The Wicked Uncle Challenge

About the #WickedUncleChallenge

wickeduncle.co.uk is the site for children's presents. Founded in 2007, they have a huge - and hugely cool - selection of presents, all of which can be sorted by age, gender, and interest. To make life even easier they offer gift wrapping, handwritten cards, and even an annual birthday reminder. No matter how strange a species children seem to you, there is no way you'll buy a sucky gift from Wicked Uncle.

To prove it, Wicked Uncle have been working with bloggers to challenge child free relatives to pick suitable presents. (If they do fail, Wicked Uncle offer store credit or exchange for returned items...)



Our challenger was Uncle Rhys, my younger brother. Rhys is in his mid-20s, gym obsessed, child free, and has a long history of doing all he can to get out of present shopping. Rhys gives me the money so I can buy gifts from him to our parents, and his girlfriend has to do the same for other family members.

I was really interested to see what he would come up with when he had no choice but to do it himself!



Rhys had to buy a present for Marianna, a little girl who is eighteen months old and extremely vocal in her displeasure.

Wicked Uncle gave us £40 store credit to spend, and after I handed the code over I waited for Rhys to place his order. And waited, and waited... In the end, I caught up with him at my mum's and nagged him until he got on with it. It only took him a few minutes, testament to how easy the website is to navigate, and even Rhys reported that it hadn't been anywhere near as painful as he was expecting.



I love that a thank you card and envelope is included, so children can show their appreciation.
A few days later, Marianna was super excited when a great big box arrived with her name on it. Anthony and I helped her open the box, and then to realise that funtastic though the air bags were, there was something even better to come! There were two gifts in the box, the first being:


Smartmax Start - £29.95
I'd never heard of Smartmax before, but the concept is brilliant. Magnetic construction pieces for children. The magnets are strong enough to hold, but weak enough for Marianna to be able to pull them apart herself. The parts are all designed with toddlers in mind; the balls are too big to choke on, and the plastic tubes are ultrasonically welded together. Marianna absolutely loved the set - and we've had great fun building with them too.

You can get lots and lots of add-on sets, so that might be a future idea for a certain Uncle Rhys. ;)

The second gift was really well thought out. Marianna loves 'fishies' but, no matter how many times nanny suggests it, I'm not about to sign up to cleaning out a fish bowl on a regular basis. Rhys struck a happy compromise with this fish bowl:

Fish Bowl - £8.95
It takes two batteries which create a magnetic field to drag the two little fish around. The bowl is only a mini one - you can see Marianna helpfully showing the scale with a Smartmax ball there as I tried to set it up - but the fish and their movements look impressively realistic. There are lots of little pieces so this is recommended for ages 8+. Or, of course, you can set it up and then let little ones just look at it. We put it on the mantelpiece and Marianna sat transfixed for ages, occasionally pointing at the bowl and yelling 'fishies!' Every day she has asked to have the fishies on for a bit, to see them swimming around.

I have to say that Rhys really came through on this challenge, and chose some amazing gifts. If Wicked Uncle can turn Rhys into a gift giving genius, it can help anyone!


Check out the awesome range at Wicked Uncle for yourself, or connect with them on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.