Younger Children Can Be So Hard to Buy For. Here Are Our Picks for This Year’s Games & Toys They’ll Love!
Up to this point, we’ve given you a lot of holiday gift ideas including a list of party games, home and electronics ideas, suggestions for family game night, STEM gift ideas, games for teens and adults, more family games and several 2-player games. With a few exceptions, most were targeted toward individuals who aren’t making a list for a jolly man dressed in red. But let’s be honest and admit that the holidays are really about the little kids and the joy that comes in even the simplest of gifts. I’m sure we’ve all experienced the anguish of trying to get that *one* item only to find it’s sold out… everywhere. We’ve put together this list to 1) give you some new ideas you might not have thought of and 2) give you a jump start on getting these while there are still some time left in the shopping window.
As you already know from the other guides, the logo indicates an items we’ve featured at a previous time. Click on the logo to be redirected to an overview with our personalized pictures. Check out our numerous holiday giveaways to see if any of these have gone live yet. Here’s a hint: some have!
My First Castle Panic
Fireside Games
Based on the best-selling cooperative hit Castle Panic, My First Castle Panic now brings the same exciting, edge-of-your-seat, team-based experience to preschool players. Streamlined gameplay teaches strategic thinking, as players work to match colors and shapes, all while planning ahead, taking turns, and cooperating.
Wishing Pixies
Wishing Pixies
These are 7 inch Pixie characters dolls that go with the Wishing Pixies story and App. Parents have the ability to assign daily affirmations, tasks and meditations for children to complete to receive pixie dust used to earn a reward. Wishing Pixies is more than just a toy/game. We are a parenting tool that helps families raise emotionally strong, mindful, and confident children who believe in the power of positive thoughts and know that they can achieve any goal they set for themselves.
Yeti Forgetti
Playmonster
A fun twist on traditional memory play…with our lovable yetis! Hide the yetis and snow crab under the igloos and mix them up. Take turns drawing cards and doing what they say—peek inside to see what is under an igloo, swap them around or try to guess under which igloo a certain yeti is hiding. If you guess correctly, you keep the card. The player with the most cards in the end wins. Just don’t let the snow crab out of the igloo! For 2 to 4 players!
Mini Acoustic Guitar
Loog Guitars
The ideal first guitar. Designed to make it fun, easy and stimulating for kids to play music. The Loog Mini guitar comes with flashcards that teach you how to form chords and an app that gets you playing songs on day one!
Drink in the Box
Precidio Design
Drink in the Box is the world’s only reusable drink box, is patented, BPA and Phthalate free, won’t squirt or leak, and helps to hydrate your kids without all the sugar and risk of mold, or impact to the environment of a disposable juice boxes.
Songs in the Shade of the Cashew and Coconut Trees
The Secret Mountain
This is a picture book with CD. An enchanting collection of 23 traditional songs that pays homage to the rich cultural heritage and multilingual communities of West Africa and the Caribbean. Stories about children playing in the schoolyard at recess, sisters braiding each other’s hair at the beach, and parents dancing and singing late into the night mesh together thanks to the music. A wide array of styles—nursery rhymes from Gabon, lullabies from Cape Verde, rumbas from the Congo, work songs from Jamaica—are all performed exquisitely by men, women, and children in more than a dozen languages.
Snail Sprint
HABA
On your mark, get set…and off goes the slippery snail race in Mrs. Meyer’s vegetable garden. Draw a race card to determine which snail colors are yours, but don’t show anyone! Roll the dice with color symbols to know which snail to move and where to move it. The snails crawl over each other on the race up and over the magnetic tin to the three winner’s podiums to receive the most points.
Little Genius Kit
OSMO
Featured in Amazon’s Top 100 Toys list for 2019, the Osmo Little Genius Starter Kit combines proven hands-on play of Friedrich Froebel’s and Maria Montessori’s manipulatives with advanced computer vision for a personalized and highly engaging experience. To create this incredible new, “tangible” learning experience, Osmo uses its AI technology and design-based research for the development process. The result is a system best-suited for the 3-5 age group that helps nurture core developmental skills including: vocabulary, letters, emotions, problem solving, and creative confidence.
Disney Snuggle Time
Wonder Forge
Snuggle up for a calming game that’s perfect for bedtime, naptime, or any quiet time. Help Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and friends get the farm animals across the soft game board into the barn before the sun goes down.
My First Farm
BRIO
My First Farm is a farm set for toddlers, which playfully introduces them into the BRIO wooden railway system. This frustration-free play set will give small children hours of fun and help teach them about farmyard animals. The five wooden animals fit into the animal wagon ready to be transported by train to the farm. Each animal also comes with three distinct sounds, which are activated automatically when placed in the farm meadow. Learning about animals has never been so much fun!
Mix & Match-a-Saurus
VTech
Roar, dance and laugh with the innovative Mix & Match-a-Saurus™! This Dino comes with three emotion tiles (happy, angry, sleepy), three music tiles (hip-hop, marching, ballet) and three character tiles (dinosaur, robot, monster). Children can create 27 different combinations of emotions, music styles and characters such as happy hip-hop dino or angry marching monster. Placing the colorful tiles on Dino’s back allows kids to customize how they want to play with him. Every time a tile is inserted, the dinosaur moves, sings, dances, talks or encourages children to follow along for gross-motor play.
RockIt Twist
LeapFrog
Game and learn with a TWIST! Four sides of buttons, spinners, sliders and switches provide a unique play experience that’s perfectly paired with exciting video games. Preloaded games teach a variety of core skills including literacy, math, problem solving, science and creativity. Play with three adorable digital pets and nurture them to grow. Game packs (sold separately) include more games, plus a new digital pet and a RockIt Pet figure to match. Twist, turn, play and learn!
Traffic Cop
Endless Games
A classic game of crossing the intersection. Traffic Cop is a fun interactive action game based on the classic schoolyard game where one player is the traffic cop and the other players try to cross the street safely.
Football Guys
MasterPieces, Inc.
Our Sports Action Figure Playsets give children time to be creative, engaging them in creative play where they control the action. The Football set is a complete bundle of football action figures that make up two full teams, a realistic felt field, and other cool accessories packed into a handy storage container. Included are: 2 full football teams with (24) total players that measure 2” tall, (1) referee, (2) goalposts, (1) 32”x20” realistic and washable felt toy football field, (1) instruction booklet with basic rules and strategy, and (1) 10”x6”x5” storage container. For ages 3 and up.
NFL Teenymates
Party Animal, Inc.
This 15 figure gift set features all the leagues top stars in COLOR RUSH uniforms!
Inside the Collector Set:
• 14 collectible 1″ NFL TeenyMates in Color Rush uniforms
• 1 Exclusive COLOR RUSH Receiver
• 1 Complete 5″ x 7″, 35-Piece Football Field Color Rush Puzzle
• BONUS: Color Rush Receiver – Exclusive*
*Exclusive figures not available in any other products lineups.
Little Earth Plush
Celestial Buddies
A Star is Born! Celestial Buddies Earth Plush Goes To Space and Captivates the World. On the ride of his life when Celestial Buddies’ plush Earth was unexpectedly placed on the SpaceX’s Crew Dragon last Spring, the little toy and the company was thrust into the ride of a lifetime. Within minutes, the toy was a global, no actually, a universal hit! After video surfaced of the Little Earth plush toy being used as a “Zero Gravity Indicator” and floating around inside the ship, the social media floodgates opened. Then, as the SpaceX craft docked at the International Space Station, astronauts brought “Little Earth” on board the Space Station and began posting pictures of the plush Earth.
Orangutwang
Playmonster
Take turns hanging fruit and jungle friends on the orangutan, but watch out! At some point, he’ll be holding too much and he’ll spring up and send the fruit and friends flying! The last player to successfully hang an item on the orangutan, before the player who made him twaaang and go flying, is the winner!
Across our various gift guides, we hope you’re finding a lot of awesome ideas for the recipients on your shopping list and maybe even some for yourself. If not, we still have a few more guides coming soon!
Traffic Cop seems like it will be a lot of fun. It would want this for my kids.
My favorite item is the Mix & Match a Saurus. My nephews love dinosaurs so I know we would have a blast with that.
It’s nice to see games, other than in video format, being advertised for. I think a lot of families need more games like these to bring families together.
The little earth plus is my favorite – so cute!
I like Little Genius Kit
The pixies are so cuute!
I think the Little Genius Kit would be a great gift for a young child.
Mix & Match-a-Saurus is my fave gift listed,
My First Farm looks great.
Awesome Gift Guide. You actually helped me find something I wanted to get for my Grandson for the holidays, but couldn’t understand exactly what he meant, but when I saw it here, I knew. I will get it for his birthday instead!
The reusable drink box would have come in really handy when our girls were younger.
We could have put in slightly watered down juice instead.
Snail Sprint
Disney Snuggle Time
The Traffic Cop game is my favorite.
My first castle panic.
The mini acoustic guitar would be a winner in our house. Anything that makes noise. I have extra aspirin
I like the Mini Acoustic Guitar
My younger grandkids are into electronics and tablets like their older siblings. That’s why I know they would love the RockIt Twist by
LeapFrog. I would like to play this myself
I shared this toy on Pinterest.
I THINK I WOULD PICK MY FIRST FARM.
I like Little Genius Kit by OSMO
My favorite is My First Farm
The Mini Acoustic Guitar looks very nice!