My lack of experience with children, not being a parent, is a handicap when it comes to buying an appropriate gift for an 8 year old girl. Especially because of the wide variety of gifts one can find when arriving at a shopping mall where one can get lost among the huge shelves of toys.

Who was a child again

Walking through these aisles I came across a multitude of toys that took me back to my childhood, like these shoveling machines. I remember as if it was yesterday when my parents gave me a toy fighter. Although back then they were made of metal and were very durable. These plastic ones will surely do the job, but they are not the same.

But what I did like was to find myself with characters from my favorite cartoons as a child, such as the characters of "Dragon Ball" and the famous "Ninja Turtles". How many hours I spent in my childhood and adolescence watching these cartoons and what good memories surfaced at that moment when I was in the store.

Let's focus on the search for gifts.

As I told you, my cousin is 8 years old and I love her madly. So for this Christmas I was looking for an impressive and practical gift, so at first I had thought of buying a puzzle.

But last Christmas I had given her 2 puzzles. So I was falling into being repetitive in my gift.

Another option I was considering was to buy her some children's books. But hitting on my cousin's reading tastes is a bit tricky. I know this because other relatives in other years gave her some reading books and they were not very successful. So I had to take a longer walk through the aisles of the mall.

A Lego idea

That's when I came to the shelf dedicated to Lego sets.

My cousin really likes the constructions. She is very creative and loves challenges like building a spaceship, but when I saw that the recommended age was lower than my cousin's, I pulled me back.

So I continued to dive through the shelf, finding endless amazing options like building a Captain America, constructions related to the world of Harry Potter and some cars.

Precisely, this option of building a race car was the one I finally settled on as a choice, since my cousin loves cars and by age the box indicates over nine years old. Therefore, I know that she will love to make a construction intended for children older than her and that will motivate her more.

A fun and useful addition to the school

Next to the shelf where the Lego's were, I found eye-catching games like this skull with a dino coming out of its head, as if one of my ideas was coming out of my own.

But I didn't buy this toy because of how ugly it is. But if on the bottom shelf I did see this set of markers, pencils and coloring cardstock.

In this way, I also help their parents not to have to buy pencils and supplies used in the plastic arts class for a season.

So, buy a Lego and this set that my mother carefully packed in the mall itself and that will be under the Christmas tree that on Saturday I will install before my cousin arrives at our house.

I think I got some good gifts by spending a moderate amount of less than 35 euros when I found a very good offer for the Lego and the marker kit.

Best regards and Merry Christmas.

Own photograph taken with my iPhone 13.

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Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).