\tPop by your local fast casual restaurant on the way to the party and pick up a gift card. Kids love having their own “credit cards” — and they’ll love the idea of going out to dinner with their own money.
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\tFrom the zoo to the local inflatable playground, most places kids love to visit have annual memberships available for purchase online. It’s the easy-peasy gift that keeps on giving.
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\tLittle girls will feel so grown up when presented with a beautiful bouquet from the grocery store. Have an extra five minutes? Add a helium balloon or two. Most grocery stores have an assortment ready to go.
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\tRun into the nearest drugstore — they usually have an aisle dedicated to small toys. Grab a bunch of small, inexpensive toys, a colorful gift bag, some ribbon and a card and you’re all set!
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\tAlso available at your local convenience store, scratch tickets are always a thrill for kids. The possibility of winning money — even 10 bucks — makes these a very cool gift.
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\tVisit the World Wildlife Fund<\/a> and sign up to sponsor an endangered animal in your young pal’s name. Panda, polar bear, shark, tiger and hedgehog are just a few of the options. Print off a certificate for gifting right away.
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\tMost tweens and teens will be thrilled with a new celebrity magazine, such as Tiger Beat. Magazines on the birthday kiddo’s favorite hobby or sports are also a good bet. Hop online and sign them up for a subscription.
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\tVisit the Star Registry<\/a> to have a star named after the birthday child. Print off the certificate and dust off a frame to stick it in.
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\tTape a certificate that reads “Use this toward the film rental of your choice” and a $5 bill to a box of microwave popcorn.
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\tDraw a little coupon on a piece of construction paper and make it good toward one playdate at the venue of the birthday child’s choice. Put it in a birthday card and you’re good to go.
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\tCash is still king. Stick one dollar for each year of her life in a card. (Go with a $20 bill for tweens and teens who aren’t as easily impressed.)
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A last-minute gift doesn’t have to be a fail — but check out 7 Birthday Party Fails<\/a> to see some real doozies. Are there two children celebrating their big day? Read Buying Birthday Gifts for Twins: Everything You Need to Know<\/a>.<\/p> Need some extra help organizing or setting up the party? Hire a babysitter<\/a> or housekeeper<\/a> to help out for a few hours.<\/p> What are your favorite last-minute birthday gifts? Share in the comment section below.<\/p> Rachael Moshman is a mom and freelance writer. She loves birthdays, but isn’t always great about keeping up with the calendar. These last-minute gift ideas have come in handy many times.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s Saturday morning and you’re going through your child’s backpack for the first time this week, pulling out sticky juice boxes and teacher’s notes when you find a small envelope. It’s an invitation to a birthday party — that’s in two hours. No worries. You’ll be covered with this list of last-minute birthday gifts you Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":862,"featured_media":7463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"enable_toc":false,"care_reviewed_by":0,"care_post_updated_flag":false,"care_updated_date":"","last_update":"2021-05-19","view_count":9988,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"member-type":[3],"vertical":[6,17],"platform":[2],"class_list":["post-1023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","member-type-seeker","vertical-children","vertical-child-care-advice","platform-resources"],"acf":[],"created":"2015-12-21","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/862"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1023"},{"taxonomy":"member-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-type?post=1023"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=1023"},{"taxonomy":"platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/platform?post=1023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}