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We all love getting ahead of the game when it comes to holiday prep. If you’re looking to do some early Christmas shopping, just choose a few of these winners from our carefully curated list of Christmas gifts for kids.
I spoke with people on the ground (kids) about what’s new, wanted, and popular, and the answers are telling. Kids are amped about all things Inside Out, but they’re also really into karaoke, gaming, and pretend play. Crafting is seeing a big tick-up, with kids wanting tie-dye kits and fun coloring sets. And for teens, things like Nike Air Force Ones are a hot item they will love.
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From imaginative-play toys like the Ada Twist Kit that encourage your kids to step away from their screens and get immersed into a new, magical world, to classic throwback toys created with an all-new audience in mind, we found all of the toys and games that your kid will want to get their hands on this year. Here are the best Christmas gifts for kids in 2024 that we guarantee they’ll love to play with (and will make you wish you were a kid again!).
Snow Cone and Shaved Ice Machine
Help your kiddos make shaved ice, snow cones, snowballs, slushies — and margaritas for the parents — with this Hawaiian Shaved Ice machine! It’s easy to clean, small enough to fit under your kitchen cabinet, and makes the most delicious cold desserts.
More: Kids Want Their Stockings Stuffed With the Coolest Toys
Space Projector
Planetarium projectors are not all equal. Discovery Kids proves that with their Space Projector. On top, it’s a space projector, similar to many others. But what makes it stand out is the viewer on the bottom, which has three different sets of slides that project images like planets, constellations, and galaxies. This gift for kids doubles as an interactive STEAM experience and a nightlight.
Large Truck Engine Toy
There’s something really cool about being able to take apart and put an engine back together again, and iPlay, iLearn has figured out how to distill that into the easiest-to-use toy with this truck engine. It comes with the front end of a truck, engine parts, and tools — and kids absolutely love getting to work on it!
Water Marbling Paint for Kids
Even if you’ve never heard of water marbling, I guarantee your kids have seen videos of people marbling everything from iPhone cases to Nikes. It’s a popular art form online, and kids are aching to learn how to do it. Indulge that desire with this all-inclusive kit from Coodoo.
Volcano Bean Bag Toss Game for Kids
I got to play this game, and I can tell you that it is really fun. Imagine if you could make cornhole less like a chore and into an actual game you and your kids will want to play — that's this game. Similar properties, 100% more volcanic eruptions of laughter.
Long Cat Plush Black Body Pillow
Axolotl amphibians are really having a moment — kids are super clued into their cuteness and darling personalities. However, not everyone has the space or patience to take care of one. The solution? Axolotl accessories for the win, like this adorable 28-inch long axolotl body pillow. All the cuteness of the animal, none of the responsibilities.
Pottery Wheel for Kids
The delight this brings to children is straight-up off the charts. It’s a real pottery wheel set that even young children can use and understand. It comes with everything they need to start throwing pots and bowls. And I wouldn’t be lying if I told you that I am as into this toy as the kids.
Artie 3000 The Coding Robot
Artie 3000 is a friendly little robot that allows your kids to draw program-specific design patterns using intuitive drag-and-drop software. This gift for kids doesn’t even require Wi-Fi to create super cool designs.
Celebration Slime Kit
I’ve made a ton of slime in the past few years, and this kit is the easiest, best, and most exciting slime kit. It’s also the easiest to clean up, as it's reasonably water-soluble. Anyone who has tried to get slime out of fabric knows how important that is. Plus, look at all those sparkles that are already contained and not all over your floor!
Lite-Brite Ultimate Classic Retro Toy
Parents, raise your hand if you owned a Lite-Brite or wanted to as a kid. This classic toy will bring back all of the feels when you watch your kiddo play with it.
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This throwback toy has gotten a few major upgrades. With a bigger and brighter screen and more pegs, your kiddo will spend hours creating different sparkling designs.
Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition (32 GB)
Amazon’s first full-color paperwhite-style Kindle does not disappoint. Kids who love to read will be bowled over by the clarity of the colors and pages combined with the ability to read in any light condition. It’s perfect for the kid who always has a book in their hand but is running out of shelf space.
Mystery Hatch Pufficorn, Surprise Interactive Toy & Egg
Hatchimals has upped their game this year when they debuted the Hatchimals Alive doll. It's one of two magical creatures that your child has to "hatch" into existence with specific patterns of egg nurturing and rubbing. It then emits a fun mist, shakes and coos, and out pops your unicorn! When he's tired, just put him back in his nest for rest.
Poe the AI Story Bear
Poe is our 2024 Toy of the Year winner. It's a storytelling teddy bear that delights children with its increasingly ridiculous stories. Maybe you want a monkey to rescue a princess from a chef's kitchen! Maybe you want to rescue a dragon from the tower! Poe will do just that. And don't worry, it's a completely closed system.
2024 Player's Handbook (D&D Core Rulebook)
Hear me out: DnD has never been cooler. I swear I'm not making that up just because I play. Whole cafes have been popping up designed for playing. There's an Off-Broadway DnD show. Critical Role — a YouTube DnD campaign series is one of the most-watched channels! Get your little nerdling their very own 2024 Player's Handbook. It's gorgeous, easy to follow, and a fab entrypoint to the game.
Wireless Charging DND Dice Set, Light Up Dice
And if you're going to get them the Player's Guide, you may as well get them some super cool dice to go along with it. This set is rechargeable LED dice with all six that you need to play!
Nappling
For kids preschool and up, sleeping can be really hard. One way to help them is a weighted blanket. The sensory input can really change the way they relax at night or at nap time. (We use this very model with our own kids!)
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The Bearaby Nappling is a lightly-weighted blanket that never splits, has the softest cover, and is actually really gorgeous in person.
Tangram Puzzles Kids Play Couch
At the cross-section of puzzles and pretend play lives the tangram puzzles couch. It takes the idea of a play couch and turns it up a notch, including shape play with it. Kids can create any number of fun shapes and play areas with the set and at the end of the day, it all fits back in its soft cube that could double as a ball pit.
Sesame Street Chicken Dance Elmo
One of our 2024 Toy of the Year winners, Chicken Dance Elmo will be the hit of your house. He’s 100% ridiculous, and that’s the best thing about him. When you squeeze his belly, he sings, “Elmo wants to be a chicken. Elmo wants to be a duck, cluck cluck cluck cluck!” while dancing. It’s so silly and wonderful.
Custom Neon Signs
With surprisingly fast delivery, you can get the kid on your list a fab custom neon name sign. Just fill out the form on Amazon, pick the color, and you’re off to the races. It’s a sweet gift with a big impact.
Quest 3S 128GB
So your kid wants a VR system, but you took one look at the price and your insides turned to jelly? Been there. Then Meta made the Quest 3S, a more affordable model for everyday fun. It still has all the games you want, with access to videos, music, and more, but at a much lower price point. Plus, when you buy it, you get 3 years of the premium subscription for free.
Classic Medium Creative Brick Box
This is really the gift of imagination. A huge box of all different sizes of Lego, ready to build their own world — or just a bunch of square buildings like we did as kids. Get your little brickhead all they need to start their obsession.
Stealth Strike Big Cat Beast Creato
Moose Toys makes some of the most innovative toys every year — and their unique cauldrons, genie bottles, and crystal balls have all been huge hits. This year, they’re getting into a more monstrous angle with the beast lab creator. With this gift, your kids can pour in the ingredients, follow the directions, and then poof! The liquid swirls, lights up, and the beast magically appears — but there's more! That beast goes into beast mode, and you’ll have to work to calm him. The best part? You can do it over and over again.
Bean Bag Chair
A right of childhood should be the ability to fling oneself angrily or happily into a bean bag chair and gossip with your friends. I did it, you likely did it, and both of my kids have done it. It's the perfect place to land as a kid in need of a good game or chat sesh.
Don’t Step In It Game: Unicorn Edition
Do your best to avoid the pile of number two (while blindfolded!), and you might be number one. Roll out the game mat and use the spinner to determine how many piles of magic unicorn poo will be placed on the mat. You can laugh, talk, jump, walk, or run as you make your way — but whatever you do, don't step in it.
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P.S. This toy's availability fluctuates, so do your best to snag it when you can!
Baked Treatz Oven
Have you ever wanted to bake up a new BFF? Moose Toys lets you do just that with the Cookeez Makery. Just mix up the batter, put it in the oven, watch the oven work, and out pops a new, plush best friend. It's simply magical.
Amazing Science Book
Embrace your child's inner Hank Green with this book from Good Housekeeping. This gift gives instructions for 83 different hands-on S.T.E.A.M.-based science experiments for maximum enjoyment, learning, and discovery for kids ages 8 to 12.
The directions are easy to follow, and most can be done with stuff you already have around the house.
Goaldozer Electronic Soccer Game
If you want your child to get active indoors, have a ton of fun, and not damage your house, let me introduce you to Goaldozer. The Goal (Dozer) moves around, pushing the ball back to your child and keeps score. It spins around and lights up, making goal noises and encouraging your little one. Best for ages 3 and older.
Space Astronaut Pop Up Tent
Far and away, one of the best-received gifts I've given in the past year, this rocket ship play tunnel is a blast for the kids and a boon for the parents who need a little bit of time to chill out on their own.
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It has survived not only the toddlers who play with it, but also their two gigantic Leonberger dog companions (and, TBH, it's hard to tell if the kids or the dogs have more fun on this pop-up tunnel and tent).
Search Party: Chaos at the Park
Want to get a little cutthroat on your average school night but in a good way? Buy this game for your kid for the holiday season. It's a search game (in 3D!) that has you on missions, working cooperatively through sets of clues to determine what it is exactly that's causing all the chaos.
RipRider 360 Caster Trike
Imagine the Big Wheels of your childhood, but make it a lot more durable and give it the ability to drift. Great for kids aged 5 and up, this is one of the most-fun ride-on toys you've ever seen. It gives kids so much control over their ride but still gives that element of surprise — just don't forget to grab a helmet to go with it!
Fashion Plates All-in-One Studio Sketch Design Set
Barbie and all her friends are back and better than ever with the blockbuster movie's release in 2023 — but there's more Barbie merch than anyone could handle picking through.
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These fashion plates are one of my favorites and one of the best gifts for kids. They’re just like the fashion plates of the ’90s, but updated for Barbie of the twenty-first century. Plus, the pencils are more pigmented, the paper is better, and the outfits are updated.
Big Adventures Metal Detector Mining Truck
This is one of the coolest truck toys I've seen recently. It comes with a real metal detector, a rock tumbler, a water tank, two shovels, and the truck itself. I couldn't pry this away from my testers.
Paint by Numbers Kits for Kids
This gift lets their creativity shine with this paint-by-numbers kit. Each area is marked and numbered to match the paint with the coordinating number.
On-The-Go Lab Set
The wildly popular show and book “Ada Twist, Scientist” comes alive with her very own science on-the-go kit that looks just like the one from the series.
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The carrying case includes the perfect gift for a budding scientist: the case itself, goggles, a beaker, a flask, three test tubes, a removable ruler, a working scale, an eye dropper, a funnel, a double-sided measuring spoon, six experiment cards, and three sticker sheets! Encouraging STEM learning has never been easier!
DJ Mix & Spin Studio Musical Toy
This fun gift will teach your kid the power of being a DJ. Who knows, maybe you'll wake up one day and your kid has overtaken Marshmello, and they're doing a TikTok remix.
Heroes and Villains Optimus Prime and Megatron
With the latest show, we once again find ourselves in a world awash in all things Transformers. This two-toy set is one of the most entertaining gifts I've played with lately!
Portable Karaoke Machine
Get singing, parents! Or maybe just the kids. The Singing Machine karaoke machine is super easy to operate, even for the youngest performers. You can download songs via USB port, play via Bluetooth or plug-in, and control the voice effects via buttons on the front of the machine.
Hello Kitty Mini Collectible Stationery Set
You may not know this, but Hello Kitty is bigger than ever. (JK. If you have kids, you definitely know this.) This stationery set is pretty much the cutest kit we've seen in 2024, and that's saying something. It comes with a huge amount of goodies, from pens to paper to stickers and tape!
Disney “Inside Out 2” Mood Cubes
If you've seen the film, you know how crucial Anxiety is. If you live inside my head, you know how huge a role she plays in everyday life. Why not have a little fun with the torturous demon by putting them in Lego Dot form on cool blocks?
Indoor Family Game Night
Picture this: If the Wii Fit (remember her) had a baby with “Dance Dance Revolution” and made it just for kids, you'd get the Nex Playground. It's a video game that encourages movement by using AI and a camera to track your child's gameplay and make them do fun and often hilarious tasks.
Claw Machine for Kids
Have you ever seen anything cooler in your life? This is a full blown claw machine that comes with 20 different toys to pick up, and it's all entirely refillable. You could put darn near anything in there. I am tempted to buy one for my desk at work.
Ice Cream Treats Playset
Kinetic Sand is forever a popular toy, but this year, it's even better when you scent it and give the kids a waffle maker and ice cream accessories. Can you imagine anything they'd love more? We can't.
Dreamhouse
Of course this is going to be one of the hottest toys of the year. This Dream House is just like the Dream House/Mojo Dojo Casa House from the movie, with spiral slide, pool, and more.
Rainbow Set
If you want to have the time of your life with your children and provide hours of indoor active play for everyone, you'll want to get the Stapelstein balance set. Picture playing a game where you get to leap like a frog on a lilypad to a soft foam disk (with a nearly 400-pound weight limit) in any configuration you want.
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Words cannot describe how much our testers loved this set. It's fun for playing and jumping, it's fun for stacking, and it's kind of just nice to look at. This is an heirloom-quality toy for sure.
Artificial Ivy Garland
If you have a near tween, tween, or teen, you've probably already been asked for these. They're ivy garland pieces that kids hang like a curtain. You can even add some lights to these.
Every generation has their version of this. Boomers had bead curtains, millennials had inflatable furniture, and Gen Z has a lot of LED.
Portable Speaker with Bluetooth
Portable speakers are always a great option for kids. The JBL Go 3 is a great choice for a waterproof, affordable speaker with a lot of oomph and a bevy of fun colors.
Talent Babies
Blind and surprise toys are still huge and not all created equally. This one from Cry Babies? Our testers (kids aged 5 through 7) adored them. It's an affordable crying baby doll that cries real tears and comes with six or more surprises.
My Figures: Rescue Mission
Playmobil is a classic toy and all the sets are top-notch, but this totally customizable rescuer set is special. Kids can make over 1,000 customizations with the pieces given, and of course, they all go with the rest of the line.
Cync Dynamic Effects LED Smart Light Strip
Believe it or not, kids as young as 5 are obsessed with LED light strips. Having tested several of them, I can tell you Cync by GE is the best by a mile. They're easy to hang with self-stick strips, they're app-controlled, and they have the most light options of any of the LED strips.
Air Force 1 Low
My daughter, my son, and four of their friends ranging in age from 10 to 16 requested these shoes. Admittedly, I also asked for these shoes. They’re trendy and super comfortable, and their classic style helps them never go out of style — proving they’re as popular as they are for good reason.
Wooden Cool Scoops Ice Creamery Play Food Toy
When I first saw this before it came out, I was smitten. It's one of the highest-quality toys I've seen in a very long time. There are a ton of pieces to this ice cream pretend play toy, and each one more detailed than the last. This is an heirloom-quality toy.
Koola Short Boot
So a little one in your life wants Uggs, but their feet are still growing, and $200 boots don't make sense? Introducing Koolaburra by Ugg. They're less expensive, and every bit as comfortable. They're cute, cozy, and they make a great gift for kids.
Casa Azul Set
I wasn't sure how this toy was going to be received when I first saw it, because it looks a little complicated. Apparently, that was silly of me because the kids who tested this toy out didn't even need instructions — they figured out the flat-pack giant play pieces all on their own.
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They used the 25 pieces and joiners to make huts, towers, homes, and even a tunnel that they threaded colored lights through. Translation? It's a win.
Switch OLED Model
This is the gift that will be just as much for yourself as for your kids. Why, you ask? Because the Nintendo Switch makes for very quiet play, and when your kids go to bed, you can get on there and play Animal Crossing with your friends.
Yes, Tom Nook will try to absolutely con you out of your best produce, but it's worth it.
Mama Surprise
Quite possibly one of the most ridiculous toys you’ve ever seen, but also one of the most fun. The Little Live Pets Mama Surprise is a guinea pig toy that gives birth three separate times.
This gift for kids has over 20 reactions and sounds that are equally as silly as the actual toy. She comes in her own little enclosure. And you can even brush her hair with her little hairbrush.
As someone who has given birth a few times, I can tell you I’d have loved it if someone would have brushed my hair when I was in labor. It’s just so soothing.
Giant Snakes & Ladders Game
Honestly, we don't understand why chutes and ladders didn't have snakes to begin with — I mean, why not snakes?
All kidding aside, playing family board games with your children is a fun way to bond where no one is looking down at a device. This updated version of the classic game is tons of fun for everyone. It's quick-playing and easy for even really little kids, making it a huge win.
Volcano Expedition Base Camp With Dinosaur Toys
This set sells out quickly, and there's no doubt as to why. It takes the genuinely gorgeous and sturdy figurines from Schleich and combines them with an action-packed base camp. It has glowing lava rocks, explosive eruptions that make the ground quake with tremors, and very cool vapors.
Mega Bundle Home
We admit we love this show almost as much as our kids do. It’s actually funny, not just “kid” funny. The characters are so genuine and real, even if they are a family of blue heeler dogs who barbecue. This is a full set with barbecue and their home.
Adventure Rocket
One of the best toys from Little Tikes recently, the Adventure Rocket, is a true joy for children. Nearly 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide, this gift option is completely interactive. It has a telescope and command center. You can look out the porthole and see shooting stars, and you can play with the control panel.
There's just so much to do. Our testers have been wilding out over this one for weeks now — with the 2-year-old practically making camp in it.
Ultimate T-Rex Transporter
The Hot Wheels City Ultimate Hauler is a garage and toy all in one. It has toy storage for 20, but when you work the tail, it spits those cars out of the dinosaur's mouth. The dinosaur garage can also sit up and back for more dino fun.
I watched a trio of little boys go hog wild on this toy a few months ago, and I think the squeals are permanently marked on my brain for all eternity — so trust me when I say your kiddo will have a ball with this one.
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