Birthday present for a five year old

[TimO]

So, what original present can I get my niece for her fifth birthday?  Preferably something that I can buy in the vicinity of South Ken.  Extra points will be awarded for presents which are messy and/or noisy. 

[clarion]

A bike

[annie]

Ice cream maker

[Butterfly]

Fish and a tank.

Paint your own t-shirt kit

[juliet]

If you're in the vicinity of S Ken - try the Science Museum or Natural History Museum shops.  They have good stuff. 

[Wowbagger]

Whenever my kids went to birthday parties, if we knew the kid concerned hadn't got one we'd give a chess set.

Five is at the lower end of the age range, but since nearly all my kids' friends went to Temple Sutton, and anyone who went there aspired to be in the chess team, it was always a present that went down well.

[Jules]

Science Museum shop has got lots of stuff for kids

Edit: beaten to it by Juliet

[TimO]

The Science Museum shop was a good idea, I got a rather neat little microscope (sort of "My First Microscope" !), and some other little odds and sods like magnetic thingies that go "bling bling bling" and luminous sticky stars and whatnot.

I should also have specified small enough to take down to the South West on a train, so a bike was never really an option.  The chess set was also a good idea, but I think my brother has been looking forward to digging out his plaster of paris Alice in Wonderland chess set molds, and making a decent set for his daughter, as opposed to the fairly bad ones we made as kids !  That, and she would probably be beating me in short order.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[PGtips]

when i was five i wanted a helicopter.


i didn't get it.

[alan]

 a water pistol & a drum kit.
messy & noisy enough?

[TimO]

a water pistol & a drum kit.
messy & noisy enough?

Oooh, I hadn't thought of that, a super soaker bigger than her.

Still, there's always Christmas and next year!

[woollypigs]

LEGO

[Pancho]

Reference the other thread: don't buy her "stuff".

Premium Bonds are about the only pressies I still have since my early childhood; that's over 35 years of useful service. Much better than a water pistol.

[pcolbeck]

Kids hate that kind of present though Pancho no matter how sensible it is. If you do get them premium bonds buy them something cheap and silly to go with it.

[juliet]

In non-stuff presents: promise to take her on a trip to Chessington or somewhere similar?  (I remember my honorary aunt & uncle taking my sister & I there for the day & it was *fab*.  Being taken out without our parents was particularly special - made it very much a day for us rather than as-a-family.  I have no doubt, in retrospect, that Mum & Dad were v pleased by that as well!)