Jackson's Christmas Stocking

This year, I felt that Jackson needed loads of new toys for Christmas. I am not sure if it is partially down to mum-guilt, seen as I am having another baby, or if he has actually out-grown some of current toys but I have bought so many that I have already saved some for his birthday!!

Below, I have shared Jackson's stocking/sack presents and I have also linked anything below that I could find online. Most of the presents have been brought in pre-Christmas and Black Friday sales...

Last year, my sister brought this gorgeous personalised stocking for Jackson. It will be much more full than last year though (we only put a couple of presents back then, as we had a few bigger bits for him instead). 

The first thing that we have brought him is this baby doll and a buggy. When we go to play groups, he shows no interest in them but I got them in order to try and get him used to babies before his little brother/sister arrives. Not sure if this will work but lots of people have recommended doing this.
Baby: Mothercare
Buggy: Mothercare

We do lots of messy-play at home and Jackson loves it, although we are missing some tools. I found this kit in the Mothercare Black Friday sale - it has so many bits in!
Paint kit: Mothercare

Something that Jackson does love to play with at toddler groups is the tea set they have. I am not really that bothered if Jackson plays with girly toys or likes pink but it was so hard to find a tea set that was gender neutral, as they all tend to be pink or floral. I managed to find this one though from Argos for about £3.50 in the pre-Christmas sales, so was totally chuffed to get one! (Price has gone up now)
Tea Set: Argos

We bought this train set from Ikea (we actually bought it for his 1st birthday but we felt he was too little back then, so we kept it for Christmas). I think that he will enjoy building the tracks now, as he is much more advanced. I have also bought him a couple more trains that we gave to him in his advent calendar.
Train Track: Ikea

Now, this a prime example of mum-guilt. We went to a friends house recently and he loved these type of puzzles, so the next day I went out to John Lewis and picked this up!!
Puzzle: John Lewis

Jackson just loves watching 'Mr Tumble', so when I found this book in TKMax for cheap, I just had to buy it.
Mr Tumble book: TKMax

Our plan was to also get some toy pots and pans from Ikea but after having a look at what we already had for Jackson for Christmas, we chose not to get anymore. I have already brought the plastic food so we will give this to him. This was another bargain from Argos.
Plastic food: Argos

The next toy was, apparently, the IT toy last year and it sold out in most places. I bought this one back in September but I think that it's available in most shops now. Its a bath toy that makes bubble ice creams like Mr Whippy. Looks loads of fun!
Bath toy: Amazon

Jackson has just started to get into role play and my sister has been buying him different hats, which combines his love of both hats and role play. Again I found it quite difficult to buy boy role play sets but I managed to find this doctors kits which looks really good quality.
Doctor set: Argos

Everyone that knows Jackson, knows that he uses most things as microphone, which I really don't know where he gets it from (Dada, haha!). I found this one in Mothercare and it echos when you sing into it. I remember having a similar one as a child!
Microphone: Mothercare

Last Christmas, Chris picked up one of these pull-along/push toys. Personally, I said it was a waste of money as he was too little for a toy like this. Well how wrong was I!!! It very quickly became his favourite toy and he played with it constantly. When anyone asks me what to get a one'ish year old, I tell them to get one of these. Anyway, back to this one... a few months back I stepped on it and broke it (carrying a little extra weight at the moment!). Jackson's Grandpa managed to fix it temporarily and it lasted a while longer but eventually came apart again, so we thought we would replace it for a new one.
Push along toy: Amazon

What have you got your little ones for Christmas?

Love Sophia xxx

Christmas Eve Basket 2016

Last year, when we were looking for traditions to start as a family, we came across the 'Christmas Eve Basket' idea. We loved doing it last year and I think that this year it will be even better, as Jackson will be a lot more aware. It also seems that this tradition has gone crazy recently with pre-made boxes available to buy and gorgeous personalised boxes with the children's names on, which are just beautiful. 

We are re-using quite a bit from last year; firstly the actually box. I love this one that I picked up from TK-Max. 

Inside are these gorgeous PJ's that we got from M&S. He has actually worn them once already for our Christmas cards, but more on that later!

I am re-using the plate and bowl that I brought from Matalan last year, but I have seen these in the shop again this year too (the plate is actually at my mum's house at the moment but you can seen it in last years blog!).

Also from Matalan, I brough this goregous cup for him. 

I was going to put in the same books as last year but I also wanted to read them to Jackson throughout Decemeber. I wasn't planning on getting a new one but saw this and just had to get it! You get a wind up sleigh and track with it and as you read the story the sleigh goes around. 

Another item from last year was this snowman teddy - he wasn't that into teddies back then but this year he seems to like them a lot more. 

I found this 'decorate your own' Christmas biscuit at Lidl, not sure how well he will decorate it but I am sure he will have fun eating it!

We don't have a chimney so we are re-using the magic key from last year to ensure that Santa can get into our house!

What else have you put into your children's Christmas Eve basket?

If you're struggling on what to buy your toddler for Christmas, check out yesterday's blog, 'Toddler gift ideas'.

Love Sophia xxx