arty, cultured book to recommend and got distracted by this. I haven’t read it, it may well be rubbish, but it’s about poo. What more do you want?
A book token and library card
Ai carumba. Do you know how hard it is to find books online that don’t come from Amazon? Researching this post, I found a list compiled in October 2011 of the best independent bookshops in the North. More than half of them now appear to be closed. Support your local independent bookshop and library before it’s too late.
Something to do
Once you hit the booze, you need something to keep them quietly entertained.
Rolobox £9.99 at Hooray for Kids and Makedo £11.98 at Toyella
Child-friendly fixings that they can use to turn cardboard boxes into whatever they can imagine.
Toca Tailor iPhone/iPad app £1.49 on iTunes
Great interactive app that allows kids to create outfits, mix and create patterns.
This is absolutely ACE! I am so having those wheels that turn boxes into cars. definitely having those.
Not sure what to get for my three year old, though.