34 Cool Gift Ideas For Kids That Santa May Want To Start Perusing Now
The good kids’ toys never make it to Christmas week. Every year there is a sell-out list forming by Halloween, and the parents who got there first are the ones who started while everyone else was still buying pumpkins. So consider this your head start: a shelf-by-shelf tour of the gift ideas worth perusing now, from stocking fillers to the big box under the tree.
Every pick below was checked against its actual product listing, and two toys from the original roundup were dropped because they could not be properly matched — what remains are gifts you can genuinely find and order. (And if your mornings need rescuing before the holidays even start, my list of products that make family mornings run smoother is the parenting cheat sheet I keep recommending.)
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1. Magic Jellykins Surprise Box
Some gifts give up their secret before the wrapping is even off — this one keeps it until bath time. Each Magic Jellykins box hides a three-inch food-themed plush character that is revealed with water, and with 20 styles to collect, even you will not know which one is inside until the big reveal. It is a true blind box, so treat it as a surprise for the giver as much as the receiver.
2. Nex Playground Active Play System
The Nex Playground turns the living-room TV into a motion-controlled playground: a small camera-powered console reads the players’ movements, so kids jump, duck and dance their way through active games instead of sitting still with a controller. It is one of the rare screen-time gifts parents feel genuinely good about — just note that a subscription pass unlocks the wider games library.
3. National Geographic Glow-In-The-Dark Crocodile Dissection Kit
For the kid who asks how everything works on the inside: a gooey, glow-in-the-dark crocodile model they dissect to uncover 16 bones and 6 organs hidden in the gel. It delivers all the fascination of a dissection lab with none of the formaldehyde, and a refill pack is included so the experiment can be run more than once.
4. Play-Doh Barbie Ruffles And Bows Set
Part modelling compound, part fashion studio. The Ruffles and Bows set lets kids press and mould Play-Doh into dresses and outfits, finishing the looks with the nine fashion accessories in the box. It is a natural pick for a child who is equally split between craft table and dress-up corner.
5. The Crunchinator By CrunchLabs
From Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs comes a build-it-yourself crushing machine, made for the ages 8–13 crowd that would rather test a toy to destruction than play with it gently. Kids assemble the Crunchinator, then run experiments on what it can squash — engineering principles smuggled inside the most satisfying cause-and-effect in the gift guide.
6. LEGO Snowman Ornaments Kit (40812)
A small box with a long life: 168 pieces that build two snowman ornaments, ready to hang on the tree. It works as a stocking filler, a pre-Christmas build to do together, or the start of a family tradition — one new brick ornament on the tree every year.
7. Hape Dynamic Pixel Piano
A first piano for the littlest musicians (12 months and up). The Pixel Piano’s keys light up with colourful pixel animations as toddlers tap them, connecting cause, effect and sound long before anyone is ready for lessons. Sturdy, cheerful and mercifully simple — a toddler toy with a longer attention span than most.
8. MGA’s Miniverse Real Music Record Player — Mini Collectible
One for the older kids and miniature collectors: a tiny, detailed record-player set from MGA’s Miniverse line, this edition themed around Beethoven. Be clear about the charm — it is a miniature collectible for display and play scenes, not a working full-size turntable, and that dollhouse scale is exactly what Miniverse fans collect.
9. A Washable Hair Chalk Set (10 Pieces)
Ten sticks of temporary hair colour that wash straight out with shampoo — the whole thrill of rainbow hair with a school-night-friendly exit plan. It is a brilliant gift for kids in their experimental phase and for parents who have learned to pick their battles: this one ends at the next hair wash.
10. Bitzee KPop Demon Hunters Interactive Digital Pet
Bitzee’s pocket digital pets react to touch, tilting and shaking — no flat screen, just a flexible display you can actually pat. This edition is themed on the hit animated film KPop Demon Hunters and packs in 13 characters to unlock and care for, making it an easy win for any young fan of the movie.
11. Super Mario Yoshi Egg Playset (9-Inch)
A nine-inch Yoshi egg that opens up into a playset, arriving with a 1.5-inch Yoshi figure and an exclusive Fire Mario figure. Tied to the Super Mario Galaxy movie line, it splits the difference between display piece and play toy — the egg looks great on a shelf, and opens into a scene when playtime starts.
12. Fisher-Price Little People My Mario Adventure Playset
Mario, sized for toddlers. Fisher-Price’s Little People take on the Mushroom Kingdom is built for ages 18 months and up, with one chunky Mario figure and an accessory in the box — all rounded edges and easy grips, none of the small parts that make the bigger-kid sets off-limits to the nursery.
13. Melissa & Doug Cheery Lane Play House Set
Cheery Lane is a modular play house that comes with toy figures and a car, and rearranges as your child’s stories demand. Melissa & Doug’s wooden-toy build quality is the quiet selling point here: this is the kind of set that gets handed down rather than thrown out when the first owner outgrows it.
14. HEX BOTS Explodapede Robotic Centipede
A remote-control robotic centipede that slithers and scuttles with pleasingly creepy realism. The Explodapede is the gift for the kid who has outgrown cute and moved on to fascinatingly gross — expect it to be deployed against unsuspecting relatives within the hour.
15. Toyk Dinosaur World Road Race Track Set
A flexible dinosaur race track that kids build themselves — bend the pieces into hills, curves and crossings, then send the two dinosaur cars racing around their own prehistoric world. One practical note for the gift-giver: the cars run on AA batteries, which are not included, so slip a pack into the gift bag.
16. Bluey XL House Playset
Seventeen inches tall, three levels, lights, sounds and a dance floor — the XL House is the definitive Bluey playset. It plays more than 50 phrases and comes with four figures, including Bluey and Bingo, so the Heeler house is fully staffed from the moment the wrapping comes off. For a devoted Bluey fan, this is the big one.
17. A Weighted, Microwavable Highland Cow Plush
Part cuddly toy, part comfort blanket with a job: this Highland cow plush is weighted (about 1.65 lb) and microwavable, so it warms up into a soothing, huggable heat pack for bedtime, sore tummies and dramatic days. At just under ten inches, it is sized for small arms to carry everywhere.
18. A Butter Stick Squishy Toy
It looks like a stick of butter. It squishes like a dream. This slow-rising squeeze toy is the stocking-filler joke gift that somehow becomes a permanent desk and backpack resident — oddly satisfying to squish, weirdly hard to put down, and guaranteed to confuse at least one grandparent.
19. Pokémon Pikachu Puppetronic By RealFX
A puppet with animatronic soul: Jazwares’ RealFX Pikachu Puppetronic puts the most famous Pokémon on your child’s hand as an interactive plush puppet that responds as they play. It lands right between cuddly toy and performance prop — expect shows to be staged for the whole family by Boxing Day.
20. Drop Stick Challenge Game
A pure reflex test: sticks release without warning and the player has to snatch them out of the air before they fall. Three adjustable speed modes let it grow with your child’s reactions — or humble the adults, which is honestly half the fun at family gatherings.
21. Fat Brain Toys Air Toobz
Air Toobz turns airflow into a building toy: connect the tubes, switch on the fan, and watch foam balls whoosh around the circuit your child designed. It is genuine STEM play — cause, effect and endless re-engineering — from Fat Brain Toys, a brand that rarely misses with this age group.
22. A Wooden Play Kitchen
The evergreen big gift. A sturdy wooden play kitchen gives pretend cooking a proper stage — burners to mind, meals to invent, and a café that will serve you plastic soup with total seriousness for years. Wooden sets earn their keep: they survive siblings, cousins and the occasional move to the garden.
23. DIY Balloon Animal Kit
A party trick in a box. This kit sets a young twister up to learn balloon animals — dogs, swords, the occasional ambitious giraffe. It is the rare gift that is also a skill: by the next birthday party in the family, your child may be the entertainment.
24. Fairy Magic Potion Kit (22 Pieces)
Twenty-two potion bottles and pieces for mixing pretend fairy brews — coloured water, petals, glitter and imagination, bottled and labelled like a proper apothecary. It is open-ended, slightly messy, magical-feeling play, and the bottles make the results worth keeping on a shelf.
25. Cra-Z-Art Disney Crystal Surprise Figures
Each Crystal Surprise pack hides a mini Disney crystal figure inside an activity compound, so the unboxing is half excavation, half reveal. Series 1 figures make it a collectible start point — an affordable stocking gift with genuine suspense built in. (This listing is for a single pack.)
26. Craft-tastic Make A Fox Friend Sewing Kit
A first sewing project with a friend at the end of it: kids stitch their own fox stuffie, then dress it with the clothes and accessories included. The Craft-tastic kit keeps the steps achievable for beginners, and the finished fox carries that unbeatable ‘I made this’ premium.
27. Klutz LEGO Chain Reactions Kit
Part book, part building kit: LEGO Chain Reactions teaches kids to build ten moving machines — the kind that tip, roll and trigger the next step in line. The kit includes some LEGO pieces, and the builds also draw on bricks from your child’s own collection, which makes it a great extender for a tub of LEGO that has already been built every official way.
28. GeoSafari Kidnoculars By Educational Insights
Real, working binoculars designed for kids — GeoSafari’s Kidnoculars are sized for small faces and hands, so young birdwatchers and backyard explorers can actually use them. One of those gifts that quietly changes walks: everything at the park becomes worth a closer look.
29. SmartLab Toys TINY Baking Set
Baking, but miniature: the TINY Baking set comes with 20 tiny recipes and the little tools to make genuinely small treats. It appeals to the exact overlap of kids who love cooking shows and kids who love dollhouse scale — which, in practice, is a very large overlap.
30. Silly Poopy’s Hide & Seek Game
Hide-and-seek, upgraded with sound effects. One player hides Silly Poopy somewhere in the house; the seekers hunt it down, helped by the silly sounds it makes. It is daft, active and entirely screen-free — and it reliably produces the kind of family noise that becomes a Christmas memory.
31. Marble Genius Marble Run Super Set
The Super Set packs 150 translucent pieces for building towers, drops and spirals, then racing marbles through them. Marble runs are engineering in its most honest form — build, test, watch it fail, improve — and 150 pieces is enough for genuinely ambitious constructions.
32. Magic Water Gel Art Kit (10 Gels, 6 Molds)
Squeeze coloured gel into water using the six molds, and it sets into squishy little water creatures — part art project, part small science miracle. With 10 gels in the box there is enough material for a proper first session of experimenting, and the finished elves double as bath and sensory-play toys.
33. Threeking 1:16 Waterproof Monster Truck (RC)
A 1:16 scale, four-wheel-drive monster truck that does not stop at puddles: it is waterproof and amphibious, driving through water as happily as over the garden. For the kid whose RC toys keep dying heroic deaths, this one is built to survive its own lifestyle.
34. Squad Hero Rechargeable Laser Tag — Set Of 4
A complete backyard battle in one box: four rechargeable blasters and four vests, with 360-degree sensors and LCD screens keeping score. Squad Hero’s set is the group gift that organises Christmas afternoon by itself — teams form, rules are argued about, and the rematch cycle begins.
That is the list — 34 gifts that earn their wrapping paper, from a two-dollar-laugh butter squishy to a full laser-tag arena. Order the likely sell-outs first, hide them well, and enjoy being the person who was ready this year. Shopping for a brand-new parent too? My roundup of 27 things first-time parents will be glad they grabbed pairs perfectly with anything on this list.
