A Holiday Gift Guide: Presents for Kids

In theory, buying gifts for children is simply a snap. If they’re aged capable to talk, but not aged capable to disregard you completely, they volition apt archer you what they want. And, if your kids tally successful the aforesaid kinds of circles arsenic mine, they each look to privation the aforesaid things: fidget rings, slime, a Labubu cardinal chain, a Squishmallow, a Sephora acquisition card, a integer wad of Robux, a hoverboard, and possibly a puppy. The big who strives for a much bespoke level of gift-giving—or simply to find thing with nary transportation to screens, mirrors, oregon fads—risks coming disconnected arsenic presumptuous and pretentious. Why situation to second-guess the desires of a procreation not your own?

Then again, with a batch of probe and a small luck, you mightiness conscionable conjecture right. I spent years foisting assorted knitting and bracelet-making projects connected a moderately crafty young friend, with varying degrees of success, earlier stumbling connected a loom kit ($33) that locked successful perfectly with the warp and weft of her processing brain; she has recovered a dopamine-delivery strategy that is astir arsenic reliable arsenic 99 Nights successful the Forest, and it is the enactment of weaving a sturdy, stretchy, rainbow-colored cookware holder. (I usage each 4 of mine!) Among the items that follow, I anticipation that readers tin find their ain mentation of the rainbow-colored cookware holder for each of their favourite kids this vacation season.

For Architects, Artisans, and/or Gearheads

Many a people schooler’s home—my home, successful fact—is a Lego home: Lego racecars, Lego streetscapes, Lego elephantine birds and dirigibles and spacecraft everywhere. But the intrepid shopper tin spell further afield to fulfill everyone’s building-and-assembly needs. Young architects tin tinker with the four-in-one eco-friendly location ($170) from Arckit, an Irish institution whose modern-minimalist designs are an perfect complement to the colorful chaos of the Legoverse. Budding mechanics with immoderate Lego Technic cars connected their résumés mightiness beryllium acceptable for a challenging CaDa Supercar (from $180), which is crafted from much than 3 1000 bricks. For a lower-stakes, breezier project, effort a camellias-lilacs-and-sunflower woody bouquet ($40) oregon a faintly Lovecraftian punch-out assembly kit for a venomous blue-ringed octopus ($40). But retrieve that determination is nary shame successful buying what you know. If the tween successful your beingness is fluent successful “Simpsons” references, you tin marque them the latest franchisee of a Lego Krusty Burger ($210).

For Scientists and/or Spies

One of the delights of the aboriginal elementary-school years is however kids grasp that being live means being an researcher of sorts—that a locomotion to schoolhouse oregon an day milling astir your flat tin instantly crook into a subject experimentation oregon a spy mission, oregon both. My household has had bully luck with the National Geographic geology labs that are commonplace successful big-box stores, including the build-your-own-volcano acceptable ($15) and the crystal-growing gear, similar this glow-in-the-dark fig ($37). When my kids were successful archetypal and 4th grade, they wore retired this detective instrumentality kit ($50), which includes fingerprint-dusting paraphernalia and invisible ink, and they trained arsenic entry-level cryptographers utilizing Spy School Secret Ciphers ($24). The eminently reliable Snap Circuits enactment besides has a spy kit ($53) with nifty gadgets, including a dependable changer and a motion-detector alarm.

For the Child Who Understands That A.I. Can’t Draw and ChatGPT Can’t Write

Among the galore doomsday scenarios parents indispensable contemplate, 1 is Gen Alpha’s coming to the irreversible statement (if it hasn’t already) that A.I. representation generators and ample connection models person obviated the captious imaginative acts—the foundational developmental experiences!—of drafting and originative writing. To assuage specified anxieties, I bargain things, and truthful tin you. One of the astir well-thumbed titles successful our household room is simply a giant, six-books-in-one binder called “Draw Really Cool Stuff” (the worldly includes antelope, spiders, velociraptors, and a Subaru Outback); it’s retired of print, but you tin easy find it secondhand (here it is for nether 5 bucks). For workbooks of a newer vintage, there’s this make-your-own-comics kit ($32) and this usher to drafting anime ($11). And, for creator inspiration that isn’t overly instructional, crook to 2 caller titles from Enchanted Lion Books, the superb Brooklyn-based children’s publisher: “The Forgotten Teachers” ($25), a whimsical atlas of the improvement of beingness connected Earth, and my favourite children’s publication of 2025, “The Boy Who Became a Parrot” ($23), a stunningly beauteous illustrated biography of the large ornithological creator and bard of the limerick Edward Lear.

For the Unicorn Phase

Like the Disney-princess phase, it comes for america all. You tin astir apt find the costumery secondhand, but, successful a pinch, there’s this Great Pretenders bundle ($58). The French institution Omy has a kit for making a 3-D unicorn caput ($30) that whitethorn enactment you successful caput of this Beach House video. Another French concern, Djeco, makes a elephantine jigsaw puzzle retired of a medieval unicorn tapestry ($28), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, location of “The Unicorn Rests successful a Garden,” offers a crystal-stippled golden unicorn brooch ($115).

For a Cozy Yet Stylish Late-December Idyll

School breaks often entail astatine slightest a time oregon 2 of slouching astir the location doing thing successful particular, and for that 1 needs the close attire: possibly a perfectly heavy and nubbly Aran sweater ($60), oregon immoderate terry slippers ($52) successful Dusen Dusen’s trademark agleam stripes. Staycationers whitethorn get the itch to tweak their chamber décor, which mightiness request immoderate crocheted lily-of-the-valley drawstring lights ($35) oregon ceramic partition hooks successful the signifier of a congenial carnivore ($95). If the unscheduled hours telephone for immoderate fund glamour, see a Depression-glass pendant ($38) oregon a dainty wishing bracelet ($16); if the Sephora acquisition paper has been purchased, see placing it wrong this cheeky and colorful constitution container ($18).

For a Stocking Full of Critters and Ice Cream and Possibly a Human Brain

The Venice Biennale of children’s retail is Tantrum, an effervescent mom-and-pop store with 2 locations successful the Bay Area; its online emporium has the ambience of a Montessori schoolhouse arsenic brought to beingness by Oliver Jeffers oregon Tove Jansson. I’m particularly grateful for Tantrum’s embarrassment of stocking stuffers, a class of acquisition that, for me, often falls unfortunate to procrastination. For youngsters of a performative bent, determination are juggling balls ($12) and circus capes ($42). For those with a precocious disgust threshold, there’s a grow-a-brain kit ($14) and fossilized poop ($9). For young emperors of crystal cream, there’s a leap enactment that has ice-cream-cone handles ($12) and a pencil sharpener shaped similar an ice-cream motortruck ($24). For the nocturnal child, spell to the T-rex flashlight ($16). If a kid has a bike, the motorcycle volition request a vase for flowers ($9). If a kid has a acceptable of keys, the keys volition request a fuzzy mushroom keychain ($19). And each child, of course, deserves immoderate glowing slime ($22). ♦