Gift for a child who has everything: not more toys

You know the child. The godchild whose birthday list says “nothing, really”. The grandchild whose bedroom already looks like the toy shop. The nephew who will open your present, say a very nice thank you, and never touch it again.

Buying for a child who has everything is hard, and it is not because they are spoilt. It is because the obvious kind of present has stopped working. Here is what tends to work instead, from a small company that thinks about this more than is strictly healthy.

Why more toys stop landing

A toy is at its most exciting in the minute it comes out of the paper. After that, it joins the others. In a full toy box the new thing is up against forty old things, and most of the time it has lost within a week.

The presents still remembered in March tend to have a few things in common. They last longer than the day. They get the child doing something, not just owning something. They are clearly and specifically for that child. And the best of them carry the giver along too. None of that means spending more.

Something that keeps arriving

A present that turns up again and again stretches one moment of excitement into months of it. Children love post, partly because they get so little of it, and anything that arrives with their name on the envelope feels like news.

There are plenty of kinds: a magazine subscription in a subject they love, a book club that sends a new book each month, a seed or craft kit that comes by the season. They suit a child who has everything because they are less like things and more like appointments, something to look forward to long after the wrapping paper has gone in the recycling.

Something they do

Experiences beat objects for children too, and they need not be expensive. A term of lessons in the thing they will not stop talking about: climbing, pottery, drums, coding. A family membership to a museum, a zoo or a heritage site, which turns a year of rainy Saturdays into outings. A day out with you, just the two of you, planned together.

One we would always recommend, because it costs nothing: take them to get their own library card, and make an occasion of it.

Something with their name on it

Children can tell when something has been made for them in particular. Not a mug with a name printed on it, which they will rightly recognise as a mug, but something that could only belong to them: a book they appear in, a story written around their interests, a letter addressed to them by name.

The difference between a personalised thing and a personal one is whether it knows anything about the child. Their name is a start. Their dog, their best friend, the grandparent they adore and the thing that frightens them at night are better.

Something from a grandparent far away

For grandparents, aunts and godparents who live a long way off, the most valuable present is one that keeps them in the child’s week. A gift that arrives regularly is a small reminder of who sent it, every time it comes.

You can make that reminder louder. Write a short letter to go with the first delivery. Ask the parents to tell the child, each time, who it is from. And if it is a story, ask to be written into it: a grandmother who turns up in the story herself is remembered in a way a card in the post never is.

Making a later gift feel like a present on the day

The weak spot of any gift that arrives later is the moment of giving. A child cannot unwrap a subscription, so give them something they can.

• Wrap a token. A drawing of the first delivery, a card explaining what is coming and when, or something small that belongs to it: a magnifying glass for a nature kit, a notebook for a story. For an experience, the same trick works: a ticket you have drawn yourself, a map with the date on it, the first piece of kit for the class.
• Write the first note yourself. A few lines in your own hand, saying why you chose it for them, will be read more than once.
• Tell them it is coming. Anticipation is part of the present. A child who knows a letter is on its way checks the doormat every morning.
• Ask the parents first. A quick question about what the child is into, and whether a regular delivery suits the household, saves a gift from landing at the wrong address or the wrong moment.

A story that arrives by post

This is the one we make, so we will keep it short and you can weigh it against the rest. A Journee is a story told in letters. The child is the hero, the people they love are written in, and each new chapter comes through the letterbox in an envelope with their name on the front. Our team writes and draws the worlds and their stories, and the letters are made for the child’s age and reading level. It suits the child who has everything because it is not another object, it lasts for weeks, and it is unmistakably theirs.

You can start it for them yourself, or give a gift card so the parents choose the world. You can include a note of your own with the first letter, and when the letters are for someone else’s child we tuck a card in with the first one that explains how to hand the story over to the parents. The gifting page has both ways, the six worlds are on our story worlds page, and the packs and prices are on the pricing page.

The best present for a child who has everything is rarely the most impressive one. It is the one that shows you know them, and keeps on showing it after the day is over.