Tots to Teens: From North Pole magic to decorating cookies - Stocking fillers for the little ones

It features letters from children in five different parts of the world, each of whom writes to Santa with a unique question and a request for an inventive Christmas gift. With Christmas only days away, will Santa make their dreams come true?

Great care has been taken over the details, from the letterheads to the typefaces and stamps, and as a result, to create a nostalgic reading experience for children and adults

 illustrated by Fia Tobing, retails for €21.25.

Get creative with cookies

Could there be a better way to get into the festive spirit than decorating cookies with little ones? This Christmas, doing so couldn’t be easier thanks to this cookie decorating kit from Sugar Coated by Lisa.

Produced by mother-of-three and professional baker Lisa Hackett from Ardfinnan in Tipperary, each kit contains 12 sugar cookies, three piping bags full of icing, and lots of colourful sprinkles.

They cost €28 and can be picked up from her bakery on December 21, 23, and 24. She can also send them through the post to locations throughout Ireland.

Order yours from www.sugarcoatedbylisa.ie.

Christmas craft box

If you’ve yet to hand out any Christmas cards and you’re looking for an activity to do with the kids over the coming days, you can kill two birds with one stone with this Kids Christmas Craft Box from careboxcollection.com.

It contains six elf boot-shaped cards and envelopes, along with an array of stickers and foam cutouts that you can use to create your own customised Christmas cards.

It also comes with a selection of sweet treats. There’s Christmas pudding-flavoured popcorn, a chocolate lollipop, and a chocolate Christmas decoration that can be hung on the tree and devoured later in the festive season.

The Kids Christmas Craft Box costs €55 and is just one of the gift box sets available from the Care Box Collection, a business set up by Wexford-based Klara O’Leary.

Shoebox appeal

There’s still time to donate to the Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal this Christmas.

Since it started in 2010, this appeal has delivered more than 2.5m gift-filled shoeboxes to impoverished children in Eastern Europe and Africa.

You can add to that number by going online and creating your own box of goodies at www.teamhope.ie.

The easy-to-use online shoebox builder allows you to fill your box with school supplies, clothing, hygiene products, and toys. If you do so before December 23, Team Hope will deliver the box to a child in need just in time for Christmas.

Emotional gameplay

For many families, Christmas would not be Christmas without gathering around a family board game.

Emotico is excellent for families with young children, particularly those still learning to recognise and express their emotions.

Players are asked to create faces that convey an emotion using 29 magnetic pieces that can be arranged in all sorts of combinations on the magnetic gameboard. Everyone else then has to guess what that emotion might be. The game’s rules are simple and can be understood by children as young as four.

Emotico costs €17 and is available here.