gift ideas for kids!
ages 0-7 because that's our area of expertise!
Publications are always announcing “THE HOT TOYS OF 2025!!!” this time of year, and I am here to say — screw that! I don’t want to hear about new toys that haven’t been vetted yet! So here are our tried-and-true gifts that have served our children well from 2019 to 2025. The gifts that have staying power and haven’t wound up broken, in the trash, or donated. The things I’ve gone on to gift to other kids because my four boys (ages 4 months through almost 7 years old) love them so much!
When you give a gift to a baby, you’re really just giving a gift to that baby’s parents, that they can utilize on the baby, ya know? So make it something that the parent will be excited to receive! Here are some faves that I’ve loved receiving and have gifted many times.
My children and I are equally obsessed with Lovevery’s play kits, aka their age-specific, developmentally appropriate toy sets. Their toys are made with baby-safe materials and are built to last — Tavish is now starting to play with the Lovevery toys we got Calum when he was a baby! You could gift a baby a one-off play kit or choose a subscription so that a new kit arrives every other month (you can cancel at any time). I suggest a Lovevery subscription to all new parents who are starting a toy collection from scratch!
A very special, hand-painted piggy bank from a female-founded company in Kentucky! Tavish received one of these and I treasure it. He will, too, someday! Personalized piggies have an eight-week lead time, so you might have to gift a wrapped-up photo of it and tell them it’s on the way.
I love gifting these super-soft, beautiful monogrammed pillows to new babies as pretty nursery decor (and for later use), or to toddlers who are actually starting to sleep with a pillow.
Oso & Me personalized baby-stuff bags! I keep mine packed with diapers and wipes and throw it into whatever bag I’m already using. No diaper bag for me. Use code OSOCARO15 for 15% off.
This Petal the Label pointelle set is my favorite baby outfit of all time. It’s so precious, easy to put on, and the hat makes them look like a little woodland elf — ideal. It’s a mom-founded company! Use code CARO10 for 10% off.
A subscription to My Pediatrician Friend! Real pediatricians (who are also moms) available via text when you need them — aka, the perfect gift for a new parent wondering what every single hiccup, bright green poop, or rashy cheek means. The founders are What To Cookers so I asked if they wanted to share a special with all of you — click here to gift someone four months of unlimited texting with MPF docs for $85 (it’s usually $99)!
Blueberry Hill (another mom-founded company!) sweaters are one of my favorite gifts to give and receive. I adore the classic and the strawberry cardigans, but you can’t go wrong with any of ‘em.
Name trains are so sweet on a nursery shelf.
A “baby’s first Christmas” ornament is such a sweet gift — I love this one that’s hand-painted by a female artist. Or, get them an ornament depicting whatever they were for Halloween that year and make it an annual tradition.
Our favorite books for babies:
A People Board Book starring all of their special people! This will become their favorite bedtime book — it’s especially great if they have long-distance family members who they don’t get to see all the time.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear with the push flaps!
Moving up to the toddlers! Things are getting physical (socks and shoes! a play mat!) and imaginative (a beautiful heirloom dollhouse! a play kitchen!) in this gift guide. Plus, a free gift that I hope our parents will do for our kids!
Earlier this year, Jillian from What to Cook shared the cutest socks to ever exist, and I immediately got them for my boys. They love them so much — they only ever want to wear their produce socks! I love a gift that’s both practical and fun, and these check both boxes. I also just love Bombas in general — they make superior socks that hold up forever. And for every item purchased, they donate an essential clothing item to someone in need (with over 150 million products donated so far!). PS, they make the fruit and veggie socks for older kids, too. PPS, I’m getting these animal ones for my boys for Christmas!
Free gift idea: A bedtime book recording would be such a thoughtful present for a kid who isn’t your own. Record a video of yourself reading a favorite book or two so they can listen to your voice and see you! My kids absolutely love when people send them happy birthday videos — they watch them over and over. Having a five-minute video of one of their favorite people reading to them would be such a loving gift. It will be a big file so you might need to upload it to YouTube to share it (it’s easy to start a free account!).
There’s no joy quite like gifting a 3-year-old a pair of ”glow up” alien Vans. Love these sharky ones, too. Be sure to charge them up (aka put them on top of a lamp) before gifting for immediate fun.
One of the best parts about the Lalo play kitchen is how absurdly easy it is to assemble. They really had parents in mind with this one! All of my kids have loved playing pretend cooking between the ages of 18 months and 4 years, but even the older guys still get in there occasionally!
Cardboard coloring playhouses are the hugest hit with kids of all ages. If you’re hosting a holiday event or family for the holidays, consider grabbing one of these for the kids to doodle on and play in all night. It also has a big WOW factor on Christmas morning! There’s a firehouse, a barn, dinosaur, gingerbread house, and many others. Don’t forget a fresh set of markers to go with it!
I can’t explain it but this tumbling mat has magical, shapeshifting imagination powers. Sometimes it’s the secret passageway to a fort. Sometimes it’s a wrestling mat. Sometimes it’s the only safe zone in a game of the floor is lava. My bigger kids still love this and play with it constantly, but it would be a great gift for a kid as young as 1!
Free gift idea: A personalized coloring book! This one is great for all ages but I had to stick it somewhere. I cannot wait to do this for my kids! Go to chatgpt.com. Upload a pic of your kid to the chat. Use this prompt: “make a coloring book-style photo of the kid in the photo I uploaded doing ________”. To get the photo seen above, I said “… taking his DJ Marshmello mask off and revealing his identity to the crowd. Also put some dinosaurs in the audience.” Think of the most absurd, niche things that your kid will love. I’m obviously going to do one of my turtle-obsessed son riding a turtle. I’ll do one of my 3-year-old feeding oatmeal (fave food) to his gigantic teddy bear (fave person). If you are using a free account you’ll only get to do one or two of these a day, FYI, so it might be worth a one-month membership just to do this. Print them out and stick them in an envelope or binder. They will lose their minds over this.
A wooden dollhouse is such a special gift. It’s pricey, but it’s an heirloom toy that will last for generations — I’m so jealous of my friends whose parents kept their wooden toys and passed them down to their grandkids! All of the furniture is sold separately, so it would be fun to gift them new pieces for birthdays and holidays to come.
A Toniebox — a screen-free speaker that plays songs, stories, and audiobooks — will never not be on our list for kids this age. All of our children have loved their Tonies, starting at age 1 and up. Truly the gift that keeps on giving — you can get them new Tonie characters (each holds a set of stories or songs) for every holiday depending on what they’re into at the moment — Paw Patrol, the Grinch, the Gruffalo, etc. We all have and love the simplicity of the first-generation model, but they recently released a new model that has some extra bells and whistles like an alarm clock and low-fi games, if ya want them!
Fave books for this age:
For the 5 to 7 crowd, a little low-fi technology is entering the gift guides! But we’re still keeping things crafty with a few amazing art sets, and going hard on all things related to reading. I’ve also included the holiday mugs my kids can’t wait for me to unpack because it means hot chocolate season has begun, a gift that will grow with the child (and feed the family!), a cool hoodie because hoodies are life for my 5- and 7-year-olds, and the grabber they’ve played with every single day for months.
I’m so excited to gift a Kindle Fire to my 7-year-old and introduce him to the wonders of the Libby app!!!
This marble run is so fun and breathes new life into the MagnaTiles they’ve loved for ages.
Give them a fruit tree! We took Calum to the nursery near our house and let him pick out any fruit tree he wanted for his 5th birthday. He LOVED picking it out, planting it, and now checks on it daily. He picked a pomegranate tree :)
I have a feeling that the Tin Can Phone will be on every gift guide this year, but we can’t not include it since we’re getting it for our own kids! They’re old-school phones to get kids off screens and back to conversations with their friends. All of my kids’ cousins, and many of their friends, are getting them, so they can all chat! This is one of the only items on all of these gift guides that isn’t personally vetted, but I feel good about it!
We’ve gifted this personalized ultimate bead kit to many crafty boys and girls. The beads are great and it’s well organized unlike MANY bead kits.
Gifting your children silly holiday mugs this month or in early December will bring you all so much joy. Don’t forget the hot chocolate!
The Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes is absolutely epic — all of our boys are obsessed with this one.
A jumbo coloring set and an enormous roll of white paper — oh, the possibilities!
Just trust me on this one: Get them this grabber. My kids can entertain themselves around the yard for hours with a grabber! Yes I realize it’s marketed towards a geriatric audience — just trust!
A fun, loud hoodie set — my big boys are obsessed with their Lewis gator sweats here and here, and my 3-year-old has the tiger crew neck set. Use code CARO15 for 15% off.
Rounding up favorite books for this age is tricky since it spans before and while they’re learning to read, and, for some, when they’re entering *voracious reader* stage, but here are our kids’ tried-and-trues:
My 5-year-old LOVES Where’s Waldo. Dog Man books are also great for reading together, encouraging early reading — they were my older son’s first book-love — and just flipping through, since they’re graphic novels.
My almost 7-year-old loves these series: The Last Kids on Earth, Who Was…, What Was…, and the I Survived series (warning: some of those are about very big topics!).
Molly from What To Cook’s 7-year-old is obsessed with Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Mattis is constantly teaching me new things he learned in The First Big Book of Why.
For a more active nightly ritual, my big boys LOVE “journaling.” I got Mattis a One Question A Day journal (good for when they can read and write) and Calum a Quiet Your Mind journal — it’s a really nice way to get them talking about their day, what they’re grateful for, etc.
Also FYI, Tonies offers audiobooks now! They have beloved series like Magic Treehouse, Big Nate, Amelia Bedelia, and Junie B. Jones.
A few more child-related gifting notes:
Our friend Kate Strickler shared a reel putting a call out for ways to turn experiential gifts into something that kids can also unwrap — as in great gift ideas for when you don’t need any more stuff — and the ideas in the comments section are already SO good.
If you’re shopping for a dog baby, check out these gorgeous dog beds from a woman-owned small biz.
We want to hear your favorite gifts with staying power — for kids these ages and the 8 and older crowd, too.
If you’re able, consider finding a local Boys and Girls Club of America and seeing if they are doing an “adopt a family” program. We “adopted” a 16, 5, and 2-year-old (all boys!) and I cannot wait to take Calum and Mattis shopping for them and teach them the reason for the season.
That’s all for today! We’ll be back tomorrow with gifts for guys, cozy gifts, and $50-or-under gifts for your girlfriends.
Need dinner inspiration for tonight? Our recipe index has you covered.
For folks’ consideration, we have a Yoto player rather than a Toniebox and I think it ages up better. Tonies seems geared toward younger pre-reader and early-reader kids, but Yoto has something for everyone — it’s the same concept of screen-free audio, but it uses cards (like a hotel key) that they pop in the top and you just put a sticker on it for the pre-readers to find what they’re looking for. I’m not sure whether Tonies has the same stuff, but Yoto also has tons of podcasts, audiobooks, music and a way to make your own cards where you can record anything you want. I’ve had grandparents record themselves reading favorite stories and it’s been a huge hit! My 10-year-old still uses hers everyday as an alarm clock and also for podcasts and to listen to Taylor Swift albums we have loaded up for her!
My kids are on the older end of this list and above (ages 6 and 10) and we live way out in the country AND it snows here a ton in the winter. So, some favorites for my fellow frozen country bumpkins! ;)
- kid sized snow shovels. My kids love to shovel snow and far be it from me to stop them! Get them shovels that are scaled for them.
- the LL Bean snow tubes: $130 for a snow tube sounds insane, but these things are awesome and you'll be passing them down to your grandchildren to sled on. After you've popped one too many crummy $20 snow tube, spring for the LL Bean version. It is called the "sonic snow tube" on their website.
- walkie talkies! Endless good times. We all have code names.
- Ravensburger brand puzzles. They have great puzzles for all ages!
- .... and my last one is a bit of a wild card, but I'll say it - chickens! You don't need a ton of space, or some fancy set up to get chickens. My kids have had and handled chickens since they were about 3 years old and they are so fun. They love taking care of their hens, collecting eggs, feeding them kitchen scraps and enjoying their weird chicken antics. If you do get them, don't get just one, they need a friend. At least 2, and maybe 3 hens. Things happen to chickens and then you'll have a backup chicken buddy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯