Grandparents, uncles, and aunts are opting for activity-based gifts over traditional presents, making them the ideal Christmas gifts for their young loved ones, according to new research.

Data from Little Starts Gift Cards, a company offering access to more than 20,000 activities from more than 200 brands for children up to five.

The research found a growing preference to encourage little ones into fun, group activities through established providers such as Water Babies, Tumble Tots, Baby Ballet and Rugby Tots.

Activity classes involving sport, dance, language, art and music have proven to be particularly attractive to this market.

Juliette Savage, commercial director at Little Starts said: “Our data shows a rapidly growing trend for grandparents in particular to choose to gift social and sports activities rather than toys.

"The particular attraction of opting to use the Little Starts gift card to do so is that the little ones themselves can choose the actual activity they wish to participate in."