Great Gifts for Kids (And What Makes Them Great)

In a world of fast trends and scintillating touchscreens, finding a unique gift that holds a kid’s attention without annoying their parents is a tall order. Add to that a vague obligation to choose something educational or wholesome, and it’s easy to see why this simple task paralyzes otherwise decisive adults. Thankfully, Wirecutter’s parenting team has had a lot of experience both giving and receiving gifts for kids. In doing so, we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t for kids of all ages.

Infants and toddlers (ages 1 to 3)

At this age, babies and toddlers may struggle to speak, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know what’s going on. In a New York Times op-ed, developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik describes how kids learn through play: “[New] studies of ‘active learning’ show that when children play with toys they are acting a lot like scientists doing experiments. Preschoolers prefer to play with the toys that will teach them the most, and they play with those toys in just the way that will give them the most information about how the world works.”

With that in mind, games that encourage pattern matching but don’t depend on numbers or words are a great way to encourage logical thinking among toddlers. Brian Mayer, a library technology and gaming specialist in New York, recommends Go Away Monster! for the youngest gamers because it’s simple to pick up: Players take turns reaching into a bag filled with cardboard pieces, selecting (by feel) either a bedroom item—a bed, a lamp, a teddy bear—or a friendly-looking monster. The goal is to gather all the bedroom items you need, but if you grab a monster, you shout “Go away, monster!” and fling it away. In addition to developing fine motor skills and shape recognition, Go Away Monster! helps set the stage for more complex games later on by teaching turn-taking and rule-following. However, it won’t help new gamers cope with defeat, since the game doesn’t officially end until all players complete their bedrooms.

Kids in this age range don’t typically need a reason to let their imaginations run wild, but adding some props into the mix can encourage magical thinking. For example, IKEA’s Cirkustält “big top” tent is one such prop that sets a literal stage for fantasy and exploration. “New crawlers may enjoy playing hide-and-seek inside or peekaboo from behind the curtains,” writes senior editor Kalee Thompson. She adds that the tent offers replay value for older kids as a private nook to read in or a rocket ship for escaping one’s earthly confines. Thankfully, she reports, it’s built to be up to the task: “We had one that lasted for at least five years, and there were many catastrophic rocket crashes during that time.”

Whatever gift you end up picking, don’t forget to wrap it. “When my kids were toddlers they were often just as interested in the packaging that gifts came in as the gifts themselves,” explains senior editor Christine Cyr Clisset. “Let them go to town with crayons or washable pens to make a car, a dollhouse, or a spaceship. String a few together for a choo-choo train or whatever else takes your little human’s fancy.”

Preschool and kindergarten (ages 3 to 6)

By the time kids approach kindergarten, they already have clear and vocal opinions about what they’re into (and not into). But if you don’t have that firsthand intel, you’ll have better success giving them something useful over trying to guess blindly at their interests.

The Carson HU-10 BugView is the perfect gadgety gift for a budding naturalist. With a clever trap-door mechanism and a built-in magnifying glass, it encourages young scientists to explore the outdoors by letting them safely catch and observe bugs and other little creatures. “My daughter gave this bug catcher to one of her friends for her fifth birthday,” writes copy editor Angela Sylcott. “The friend and her 2-year-old sister love it.”

For colder climates, senior writer Doug Mahoney recommends L.L.Bean’s lighted beanies. “[The] built-in lamp gives them a sense of independence and adventure,” Doug writes. “As an added plus, they’re pretty warm and it’s really easy to see the kids when they’re running around the woods at night or even just when they’re in the yard.”

Literacy is far from expected at this early age, but it’s a good time to introduce kids to the wonder of books by reading together. With their familiar characters and comfortable settings, illustrated series are a great place to start. Current Wirecutter staff writer and former school librarian Jackie Reeve calls Mo Willems’s Elephant and Piggie “two of the most charming characters in modern children’s literature.” Jackie writes that in nearly a decade of recommending books to kids, “I don’t think I’ve met a single kid who didn’t fall in love with these hilarious books when we read them together. They’ve been favorites of my 6-year-old daughter’s since she could sit still to listen, and they’re perfect for young kids just learning to read on their own.” You can get the whole set of 25 for about $120.

Elementary-schoolers (ages 6 to 10+)

By the time a child enters elementary school, even their parents will have a hard time making sense of the trending marketed toys of the day. Rather than attempting to keep abreast of the latest craze, we recommend looking for objects with long shelf lives that invite kids to engage their fast-developing critical faculties, to learn about the world at large, or simply to build and play with the people around them.

At $20, the single-player Rush Hour is one of our favorite learning games. It was recommended to us by the staff of the Katherine Delmar Burke School, an all-girls K–8 school in San Francisco. This single-player game involves setting up and moving plastic cars along a grid, one block at a time, in order to free up a stuck vehicle—it has parallels to a lot of grid-based phone and tablet games kids might already be familiar with, like Candy Crush (do kids still play that?). But unlike its fast-paced touchscreen counterparts, Rush Hour encourages a methodical approach to problem solving that rewards planning over reaction speed.

This is also the age when kids start to think about what their dream jobs are. Bravery is a quarterly magazine that does its part to address the fact that some kids are encouraged to dream bigger than others. Each issue is dedicated to a female role model that little girls can aspire to emulate. Past issues have featured Jane Goodall, Frida Kahlo, Temple Grandin, and Amelia Earhart. Between the inspirations to dream big are fun DIY projects, suggestions for activities, coloring pages, and profiles of other kids who are brave for all kinds of reasons.

For the mechanically inclined, Magna-Tiles offer a more futuristic take on Erector sets, and they are as easy to clean up as they are fun to build with. The plastic tiles click together with built-in magnets, letting kids make free-form structures that go way beyond the typical block tower or castle. The magnets are a boon for parents, too. “They just pop against one another, so you don’t really have to individually pick each one up (this is huge for anyone used to picking up Legos),” Doug Mahoney says. And senior editor Harry Sawyers admits, “I’ve actually caught myself playing with these while I’m ‘cleaning up’ after the kids go to bed.”