I’m leaving on a trip this week which will have me ending up at the house of some old friends outside Paris. They have 2 kids, a 7-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, and I’ve been busting my brain trying to think of something to bring for them - the only guidance my friends have provided so far are “don’t make a big deal of it, but it would be nice if it were something typically American.”
Now I plan to bring a bag of chocolate chips and do an audience-participation Toll House cookie baking demo with the kids (which is more for my friend than for his kids - he probably thinks Toll House cookies are America’s greatest contribution to Western civilization), and I came up with a mini-American footbal for his son, but I’m stumped for his daughter. I usually give books as gifts to kids who are old enough to read, but that isn’t going to work - the kids don’t know any English.
So I think back: what did I like when I was 9, besides books? Lego. Lego is not American. Art supplies, calligraphy pens, that kind of stuff? Also not typically American. Music gadgets? Also not typically American, unless I am blanking on some small-ish American folk instrument (which is a decent idea, now that I think of it - a harmonica, maybe?) I absolutely refuse to get her something anti-feminist like a Barbie. I have no idea what her hobbies, etc. are, and so far I’m not getting much guidance from the parents because I think they don’t want to look like they’re fishing for gifts for the kids, which is really too bad.
So, my fellow Dopers, any ideas? I’m leaving Wednesday straight from work, and this week promises to be completely insane at work, so whatever it is will need to be acquired today or tomorrow.
Harmonica sounds good (seeing as you’ll be in an entirely different country by the time the parents are ready to kill whoever gave their kid that damn harmonica.) Perhaps some Hot Rods as well? Just a guess, but I would have to imagine cars not to be as regular a toy item there. Pee shooters, rubber band shooters, etc. wood based items might be less common there as well.
Probably what you need to do is search some French toy sites and see what selections they’re missing. Or call your friends and ask.
No clue where to find a Stetson, plus there is no way in Hell I’m hauling something that big halfway across Western Europe for a week before I get to their house; it wouldn’t fit in my suitcase. And what good is a baseball glove without a bat and ball? At least with the football, I can make a (quite sad - I’m no athlete) attempt to show them how to throw a spiral pass.
I knew a French woman who was very appreciative of the United States’ plentiful supplies of peanut butter. Very American, and if your friends like it, well apparently it’s not so easy to come by in France.
Would something from the American Girl doll store be an option? Not terribly feminist, but not Barbie by any means. I think the dolls tend to come with some type of American history context.
NFL team hats or tee shirts. (The French have barely heard of baseball, though)
Three Stooges DVD’s from Wallmart. Only a buck, but the French love the Stooges.
One taste of French peanut butter will make it clear why they don’t eat much peanut butter in France. American peanut butter has salt, extra oil, lots of sugar, and an extremely fine ground texture, (even in between the chunky bits, if you like chunky) and it is homogenized as well. Also, one jar of peanut butter is exactly like every other jar of that brand of peanut butter. If you take peanut butter, get the smallest size you can find, and get two or three.
What about a snowglobe with some sort of american cityscape or something in them? Loved them when I was a little girl, and still do. One of the nice things I brought back from my trip to NY, my best american loot by far.
I discovered something surprising when I worked with America Reads: kids much older than I’d of thought like picture books. Although the books we read were mostly for a preschool audience, it was very common for older kids and preteens to listen as well, with the same pleasure as the little ones.
If you picked a book - particularly one from a “local author” who is sure not to be found over seas - with few words but great illustrations, I bet she’d like it. I assume your friends speak some English, so they could offer her a translation of the brief text if she wants it. Some picture books have no text at all, too, my personal favorites from that list are Tuesday, Zoom and Time Flies.
I was actually given Zoom at the end of my contract with America Reads, and it is a neat book a kid that age would probably find interesting too.
We’re faced with this dilemma all the time, as Thomas’s nieces and nephews are between the ages of 6 and 12 and only a couple of them are just starting to learn English (they’re Danish, for those who don’t know). We’ve often had a lot of luck in the kids section and the bargain section at Borders, believe it or not. They carry games and science projects and other such things that the kids can play with without having to read English.
One year we got one of Thomas’s sister’s kids (boys were, like 5 & 6 and the girl was 8 or 9 at the time) a board game of U.S. Geography that doesn’t require reading to play. IIRC, it was this one. It’s a liiiitle on the young side for the girl, but the age range does go up to 7, so perhaps she could play it with her brother and have fun. Ours really liked it a lot, even the older one.
Another gift we got for one of our nieces was a tie-dye kit from Michaels with a couple of plain white t-shirts. She’s really into the crafty type stuff and tie-dye seemed traditionally American. She LOVED it!
The girls are also really into these Bratz dolls. You could inquire as to whether she even likes dolls, and if she does, there are some that have very typical American attire and accessories. There might even be some that are harder to find or not available at all on that side of the pond, which would be cool for her to have.
If I can think of anything else we’ve gotten them that they liked, I’ll come back with more ideas.