Under each gift, you’ll see a note about which kids loved which gifts as I know not everything below would be a hit with kids of different ages. With boys ranging in age from 2 to 7 there are a variety of gifts listed below and you’ll find everything from crafty creations and stuffed animals to gifts we hope will encourage reading and the loungers our whole family loves!
Christmas Gifts for Kids: The Hits Two Months Later
Who loves it? Chase (7), Ryder (4) — Rhett (2) loves putting cars on the track and watching but cannot build new tracks on his own. Oh and our dog loves chasing the cars on this one, too. Ha!
This was an incredible Goodwill find! I bought a huge set of HotWheels motorized tracks for the boys for $7 and crossed my fingers they would work when we assembled them. As Ryan put the track together on Christmas Eve, we held our breath and were thrilled when they worked like a charm. We had the track set up for the kids to see right away and it elicited the best reaction! They flipped for this track set and continue to create new tracks and race courses regularly.
Who loves it? Chase (7), Ryder (4), Rhett (2)
We’ve had a Toniebox for the boys for a while now and knew we wanted to add to their collection at Christmas. When my mom asked for Christmas ideas, we suggested some new Tonies characters and she majorly delivered. The boys love listening to the stories from their favorite Tonies all the time and it’s been such a great quiet time and road trip activity. Ryder and Rhett will also often put on a Tonies story while they play quietly for background entertainment and Chase, our animal-loving kid, really likes the Wild Kratts Tonies. Quick tip: I highly recommend this carrying case I got for our Tonies off Amazon. It keeps everything together and it make everything perfectly portable so the boys can cart their Tonies all over the house, bring them on road trips, etc. etc.
Our boys’ favorite Tonies characters: All of the Paw Patrol characters (their original favorite), Super Wings (the biggest hit of Christmas!), Wild Kratts (Chris and Martin), Christmas Mickey Mouse, Hiccup (from How to Train Your Dragon), The Highway Rat
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Reading Light + Books
Who loves it? Chase (7)
I gave this idea to my sister when she was looking for ideas for Chase. It’s a gift he uses multiple times a week and absolutely loves! Since Chase and Ryder share a room and go to bed at the same time, sometimes Chase isn’t as tired as Ryder which makes sense since he’s three years older. We told him he can stay up and read quietly in bed with his new reading light as long as he waits 5-10 minutes for Ryder to fall asleep. Well, you know this has resulted in both boys in Chase’s bed giggling together on a number of occasions but, for the most part, it’s worked well to give Chase a quiet activity he can do in bed until he’s tired enough to fall asleep. This also triggers all kinds of nostalgia in me because I was an avid reader as a kid and loved using my little reading light in my room when it felt like the whole house was asleep.
Who loves it? Rhett (2)
I saw our ISR instructor share this toy on Instagram and she said it entertained her toddler for an HOUR straight. My interest was immediately piqued and when I messaged her about it, she said her little boy was totally enamored with it but she also praised it for being a great toy for motor skill development. (She’s also an occupational therapist.) Say no more! It ended up under the tree for Rhett this year and was easily one of his favorite gifts and one he continues to reach for daily.
Who loves it? Chase (7), Ryder (4) — Note: Ryder loves Perler Beads but still needs help with some of the more intricate designs. I’ve since ordered Biggie Beads for the boys as well and cannot recommend them enough for younger kids — see more details about them below!
Talk about the gift that keeps on giving! Chase fell in love with “melty beads” through an afterschool art club and when he opened a shark-themed perler beads kit from my parents for Christmas, he wanted to start working on them immediately. His love for his shark designs prompted me to buy the boys a big bucket of perler beads and I swear these things are my latest “mom hack” for getting things done around the house because they keep our big kids entertained for a loooong time! They’ll often listen to one of their Tonies or a children’s podcast while they work on their creations and they’ve been a huge hit.
Worth noting: We recently ordered Biggie Beads for the younger boys and I cannot recommend them enough!!! They’re much easier for little hands to manage and Ryder loves the fact that he can create some of the more intricate designs all on his own. They’re awesome! 10/10 recommended them for younger kids who might be frustrated by the tinier size of traditional melty beads!
Who loves it? Chase (7)
I still remember the bright red mini safe I had as a kid. It had a combination lock and I kept that little thing packed with secret treasures for years. Remembering this safe prompted me to order this electronic safe for Chase for Christmas this year. He’s always collecting little treasures and special things and I had a feeling he’d love it. Though I have a feeling one day he’ll use it to store money, right now it’s filled with some of his favorite nature discoveries and he loves having something private he can keep protected from his little brothers.
Who loves it? Ryder (4)
Ryder flipped for this gift! I had a feeling it would be a hit since Chase loved something similar at his age and it proved to be one of Ryder’s favorite gifts of Christmas. He currently uses it to store all kinds of kid treasures… you know, everything from rocks and marbles to coins and melty bead creations.
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Animal Stuffed Animals
Who loves it? Chase (7), Ryder (4)
If there’s one gift that’s sure to be a hit with our big kids, it’s an animal stuffed animal. They incorporate their animal stuffed animals into imagination games all the time. Animal rescue is one of their favorite imagination games to play and I cannot count the number of times I’ve been asked to visit their latest raptor rescue, reptile rescue, etc. This year, based on the boys’ love of Alaska Animal Rescue, we gave them a bald eagle (the number one item on Chase’s Christmas list) and a peregrine falcon I ordered off Amazon. I also ended up grabbing a couple of small stuffed animals from Goodwill (they’re $1-2)), washing them and adding them to their Christmas surprises. They were all huge hits!
Who loves it? Chase (7), Ryder (4), Rhett (2), Mom (37), Dad (39), Pepper (8ish months)
This was a big gift for the big kids from my parents! During a fall visit my mom saw me looking at these loungers online. When I told her I wanted to get them for Chase and Ryder’s room in the new house, she surprised me a month or so later and said she wanted to get them for the boys for Christmas. It was a very generous gift and we were thrilled but we truly had no idea just how big of a hit these loungers would become! The boys immediately thought they were super cool and the fact that they have not yet made it up to their room and remain front-and-center in our living room is a testament to how much our whole family is enjoying them. We have no plans to buy chairs for the living room anytime soon because these loungers fit our family’s way of life so well at the moment.
The quality is great and the large size is big enough for me and Ryan to relax in but still small enough to be comfortable for all of the boys as well. They’re used throughout the day every single day in our house and we’ve loved them so much that Ryan and I ordered another pair for the play loft space in our new house as well. They’re a splurge for sure but the quality, comfort and durability make them worth it for us since we know they’ll be used for years and years.
Question of the Day
For those with little ones in your life, what gifts were the “hits of the holidays” for the child(ren) in your life? Any surprising hits? Any gifts you thought would be a hit that fell a little flat?
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We got our kids (3 & 1) a Nugget couch for Christmas and that has held up! They still play with it every day (and I love it too). Also the Air Fort!! It’s awesome. Something that fell flat was a Barbie set (that my daughter actually asked for).
Yes to the kid couch!! we did a version of that for our boys last year and I totally agree! A huge hit even a year later.
Love your thrifting finds! Smart!
I’m so curious about these perler/biggie beads. How do they melt? I couldn’t find instructions on Amazon and would love to know what’s involved to complete the creations. Thank you!
You melt them with an iron and wax paper!
Love your ideas! Thank you.
My son (age 6) loves hot wheels and the electronic piggy bank ATM. Huge hits! He also loves legos (so do my girls, ages 4 & 2). My girls are obsessed with Barbies. Both genders love craft boxes that include all sorts of things like glue, washi tape, pipe cleaners, feathers, popsicle sticks, etc. Other hits are bubble gum machine, wiggle cars, hippity hops, spirograph, play doh, I SPY, Monopoly, Pretty Pretty Princess, dress up costumes and Tubelox. I also have a little exercise bike next to my Peloton and my 2 year old is obsessed.
Love these ideas!! And just picturing a tiny two year old on a mini exercise bike is so adorable!!
My son’s (11) favorite gift was a Trapper Keeper! As soon as he opened it he ran to his backpack to take everything out and organize the new Trapper Keeper – he even still had other gifts to open but he just couldn’t wait. I didn’t even know Trapper Keepers were still a thing 🙂
My aunt bought our boys Sharper Image’s version of rock em sock em robots, and they are a huge hit and take very little skill to use. Our 2.5 year old actually wins most often!
oh that sounds like something our boys would love!