Would you give your children second-hand gifts for Christmas?

Regular readers will know I love a charity shop bargain. This Christmas I’ve upped my game, I’ve bought loads of gifts for the boys from charity shops, local Facebook selling groups, and eBay.

Why buy second-hand gifts?

For me there were 2 main reasons:

• Cost – you can buy great quality gifts at a fraction of the cost of new things. See what I’ve bought below,
• Reducing packaging – I hate the amount of packaging that comes with everything these days. Buying second-hand means I’m contributing a bit less to recycling and rubbish plants!

Also, buying from charity shops also raises money for charity… bonus!

What second-hand gifts I’ve bought….

S is obsessed with buses. This V-tech bus costs £20 but I got it for £2 from a local Facebook selling group. Annoyingly we actually had one for W but I accidentally gave it away in a clear-out!

Also for bus-mad S, a bus game for £2.50 from a local FB group. We love Orchard Toys games and I think this would usually cost about £10 brand new.

W loves dressing up so I’ve bought him a gorilla outfit for £5 and I think the Chase outfit was £2 or £3, both from local FB groups.

W also loves jigsaws at the mo, he’ll happily spend ages just building jigsaws! Got the Star Wars one for a couple of quid on FB and as you can see the label on the top one says £2 but the charity shop was actually having a half price day so I got for £1!

W has started getting into the Smurfs films so I got him this small bundle on eBay for £7 inc postage.

I bought this little set for S for a couple of quid via FB.

Would you buy second-hand presents for your family?

I will admit, we have bought the boys some brand new gifts too, only a couple of things each… paw patrol and Peppa Pig toys that I couldn’t find second hand for love or money!

So I’m not trying to be perfect, or plastic-free but I’m glad I’ve made an effort in reducing overall consumption and in doing so saved quite a lot of money!

I actually find second-hand shopping fun, scouting out bargains… it can be quite an addictive buzz! But it’s not for everyone… some people would probably turn their nose up at this… maybe you buy second-hand but not for presents?

Maybe it works for young children like my boys (4,2) but you wouldn’t do it for older children?

I’d love to know your thoughts, leave a comment below!