Gift card amount or gift idea for girls age 9-11

[descovy]

Hey all,

I have girls... but I am becoming stumped on gift ideas for friend birthday parties.

My tried and true has been $15 gift cards to Target. What I am finding recently is that these friends are throwing parties and giving $10 gift cards in goodie bags!

It's happened 3 times so far! First time was a backyard pool party... later it was pricier parties at a roller rink, and one party that included at trip to the salon for mani/pedis! So I'm wondering if my $15 Target gift card is cutting it, when they're giving my child $10 gift cards as goodie bags!

So I am looking for ideas. What is an acceptable amount for a gift card? At this age, these are usually "friend" parties... not anonymous entire class kind of parties.

And is there a cool thing out there (gift) to give other than gift cards? Maybe I'm just not being creative enough. I do know that my 2 oldest DDs (5th grade & 3rd grade) are outgrowing "toys." The things they are into are often expensive, and my dd's would enjoy small gift cards to help towards the purchase of an iPod or such. Or if they are "into" something (like Percy Jackson books) well, they already have whatever it is that they are "in to."

I have a slew of party invites coming up, and even though I have girls this age, I am stumped.

 

[smkiya]

Hey all,

I have girls... but I am becoming stumped on gift ideas for friend birthday parties.

My tried and true has been $15 gift cards to Target. What I am finding recently is that these friends are throwing parties and giving $10 gift cards in goodie bags!

It's happened 3 times so far! First time was a backyard pool party... later it was pricier parties at a roller rink, and one party that included at trip to the salon for mani/pedis! So I'm wondering if my $15 Target gift card is cutting it, when they're giving my child $10 gift cards as goodie bags!

So I am looking for ideas. What is an acceptable amount for a gift card? At this age, these are usually "friend" parties... not anonymous entire class kind of parties.

And is there a cool thing out there (gift) to give other than gift cards? Maybe I'm just not being creative enough. I do know that my 2 oldest DDs (5th grade & 3rd grade) are outgrowing "toys." The things they are into are often expensive, and my dd's would enjoy small gift cards to help towards the purchase of an iPod or such. Or if they are "into" something (like Percy Jackson books) well, they already have whatever it is that they are "in to."

I have a slew of party invites coming up, and even though I have girls this age, I am stumped.

I usually give my nieces 13 and 15, $25 gift cards. I think $20-$25 is appropriate.

I still can't believe they get $10 gift cards in the goodie bag; I think that is more of the parents "showing off". The birthday girl should be happy with what you give her, whatever it may be.

I'm getting sick of all of this entitlement. Parents need to teach their children to appreciate each and every gift, regardless of its cost!

 

[aprilgail2]

I usually give 20.00 to friends and 25.00 to close friends. Usually either a target gift card or a itunes gift cards- most of her friends have itouchs so they can use it for Apps.

 

[Kimberle]

We are in a urban area. We give abt $25, as is the "going rate". Different areas of the country have different standards. I like giving cards to Borders or Barnes & Noble.

 

[kristilew]

We've started giving DD's friends about $20 of costume jewelry from Forever 21, Charlotte Ruse, or one of those "teen" type stores.

Often, they aren't really big enough for the clothes there, but they like to have something from a more grown up store. Plus, with uniforms at school, funky jewelry is the way to go to individualize. We always include a gift rect in case they want to have something else.

 

[krcit]

I give my nieces and nephews $25 for their birthdays so no way would I go over that for friends. I would think a $15 or 20 gift is great.

 

[minkydog]

When DD17 was that age she was over toys. She really wanted craft supplies. She loved jewelry kits, paints, photo albums and things to make things out of. My sister gave her a shoebox full of craft items every year and she really looked forward to that. It would usually include things like different colors of felt, sharp scissors, glitter glue, fabric paint and a Tshirt, new markers, popsicle sticks, chenneille stems, yarn, buttons, a glue gun, colored socks for sock puppets, burlap, etc.

When DD was about 10 she learned how to hand-sew so I gave her a small sewing kit with scissors, needles, & thread. She loved nothing better than getting a couple lengths of cloth, maybe 1/4 yard, and some stuffing material. She would draw some kind of doll, teddy bear or cat, I would cut it out, then she would sew up the sides leaving the bottom open . After she stuffing I helped her close the bottom with pins, then she would sew up the bottom herself. She had scads of these little toys she made.

 

[java]

Are the girls into Vera Bradley? At that age my dd gave things that I got on sale- like little purses ect. Usually around $20-25.
Now that she is 13 it's more like $30. It depends on the friend. If it's someone close and my dd knows what she is into (like on friend way into music-pierced ears but can not wear dangly ones as per her mom- so we bought her 14K musical note earrings from Piercing Pagoda)

 

[Hillbeans]

I know a few girls in DS's age group and they like the P.S/Aeropostale, Justice and those sorts of stores. I'd also go with itunes GC's.

 

[luvmy3]

I usually give my nieces 13 and 15, $25 gift cards. I think $20-$25 is appropriate.

I still can't believe they get $10 gift cards in the goodie bag; I think that is more of the parents "showing off". The birthday girl should be happy with what you give her, whatever it may be.

I'm getting sick of all of this entitlement. Parents need to teach their children to appreciate each and every gift, regardless of its cost!

I don't recall the Op ever saying the birthday girl's weren't happy with their gift. Just because a parent happens to put a $10 GC in a goody bag that does not mean they don't teach their children to appreciate any gift they recieve. I easily give my dd's friends $10 worth of stuff in their goody bags, and its not because I'm showing off, its because I enjoy giving them something to thank them for being a part of our celebration. Neither my dd or I have ever measured what someone gave as a gift, or compared it to what we gave in a goody bag.

OP, I think you should continue to give what you want and what you can comfortably afford. I tend to give between $15-$20 to friends of my kids.

 

[scrapquitler]

My DD is 13, but I think the same ideas apply to a 9 year old, all more or less within the $15 price range (also my limit for birthday parties)

Some non-gift card ideas that I've seen at some of the parties DD has attended:
* lip glosses, body sprays, lotions etc (esp. from Bath and bodyworks)
* earrings or other small jewelry pieces from places like Claire's
* cute little purses
* socks from Little Miss Matched
* pajama pants/tank top sets
* mittens/gloves/scarves/hats
* CDs/DVDs
* Diaries, journals, sketch books, address books
* I tunes gift cards (this is probably the most common thing)
* gift certificates for manicures
* fleece blankets

I wouldn't take the goody bag your child is going to receive into consideration when deciding on a gift

 

[kirstenb1]

I usually give 20.00 to friends and 25.00 to close friends. Usually either a target gift card or a itunes gift cards- most of her friends have itouchs so they can use it for Apps.

This is what I do, but sometimes do a g/c to Claire's Boutique, or Abercrombie. Same $.

 

[crzy4my2]

I do $25 for both DD and DS's friends. For their closer friends I might do $30 and something else small..like for DD's closer friends I might do a $30 gift card to Justice and a bag/pocketbook/wallet from Justice with it. My DD is 7 so Toys R US is still acceptable, but you can get electronics there too so DS9still likes it there. Some other places I have bought gift cards are the Lego store, Build a Bear and Clair's. I am having a joint b-day party for my kids in a few weeks and some of the things people said they were buying my kids were gift certificates for DD to get her nails done,
I-tunes gift cards(they both have the nanos) and gift cards to the Disney store (for our upcoming trip ) and for DS a gift card for a local store that sells all kinds of sports clothes/cards/memorabilia.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I don't recall the Op ever saying the birthday girl's weren't happy with their gift. Just because a parent happens to put a $10 GC in a goody bag that does not mean they don't teach their children to appreciate any gift they recieve. I easily give my dd's friends $10 worth of stuff in their goody bags, and its not because I'm showing off, its because I enjoy giving them something to thank them for being a part of our celebration. Neither my dd or I have ever measured what someone gave as a gift, or compared it to what we gave in a goody bag.

OP, I think you should continue to give what you want and what you can comfortably afford. I tend to give between $15-$20 to friends of my kids.

I agree with ALL of this post.

OP--The last party we had in the US was about a year and a half ago and DD got mostly gift cards (people knew we were moving soon and would have issues packing so wanted her to be able to pick something she could take). Amounts ranged from $10-$20 (she was turning 12). Here in Germany we just got one gift card for the last round of birthdays. It was for DS11 and it was for 12 Euros (his age plus one, which seems to be the standard here).
It varies from place to place and social group to social group--but I have yet to meet a parent/child who expects the gifts to be worth more than the party, so I would not worry about it too much and just spend what you are comfortable with.

 

[golfgal]

Our kids are older but we did $10-15 gift cards as well--or spent that much on a present-for all but their closest friends. Their closest friends we usually spent about $25 on.

At that age my DD loved Claire's, Target, Walmart, Justice, etc. She also liked crafty things so Michael's would be a good idea too (we didn't have one near us so she never got those). They even like gift cards to fast food places-Subway, DQ, etc. Itunes if they have IPods is always good too.

 

[barkley]

i think a $15 gift card is fine, i don't base the gift on how much the parent hosting has chosen to spend on the venue or the goodie bags-to each his own.

dd got several gift cards for her birthday, but one of the gifts that made a huge hit was probably put together for no more than $15 and i think it would be spot on for the age group you are looking to.

the gifter went to the dollar store and got one of those plastic containers that look like a movie theatre popcorn bag. they put floral foam in the bottom, then used sticks (the kind you put into a flower arrangement to hold the card-found out later she got them free at safeway) to hold those items that did'nt have a way for them to be stuck/while visable into the foam. she put some shredded paper over the foam to hide it.

the container held a variety of candy-large lolly pop, ring pops, blow pops...then there were several lip balms/flavored chapstick (they have them in candy flavors now-dd got twizzler, tootsie role and others), there were a couple of packages knock off bandies (is that what they are called? those bands the kids wear like bracelets), and then it was finished off with several annoying but admittedly funny electronic key chains like the maniacal qucking duck and the screeching monkey (very popular with even the highschool set to attach as decorations on their backpacks).

dd and all the kids thought it was the coolest gift.

 

[golfgal]

i think a $15 gift card is fine, i don't base the gift on how much the parent hosting has chosen to spend on the venue or the goodie bags-to each his own.

dd got several gift cards for her birthday, but one of the gifts that made a huge hit was probably put together for no more than $15 and i think it would be spot on for the age group you are looking to.

the gifter went to the dollar store and got one of those plastic containers that look like a movie theatre popcorn bag. they put floral foam in the bottom, then used sticks (the kind you put into a flower arrangement to hold the card-found out later she got them free at safeway) to hold those items that did'nt have a way for them to be stuck/while visable into the foam. she put some shredded paper over the foam to hide it.

the container held a variety of candy-large lolly pop, ring pops, blow pops...then there were several lip balms/flavored chapstick (they have them in candy flavors now-dd got twizzler, tootsie role and others), there were a couple of packages knock off bandies (is that what they are called? those bands the kids wear like bracelets), and then it was finished off with several annoying but admittedly funny electronic key chains like the maniacal qucking duck and the screeching monkey (very popular with even the highschool set to attach as decorations on their backpacks).

dd and all the kids thought it was the coolest gift.

Some people are so creative!! DD had a friend who's mom is a 3rd grade teacher and she always gave the best birthday presents-stuff like this.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I just give cash.