The Best Christmas Gift for Teens and Tweens
If you’re wondering what to get teens for Christmas, we have the perfect last-minute Christmas idea for you!
It can be tough to find a good Christmas gift for teens and tweens. They’re branching off into their own interests, which, as an adult, can mean struggling to keep up with pop culture, fandoms, and more. Plus, the things young people want most aren’t easy to wrap and stick under the Christmas tree, like friends, confidence, meaning, or belonging. We’re a group of educators, therapists, and youth workers here to humbly offer a unique gift for a tween or teen in your life: the gift of friendships, social skills, and, most of all, fun!
Dungeons & Dragons Is A Great Nerdy Gift for Teens
There’s plenty to choose from, but we think DND is the best Christmas gift for a nerdy teen.
Geek culture is everywhere, especially in young people. Lots of the teens we work with have some kind of special interest or nerdy obsession, from anime to video games. And Dungeons & Dragons is no different. Young people love D&D: getting to create your own character, level up, go on quests, and defeat the bad guys. It exploded in popularity after the pandemic sent everyone to play games indoors. Even teens who haven’t played yet will watch D&D Twitch streams, TikToks, memes, and more, staying steeped in the culture of Dungeons & Dragons. Over and over again, we’ve seen teens and tweens excited to finally play this game they heard so much about. And once they start, they’re hooked!
Geeky Christmas Gifts For Teenagers That Parents Love
We have the perfect gift for teenage girls, boys, and others this Christmas!
Getting to play Dungeons & Dragons is a gift for everyone - children and parents. The game offers countless benefits that have been studied by mental-health researchers. They’ve found that the open-ended nature of the game can build creative thinking; playing in a group can increase confidence outside of the game; the roleplay elements can increase empathy; engaging with fictional moral dilemmas can increase moral development; having to reach a consensus as a D&D group can lead to improved social communication; the collaboration and self-awareness can improve intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and building positive relationships and skills, stepping away from life stresses, and having a safe space to handle difficult emotions can even mental-health recovery. So not only is a child getting to do something they enjoy, but their lives are better for it!
A Good Gift For A Teenager With Anxiety: Safe Opportunities to Try New Things
If you’re wondering what to get a shy teenage boy for Christmas, D&D might be a bigger gift than you realize.
Playing Dungeons & Dragons can help players with one of the foremost issues teens have to deal with: anxiety. In a game of D&D, teens get a chance to step away from their own lives and roleplay a distinct character. This layer of separation gives them a chance to try new things in a safe environment. They can try silly voices, give a grand speech, or try to do something epic and cool. They can go out of their comfort zone, take risks, and face difficult trials. And if it doesn’t go the way they planned, it’s not them who failed; it’s just a character!
But along the way, they built resilience, failure tolerance, and a group of friends who will cheer them on. Because you’re on a team working together for a common goal, players don’t have to worry about competition or whether they’re “good enough” at the game. And they have the predictability of seeing the same players at the same time each week, which can be a huge help for social anxiety. Not only are you giving a young person the opportunity to have a good time with friends, you’re giving them the context to build social skills, expand their comfort zone, and be in a safe space where they can try new things.
Christmas Gifts for Neurodivergent Kids: Balancing Structure and Creativity
The structure of Dungeons & Dragons makes it a one of the best Christmas gifts for neurodivergent kids
Dungeons & Dragons is wildly popular among neurodivergent people of all ages. A big part of that is how beautifully it balances clear expectations, rules, and structures, with improvisation, creativity, and chance. Neurodivergent kids and teens thrive when they have structure and predictability: knowing what will happen and when. Dungeons and Dragons has that baked in. It’s a game, with rules, orders, calculations, and charts that are printed in a book for all to see. The abilities a rogue has, how much damage a sword does, the cost of a riding horse – it’s all set in stone. But because players roll dice to see what happens, that extra bit of unpredictability is just enough of a push to keep things interesting. Maybe the rogue rolls a natural 20 and manages to lift a giant boulder. Maybe the damage dice all roll 1’s, dealing a pitiful 5 damage. Or maybe the bard rolled high on persuasion, and the merchant will give you the horse at half price. This helps players grow accustomed to small doses of unpredictability, which builds a higher tolerance when things don’t go as expected. Players can then think outside the box – together – to come up with solutions that help soften rigid thinking and give opportunities for creative problem solving.
Consider This Gift for Tweens and Teens
There are a number of ways you can give the gift of Dungeons & Dragons this Christmas, but, in our admittedly biased opinion, we’re one of the best. Here’s how it works. We’ll talk with a young player and their guardian(s) to get an idea of the player’s personality, their support needs, and how they like to play. Then we find them a group of players with similar ages and play styles, lead by a Dungeon Master who’s suited to that particular set of personalities and support needs. That Dungeon Master will craft a custom adventure for the group to embark on, helping players with game elements, like building characters, leveling up, or casting spells, along with the social elements, like teamwork, negotiation, relationship building, and roleplaying. Our ultimate goal is for young players to find their place, their people, and their confidence.
If you’re looking for a gift for a geek-minded tween or teen in your life, join our waitlist below, and print off this little certificate to share with them on Christmas morning!
