The Wicked Uncle gift challenge

The Challenge

A couple of weeks ago, Wicked Uncle asked us if we knew of an adult without any young children of their own who would like to undertake a special kind of challenge. Auntie Hayley – my sister – agreed to do it though and so we were off!

We were given the following guidelines:

1. The Wicked Grown Up (AKA Auntie Hayley) was to browse the website www.wickeduncle.co.uk and decide what two young boys would like to receive. She would have a budget of £40.00 in total.

2. The boys would receive the parcel, open it and give their initial reaction to the choices Auntie Hayley made.

3. I would record it (which is where the biggest risk lies I think – my children can’t pretend they like stuff, as discovered one Christmas)

Of the website and service, Hayley said:

I was asked by my sister to take the wicked uncle challenge to see if it REALLY was impossible to get it wrong when purchasing presents for other people’s children. As I don’t have children of my own I often find myself out of the loop when it comes to what kids find cool these days. I also forget what developmental stage kids should be at and often find myself making the mistake of buying something too ‘babyish’ because they seem to grow up so quickly!

I think I was as nervous as Karen about how my purchases would be received, after all I usually ask for her help for Christmas and birthdays! When I logged on to wicked uncle I was happy to see that the gifts were categorised by age, gender and/or popularity. Great start! It’s mobile friendly and you could further filter your results by choosing a category such as creativity, books & games and wicked fun. Then list them in price order and away you go. Everything on there seemed like excellent presents and I was positively surprised at how reasonable all the prices were!

The website is really easy to navigate, though what I think would make it perfect would be the option to add things to a ‘favourite list’ as there were so many great things I could’ve done with somewhere to store the ones I liked so that I could carry on scrolling through without leaving the page. After adding my choices to the basket checkout was made easy by the option to pay using PayPal and I also loved the idea of being able to add a special message as well as gift wrap. I’ve already recommended wicked uncle to friends and work colleagues and I’ll be shopping there for Christmas presents this year too!

So what did the boys think?

The Results

Well, watch the video and find out. I have to say, Rowan’s reaction wasn’t what either Hayley or I were expecting and we had to stop filming because we were laughing so hard!

Inside the box was…

Plop Trumps, £5.95

I knew when they took that from the box that it would be a huge hit. The boys have loads of Top Trumps cards and like most boys, they think the subject of poo is hilarious. I was right – they have played it three or four times in the week since we received the parcel. Well done Auntie Hayley!

Brainbox Football, £10.95

I really like the Brainbox brand of games, and unbeknown to Hayley I had just bought the boys a French one. We haven’t opened it yet as Louis didn’t seem overly keen when it arrived so I thought it would be better to look at it as a family instead. I wasn’t really sure how well it was going to be received then when a Brainbox game was pulled out from the parcel. Louis loves anything to do with his beloved beautiful game of football though, so this went down quite well.

Louis had some friends sleep over this weekend and the boys all love and play football. The Brainibox game was a hit with them all!

Turbo Spoke, £17.99

Rowan seemed pleased with the Turbo Spoke for his bike once the boys had figured out between them what it was. Unfortunately, whenever the boys have had free time over the past week it’s been very wet weather here. Therefore, full feedback on that will have to wait a while!

*We were sent a £40.00 voucher in order to undertake the challenge and were under no obligation to give an honest review.