10 of the best gifts kids received from grandparents...and 10 of the worst

Last updated 1^st February 2024
7 min read

They say children grow up quickly, but somehow grandchildren seem to grow up even faster! It can be hard to keep track of what they like and dislike, meaning present buying can be a little hit and miss.

We asked over 1,200 children aged 8–18 whether they’d ever received a bad gift from their grandparents, with almost half (46%) of them saying yes they have. So we’ve put together a list of some of the best and worst grandparent gifts – as reported by their toughest critics!

Best – a bike

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "A bike because it gave me freedom" "A bike because my friends were also getting one and we could go out together" "A bike, I love it!"

Fun to ride, great exercise and something to enjoy with friends – it’s no wonder so many of the children in our survey said a bicycle was the best gift they’ve ever received from their grandparents.

Worst – food they can't enjoy

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "A cake hamper. I hate it because I'm gluten intolerant."

Tasty treats are often a failsafe gift for even the hardest people to buy for – but not in this case! This poor grandparent forgot about their grandchild’s gluten intolerance and turned their well-meaning gift into one of the worst.

Best – a great outfit

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "A black party dress with a golden top! They looked so good together" "Clothes, they always pick nice dresses for me."

Whoever said grandparents were out of touch when it comes to fashion? Not this one! Clearly a special outfit from stylish grandparents was good enough to top the best gift list for these children.

Worst – a bad outfit

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "Hiking trousers and jacket (I don't go hiking)" "Clothes I didn't like." "Clothes. They are boring." "A jumper. It was hideous."

Unfortunately, we can’t get it right every time when it comes to clothes. Several kids in our survey mentioned being unhappy with clothing gifts because they were ‘boring’ or ‘not my style’.

Best – a dinosaur head

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "A dinosaur head that made noise. It was so fun and I love dinosaurs!"

There are some interests that certain kids can’t seem to get enough of – and dinosaurs is one of them! It seems a child who likes all things Jurassic will never have enough dino-themed toys and games.

Worst – a bath mat

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "A foam bath mat in the shape of a foot, who gives that to a 10 year old?"

The child’s comment says it all here – we’re not sure what the grandparents were thinking with this one!

Best – something sentimental

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "A replica of my Papa's lorry which I loved."

A sentimental gift is always something that’s treasured long after you’ve outgrown it, so it can be the perfect choice for grandchildren that are hard to buy for. This gift combines something sentimental with something the child can actually play with, making it the best of both worlds.

Worst – a slime kit

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "Slime kit – it got stuck in my sister's hair and made her cry because Mummy had to cut it out."

Slime kits have been some of the most popular toys for the past few years, with hundreds of different varieties and playsets. Unfortunately for this grandchild, a gift they probably loved at first turned out to be one of the worst!

Best – an experience

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "Concert tickets, lots of memories made." "Tickets to see Matilda in theatre with my sisters and Nanna. It was my first theatre show and I got to spend it with my Nanna."

Tickets to an event or experience always make great gifts. They give something to look forward to, and create an opportunity for lifelong memories to be made. Even better if it’s something you can take your grandchild along to yourself!

Worst – a colouring book

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "I got a colouring book with no colouring pens which was strange."

The best thing about receiving toys or activity packs as a child is being able to play with them straight away. So, we can see why this child might have been disappointed not be able to get stuck into colouring from the get-go.

Best – Lego

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "Harry Potter Lego set" "Lego because I love to build with it" "I love to do Lego with Granny"

There are very few children (or even adults!) who don’t enjoy building a good Lego set. So, it’s no wonder so many kids listed it as one of the best gifts ever received from their grandparents. With so many themes and kits for a range of budgets, it’s almost always a winning gift.

Worst – a potato peeler

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "A potato peeler – it reminds me of house work!"

There might have been a good reason behind this gift – maybe to encourage the grandchild to get more involved with cooking at home. Even so, perhaps a fun apron or cook book might have been a little more exciting!

Best – a Nerf gun

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "I got a massive Nerf gun that I could play with my friends with. It was big and helped me win."

Nerf guns look similar to large water pistols, but shoot small foam darts for fun and (usually) safe indoor games. Great if your grandchild has friends with Nerf guns to play with – not so great if you end up being on the receiving end!

Worst – the wrong merchandise

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "A hoodie, I wanted a YouTuber's merchandise and they bought me a cheap copy."

Unfortunately, kids often aren’t as appreciative of a bargain as the rest of the family. In this case, the grandparents clearly spotted a better deal on a very similar product, but their grandchild wasn’t impressed.

Best – a plasma ball

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "I got a plasma ball that was my favourite as I find it fascinating and can spend many hours playing with it."

Is there a more classic gift than the plasma ball? These fun science experiments surged in popularity in the 1980s, and are still entertaining kids today. Even for us adults, its hard to resist the urge to touch one when you come across it.

Worst – a DVD box set

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "They gave me a movie (DVD) set. I didn't really like the movie as I can watch it on YouTube if I want."

A plasma ball might be a timeless gift, but DVDs certainly aren’t. There was a time when a VHS or DVD box set was a great gift. But, with everything becoming digital and easy to stream online, they’re no longer so useful. How are we supposed to wrap a digital download?

Best – games console

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "My Xbox, it's my favourite thing" "Playstation 4 – My mummy doesn't have a lot of money so when my granny and grandad gave me this I cried." "Loads of Nintendo Switch games"

Games consoles (especially Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch) and games to play on them were mentioned by hundreds of children in our survey. Consoles cost hundreds of pounds, and games sometimes as much as £60, so it’s no wonder kids are so grateful for such a generous gift.

Worst – the wrong pyjamas

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "Xbox pyjamas because I'm a PlayStation 5 player"

Oh dear, these well-meaning grandparents wanted to get something for their video-game loving grandson, not realising he played a different console. They might all seem the same to us, but to our grandchildren mixing up the games consoles is unforgivable!

Best – money

Image titled, What's the best gift you've ever received from your grandparents? "Money so I can save for something more expensive" "Money so I can buy what I want" "Money, I get to look and choose my own present. It makes a nice day out too!"

No matter how much effort we go to in finding the perfect gift, sometimes the thing that beats it all is cash. More than 10% of children in our survey said the best gift they have ever received from grandparents was money.

Worst – a dead crocodile?

Image titled, What's the worst gift you've ever received from your grandparents? " A dead crocodile because it was dead."

This ‘worst gift’ leaves so many questions unanswered. Was it taxidermized? Was it meat intended to be eaten? Was the grandchild hoping for a living crocodile? And most of all, just…why?

Always get the perfect gift with SunLife's grandchildren gift generator

We’ve all given gifts that are better than others now and again. SunLife’s grandchildren gift generator is a great free tool if you’re looking for some inspiration. Simply enter your grandchild’s age and interests, and your budget, and the tool will suggest gifts that are bound to go down well.

The tool is updated every year with the most sought-after toys in our survey of over 2,000 children and parents.

Try the gift generator.

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Methodology

The statistics and quotes featured in this article are taken from an online survey of 1,246 children in the UK aged 8–18, which was carried out in September 2022 by Critical Research on behalf of SunLife. Some of the quotes have been edited for grammar and/or clarity.