All I Want For Christmas 2021 Edition: Stellar Gifts for Children

As with many families, Christmas has been a huge deal in the households of Beau Satchelle’s team with a mixture of passed down traditions and newly created customs due to changes in family dynamics. Some of our rituals incorporate Christmas Eve services, extravagant holiday home decor, tons of baking, and most importantly, sharing our good fortunes with others who find themselves in challenging life events.

My own enthusiasm was inherited from my Mom who was the holiday season devotee. She was the Auntie who purchased Christmas gifts for her over 25 nieces and nephews on both sides of the family. One year, all the boy cousins received karate uniforms and I distinctly remember a lot of yelling and karate horse fighting throughout my grandparents’ house on Christmas day. I am pretty confident that not one of my cousins actually became inspired to take karate classes.

In addition, as a 30-year educator, it was my Mom’s tradition that hundreds of her 1st and 2nd grade students assigned to her classroom always received small Christmas tokens from her every year. These giving values were ingrained on me and my brother, who finally saw her retire her “Santa Uniform” about a decade ago.

Where did giving gifts to children originate? Historically during the 19th century the growth of Christmas gift-giving was born out of the interests of the wealthy and social elites who wanted to prevent public celebrations and protests in urban cities of workers and the poor. Simultaneously working families concerned for their children’s safety in the streets and the desire to limit exposure to commercial entertainment by focusing on a home and child centered holiday. Of course retailers took advantage of this cultural shift to promote toy buying which has grown into a 32 billion dollar industry in 2020.

What is priceless, is discovering that a number of our friends and associates, no matter the wealth status, have decided to approach Christmas with their young children and grandchildren as less of a “me” occasion and more of an event of sharing, giving to others, and appreciating quality over quantity.

As a matter of fact, while doing research for this blog, there are a growing number of young high-income parents concerned with overconsumption, preferring to instill gift rules with their children. This includes reigning in family members who are as guilty in excessive gift giving.

One such practice of American families deals with the three gifts philosophy linking the generosity of the Three Wise Men during the birth of Jesus; each child is limited to 3 gifts.

A similar practice is the 4 gift giving which involves:

Something you want
Something you need
Something to wear and
Something to read

I dare say that this 4 gift rule prevents all parties involved to not succumb to a materialistic frenzy yet instead creates expectations from the recipient’s standpoint. Gift giving becomes both intentional and more appreciated and the shopping has to be more pleasurable.

Another tradition that has changed for the better is creating minimalistic, quality stocking stuffers. If this is your family tradition, instead of plastic junk and sugary candy, consider smaller but meaningful gifts such as:

Playing Card games for the entire family to enjoy at a moment’s notice

Sleeping Beauty – From Happy You Happy Family a very cool family owned and family operated business offers a ton of other relationship nurturing products geared towards young families

Scavenger Hunt Travel Cards – Briarpatch is the company, however their products can be purchased on Amazon. Solid reviews from parents claims to keep children engage for those long car trips

Hoyle 6 in 1 fun pack card games – Awesome introduction to old school card games

Conversation starters Cards
A small box of luxury or gourmet chocolate or sweets
Customized coupon books with activities that a child can cash in to spend time with parents
Themed items like for essentials (hygienic spa-like products, new undies or pajamas) or an upcoming family trip (sunglasses, sunscreen, ski gloves, hand warmers)
Tickets to the movies, concerts, shows, season passes (museums or zoos), activity passes (ice skating, bowling, etc.)
Box of Thank you Notes to send to the gift givers

One other lovely tradition is for children to make room for the new, must do a Pre Christmas de-cluttering of their rooms. They decide what used clothing or toys can be donated to the Goodwill or really nice items to be repurposed and wrapped for shelter gift programs.

With all that being said, let us share Beau Satchelle’s list of the favorite holiday gifts for children: We get no affiliate fees or commissions for these products.

Monthly Educational Subscription Services or One Time Courses

1. KiwiCo – An amazing subscription gift for the young (and young at heart) who possess a makers mindset or interests lie in science or engineering. The company was created to inspire the next generation of innovators and problem solvers.

2. Sign them up for Podcast Subscriptions for Children

3. Masterclass Monthly Membership – Athletes such as Simone Biles, Serena Williams and Tony Hawk teach skills on their respective sports,. cooking classes, writing and filmmaking classes. Musicians, Acting and Gaming

4. A child crazy for magic, parents should check out the online classes at Total Kids Magic or Ultimate Magic Academy

5. Skilllshare, Udemy and other online educational platforms offer classes for your older children/ teenagers. Resources with extensive lists of platforms are Skillscouter and CMuse

6. Gift your 9-14 year old Diva child a course in Fashion Illustration and Design

Gamers

Anyone who is adjacent to a child, whether it yours or someone else, has some idea as to the PlayStation 5 consoles, being the hottest tech gift in the world and as we draw nearer to Christmas, the hardest product to keep in stock at retailers or at PlayStation’s website. According to tech writers, whether you are in the hunt for the console or the Digital Edition, it’s pretty difficult to find either. There are a few retailers that announce intermittent deliveries, but you have to ready to pounce or hiring a freelancer or concierge seasoned in finding and buying hot items.

Your best bet is to keep a close eye on announcements at these particular retailers:

Amazon

PlayStation Direct

Best Buy

Target

GameStop

Walmart

Newegg

Sam’s Club

So in case you’ve earned the coolest parent award of 2020 by securing a PS5 during the launch, you’re focus may be to upgrade your youngest technoids game collection.

Obviously Fortnite and Minecraft have built a strong generational following from children to grandparents for many years. Tech experts also suggest (The full list is on Digital Trends):

Astro’s Playroom
Slime Rancher
Overcooked! All You Can Eat

If your recipient is older and more mature, the choices are far and wide such as Rachet & Clank Rift Apart or Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to name a few (full list on Tech Advisor.com)

Neiman Marcus trip to London

I absolutely adore Neiman Marcus’ fantasy gift list as they NEVER disappoint with their over the top curated gifts. Because of my insatiable appetite for reading as a child (the library was my sanctuary), this would be my absolute childhood dream gift.

The retailer has pulled out all the stops with Little People, BIG DREAMS™ London Adventure. A 2-day experience built for a child and parent/ guardian to co-write a personal illustration story and turn it into a book. Included is lunch and exposure to the behind the scenes process of writing a book with the publisher, an illustrator and author MARIA ISABEL SÁNCHEZ VEGARA. Your child will leave with his/her 25 printed and hand bound special editions books, and 50 books within the Little People, BIG DREAMS™ library.

Imaginary Play

The Wonder and Wise Company has stepped up its game in offering children outlets to use their imagination with interior home themed PlayHouses with accessories to purchase to enhance the experience (kitchen items, camping items, etc.). One in particular is a Playhouse stage created for the budding performers in the family. It is funny how this spoke to me because my childhood neighborhood friends (under my bossy directorial leadership) were always performing as singing groups or creating imaginative acting scenes.

Children’s Luxury Leather Accessory

Of course, we would also like to suggest considering a Beau Satchelle bespoke accessory for that particular teen mature enough to understand the value of owning a quality leather accessory that will last years and actually get better with time as they grow older. Accessories for teenagers can consist of a wallet, a belt, an age appropriate handbag for evening or formal affairs. Or the thought of transitioning your high school student from a nylon, canvas or polyester material to a grown up, durable and sophisticated college leather backpack.

With Christmas so close, at this point, if a personalized handcrafted gift is desired, we would mail your recipient a beautiful boxed gift certificate to schedule a future time for consultation and manufacturing their gift as our products take several weeks to complete.

Although this blog’s focus is on Christmas gift giving, we hope that many of these ideas trigger future gifts for other observances and special occasions, especially children’s birthdays. After gathering all of our resources, this list became quite sizable, so stay tuned for part two!

– AJ

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below or on Twitter!

Thank you to the following web sources for additional blog information:

The Spruce – The 9 best card games for kids

Happy You Happy Family – 4 gifts for christmas

Pure Wow – 41 Experience gifts for kids

Digital Trends – PS5 Restock: Where to you can buy one right now.

The Atlantic – Why People Give Christmas Gifts

The Toy Association – U.S. Toy Sales Data

Thank you to the following photographers for the beautiful Holiday photos:

E M – Santa’s Mailbox

Cottonbro – Dear Santa