Holiday Gift Guide for Toddlers and Kids

It’s that time of year again! GIFT GUIDE time! I’m starting off this year’s guides with a fun one: Holiday Gift Guide for Toddlers and Kids!

If you read my gift guide for toddlers from last year, you’ll notice this one is very similar. Reason being, kids don’t change a TON in a year, and even though I have two now, we still parent the same way and still prefer the same types of toys.

So, before we jump into the Holiday Gift Guide for Toddlers and Kids, refresh yourself on last year’s and let’s talk HOW I choose toys: no batteries, doesn’t do the job for you, wooden or natural materials if possible (there are always exceptions), and educational is always a plus! I’m not shaming people who love battery toys. There are a LOT of reasons that we don’t do them in our house, but the primary reasons are I have a sensitivity to layers of noise in my environment AND I don’t want my kids distracted from non-noise toy experiences. 

Lately my toddler seems to be interested in everything. He loves tools because he watches reruns of Home Improvement, loves to build things, loves any sport that involves a ball, reads books, loves dinosaurs, loves anything with wheels, and loves anything involving art. So we have a lot to choose from. BUT also, we don’t love having clutter in our house, so we will always choose experiences over gifts. Always. So scroll all the way to the bottom of this post for those. And my Amazon Storefront has all of the toys I’m about to talk about and more linked in there! 

If you love wooden toys, that market seems to be exploding lately. Melissa and Doug do a wonderful job with their puzzles and activities, but also you can find awesome wooden toy options at Ikea and Crate & Kids.

We have a vintage (i.e. saved from my little brother’s toy collection) Brio train set that my son loves. You can also find other trains and cars that fit the tracks at Ikea! Also, these train sets from Crate are so cool...this too!

 

I’m loving these kids tool belts that look like the real deal. I know my son would love this and I’d find markers and cars shoved in it when I’m cleaning up at night. Of course, wooden tools are a must too. So cute. If you have room in your house the toy tool bench is the way to go. 

I am ALL for anything that is an outside activity when it comes to kids. No clutter in my house and my kid is staying active: win win. Canaan would LOVE a tee ball set and there are a ton of options depending on how pro you want it to look.

We also have a balance bike coming his way and helmet too. Safety first. Don’t forget to measure your kiddo’s head so your gifter buys the correct size.

Kids love these mini trampolines too and there are even options that have a bar to hold onto.

 

We received Magna Tiles for Canaan last Christmas and put them away in the closet for awhile. Now that he’s interested, he LOVES them. He will build for hours! I love that he has to be creative and it uses tactile skills too. And, when cleaning them up, they all stick together.

 

Anything involving art or coloring is a win in my book. I love no mess options like Water Wow books (great for road trips and stroller rides too!) and Color Wonder books. We buy Canaan a new coloring book for his Color Wonder Markers whenever he’s already colored all the pictures and he just loves scribbling away. 

We don’t have an easel but I love the idea of getting one. It keeps coloring all in one spot and really grows with their different mediums and interests.

To get uber educational but still fun, I know kids would get a ton of use out of these Wipe Clean activities books. The reviews are great (and we’ve owned some of their baby books and love them) and there are two versions that would really grow with your kiddo. This one and this one.

 

As a huge fan of puzzles within reason (please, no thousand piece ones I have to vacuum up), Crate has some that would be awesome for kids. They’re great for dexterity, space relations, and everything in between. Check out these: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR. 

 

Other creative educational toys that you may not have thought of include a cash register (I love this one from Crate & Kids) because it teaches counting and a toy camera or binoculars!

 

This may sound ridiculous, but my toddler LOVES to help mommy and daddy clean. He is always trying to drag around a giant broom. He’d actually love this play cleanup set, and I think it teaches great lessons to boys too (ie cleaning is not just for girls).

Along those same lines, we have a lot of play food and my son loves to cook next to me on the counter while I’m making dinner. I highly recommend buying your little one a set of play food that comes with a play knife.

Unexpectedly, our favorite gift last year was a photo book for Canaan. My BIL and SIL had it made, and it means so much to us. The pages are thick cardboard (ie great for kids) and each page has a family member on it that Canaan wouldn’t be able to see in-person very often. He now knows the names and faces of all of those special family members who don’t live near us or who have passed on. This is such a sweet gift and Canaan loves it, so I’d highly recommend it to anyone.

A friend of mine who travels a lot with her kids LOVES Plus Plus blocks. Her kids play with them at every restaurant and are kept busy building so many things with these simple blocks. They would make an awesome gift and I definitely would love a set!

I’m a giant child and want one of these mega Harry Potter castle LEGO sets. Ok, it isn’t kid appropriate, but you could say it’s for your kids then stay up late building it and drinking wine. Right? 

And last but certainly not least, EXPERIENCES to sponsor. I’d rather you send me money to a membership or experience than any gifts. Yup, 100%. Not only is it a clutter-free gift, but kids learn SO much by getting out in the world. Plus, activities can get expensive, so eliminating that struggle for a parent is so generous. My favorites include: the zoo, Art Project (or something similar in your area), music classes (Music for Aardvarks), children’s museum, Little Gym, any other activity or art that the kiddo is interested in!

 

This is not a sponsored post. This post contains affiliate links. 

For a gift guide to beauty, shop this post!