Friends and Family

Christmas gifts and activities - Parents' Place

Summary: Things to do and present ideas for parents.

• Games and toys - ideas from our catalogue
• Story Time
• How to get a toy catalogue
• Let us know your ideas

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Looking for present suggestions, or just some fun things to do in the holidays? Here are some ideas for blind and partially sighted children at Christmas time.

Contact Santa

Get in touch with a certain jolly man with a beard - write to RNIB's letter from Santa, and receive a reply in large print, braille or audio.

Go to a Christmas party

There are holiday events for families with children with sight problems happening . Examples include:

• Children's Christmas parties
• Family weekends
• Family events
• Parent support sessions

Check our events board for events in your area.

Watch a film cinema, DVD and video

Latest releases at the cinema

For accessible cinema listings, visit the Your local cinema website or call 0845 056 9824.

DVDs and videos

RNIB provide a home video service with audio description videos to buy or rent. Call 0845 702 3153 for a catalogue or visit our online shop.

Go to a play or a pantomime

Audio described theatre trips

• The events board has trips to pantomimes and plays which are audio-described - which is useful if there's a lot of action on stage!

Your local theatre may offer audio described performances. There are 90 theatres across the country which do so. To find out about theatres in your area see our Theatre page or call our Media and culture department on 020 7388 1266.

Games and toys - ideas from our catalogue

Bumper pack of dough

RNIB Toy Catalogue - Toys 'R' Us - £4.99
Encourage creativity with a selection of dough, 10 pots of different colours. Knead the dough and create lots of weird and wonderful shapes for Christmas time. The dough offers texture development and it is made with bright colours.

Snow magic

RNIB Toy Catalogue - Pockos - £3.00
Pockos: 0247 664 1927
To guarantee that you'll have snow this year, create your own snow with Snow Magic! Simply add water and you'll be amazed to watch the Snow Magic expand instantly to as much as 100 times its own size. It looks and feels like real snow. A cool idea is to put some made up snow in a plastic bag and pop it into the freezer, for the ultimate snow experience.

Wikki Stix rainbow pack

RNIB Toy Catalogue - RNIB Customer Services- £2.50
Wikki Stix are twistable, stickable, creatable, re-usable hands-on playthings that are great fun! They are easy to twist and bend for young children while also giving older children unlimited creativity at Christmas time! The Rainbow pack includes 24 coloured Wikki Stix and a suggestion/activity sheet.

FurReal Friends newborn farm friends

RNIB Toy Catalogue - Hasbro - £15.00. Telephone 0800 22427276
Now children can have their very own little piglet or lamb to cuddle and care for. Hear the piglet snort and see his nose wrinkle, or watch the lamb move her head from side to side. Both Farm Friends sit up and are ready to play. Each comes with a bottle.

Sneezy stacker soft activity toy (GI48X) RNIB Customer Services - £19.99
This activity toy makes an excellent choice of gift and carries the jingle bell sound of Christmas in his tail! It is designed to stimulate your child to explore textures and sound. This cute, fun fabric dragon has a body made up of colourful stacking rings.

Mondo inside out ball (GS11) RNIB Customer Services - £6.99
One side of the ball is smooth, soft, wobbly and squidgy and will gently roll a short distance. You can turn the ball inside out to get soft spikes like a sea-urchin's, which can be pulled and stretched and released to make a great twanging sound.

Sensory balls (pack of 4) (GS09) RNIB Customer Services - £6.99
Help children wind down after the busy Christmas festivities with this set of four small and brightly coloured balls that are covered in lots of soft spikes. The balls can be moved over skin for a relaxing and stimulating body massage.

Snap beads (GI58) RNIB Customer Services - £7.99
A set of 16 giant tactile and brightly coloured beads, which easily link together with a satisfying popping sound. Age range: 12 months+.

Waggy garden shape sorter (GI57) RNIB Customer Services - £12.99
It may be too cold and wet to go outside in the garden, but you can still play with the friendly wooden creatures that come with this shape sorter. The semicircle is a snail, while the triangle is a bee and the square a ladybird. Age range: 2+.

Knockout skittles (GP44X) RNIB Customer Services
Ingeniously designed mini skittle game where the ball and skittles are attached to the board, so they will not be lost amongst the wrapping paper! Mini alien skittles are attached by strings to a round wooden base - knock down the skittles using an alien spaceship suspended from an overarching arm, score one point for each alien skittle that falls down pull a knob on the base to stand them up again.

Age range: 4+

Musical Gifts

Sea sounds drum and Mini wave drum (GM01 and GM02) RNIB Customer Services - £4.99 and £6.99
Make some noise this Christmas with these colourful drums. Gently tilt the drum forward and back so the beads make the sounds of soothing ocean waves, or shake the drum for the sound of thundering crashing waves. Age range: 3+.

Other musical instruments (GM03, GM04 and GM05) from RNIB
Gather round the fire and have a jam session with our fun and colourful percussion instruments. As well as the drum mentioned above we have the Vibra slap (GM03), priced at £4.99 it makes a great clacking sound. Then there is the Twirly whirly (GM04), priced at £7.99, which has colourful internal propellers and spinners that recreates the sound of falling rain, or the larger Rainbow maker (GM05), priced at £7.99.

Concertina - RNIB Toy Catalogue - Marbel - £11.00
This fun concertina from Plan Toys is made from all natural rubber and rubber wood. An educational music toy, the pulling and pushing motion required to make the sounds teaches audio and motor skills to children.

Learn and Groove maracas - RNIB Toy Catalogue - Leap Frog £13- tel: 0800 1695435
Shake and move to the learning groove! Lights, sounds and music engage children and encourage interaction. A perfect way to play Jingle Bells!

Set of 5 children's CDs - RNIB Toy Catalogue - Invicta Plastics £34 - tel: 0116 2728337
This set of 5 children's CDs has been designed for younger children and consists of nursery rhymes, story time, activity songs, lullabies and party fun.

Story Time

Lettice the Bridesmaid - RNIB Customer Services - £5.99.

Snuggle up on the sofa and share Lettice Rabbit's joy as she is asked to fulfil every little girl's dream of being a bridesmaid. This popular children's book has been adapted to include interleaved clear sheets embossed with grade 1 or grade 2 braille, and the print size in the book is 22 point, which makes shared reading easier.

• Lettice the Bridesmaid (TC21163 and TC21164)
• Lettice the Bridesmaid (grade 2 braille) (TC21164)

Personalised story CDs (GM09/10) - RNIB Customer Services

Children become the stars of the story with these personalised story CDs. They can join in with the rhymes, songs and games along the way. They can help Bo Peep find her ten lost sheep in Nursery Rhyme Land or work with the Three Little Pigs to track down the Wolf who's been blowing down houses. Priced at £14.99 each.

Animal Soundtracks - RNIB Toy Catalogue - GALT £7

Tel: 0161 428 9111

Listen and match sounds to the pictures with this fun listening game for 1-4 players. 30 animals are brought to life using stunning photography and real sounds. Contents: CD with thirty animal sounds, four board games and forty counters.

Books and resources

For help and advice about children’s reading services, look at RNIB's children's Books and activities website.

Birmingham City Council's positive images page provides a large number of suggestions for books and resources for blind and partially sighted children. The stories are full of adventure and they explore what it's like to have a visual impairment. There's also a useful list of links and information on how to borrow the books if you live in or around Birmingham.

How to get a toy catalogue

If you would like a toy catalogue, please telephone RNIB Customer Services on 0845 702 3153, or email cservices@rnib.org.uk

Let us know your ideas

If you have any other Christmas fun ideas, please let us know so that we can add them to this page. Email us at parents@rnib.org.uk.

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Content author: emma.hogan@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 20/11/2008 11:13