Okay. Early this year I found a comment on Quora that I immediately ADORED:

“…As a kid, a present didn't have to be new or bought to be a treasure. For years, my favorite Christmas present was the current iteration of The Stick. Dunno how it started, but my Dad made me a stick one year. The first one I remember had an old-fashioned rubber and metal horn on one end I could honk. The next year I had a baton! He had found two sizes of rubber toilet tank balls and put them on the ends of The Stick. He was able to recondition the stick every year because at some point I would leave it out in the yard and he would pick it up and hide it until he could work on it. I had a total meltdown the first Christmas it didn't show up under the tree.”

I want to make my nephew a gift this person referred to as “the stick,” making one which changes every year into a new iteration, like theirs. OP mentioned their father making them a baton one year, and another year Dad attached a bike horn to the end of it.

I’m already up against the tv and iPad. Does anyone have any cool ideas for how to make The Stick in a way appropriate for a three year old boy? 🤞🏻

Love all of you. Thanks for being here and doing what y’all do. You’re amazing.

ETA: Thank you all so much for the wonderful suggestions!! I don’t want to squash anyone’s creativity and I have several other kids I could make things for, so if you think of anything to add to the conversation PLEASE do! But I’ve decided what I’m doing for my nephew. u/NobleExperiments suggested a costume chest that could be added to over the years, which blew me away! But it was expanding on that idea by u/followyourogre that really got me super excited. Kiddo is, as I told them, lovingly referred to by my sister in law as “the Trinket Goblin,” and followyourogre suggested a special treasure chest where he can keep the trinkets, rocks, and random odds, ends, bits, and bobs he amasses. Sold. What an amazing idea.

Y’all really understood the spirit of what I was asking you and wanting to do for him. It doesn’t have to be a stick per se, just something we can build upon as the years pass. This little dude is my whole WORLD and I cannot wait to see how this gift is received! 😍 Thank you all again from an auntie in Ohio. 💕💕