28 Christmas Gifts for 10-Year-Old Boys

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.

Wrong guesses show up fast in Gravity Maze, which suits a kid who likes to plan and check his work.

He maps out a path, drops the marble and sees at once whether his idea held. A miss just sends him back to rearrange and try again, with no grown-up needed to mark the answer.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, a Nintendo Switch 2 game, is a solo sci-fi adventure in which he plays as the bounty hunter Samus.

Finding the next path matters more here than quick party rounds, and the age label on the box deserves a look before you decide.

When the boy you are buying for draws trail routes in his notebook, a sighting compass lets him plot the way himself.

He wants outdoor gear of his own, not a toy, and aiming at a distant ridge hands him the bearing.

A curious boy who pockets feathers and leaves gets a National Geographic microscope to inspect them.

He gathers these outdoor treasures anyway, so now he can see the veins and fibers his eyes miss. Then he can sketch each one in a notebook and label what he spotted.

Snap Circuits turns the radio from a gadget he wonders about into one he built.

Each part he snaps in has a job, and the payoff comes when the finished circuit pulls in a real station on a radio he put together himself.

Since he rates every fair ride by its drop, give him the job of designing one.

With this Thames & Kosmos kit he shapes his own hills and turns, stretches a drop a little taller and checks whether the car still clears the next rise.

Robot movies make mechanical hands look like magic.

Building this giant one from Science4you lets him see what really moves it: once the last piece is in, he works the hydraulics and the fingers bend in answer. A younger sibling makes a ready audience when he wants to explain how it works.

Smartivity's robotic gripper toy fits a curious kid who pauses every factory video to see how the metal arms grab and lift.

Rather than a shelf model, this gripper is his to work, so he sees what curls each finger closed.

This GAN speed cube goes to a boy who watches solvers online and wants his own.

He can pause a video and copy each algorithm on the puzzle in his hands. On Christmas afternoon, he can hand his dad a fresh scramble and then show him a full solve.

Each hand of Lost Cities puts a real choice in front of him: commit to an expedition and hope it pays off, or cut his losses and take a safer trail.

A two-sided board lets you start with the classic game and add the sixth expedition once he has the hang of it.

If the boy on your list keeps score against his parents in everything, Sorry! gives him a fair shot at beating them.

He races his pawns around the board, and a well-timed move bumps a grown-up's pawn back to start. His wins over the grown-ups are his to point to whenever the box comes out again.

If the boy on your list likes to outthink whoever sits across from him, Connect 4 Strategy gives him that duel.

Plain luck games wear thin for him, so here he plots moves ahead and watches for his rival's next trap. His winning row stays standing in the grid while the rival traces back how the trap was laid.

This Beyblade X battle set brings head-to-head spinning top matches to a boy with a competitive streak.

He launches his top against a friend's in the arena, and the last one spinning wins. After a loss, he can rethink his launch and call for a rematch on the bedroom floor.

Real tools, a motor and working lights go into the MECCANO supercar he builds first, and it is only one of 25 models in this box.

When he is ready for something new, the same parts come apart and go back together as one of the other 24.

Games on the family PC get a keyboard of his own with the SteelSeries Apex 3, so he no longer plays on the same plain one everybody else types on.

When friends log on for a match, he can type a quick plan in the chat before the round starts.

Altitude hold keeps this drone steady at one height, so a first-time pilot can watch the live camera view while he learns the controls.

Two batteries mean a second flight right after the first, and a stick pushed into the backyard grass makes a landing target to aim for every time.

Go long, and the Nerf Vortex Aero Howler whistles all the way to the catch, so the friend running the route can hear it coming.

A tail on the back helps each throw carry far, which puts a real deep pass within reach even in an ordinary backyard.

The Complete Cookbook for Young Scientists turns holiday kitchen time into experiments for a ten-year-old.

The publisher rates it for ages 8 to 12, so the recipes match his level. Over winter break, he can make a dish for the family with a grown-up nearby.

Who Was Albert Einstein? brings a famous scientist's life story to a ten-year-old with big questions.

The publisher rates it for ages 8 to 12, so he can read it without help. On Christmas afternoon, he can share the strangest fact he finds.

A ten-year-old ready for a longer read can unwrap The Last Kids on Earth this Christmas.

The publisher rates it for ages 8 to 12, which fits him well. Through winter break, he can read a chapter or so each evening.

Holes by Louis Sachar makes a Christmas gift for a boy reading novels on his own.

Over winter break he can read it in a few long sittings. Then he can hand it to a cousin when the visits wrap up.