In this article, we will take a look at one of the most amazing and inexpensive Christmas Gifts for kids in 2009:  The Live Butterfly Garden.  It quite literally is the gift of life.

One of my kids favorite activities is going to the zoo.  We visit the zoo in our hometown several times a year (which is never enough) and often find the local zoo when we are on our summer holidays.  My daughter loves to see the animals and watch how they live.  Of course, she is always asking for more pets for our house as if she wants to start a veritable zoo in the living room.

While we are unable to accommodate that request, we can come close to bringing a small part of the zoo to our home with the Live Butterfly Garden.  The Live Butterfly Garden has been rated one of the Best Toys for Christmas 2009 but it is much more than that.  When I first saw this advertised, my initial thought was:  “Is this for real?”

The advertisement said that we could raise caterpillars and watch them turn into butterflies.  We could actually watch the metamorphosis live.  I was slightly incredulous:  How do you buy a gift online with live animals inside of it?  How would the animals survive?

Well, the Live Butterfly Garden is designed very cleverly and conducive to the lifecycle of the butterfly.  The four-stage lifecycle of the butterfly begins with the egg which transforms into the Larva (the caterpillar stage), onto the Pupa, and finally into the adult stage of the butterfly.  So, obviously, when you buy this gift online, you cannot receive live Larva because they would not survive.

So, when you purchase the Live Butterfly Garden, you receive all the necessities to raise the caterpillars and watch their metamorphosis into full adult butterflies.  This package includes a transparent, mesh habitat to raise the Larva (caterpillars) and a feeder to keep them healthy and growing.

So where are the actually Larva?  When you purchase the garden, you receive a free mail-in voucher for five butterfly larvae and special food for growth.  When we ordered our package, this worked flawlessly.  We received the food and the growth process began.

My daughter was simply astonished.  It one thing to go to the zoo and see this but another to create and oversee the process on your own.  This is also one of the best teen gift ideas that you may find.  My teen was playing coy (I am too old for this!) but she could not take her eyes off the evolutionary process of the butterfly.

At under $15, this is truly one of the best inexpensive Christmas gifts that you can get for your children.