While you might not want to promote extra screen time for your little darlings, it is the festive season and your little ones may adore playing on their consoles. It’s all about balance. If they send their wish lists off to Santa and everything on their lists is an online or screen based game, you might need to introduce a few more meaningful gifts into the mix. However, the youth of today tend to love being online, gamers at heart and communicating with their pals as they try to work together on Fortnite or World of Warcraft. 

As a responsible parent, you want your children to grow up well rounded. This means not allowing them to be up into the early hours on their Xbox. Your rules might allow one hour of tech time a day. This should include gaming as well as social media. You are giving them control over how they spend their time, but you are limiting the time that they have. Don’t ban gaming or Facebook as this will result in a resentful and tense family atmosphere. If your little elves are looking forward to a tech filled Christmas, take a look at these gift ideas to help your little gamers be overjoyed with the gifts that they are given.

Go Retro

The latest trend is to look back into the gaming history books and bring some retro classics back to life. The 1980s games such as Pac Man, Galaga and Duck Hunt are fantastic amounts of fun and highly addictive. They test skills without being gory or paying homage to war, violence or drug use. Retro games were much more platform based without bringing in the more realistic point-of-view gaming style. This enabled the user to be more detached from the game meaning that it never became so dangerously all encompassing.

Retro consoles are now available at cheap prices and they are inbuilt with classic games from the console’s era. The SNES is now in miniature with Mario Bros, Street Fighter and Zelda all pre-installed. This is fantastic for kids who adore the more fun, colorful and two dimensional games. The graphics might be a little lacking but this makes them more fun. The Commodore 64 and Atari consoles are also available for retro gaming fanatics.

Think About A Fast Phone

Your child is going to need a phone anyway to ensure that they can contact you in case of emergency or whenever they need you. If they are a little gamer, then there are a range of games that can be played on the phone, and your child might be interested in this. If this is the case, and you know that they are likely to play their phone games while they are outside of the house, we recommend looking at a site to compare 5g signal. This means that their games are going to work nice and fast, and you win the best present ever.

Virtual Reality

At the other end of the scale is the incredible sensory overload gaming that is virtual reality. Wearing a headset can transform a gamer’s reality. Everywhere you look will be your three hundred and sixty degree new gaming environment. These can be highly immersive and interactive like the best VR games on Steam, a fantastic app to bring the finest VR games to the masses. Or they can be educational and walk you through the solar system or an underwater environment, teaching you about what you see within your VR environment. 

VR is still a very new way of gaming that hasn’t really taken off as it should. The graphics can still feel clunky and the reality element of the games can still feel a little fake. This creates a barrier between the user experience and the all immersive aim of the games available. However, these flaws are being tackled and the newer games are better than those released just six months ago. If your little darling likes to be at the forefront of new developments, a decent VR headset and some games could be the perfect gift.

Xbox And Playstation

The two big frontrunners when it comes to gaming remains the Xbox and Playstation. These consoles enable online gaming so that your offspring can connect to individuals from all over the world to fight monsters, cast spells, and come up with strategies to beat other teams online. Christmas is all about giving your kids a treat and a gaming experience that is new. The latest games are very much sought after and will always be released over the festive season so you need to get hold of them quickly. The games to keep an eye out for in 2019 are Star Wars Jedi and Jumanji. Be careful if your little cherub asks for Call of Duty or a Tom Clancy game. These are recommended for those aged eighteen and over. The content is not deemed suitable for kids.

If you have gamers in your home, don’t bombard them with games, apps, consoles and subscriptions. Gift them some VR games or a new retro console, but add a sprinkling of more traditional, less screen reliant gifts to create the perfectly balanced Christmas.

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Last Update: Monday, 6th December 2021