For a seven-year-old boy who likes a quick mental challenge, start with the BrainBolt memory game; the Nerf Vortex football suits one who would rather be outside throwing.
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Start here: one from each theme
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1
Razor A Model scooter for sidewalk rides
Outdoor and sports
Christmas morning can bring the first push of this Razor A Model scooter, right down the driveway and back again.
From then on, the family walks where he always races ahead of everyone become rides he powers with his own foot, and you are the one hurrying to keep up.
TOMY Screwball Scramble 2 rolling ball obstacle course
Games and puzzles
Nobody needs to tell him to try again when a block tower falls, because he is already rebuilding.
TOMY's Screwball Scramble 2 suits that stubborn streak: one obstacle after another stands between the ball and the finish, and the course is made to be expanded once he masters it.
Klutz puts predator teeth at the center of this STEAM kit, right where a boy obsessed with great whites aims his questions.
He reads ocean books on his own now, and here the predators from those pages turn into something he investigates himself. The box then waits on his shelf beside those ocean books, ready for his next question about bite.
Rivals for his current favorites arrive eight at a time in this Hot Wheels pack.
He can size up each newcomer against his old cars, line all eight up on a starting grid and decide which one earns a permanent spot in his coat pocket.
The Creeper he dodges in every Minecraft world can now sneak up on the stuffed animals instead.
He already retells each close call to anyone nearby, and this Mattel figure lets him act out the chase with the foe itself, adding his own hissing sound effects.
With the Creativity for Kids paper plane kit, he folds a design, sends it flying and knows the answer right away. When a plane nosedives, a small fold at the wing tips gives the next one a fresh chance.
Whistling as it flies, a Nerf Vortex football is hard for any parent to ignore once he starts throwing.
Until now his arm has aimed at whatever was in reach; this gives it something made for the backyard, with a grip that makes his passes easier to catch.
These poi whirl around a boy who never stays still, turning each arm swing into a bright trail across the yard.
At his age he wants play that keeps his whole body going, and his own wrist flicks decide each pattern. The routine he invents ends with a big flourish for whoever is watching from the porch.
Ocean scenes on a family game board give a second grader who loves sea creatures his own spot at the table.
With a maker range of ages 3 to 8, he sits near the top and talks everyone through each move. His running commentary becomes as much a part of each round as the reef itself.
Trouble with a Bluey theme fits a boy hooked on the cartoon, who wants his favorite character moving across the table.
He quotes episodes word for word, and here that devotion becomes a quick match with whoever watches beside him. His winning piece stays parked at the finish until someone demands a rematch.
The light-up memory cube flashes a pattern and waits for a boy who remembers every rule of every game to repeat it.
He loves catching grown-ups who skip a rule, and now that sharp recall has longer sequences to chase. Tucked into a coat pocket, the toy rides along in the back seat on the drive to a relative's house.
On a slow afternoon at the kitchen table, a marker-loving boy can slot pieces into a model and choose every color.
He draws on anything within reach, and this gives his designs a shape that stands up off the page. The finished creation ends up on his dresser beside his favorite drawings.
If the boy on your list fills coloring books cover to cover, this set lets his designs become creatures he can hold.
Flat pages stop at the paper's edge, but here his stripes and spots wrap around a body he fits together. On his windowsill, he can line up each creature and ask a sibling to guess its name.
Crayola Ultra Clean Washable markers belong with a budding cartoonist who fills every notebook margin with superheroes and speech bubbles.
Pencil sketches leave his heroes gray, and he wants capes and explosions as bold as the comics he reads. The box then waits on his desk beside his latest comic, ready for the next panel.
Three animals come out of one LEGO Creator box: the bricks build a unicorn first, then come apart for a seahorse and a peacock.
For a builder forever pulling his models apart to see what else they can become, it stretches one gift across several building sessions over the holidays.
Square by square, a blocky picture fills in on this Learning Resources pixel grid.
The same eye that finds every hidden object in his seek-and-find books will catch a wrong color the moment it lands, and fixing it means redoing only that row.
Chosen by our team from store data and what readers pick, not hands-on tests. Nothing is paid to be on this list. Recall notices checked . How we pick
Questions and answers
Is there a pick for a boy whose Christmas list is nothing but Minecraft?
Yes. The Minecraft Labyrinth board game is for a boy who wants his favorite world on the game table, hunting a path through the maze to reach his pieces, and the Minecraft Creeper action figure is for the collector who poses characters along his shelf and acts out scenes from the game.
Which pick works for a boy who likes a game he plays with his hands?
A boy who flicks flippers to keep a ball bouncing around the table gets that from the BRIO pinball game, while a boy who would rather steer a ball through a course of obstacles finds it in the TOMY Screwball Scramble 2.
What should you get a boy who wants to stay in touch with a friend from the far end of the yard?
A boy who heads to the treehouse or the back fence and still wants to report in is the match for the Retevis Walkie Talkies, a handheld radio set he uses to call a friend across the yard or a parent back in the kitchen.
What can you give a boy who spends every daylight hour outdoors?
The Razor A Model scooter is for a boy who wants to kick along the sidewalk to the park beside the bigger kids, and the Nerf Vortex football suits a boy who throws long passes in the backyard and chases them down himself.
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