Christmas present with "Wow" value for a 10 year old boy.

[Mickey'snewestfan]

DS is going to have a great Christmas. Last winter he got really into snowboarding, so he's going to get a season "night pass" (cheaper than a day pass) to the local ski hill, plus a season long snowboard rental, and probably 3 to 5 days of lift tickets over vacation at my brother's in New England!

My mom has also decided to get him a new bike, which I'm sure he'll love.

However, none of these are gifts that he'll open and say "wow". The season long snowboard rental requires that he goes and picks it up and gets fitted in November, and he already knows about the other two. Since we're driving to my brother's for Christmas, there's no way to actually bring a new bike, so my mom will give him a photo of a bike with the offer to go together and pick one out when we get back.

Given that, I'd like to give him at least one present that leads to "instant fun". That is, something he can open, be surprised about, and play with right away. Not too expensive, since the snowboard stuff will be his "big gift", and frankly I don't care if he plays with it for more than a few days, but something that will make his eyes light up.

Any ideas? I should add, because it's a standard 10 year old boy suggestion, but DS doesn't like legos, and we won't be bringing our video game system so games are out too.

 

[mjkacmom]

Ds11 really wants an itouch, and a lot of his friends have them.

 

[minkydog]

When my DS23 was 10yo my DH came up with a fantastic gift--a Xerox box with several different batteries, wires, rubber bands, little light bulbs and fans. He also put in a few small boards, a hammer, and small nails. DS was over the moon! He played with that stuff for months! There's not enough juice in the batteries to harm you, as long as you don't chew on them or swallow them. DS spent hours making "engines" and light up circuits. Then went he got tired of that, he hammered nails and made some small ladders for his Batmans to "play" on. We got all the electrical stuff at Radio Shack and I bet we didn't spend $25 on the whole thing. He got $500 worth of fun out of it.

 

[preb]

Ipod? Is he into music at all?

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

He actually has an ipod and never uses it, so trading up to the touch wouldn't be great. I thought he'd love the ipod because he loves books on tape, and so I gave it to him with an audible subscription, but he never really got into it.

The wires and things sound interesting.

I'd love to hear more ideas.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

Does he have a cell phone? That's always a hit with kids.

 

[princess.chell]

Do you guys have a Wii? Maybe you could get him the Shawn White snowboarding game for it with the balance board so he can "practice" snowboarding and hit some huge tricks on the game?
I'm not sure if he likes getting new snowboarding "clothes" (new jacket or pants) or if that would be a wow gift for him, but I love getting new snowboarding clothes (since a new board every year is out of the question). I know I'm a girl, but I'm more of a tomboy and new snowboarding clothes always make me happy.
Hope that helps! I hope he has fun on the slopes. I love seeing little kids out there on the slopes. It makes me smile every time. =)

 

[suejai]

This idea came from DS's friend - what about an RC car or something similar.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Do you guys have a Wii? Maybe you could get him the Shawn White snowboarding game for it with the balance board so he can "practice" snowboarding and hit some huge tricks on the game?
I'm not sure if he likes getting new snowboarding "clothes" (new jacket or pants) or if that would be a wow gift for him, but I love getting new snowboarding clothes (since a new board every year is out of the question). I know I'm a girl, but I'm more of a tomboy and new snowboarding clothes always make me happy.
Hope that helps! I hope he has fun on the slopes. I love seeing little kids out there on the slopes. It makes me smile every time. =)

He'd love that, but given that he's already getting 2 expensive gifts (the bike, and the snowboarding stuff) I figure that's more than I want to spend -- maybe for his birthday.

I don't want something super expensive, but I think part of Christmas is being able to wake up and spend half the day engrossed in a new toy or book or game or something you can use right then and there. So a bike he doesn't get until the following week, or an upcoming trip to the snowboarding hill doesn't fit the bill. An RC car might, especially if I can find one that's cool in some new way.