37 Christmas Gifts for 11-Year-Old Boys

With this Sphero ball and the free Sphero app on a phone or tablet, a mini golf course built from books on the rug becomes a coding puzzle.

He writes the path in the Sphero Edu app and watches whether the ball curves around the obstacles to the finish. Each miss sends him back to adjust a turn or a speed and try again.

With the pindaloo, a quick-handed preteen keeps the balls circling in a juggling-style streak.

Its maker labels it Age 9+, and every longer run comes down to his own timing. On the driveway, he counts each pass aloud and starts over after a miss.

Up to four players share one Blokus board, and a family evening turns into a land grab.

Each turn he fits a piece where it claims space for him and cuts off a rival, the kind of sneaky move he already pulls on his dad at checkers.

Lost coins hide in most park lawns.

With this National Geographic detector, he sweeps the grass slowly, stops when it picks up metal, then digs to see whether he found a quarter or a bottle cap. As a starter kit made for kids, it lets him run the hunt himself without borrowing a grown-up's gear.

Flashlights and old remotes tend to end up in pieces on his desk, which makes this hydraulic kit from Thames & Kosmos a natural next project.

He builds both boxing robots, hydraulics included, so he sees exactly what drives every punch. Then a friend steps up to run the second bot, and round one begins.

Once the bedroom lamp clicks off, a curious boy forever asking why gets to see whether his experiments really glow.

He wants answers he spots for himself, not just reads about, and results that light up in the dark deliver them. His brightest creation sits on the nightstand, shining whenever the room goes black.

CrunchLabs Egg Drop Challenge suits an 11-year-old hands-on science fan with a protective prism and a parachute to build.

He drops it from the staircase, checks whether the egg survived, then rebuilds a sturdier version.

The Snap Circuits SC-300 lets an 11-year-old boy build working circuits with his own hands.

Science class sparked his questions, and a free weekend at his desk lets him chase the answers.

A plasma globe gives an 11-year-old boy who asks how electricity works something to try out on his own desk.

He touches the glass and watches the light bolts gather under his fingertips. On a rainy Saturday, he can show a sibling or friend the trick.

In this Mission Deep Sea edition of The Crew, the whole table plays as one team and wins or loses each mission together.

His habit of keeping track of every card played works for his parents here, not against them, and each finished mission leads into the next.

Dice Words gives a word-loving 11-year-old a quick spelling race against the family.

He rolls his letters, rearranges them and hunts for the longest word before time runs out. A wildcard die helps when the dice turn stubborn.

Rubik's Rush puts a Rubik's brain teaser in the hands of a puzzle-loving preteen boy.

Beating his own last effort is what drives him, so he keeps it gripped in both hands for another round. Over winter break, it waits on his nightstand for a go before lights out.

For a giver after something a patient boy can return to for days, this RoseArt puzzle lays out a busy festival crowd.

He enjoys detailed work at his own pace, and every corner of the fair gives him a small hunt of its own. The finished scene ends up propped on his bookshelf.

The Mind makes teammates of the whole family, a fit for a preteen card player.

Instead of guarding his hand, he watches faces and waits for the right moment to lay a card. After Christmas dinner, he deals a hand while the dishes wait in the sink.

Made for a Harry Potter reader who spots the culprit before the last chapter, this Clue edition hands him the case.

He trusts his own hunches over any narrator's, and here each accusation comes from him rather than the book. The board comes out after Christmas dinner, with his parents seated as rival detectives.

This silly matchup card game suits an 11-year-old who loves a good argument.

He stacks mod cards onto a funny item, then pleads his case. Cousins can join for a quick round at the table.

Whether the Batman fan on your list reads comics or quotes movies, this Monopoly edition turns family deal-making into his hero's turf.

The grown-ups know the rules, so he picks the theme and gets the whole family playing on his terms. The board gets unfolded on the living room floor whenever a cousin asks for a rematch.

This Marvin's Magic trick kit hands a secret-keeping preteen boy a hobby he performs for an audience.

He rehearses each trick until the moves look smooth, and nobody learns how it works. Over the holiday break, he puts on a short show for relatives in the living room.

Unwrapped on Christmas morning, a big set of Sakura Koi brush pens takes the comic strips he draws past plain pencil.

One brush tip gives him thick and thin strokes, much like the inked pages in the comics he studies. The same set covers coloring the panels, shading them and lettering the title.

Pair these Zebra water brushes with a watercolor pan set or watercolor pencils, because the pens hold only water and the color comes from those.

Water rides inside the barrel, letting him paint on a park bench or a camping trip with no jar to tip over.

Spirograph Travel is a gear drawing kit for a boy who sketches and likes patterns.

The gears work with most pens, markers and pencils, so he picks his own colors. Everything packs into the built-in storage for car rides.

Any preteen who streams his games or edits clips at the family computer wants his favorite commands within reach.

He likes running his own setup, and a press opens his recording app or game chat without hunting through menus.

If the boy on your list dribbles down the hallway every chance he gets, hand him a rim of his own.

A boy his age copies moves from pro highlights, and this hoop gives them a target steps from his bed. Before the school bus comes, he can call a buzzer-beater like a sportscaster and let it fly.

This Nerf Vortex football is made for an 11-year-old boy who wants to throw long passes.

The soft foam works indoors and out, so a catch can start in the backyard or the basement. He can work on his spirals with a friend after school.

Bathroom humor gets a mascot in Fuggler Fart Face, a homely plush for the preteen class clown.

The name does the talking, so he just introduces it when a friend asks who that is. Between visits, it sits on his windowsill with its homely face turned toward the door.

The Lightning Thief makes a Christmas gift for a boy ready for an adventure novel on his own.

He can read it on the road to see family over the holidays. Afterward, it is easy to pass along to a friend.

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz makes a Christmas gift for a boy hooked on spy stories.

He can race through it over winter break, chapter by chapter. Afterward, he can pass it on to a friend once school starts again.