We’ve had lots of parents making patchworks for kids’ birthdays. We’ve had lots of kids making them for themselves! Clearly we can’t share most of these stories as they are personal and private patchworks made by people we don’t know. But this week was our founder Liv’s son’s birthday, and he made a patchwork gift we can share.
Over to you Liv:
Manu has been obsessed with Lego Star Wars for the last few years. When it comes to Christmas and birthdays, friends usually buy him a little bit of Lego to add to his collection. But these days it’s hard to find a little box of Star Wars Lego under a tenner that he doesn’t already have!
So this year we had a plan.
It was fun making Manu’s patchwork. Once he decided which one big bit of Lego he wanted we went to the local toy shop. I took this photo of him standing next to the big box that he decided on to use as a welcome image and I then took a few photos of all the bits that were included. Then we came home to make our gift page. And once we published it, we sent out Manu’s party invites with a link to his present page.
We invited 10 friends to Manu’s party. The whole set cost £69 so I guessed all contributions would probably cover the cost. But we made sure there was a range of prices so friends could buy the packet for a quid, a character for a fiver or a battleship for ten pounds. Then before the party, having collected some contributions already, I went off to the shop to buy the giant set and wrap it up ready for the party.
On Sunday morning – the day of the party – there was a flurry of present buying on Manu’s page and lots of lovely messages left by his friends that I read out to Manu. Then at 3pm the party began.
I have to say some of the Mums said they felt a bit funny coming to a party without a gift. But when I showed them the big present all wrapped up and waiting on the table it suddenly became real. As Manu opened his present all his friends shouted out “I bought you Anakin Skywalker”, “I bought you Palpatine’s throne” and added things like “I liked it when you said on your patchwork that Mace Windo was Awesome!” All the kids had clearly sat and looked through Manu’s patchwork, read his words and made their own choices about which bits to buy him. And when they saw this big bit of Lego they were all very excited.
Chatting to other parents it was clear that their own experience going to kids parties mirrored mine – “the last minute dash to the shop to spend £15 on something I’m not sure they’ll like and £2 on a metre of paper to wrap it on the way”. So all the parents said how nice it was to be able to “spend a fiver without leaving the sofa and know it was going towards something that was actually wanted.”
Couldn’t put it better myself.