Gift ideas for tween girls
By dorannmwin
@dorannmwin (36392)
United States
August 24, 2012 12:12am CST
Kathryn has already been invited to her first birthday party of this school year. The little girl whose party she has been invited to has been a friend of her for a couple years as she is one of our neighbors.
Well, we went to Wal-Mart today to get a gift for Hannah and I was at a lost of what was appropriate to get for a girl that is turning 11. You see, Kathryn will only be turning 10 on her birthday in December and she still likes Barbie dolls and things like that, but I don't really know what Hannah is into.
So, we ended up getting a purse ad a wallet for Hannah and also a few little makeup items that were on clearance at the store. I think that it is a great idea to give to a tween girl, but I would love to hear other gift ideas that you all have for children in this age range because I know that there are going to be a lot more birthday parties that she is going to be invited during this coming year.
11 responses
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
You know, it has been so long since I've been at Claire's that I didn't know about that. Thank you so much for sharing about that with me. I will definitely remember it for the next time that Kat is invited to a birthday party.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
You are definitely right that a lot of the things that children (girls especially) in this age range want are things that are very expensive.
@cagampan1991 (364)
• Philippines
24 Aug 12
Well for tween girls. You could give them same pair of shoes, clothes or everything. You could either differ it in color so that there's just something so that you could distinguish one from the other. It's always good to give them same couple of things so that they cannot question you why the others is much more nicer. So there's nothing to compare, and they will not think that you have some favoritisms.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
That was kind of what I was thinking. This is the first birthday party that Kat has been invited to this year and I liked the idea of coming up with a kind of "go-to" gift that she can make slight variations on for each of her friends as they have birthdays through the course of the year.
@jaiho2009 (39140)
• Philippines
24 Aug 12
Oh yes, I know how it feels.
Each time a friend invited me for a birthday party for little kids gives me hard time buying a gift.
My kids are young teens and sometimes they even forgot the things that they're into when they're younger (aha)
Or maybe because time changes a lot that they (my kids) can't give me a better suggestion either.
For little girls, purse, coin purse, bangles I think will do.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
See, I think it is a good idea as well because it is something that you can pick out for the girl's personality and it is also something that will allow themselves to express themselves at school. You see, the school that the kids attend is a dress code school and thus the only ways that they are really able to express themselves is through their accessories.
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
24 Aug 12
It's funny you ask this. We were invited to our neighbor's party too last month - and the girl there is 12. We knew nothing about her really - we rarely saw her (I don't know why - because it's summer but I never see her outside!!!). So we ended up getting her a box of lip balms, lip gloss, nail polish, and body glitter - all in candy flavors. It just happened to be on sale - and besides, I was running out of shopping time - hee hee.
At her party, we saw the gifts that she opened. Maybe it could help you with some ideas? She got a gumball/candy dispenser, lots of various clothing (she seems to be into the Monster High look), school supplies (again, the Monster High theme), tween cosmetic stuff like we did, hair accessories, and of course the no-mistake gift: gift cards.
As the kids are getting older, isn't it getting harder to pick out gifts???
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
It does seem like it is a lot harder to pick out gifts as the children get older. Heck, I'm already stressing out about Kathryn's birthday and she is my own daughter. I really don't know what she wants (except for an iPad and she will not be getting that until all of this stuff from the car accident is settled, I promised her that she can use part of her settlement to buy one for herself. I feel that she takes better care of things if she buys them herself.)
@krupar5 (287)
• United States
24 Aug 12
Hello dorannmwin,
I would have to agree with some of my fellow lotters on a few things they brought up. I have a 15 year old now and I know that when she was younger I did not allow her to wear make up. She just started wearing mascara and eyeliner this year. If you do give her the make up you may want to check with her parents if she is allowed to use it. Typically I go with a gift card in a bag with candy and little items, such as earrings, colorful socks and just fun things.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
I know that there are several girls in this age range that are not allowed to wear makeup and nail polish, but I do know that Hannah is allowed to. First of all, her mother was telling me about what she was loading the goody bags with (lip balm, nail polish, etc.) and that one of their party activities was going to be mud masks, so I knew that in this situation it was appropriate.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
24 Aug 12
Maybe a gift card for a movie, and a little snack pack for watching the movie. I cannot think of much else, but that is what we do for the boys.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
I have to admit that this is something that I would have never thought of myself, but it is definitely an idea that I'm going to have to save to use with some of the further birthday parties that I know that the kids are going to be invited to during the rest of this school year.
@mensab (4200)
• Philippines
24 Aug 12
i have difficulty of choosing for gifts. like you, i usually ask people on what gift is best to give to certain people. i usually remember my times with them, and from there i choose gift for them. i wish you the best in choosing your gift to hannah. i can imagine your anxiety.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
Usually when one of my children has been invited to a birthday party, I will ask them to talk to their friend and see what they want to receive for their birthday. In this situation, though I knew about Hannah having a birthday party earlier in the week, I actually wasn't sure if Kathryn was going to be invited to the party. So, when Hannah handed out her invitations (last minute yesterday afternoon she was walking around the neighborhood handing out invitations), she really didn't have an opportunity to talk to her friend about what she wanted for her birthday.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
24 Aug 12
I tend to play it safe and just give money or gift cards, that way I know they'll get something they really want. No matter what the age it's difficult to pick out gifts for kids because you don't know what they already have or what sort of stuff they're into.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
I honestly really don't like to give money as a gift for a child's birthday because of the fact that I'm afraid that the kid will feel like my children are cheap if I only give them ten dollars or something like that. In most situations I can get more with the ten dollars at the store because of the fact that I'm a very conscientious shopper. For example, the lip balms that we filled the purse with were marked down to $1.00 each at the Wal-Mart in the next county (we only went there because I had to take some money for my friend to be able to call her children for the next week or so) as opposed to the $5.00 each that they are selling for in the county that we live in.
@camomile07 (1420)
• Germany
24 Aug 12
Well, if I have a daughter which is not my case, I wonder if I would agree to give make up to a girl turning eleven. Isn't it still a bit early? What about a nice handbag? This is something she still could use for several years. It's also very feminin and usefull.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
Well, the girls all call it makeup, but it isn't really makeup, I'm talking more like lip balm, nail polish and little things like that. I know that her mother won't object to it because it was Hannah's mother that took Kathryn with them last summer to get a set of acrylic nails and a pedicure.
@tessa9 (1085)
• Philippines
24 Aug 12
I like the fact that you wanted to learn what the girl wants so you can give it to her or something similar to it. I think it is very important that the gift should be about the recipient. I noticed that people are into personalized gift no matter what their age is. I would probably give a purse with the birthday girls name or initials.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 12
I do think that when giving a gift to someone that it is important to make sure that you are giving them a gift that they are really going to appreciate. j
When I am giving a gift to someone I really like to make something myself for that person, but when it comes to my children's friends, they don't treasure handmade gifts as much as adults do.
