Looking for some fun gift ideas to keep the beloved toddlers in your life entertained and excited? I’ve rounded up 30+ gift ideas to help add a smile and fun to their day….
I’ve broken these gifts down by category & included a range of prices, with most of the higher priced items towards the end of the list.
Hope you find some great ideas!
Small Toys
It’s so fun to share a new toy with a toddler to see their creativity and skills expand as they try new things. For younger toddlers, this tool box is so much fun – it has various levers to pull and turn, and tools to practice using. It was definitely one of our son’s favorite toys.
Bristle Blocks are great for both younger and older toddlers since they can be combined in everything from simple to more complex structures. A fun twist on normal blocks and a favorite at our house!
Magnetic drawing boards are another fun way for toddlers to practice drawing… plus there’s no mess or cleanup. Yay!
Magnetic Tiles
These are such a hit with just about every toddler I’ve known! My son loved these Magnatiles that his cousin passed down to him – they’ve lasted nearly 10 years! They’re super durable and the variety of shapes and ways they can be combined make them such a great gift from younger to older toddler. I also love the different expansion sets and varieties they offer in order to keep things fresh. Although we’ve only used Magnatiles, I’ve heard good things about less-expensive Magformers and PicassoTiles too.
Musical toys
If you’re ok with a little extra noise around your home, it can be fun to watch toddlers explore and learn about music. There are several options – like this ukulele, this drum set, or this xylophone. Personally, the xylophone is a favorite at our house and was a great first instrument to introduce our son to.
Personalized book
A personalized board book makes a great gift for any toddler- especially for younger toddlers. You can personalize these books to just about any topic – but we made ours a name book about our family. Since we have some family that lives further away, this was a great way to help our toddler connect names to faces in a fun way. This little book has been a treasure at our house and has held up super well despite lots of use… we can’t wait to share it with little brother on the way too! (If you’d like to read more about how we made ours, you can find more details in this post)
Books
There are so many great books out there for toddlers – and it’s always fun to add a few new ones into the rotation. This book is a favorite in our house and has the added benefit of helping teach toddlers about their (sometimes 😉..) big emotions. Grumpy Monkey is another book I’m excited to get my son – the cover alone cracks me up, plus I hope the message is helpful. A few other ones that look great are this fun and rhymey book, this lovely book by Joanna Gaines (from Fixer Upper), this heartwarming book, and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman’s debut picture book.
Another fun idea is to buy a book about the toddler’s favorite show or characters. My son loves Paw Patrol, so I’ll be buying him this 5-minute stories collection or this 5 book set, plus this Paw Patrol coloring book.
Chair
A cute, comfy chair is probably one of the *best* gifts our toddler has been given. When he was a young toddler, he was given this cute chair by his grandmother and he has sat and snuggled in this chair just about every day since. He also received this chair from his other grandmother and he loves to look at the Paw Patrol characters on it. He adores both chairs!
Now that we know that our toddler loves using his own chair, we’re planning to splurge and get him a chair that will last him years – the popular Anywhere Chair by Pottery Barn. It’s got a cover that is easily removed to wash, and it’s larger and sturdier so that it will last him (and likely even his baby brother!) a long time.
If you’re looking for a chair for a younger toddler, I think starting with a less expensive chair (like this one) is a a great place to start to see if they like using a chair or not. Later on you can move on to a more long-lasting and easy to clean chair like the Everywhere Chair if they show any interest.
Learning Tower
Learning towers are great for the toddler who is curious and ready to spend more time in the kitchen. We primarily use this learning tower at our kitchen island – but it’s also great at the kitchen sink for hand washing or water playtime. When we’re at the kitchen island, it’s nice because it keeps a toddler at your height when you’re prepping any food, and at least with our toddler it keeps him engaged when we are hanging out as we prep dinner or snacks. He’s also eaten snacks while standing in it. Overall, it’s just a nice way to get a toddler more involved in the kitchen. We own and love this learning tower – especially because it has grippy strips on the steps to help prevent slipping and it’s a great price compared to most learning towers I’ve seen.
Winter Gear
Although opening this gift might not (initially) excite a toddler as much as others – good winter gear really helps toddlers play and spend more time outside all winter long… so it really does add to their fun in the long run. 😉 After going through my son’s clothes from the past several years, I’m impressed by how well the few pieces of better quality winter gear we bought him have lasted and how much of a difference they made in keeping him playing outside all winter long. Ultimately, although we paid a little more for those pieces, they have truly lasted – so they’ve been worth it in my opinion. North Face has been a huge win for us in the toddler winter gear department. We’ve used their hats since he was a baby and now that he’s older the Little Faroes Beanie is our go-to. I also like their slim but warm coats for winter because they keep him warm yet they still fit when he’s sitting in his car seat since it’s not bulky – we’ve used their Toddler Denali Jacket the last 2 years (I sized up last year, and so it’s lasted two years!). Our son also used their snow boots last winter, and those were great too.
Outdoor play
If you’re looking for a few gifts that lead to outdoor fun – a water table or slide are a great way to go. There are so many varieties of water tables – we own this one but I honestly think nearly any water table (like this one) is great because toddlers love splashing and playing around in them regardless.
A small slide is a great idea too. Our toddler especially loves this slide because it has a play area at the top of the slide and the wider steps were handy in helping him learn to how to climb up – so it makes a great starter slide for younger toddlers too.
I hope this list gave you a few great ideas for the toddlers in your life!
Happy holidays!
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