Gift Ideas For Boys, Sneaky Shopping Tips & A Target Gift Card Giveaway

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Target recently gave me a gift card and sent me on a Christmas shopping mission with my kids to one of their stores. My challenge? Be a kids’ gift detective and purchase toys for my boys without them knowing.

Sometimes shopping for kids can be hard. Jacob and Lucas tell me they want everything that they see on television so it’s not always easy to decide which gifts they want the most. With Sinisa working so much it’s also difficult for me to find time to go shopping. While I do a lot of my shopping online, I’ve found that sometimes I just prefer the shopping experience in-real-life instead of online.

Target gave me some great ideas on how I could shop with my children without them knowing. Here are the ideas I was given:

  • Kids’ Gift Detective Tip 1: While shopping at Target for your everyday needs, indulge your kids with a stroll down the toy aisle. As they interact and point out toys they like such as the Air Hogs Atmosphere, you can easily pull out your smartphone and use the Target app to purchase it right there in the toy aisle without them ever knowing it.
  • Kids’ Gift Detective Tip 2: For an upcoming shopping trip, bring the other parent, friend or grandparent who can bring the kids to a different part of the store for a snack while you make purchases of the gifts. Or, doing your shopping with the kids’ while in plain sight and tell your kids the items are being given to a cousin or friend, so your kids won’t even realize the gift is for them.
  • Kids’ Gift Detective Tip 3: Enlist your kids in the shopping fun. Want a sneaky way to find out exactly what your kids want for the holidays while also shopping for a good cause? Tell your kids you’re shopping for gifts to donate to a local charity, and have them pick out the toys to donate. Your kids will love scanning the aisles for their favorite items, like the Flutterbye Flying Fairy or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles R/C Shellraiser. Little do they know that the items you’re picking out will also be the gifts they’ll find under the tree. To make sure they don’t blow your cover, you can drop off items you bought at your local charity and order the items online that they picked out for their Christmas gifts.
  • Kid’s Gift Detective Tip 4: If you don’t have a partner in crime to help during your covert shopping trip, make sure to disguise or hide the items you put in your cart. When you arrive at the store, line your cart with “undesirables” (like jumbo packs of frozen Brussels sprouts or books about manners) so your kids can’t see the real gems hidden inside. You can also swing by the container aisle to convert your cart into a covert shopping storage machine. Just place one big, closeable bin into the basket and add their wish list items to the bin while you wheel through the aisles.

For my shopping trip, I decided to focus on my 5 year old’s gift ideas. I seem to be full of gift ideas for preschoolers but for some reason that next year up is harder. He’s too big for preschool toys but too young for many elementary toys. I went along the lines of #2 and told him I wanted him to show me 5 toys that he thought his friends wanted most for Christmas. At his age, his “friends” wants are still suspiciously the same as what he wants ;)

Here were his choices:

Skylanders is #1 on Jacob’s list. The newest game out is Skylanders Swap Force which he loves. Really anything Skylanders will do!
Angry Birds Telepods toys go with the phone app and are a big hit in our house as well.
Switch & Go Dinos were mentioned a few months ago and here he shares again that they’d be in his top 5. Vehicles that turn into dinosaurs? Pretty cool!
Jacob got this Hot Wheels Set for his birthday. Cars are always a hit with this age group!

This LeapPad bundle tied with the Nintendo 3DS as a top electronic gift. For the LeapPad Jake thought a 5 year old boy would like a SpongeBob game the most and his top 3DS game was Pokemon. 

Target also shares some of their top gifts for boys in that age range. They are:

  • 4-pk. Disney Planes Die-Cast Gift Set (Target Exclusive)
  • Imaginext Justice League Javelin (Target Exclusive)
  • Angry Birds Go Pirate Ship
  • Kidtrax SRT Viper 6-Volt Ride-On Car
  • MEGA Bloks Hot Wheels Super Stunt Test Facility
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles R/C Shellraiser
  • Zoomer

So many great gift ideas! Need help figuring out how to hide all of the fabulous gifts? Don’t worry because Target has ideas about how to do that as well! Find them all here.

GIVEAWAY:

One reader will win a $25 Target Gift Card

HOW TO ENTER:

{Do any or all of the following, leave a separate comment for each you do}

1) Leave a comment telling me a sneaky shopping tip you have

2) Share this giveaway on a social network

3) Share a picture of yourself using the Target Kids’ Gift Detective tips on Twitter.

Use the #MyKindofHoliday hashtag to tag your pictures.

4) Subscribe to this blog

5) Comment on another one of my posts

Giveaway ends December 20, 2013 at 11:59pm CST. Must be 18 or older and a US resident to enter.

(Disclosure: As stated above, Target gave me a gift card to use. All thoughts are my own.)

96 thoughts on “Gift Ideas For Boys, Sneaky Shopping Tips & A Target Gift Card Giveaway”

  7. We too have done basically what you have only telling my grandson we were looking for things for his cousins. We had a few ties he found things and we told him the same story, it was for his cousin who is his age

  10. A sneaky shopping tip is to compare prices between stores to get the best deal, or get your local store to match a competitors price!

  14. I would ask them to help shop for their cousins, who were also their same age, then I would know what they really wanted and go back later to purchase.

  15. i usually shop on cyber monday and I hide the presents in our storage closet up high with blankets and sheets over them.

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  40. I like to hide gifts inside a cooler in my trunk because I know I am the only one who looks back there.

    Thanks for the chance to win!
    wildorchid985 at gmail dot com

  43. I shop online throughout the year when I see sales and put things in my gift closet. Legos seem to be something that fits a large age range and always a hit with boys it seems.

  48. I USED TO SHOP WHEN I HAD MY SONS WITH ME. WHEN THEY WERE NOT LOOKING, I WOULD PUT SOMETHING IN THE CART AND COVER IT WITH MY COAT. THE CASHIERS WERE GREAT AND HELPED KEEP THE SECRET.

  53. Sneaky shopping tip? Well, I do the majority of my Christmas shopping online and am pretty good at finding discount codes! In stores, I always hit the sale racks first. (and at places like Target, I checkout the endcaps of the aisles… usually there are clearance items there.)

  59. my tip is to order as much online as you can! amazon.com has awesome deals (sometimes cheaper than Walmart) and free shipping for a lot of items $35 or more

  63. I ask my boys to pick out things and then buy them and tell them it is for the other sibling works like a charm.

  67. One sneaky shopping tip to get the best price for online shopping is to watch constantly for coupon codes to lower the price or get free shipping.

  72. When my kids were young I would take off my coat and put it in the buggy. Everything I didn’t want them to see went under the coat. LOL

  79. When the kids were little we would just have 2 carts my boyfriend would pack them off in one direction and I would go another and buy the stuff, pack out to the car and then meet up with them later.
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