Is anyone in your family a travel enthusiast? Christmas is coming and our recent #familytravelhour was alive with suggestions for Christmas travel gifts for kids and adults on the theme of getting out into your backyard and the world. Santa was too busy to favourite anything but we believe an elf was monitoring the hashtag. Here Kirstie Pelling takes a brief look at some of the suggestions put forward in case you happen to be going Christmas shopping sometime soon and are stuck for ideas.
We kicked off by asking for your gift ideas for the littlest ones in the family and they came tumbling in along with the retweets.
A1 Isn’t the most obvious one a globe or an atlas? Or a scratch map? @swhittle #familytravelhour — Lonely Planet Kids (@lpkids) November 17, 2015
Many suggestions were literally globe related; atlas, map, scratch map, light up globe, blow up globe, wallpaper you can stick flags in and a scratch map and globe combined. Who knew there were so many versions of globe on the globe? Travel parents are a practical lot too; there were loads of recommendations for making the journey more fun and comfortable like kids travel pillows and Trunkis. @Fiveadventures was all for engaging the children while on the journey with practical, useful presents:
@grettaschifano @swhittle I love gifts that they can use during travel. Camera, journal and @storycubes are perfect #familytravelhour — Fiveadventurers (@Fiveadventurers) November 17, 2015
@EmmaAbdul came up with a great suggestion about keeping them in contact with other family members while they were travelling:
@swhittle we got a cheap compass so when hubby was abroad she could see which direction he was. Same would work on hols! #familytravelhour — Emma Abdulaal (@emmaabdulaal) November 17, 2015
Books were next up for discussion and the enthusiasm about Lonely Planet Kids’ books caused @lpbooks to blush online. Other suggestions included Where’s Wally Travel series, Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers and Topsy and Tim at the Airport. @munchiesandmunchkids recommended the wisdom of a doctor -Not Dr Who but Dr Seuss.
@swhittle how about Oh the places you’ll go..Dr Seuss? I often read it to Izzy talking about our travels&life in general. #familytravelhour — munchiesandmunchkins (@WritingForFun) November 17, 2015
Talk of books then turned to talk of magazines like @National Geographic Kids and travel magazines for grown ups:
@swhittle A3. I read Conde Nast’s Traveller magazine – always good to hear what’s on trend. #familytravelhour — We Blog Travel (@WeBlogTravel) November 17, 2015
For older kids @grettaschifano suggested a Fuji Film app and printer which makes photos look like polaroids, @swhittle recommended tickets to concerts or events and @thinlyspread suggested GPS for young sailors (in the family not random sailors on the sea) or for geocaching. Then it was on to stocking fillers and it was hard to keep up as the ideas flooded in.
@tots100 @swhittle whoopie cushions, Lego mixels, hotwheel cars, crayons, tattoo stickers, stationary #familytravelhour — snafflesmummy (@snafflesmummy) November 17, 2015
Journals, Play Doh (party sized for restaurants,) luggage tags, passport covers, colouring books, stickers, cards, compass, rope, binoculars, back pack. You name it we tweeted it. Of course there were socks- earth socks which @lpkids then rushed out to buy her husband. And exciting pens…
@tots100 @swhittle @sciencemuseum shop has some great travel related bits like this land pen https://t.co/1bXMbvq1Xe #familytravelhour — Truly Madly Kids (@TrulyMadly7) November 17, 2015
We moved onto food- because really that’s what Christmas is all about isn’t it? Specifically what food you would bring back from your travels to give as a Christmas gift. Ideas were diverse, some included camel’s milk and a respectable amount recommended alcohol, from limoncello to beer and benedictine. But you know what? Not one person promised to bring us a turkey from Turkey. Maybe next week?
We finished off with fantasy as all good travel chats should. What would we ask for if budget weren’t an option? Travel of course. Need you ask?
