Christmas/Yule presents for older girls

[jillyofthevalley]

I have no problem buying and making things for my little ones but I seem to be stuck this year for my older girls, my oldest in particular. She's 10 and in that awkward "tween" phase. She doesn't really play with toys anymore, she isn't into homemade clothing unless it's pj pants. All she likes to wear now are jeans and t-shirts which she has a ton of anyway. She won't wear hand knit anything because apparently it's not "cool". She loves to read but is very picky about books so I have no clue what to get her there. So much that I think looks interesting she says is boring. She's into books like Sweet Valley Twins and Nancy Drew which she has a ton of and I would love for her to read something else.

She has shown an interest in learning to knit, which is funny since she refuses to wear hand knits, so I was thinking of getting her a couple sets of nice knitting needles, some yarn and a book. Other than that all I have got for her so far is a purse.

What do your 10-12 year old girls like?

[MicheleRMT]

Mine is addicted to Archie comics.
I totally wouldn't worry about the child's reading Nancy Drews etc. Those sound awesome. Sounds like she's in a phase. Next it will be something else.
I say: just go with it.

[jillyofthevalley]

I don't have anything against the books she's reading now. I quite enjoyed them when I was young. She's just pretty much exhausted those series but unwilling to read something new. I guess I'll just try to be patient and wait it out. Hmm, I wonder if she would like Archie comics? LOL

I did find a great corking project book at the thrift store yesterday though. I think that may interest her. I'll add a nice wooden corker and some pretty yarn. I also plan on making the older girls some felted jumpropes. I'm slowly getting inspired and finding things that will interest them...I think.

[JudiAU]

Would she enjoy embellished tshirts, which are in vogue right now? You can look at jcrew.com for ideas. There are also some etsy sellers who do interesting work. It might be thing to do together. Would she like a small loom, either a simple one for potholders?

Does she needle felt?

[jillyofthevalley]

She has so many clothes that I can't get her drawers shut.

A loom could be cool. I'll have to look into that. Her class in school last year did a little bit of weaving as one of their projects and she seemed to enjoy that. She doesn't needlefelt but that's something that I've been wanting to get into for some time now (just never had the time or money to start a new hobby LOL). I think I'll save that for a family project.