The holiday shopping season is well underway and while the youth football season has come to an end, it’s never too early to start thinking about 2018. For the youth football parent, that means finding the right gifts for their little gridiron greats.

With so many retailers and small businesses running sales for the holiday season, it’s a good time to pick up some gear for next season.  Here are some gift suggestions for your youth football player.

A new piece of pigskin.  It sounds so simple and obvious, but what youngster wouldn’t want to receive a new football? You just know the excitement level will be that children will want to get dressed and head outside, even in the snow, to toss the ball around. Make sure you get the same sized ball your child’s team will use, to help get acclimated to it, especially if they are moving up a level and using a different ball. Maybe even get two footballs and put one away for next season.

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Show off those colors.  A very popular and fun gift to get for the young football fan is a jersey of their favorite team and/or player. My kids have made formal requests for New York Jets jerseys with their favorite players. Sometimes the kids don’t necessarily want a new player, but rather a new color depending on home, away, or alternate jerseys. Along these same lines, any outerwear like sweatshirts, hats and jackets make great football gifts as well.

Gear for next season. By this point, many of you have already returned your child’s equipment to the program and you’ve packed away the gear that belongs to you. But don’t stick that equipment bag in the attic or garage just yet.  Now might be a good time to see if any stores or websites have any deals on gear like gloves, chin straps, mouthpieces, or even equipment bags.

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A helmet.  Granted this could go under the category of gear, but a helmet means a fairly significant investment and clearly should stand on its own as far as a gift is concerned.  We live in a time when there is a lot of discussion about head injuries in football, and helmets are a big part of the equation. There is a shelf life for helmets that programs need to follow when distributing helmets, but parents can alleviate any fear by buying children their own. 

Tickets, anyone? While the youth football season is over, the NFL and college campaigns are still going on, so there’s still time to take your child to a game. Depending on where you live and what team you root for, there may be tickets available for some games or you might be able to get a good deal on the secondary market. Taking your child to a game is not only fun, but they could also learn a thing or two.

It’s time for the youth football parent to get that list out and check it twice and check if your child has been naughty or nice.  I’ll go on the assumption that it’s the latter (wink wink), so take care of your little football player this holiday season. 

This is an updated version of a blog that originally posted Dec. 1, 2015.