Inexpensive Christmas Gifts for Tweens

Tweens are always a tad difficult to pick out that right Christmas or Holiday gift. Not quite teenagers, but verging on it, marketing strategies have evolved over the last year to make this cohort group its only age-sub group when tailoring products and advertisement during peak times of the year. The following are five great, relatively inexpensive tween Christmas or Holiday gift ideas for this season.

I Read Banned Books Bracelet

Created for the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom by Carolyn Forsman. If your tween is on the older side of 'tween-dom' (or think they are), they will love these bracelets by Carolyn Forsman. The bracelet has one section that says "I read banned books" with pictures of covers of actual banned books on the remainder of the bracelet. One bracelet retails for $15. There are also a lot of other neat ideas for the 'older' tween in the Forsman collection; all for a decent price.

DC Skate Shoes Men's Court Graffik

These skate shoes from DC shoes through skatestyles.com are a great gift for your tween this Holiday season. A little pricier than what you may find through wholesalers at $53 a pair and up (but still cheaper than the mall); you know you're getting the real thing through skatestyles.com. The set linked here is a black pair for boys, but there are equivalent pairs for girls as well. This is one tween Christmas gift that will be enjoyed all year!

WoWee Roborapto Robotic Dinosaur

Tween boys love robots. The one thing they love more than robots are robotic dinosaurs! Amazon.com has this neat Robotic dinosaur (and others) on clearance for $49.99. Complete with an advanced artificially intelligent personality, realistic biomorphic motions, direction control, and autonomous behaviors, this is a tween Christmas gift that all boys and a lot of girls would enjoy!

Webkinz

If you don't know if your tween niece or nephew is into Webkinz, the odds are that they are unless just verging on becoming a teenager. If you just don't know what a Webkin is, think beanie babies that you can register online in a 'MySpace for kids' environment. If you are going to purchase a tween a Webkin this Holiday season, you should definitely check with the parents to see which ones he or she has. Unless you have kids who have Webkinz, I recommend this tact vice trying to decipher the various different types of Webkin, etc. A great discount site to buy Webkinz is webkinzoverstock.com.

Hannah Montana Digital Camera

A little pricier at $49.99, but a great gift for that special tween girl this Holiday season. Blue and purple in color, this camera holds up to 20 pictures and also comes with graphics from Hannah Montana's show! The camera only has 16MB of internal memory which is what drives the price down, but is perfect for the tween just learning to take care of a digital camera but wants decent quality pictures. You can find this and other Hannah Montana cameras at bestbuy.combestbuy.com as well as other popular retailers.