I recently received an e-mail asking for toy advice and suggestions for a little boy who was turning 2. The customer wanted to spend €15 or less. Since I put quite a bit of work into the reply, I thought I’d share it here too. That way, if other parents, aunts, uncles, friends or grandparents are struggling to know what to buy for a little boy or girl in their life, they may find this helpful too.

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for your message earlier this week and sorry I’m only getting around to replying to it now.

Most toys are certified 3 years + as it’s easier to get a CE cert for this. Given that you already bought the finger torches (which are recommended for children aged 3+), I will recommend some toys which are in this category as I think younger children would love them too. I hope that’s ok.

I know my daughters prefer getting 2 or 3 little presents to open than one large gift, so I’ve started with some cheaper toys.

These finger monsters are funny little fidget toys. They are squishy and you can stretch their arms.

I gave my 2 year old niece one of these dinosaur eggs for Christmas. She loved it, although she didn’t have the patience to wait for it to hatch fully and ended up helping it to hatch out. If he has patience then he might enjoy watching the egg crack and a dinosaur emerge (it takes about 48 hours from when you first put it in water). If he doesn’t have a lot of patience, then maybe a wait another year! I also stock them in Chicks and Unicorns.

These little clockwork trains are fun to watch. I don’t think he’d manage to wind it up but he might enjoy chasing it?

Have you got any castanets? I stock 3 designs. Out of all the musical instruments you could have in the house, the noise from these is the most bearable!!

This Animal Domino Game is a great ‘first game’ for small children.

These chunky colours  are great for little hands to manage

You said he likes cars, trains, trucks etc. You can find my full range of these here. This set of wooden emergency vehicles is super cute and easy for small hands to manage.

Or, with the weather (hopefully)  improving, you could send him outside with this box of street chalks!

I stock this lovely wooden fire engine (which is slightly over your current budget, but I thought I’d slip it in!!)

I, also,  stock several 2-piece puzzles for 2 year olds like this one. I also stock some lovely wooden puzzles, some of which would suit this age group. If you are interested in wooden puzzles, check out this blog.

Or, if they are managing the two piece puzzles easily, then this box of progressive difficulty farm puzzles might be a good buy for you.

This magnetic fishing game is also really popular with this age

This Tin Can Alley game or this Pop-Up toy are also both very popular for this age group.

I’m a huge fan of crafts for small children but it can be hard to find some that are suitable for under 3s. These Fingerprint Art Sets and Handprint Art Sets from SES Creative are suitable for children as young as 1.

If you are still struggling to know what to buy him and want to splash out with more money, why don’t you consider buying a ‘mystery box‘?  You will receive at least €50 worth of toys in the box. Since he is turning two, if you choose this option, can you confirm whether you are happy for me to put in toys that are CE rated 3+. Like I say, a lot of these toys are designed with younger children in mind.

It’s hard for me to just suggest a handful of toys as I love everything I stock! If none of these suits your little boy, check out my full range for two-year-olds here. I’m sure something will jump out at you that you’ll know he would love, or if he is quite advanced, you might like to check out my blog ‘Affordable toys for 3 year olds‘

Finally, don’t forget that I’m happy to wrap presents before dispatching them. I know this means that you don’t get to see the present before giving it or you don’t get to add anything you already have, but if you don’t mind about that, simply choose ‘gift wrap my present‘ .

I hope this helps a little. No pressure to buy any of these. Thanks again for your enquiry. I hope your little man has a great birthday.

Suzie

If this blog has just overwhelmed you with ideas and you can’t narrow it down, why don’t you buy a gift token and the recipient can choose their own toys. I stock gift tokens in €10, €15, €20 and €50.