Dollar Store Christmas Gift Ideas for Kids

With Christmas being less than a month away, the stores are in full Christmas swing and filled with busy shoppers from open to close.

I hate Christmas shopping! I do what I can to avoid the mall at all costs. We’re fortunate that our daughter is still young and doesn’t want for much in terms of gifts. That doesn’t mean we won’t buy her a few things though. We do a good job at keeping our Christmas shopping within a budget and when we can get away with buying something for cheaper, we will.

I made a list of gift ideas for friends and family who insisted on buying our daughter ‘’something small’’ and realized most of the things on the list could be purchased at the dollar store. It’s cheap, and in our case, we can avoid the mall, bonus!

Here are a few gift ideas that you can buy for the kid(s) in your life all of which you can likely get at a local dollar store:

• Coloring books and crayons. Our daughter loves to color but I cannot justify paying $5+ for a coloring book where she will insist on ripping every page out to color individually. I’m much happier with the $1-$2 book and a box of Crayola crayons for the same price. It doesn’t sting as much when she snaps the crayons in thirds either.
• Playdough and cookie cutters. We love to play with playdough. I have actually made my own in the past but when I found a box of it at the local dollar store for $2 I stopped making it. Our daughter loves to roll the dough out and cut it with plastic cookie cutters, again which I bought at the dollar store for cheap.
• Books. At my daughters age I still prefer to buy books over using the library since she’s still learning the concept of being gentle (it stresses momma out to keep track of books we don’t own!). Given the volume of books we purchase I always buy on sale, used or from the dollar store. Some of our favorite books were only $1 at the local dollar store, always worth checking out. I have been surprised.
• Craft supplies. Aside from the playdough and coloring books, I purchase all of my craft supplies (paint, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, sparkles…) at the dollar store. Making up a cheap fun craft kit from dollar store finds would make a great, cheap, gift!
• For the little girl in your life: Hair stuff. I always check out the local dollar store for fun hair things like sparkly hair clips and elastics. I can’t justify spending too much money on these things since they’re lost into the abyss hours after buying them…
• Toys. Like books, the dollar store surprises me sometimes with the toys they carry. My daughter loves dinosaurs so we bought her two bags of little dinos for $1.50 each. Worth checking out to see what you find before hitting the mall!
• Stocking stuffers. When it comes to helping Santa, the dollar store can be a Mecca for stocking stuffer ideas for kids of all ages.

Until I go there I always forget how stocked the dollar stores actually are. If you’re not sure if you think they’ll have something, it won’t hurt to check, it may just surprise you!

What other Dollar Store Christmas Gift Ideas can You Think Of?

Catherine

Catherine is a first time momma to a rambunctious toddler. When she isn’t soaking up all that motherhood has to offer, you can find her blogging over at Plunged in Debt where she chronicles her and her husbands journey out of debt. You can also follow her on Twitter.