Santa's Little Helpers: Tesco Leeds launches '˜Christmas hotline' manned by kids to help parents choose gifts

Do you know what to get your children for Christmas? It's a perennial problem for parents everywhere and now new research for Tesco suggests a staggering 61 per cent of '˜grown-ups' and that parents in Leeds spend a whopping 18 days casting around for the perfect present.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Nov 2016, 12:46 BST
Updated 16th Nov 2016, 15:50 BST

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Kids rehearse for the Tesco Toy Tester Hotline, a dedicated phone service manned by children launching on 5th November to help stressed out parents pick the most loved toys for their kids this Christmas. This photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Re-use of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photo credit should read: Adrian Brooks/ImagewiseKids rehearse for the Tesco Toy Tester Hotline, a dedicated phone service manned by children launching on 5th November to help stressed out parents pick the most loved toys for their kids this Christmas. This photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Re-use of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photo credit should read: Adrian Brooks/Imagewise
Kids rehearse for the Tesco Toy Tester Hotline, a dedicated phone service manned by children launching on 5th November to help stressed out parents pick the most loved toys for their kids this Christmas. This photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Re-use of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photo credit should read: Adrian Brooks/Imagewise

But do not despair... Tesco has come up with a solution. It has launched a special hotline hosted by children, which parents can call to get advice on what to toys to buy.

The hotline will be live on November 5, from 10am-2pm.

Dawn Lavalette, head of buying for Toys and Nursery at Tesco, said: “We want to help take the stress out of Christmas this year, and with our Toy Tester Hotline, we’ll be offering advice on this season’s most loved toys.

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“With two thirds of parents admitting to not knowing what to buy their kids at Christmas, we hope the Toy Tester Hotline will help parents pick the perfect presents. Whether you need a Lego City Airport Air Show, a Paw Patrol Air Patroller or a Tesco exclusive such as Sindy, our expert team will be on hand to help you find the perfect gift at Tesco, home of the most loved toys.”

Call the Hotline on 0207 553 7344 between 10am and 2pm on November 5. Or click here: GIFT IDEAS

The survey by Tesco found that two in five Leeds-based parents (44 per cent) agreed that their children changing their minds about what they want is the root of the problem. To give parents a helping hand, Tesco will launch a ‘Toy Tester Hotline’ on Saturday 5th November hosted by an expert team of kids to give parents a helping hand this Christmas.

The research polled 2,000 UK parents with children aged 0–16 years and found 61 per cent of parents in Leeds admit they aren’t sure what to buy their kids, causing a third to buy a toy their child didn’t like. The ‘Toy Tester Hotline’ aims to help panicked parents across the UK, with children on hand to give advice on this year’s most loved toys, including why they like them and what the toy has to offer.

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With nearly a fifth of nationwide parents (18 per cent) planning to buy their children’s Christmas presents in the first week of November, those needing guidance can call the Tesco ‘Toy Tester Hotline’ on Saturday 5th November between the hours of 10.00 and 14.00.

Alongside this, Tesco is working with child psychologist Dr Sam Wass, known for his time on award-winning Channel 4 series The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6-year-olds, to investigate how confident parents are when it comes to choosing what present their child wants.

Dr Wass said: “In our research we identified that just under half of parents (44 per cent) did not correctly guess the main present choice of their child. Of the ones that did guess correctly, the parents tended to be Mums (75 per cent).

“The above scores occurred in contrast to the confidence ratings parents gave ahead of the test, which were consistently above 8 out of 10 across all parents (with ‘0’ being not confident at all, and ’10’ being extremely confident). The results show a real disconnect between what parents think their child wants and what they actually want.”

Anyone wanting to use the service should call 0207 553 7344.

Get more tips and advice from a series of Tesco Toy Testers videos available at http://www.tesco.com/toy-testers/

Related topics:TescoLeeds