Start with their age. Then think about what they love doing.
Choose a range, then a list.
Babies and adults open other gift pages.
Start with a thing they already enjoy: building, making, reading or playing together.
For little ones who push, stack and explore.
For pretend players, first gamers and builders.
For builders, makers and curious readers.
For collectors, crafters and young gamers.
For music fans, gamers and their own style.
Use the gift finder to start with their interests.
Find a gift
At one and two, everything within reach gets mouthed, dropped and stacked, so the best gifts are chunky, washable and safe: push toys, stacking cups, first board books. A small thing they can master on their own beats a big thing they cannot use yet.
*Paid link
Infantino's Press & Stay blocks suit a girl turning two with a habit of stacking and knocking things down.
The maker labels them for 6 months and up, so she is well inside that range. Blocks snap together from any side, so she can build on the rug.
The BIG Bobby Car Classic gives a 2-year-old girl a sit-on car she moves with her feet.
Pushing toys around is her favorite game right now, and this time she rides along. On dry days she can take it out to the patio.
Ages 1+ (Melissa & Doug)
Big knobs on every piece make this jungle puzzle a fit for a girl still learning to lift and place shapes.
Each animal drops into its own cutout, usually with a roar or a squeak from her. A child already fitting jigsaw pieces together may find it too easy.
With no TV character attached, this bunny suits a girl who would rather have something soft to squeeze.
It is a sensory plush from GUND's Cozys line, sized to ride on her lap in the car seat and easy to hold onto for the length of any drive.
Preschoolers want to do what the grown-ups do: play kitchens, doctor kits, figures to act out a day. First board games teach taking turns, and anything that gets built, knocked down and built again is a safe bet.
*Paid link
Spider-Man pictures fill this Ravensburger memory game, which gives a young fan a reason to concentrate.
Each turn is two flips: a match goes on his pile, a miss goes back face down, and the trick is remembering where it was. The mini edition packs small enough for a visit to friends or a long car ride.
Ages 4+ (Hot Wheels)
This Hot Wheels City T-Rex hauler gives a four-year-old car collector a dinosaur to carry his fleet.
The maker rates it for ages 4 and up, right where he is now. He loads his loose cars inside and rolls the convoy to wherever the next chase begins.
Chalk on one side, a magnetic dry-erase board on the other and a paper roll for painting with its three paint pots: the wooden Hape all-in-one easel covers every kind of art day.
When the ideas come fast, he can switch sides instead of erasing, and the height adjusts as he grows.
No reading is needed for ThinkFun Zingo, a bingo-style game built for kids who are still learning their letters.
Each player races to spot matches for a card, and the first one to fill it takes the round. For a four-year-old, that makes it an easy first pick for family game night, with everyone at the table playing the same game.
School-age children can follow instructions, so building sets, craft kits, chapter books and simple science kits go down well. This is also the age when what their friends have starts to matter. For LEGO, the GiftExperts LEGO Finder filters every set by age and theme.
*Paid link
Drawing in the air is the twist in Pictionary Air: she sketches with a light pen, and her picture appears on a connected phone or tablet for everyone to guess.
Keep a smart device handy, and the kids-versus-grown-ups setup gives her a fair shot at stumping the adults on game night.
First come the plants: she sets greenery into the Mini Garden terrarium, then arranges the mermaid decorations around it however she pictures the sea.
The plants keep growing once the craft is done, so there is something new to check on each morning.
Ages 4+ (Melissa & Doug)
This Melissa & Doug bracelet kit lets a style-minded 7-year-old design jewelry she wears to school.
She decides how every band looks, then matches it to the day's outfit. Over winter break, her finished bands can wait by her hairbrush, ready to wear.
Ages 6+ (LEGO)
If Minecraft is her game, Steve's Taiga Adventure turns a familiar corner of it into real bricks.
Once the taiga scene is built, she can walk Steve through it on the floor the way she would on screen.
Tweens know what they like. A gift that fits one interest, a sport, a game, drawing, a book series or coding, beats a general toy, and a grown-up version of something they already use feels like a compliment.
*Paid link
Plugged into a laptop, Makey Makey can turn a row of bananas into piano keys he plays with a tap.
That is one project out of thousands of activities, and each idea he picks gets built, checked and changed until the computer does what he planned.
Holiday visits with cousins get a quick contest from the pindaloo ball skill game, labeled Age 9+.
He keeps the balls moving as a cousin counts aloud, and whoever goes longest names the next challenger. Older cousins get no head start here, since each run comes down to his hands and timing.
On a free Saturday at the kitchen table, a fairground fan raises his own amusement park from a heap of K'NEX.
At fairs he hunts the wildest thrill, and here he decides how it gets put together. Its box holds several builds, so the finished machine comes down whenever he wants a different layout.
A boy who pulls things apart to see inside gets The Crunchinator, a CrunchLabs crusher toy.
He feeds it a grape from his lunch and sees exactly how it gives way. Then he and a friend compare notes on which snack held out longest.
Teenagers are the hardest to surprise. Gifts that fit how they already spend their time work best: music, gaming, sport, their room, their phone. Each pick says who it suits, so you can skip the ones that don't fit your teen.
*Paid link
Simple enough for a choir concert dress code yet bright enough to catch the stage lights, these clear crystal studs from Swarovski's Una Angelic line make a polished last touch.
They look just as right with jeans and a sweater the next day.
Crayola's Fine Line markers give a 14-year-old a thin-tipped set for inking tiny patterns.
Crayola lists them for ages 12 and up. She can shade a mandala page at her desk after homework.
This Fossil watch hands a teen shaping her own style a grown-up accessory to wear on her wrist every day.
She already chooses her own earrings and bags, so a watch joins the pieces she picks out each morning. On a babysitting night, she can glance down to see when the parents are due back.
A reader who likes spotting clues before the detective does gets a whole murder mystery series to work through over the holidays.
She can keep a notebook of suspects and theories as she goes, checking her guesses at each reveal. Once finished, she can pass the books to a friend and compare who spotted the culprit sooner.
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There is no right number. Many families settle on one bigger gift and a few small ones, and some follow the four-gift rule: something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.
Build on what they already love instead of starting something new: the next set in a series they collect, a better version of something they use every day, a book that goes with a game they play. The reason under each pick helps you find these quickly.
Follow the box-wrapping steps.
A simple plan for your family.
Shopping for an Angel Tree tag? See our Angel Tree gift ideas by age.
