What on Earth do you get a 12-year-old boy for XMAS?!

This is what I typed into my search bar this weekend. He just had a birthday and he couldn’t even tell me what he wanted for that, now XMAS? In a way, I am glad. He understands that he already has what he needs and seems to appreciate those things. That’s awesome. But I still need to find at least something to put under the tree, right?

With that in mind, I opened my computer and combed through multiple articles on “What to get your 12-year-old boy”. Did you know those articles existed? If you haven’t already searched the same thing, let me tell you there are hundreds of them! But here is what I found on my own search, none of them are very good. The links that I clicked came up near the top of my search and what I noticed is that none of them seemed to written by actual parents of boys!!!!

I want Christmas morning to be special, and I want the interest in those gifts to last longer than those few hours. Despite how quickly my kids rip through the packages, I actually put a lot of thought into what I buy and use those gifts to (when I can) spark new interest or new hobbies. My answer? Another one of those lists!!!

There is no way my list will appear anywhere close to the top of a similar google search, but this is a list of what my boys are actually getting this year (shhh, don’t tell) and tried and true favorite gifts from over the years. Real gifts with real thoughts on them.

Games

This is a tradition of ours. Every year, each one of my children gets a new game. I love that we have something that we get to sit around and learn together and that gets to be brought out again and again as part of our time together. Here is what will be under the tree this year plus a few favorites from the part.

For the 2-year-old – Catan
For the 10-Year-Old- Double Shut the Box
For the 6-Year-Old – Honeycombs

Past favorites
For 8+ – Farkle 
For 8+ – Sushi Go
For 6+ – Labyrinth
Preschool – Feed the Woozle

Building

Given that my middle son has always loved Legos, I usually include a building toy. I have started moving away from Lego sets as my builder tends to build them once and then break them down to be used to rebuild something from his imagination. That means we have a lot of Legos!!!! If there was a particular set I would probably give one, but this year I thought we would up our building game by trying something new.

For the 10-year-old – LittleBits
For everyone (over 3) – PlusPlus
Past Favorites
For 3+ – Magnetic Blocks
For 5+ – Straws and Connectors

Active

Whether indoor or outdoor, I love gifts that get my kids moving. This year my oldest is getting the most active toys and I am trying to inspire him to spend less time in front of his...