The Intentional Parent's Gift Guide
The number one stressor I hear from every mother around the holidays is “We have too many toys!” Of course this is followed by a comment that the toy pile is only going to grow from well-intentioned relatives during the holiday season and lamenting that “my kids hardly ever play with their toys anyways.”
Sound familiar?
I’ve been there, and to be honest, I’m always in the process of eliminating more “injection molded,” “brainless” toys from our household. (My dad always calls them “injection molded.” It just means plastic. I always call them brainless, because many of them aren’t designed to engage my kids brains when playing with them).
Due to my everlasting mission to get intentional toys for my kids and my nature to be an over-researcher, many times I have friends asking me for gift ideas for their children or loved ones around this time of year. This year, I thought I would put together a list of 50 gift ideas for intentional parents. Most of them are non-toy items - but don’t let this scare you! My kids play with these non-toy items more than they play with their toys. And the few toys that made the list are chosen with a specific purpose in mind.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and I’m sure I could continue to add to it for the rest of time, but I do believe it’ll be a great start to get you thinking of intentional gift ideas for the kids in your life.
Lastly, if you’re looking for an idea of how to get your relatives to partake in this intentional gift giving, I suggest making a sharable Google doc for each child and curating a list of about 20 gift ideas for each kid, ranging in prices high and low. Provide a link and the price for each item, as well as any specifications to color, size, etc. and send it to your relatives via email. This gives them the freedom to pick their own gift, but limits them to things you actually want your kids receiving and things you believe they’ll actually use over and over again. I always ask that after they purchase an item, to highlight the row in red so others wont make a duplicate purchase. Will every family member partake in this awesome new gift-giving system? No. But some will, and you’ll start to eliminate the two-weeks-of-excitement-toys from your household and start to integrate thoughtful, intentional, imaginative, educational, and timeless items into your kids lives.
The Intentional Parent’s Gift Guide
Exploration
Binoculars: This is one of Beckett’s all-time favorite items he owns. He takes them everywhere and pulls them out for everything from looking for wildlife in the woods, getting an up-close view of a bird, or looking to see if any neighborhood kids are out on our street from the top of his swing set. In fact, they are so popular in our house that we ended up having to get Cadence her own pair because she kept stealing her brother’s. Click Here.
Kid’s First Digital Camera: My mom came up with this gift all on her own for Beckett last year (he was 4), and it has become another one of his must-have-at-all-times items. It takes a little practice to hold the camera still enough to get a clear pic, but Beckett never seems to care much. He just loves getting to capture things from his artistic eye. It has picture and video capabilities, plus we recently discovered theres a few basic games on it. Click Here.
Magnifying Glass: Can you see a theme? We’re in to discovery. Once again Becks and Cadie will get out their magnifying glass and get up-close views of bugs, or just play detective around the house. This one is easy for kids to handle but also has a great weight to it to make it seem sturdy and well-made. Click Here.
Headlamps: Have you ever seen how excited kids get about flashlights? Go ahead and multiply that by 10 when you get them their very own headlamp. It may seem like a strange item to put on your kids gift list, but I swear Beckett and Cadence use theirs all the time. This is a 2-pack which is perfect if you don’t want siblings fighting over who gets to wear it. Also, this makes a great - and very cool - stocking-stuffer. Click Here.
Lantern: Another fun light-up option is a lantern. Beckett has this hanging in his tent-bed to give him a reading light, but it is a very well-made lantern and we totally plan to take it with us on camping trips in the future. Plus he’s able to unclip it and play with it in the games he imagines around the house. Click Here.
Walkie Talkie’s: Here’s another one that my mom gets credit for. She thought of getting Beckett some walkie-talkie’s for a birthday and boy, was she spot on. Anytime a friend comes over it is officially walkie-talkie time! I will say, these use up batteries really quickly so make sure you stock up on your battery supply. You could also find rechargeable ones if that suits your style more, but this pack has worked very well for us and I’ve been impressed with the range and quality. Click Here.
Tent: Listen guys, when I gift-hunt for my kids, I look for items that are multi-functional, well-made, and can benefit more than just one member of our family. Enter: the tent. Bobby and I began thinking it’d be fun to integrate more outdoorsy adventures for our family. We didn’t own a tent but also didn’t feel like dropping $100+ to get one. But you know who would really love a tent? Beckett. So on to his birthday list it went! I found this great 4 person tent after doing lots of research and theres a few reasons why I chose this one in particular. It got good reviews, was a reasonable price point, and could fit our whole family, but most importantly, it was a pop-up tent, meaning set up and tear down are super quick and easy. This meant I would be motivated to not just use it for irregular camping adventures, but also can pull it out without a headache to elevate movie nights in our home, or to do backyard or living room camp sessions. And for the record, we weren’t wrong - Beckett freaking loved his tent (and so do we). Click Here.
Sleeping Bags: Alright, so you’ve got a tent. Now what? Obviously you need some sleeping bags! Once again though, if I’m going to spend my money (or ask someone else to spend theirs), I want to make sure it’s spent on a quality item that we can actually use and will last. So skip the cheap kids play sleeping bags and get them one that’ll work well if you actually go camping. I promise they won’t care that their favorite Disney character isn’t on it. They’ll just be psyched to have an exciting new sleeping apparatus that is not their bed. Plus, you can at least find one in their favorite color. Click Here.
Fishing Net: This has many uses and can lead to endless entertainment through exploration. Obviously it’s marketed as a fishing net, but let’s be honest - kids will put anything into a net. I’ve seen this used to carry toys around the house, fish for tadpoles and minnows in a pond, catching bugs and butterflies, chasing down lizards, and an extra-big pocket to store rock collecting on hikes. Click Here.
Kids Fishing Pole: Not going to lie, I’m a little iffy on which brand of fishing pole is the most well-made for kids. I do know that we’ve had the cartoon-character $10 poles break on us about 3 times already, so I wouldn’t recommend those. This is the next one I’m looking at getting for the kids. Surprisingly, our kids have only gone fishing once, but they have just as much fun casting these into their grandparents pool, as they do in an actual lake. Click Here.
Kids Microscope: This is a fun gift to ignite curiosity and discovery. You can also find pre-made slides to put in your microscope with different categories like mammals, plants, or insects. Kids can see the beautiful colors and designs hidden within every day objects and can make observations on how horse hair differs from human hair, or how a maple leaf differs from oak.
Click Here for Prepared Slides.
Rock Tumbler Kit: Beckett got this for his birthday and he absolutely loves it! The kit comes with a bag of rocks and all the grit you’ll need to polish the set. However, since completing that we’ve bought extra bottles of grit and have moved on to polishing different rocks that Beckett collects on walks as well as from his Grandparents when they take vacations. He is fascinated by seeing the process of them going from a regular rock to a smooth, polished, and patterned/colorful conversation piece. And honestly, I’ve been equally as fascinated by the process. Each cycle takes about a month to finish (with four 1-week steps), so this entertainment can last you a long time. With each rock being unique, each reveal is equally as exciting. I definitely recommend the heavier duty version (linked) rather than the cheaper plastic version of this machine. Click Here.
Budding Chefs
Kids Apron: Aprons are a great kids accessory that can be used for real life cooking and baking as well as pretend play. It’s also a great opportunity to shop small and potentially shop local. You may be able to find people in your area that can make custom aprons for your kids. Here is another option of an American business on Etsy that makes cute customizable aprons! Click Here.
Kid Safe Knife Set: “You want me to buy my kids KNIVES?” Yes, yes I do. We’ve had this knife set for years and they work well and are very safe for kids to use! Sure, do they take a little extra force to cut through hard things like apples, absolutely. But also, you aren’t at risk of a trip to the emergency room. We especially like that this set comes with its own cutting board that folds on each side in order to easily (and neatly) scrape food scraps into the trash. My kids definitely feel official with these and get excited anytime I ask them to help me prepare their meals in the kitchen. Click Here.
Kids Plate Sets: Laugh at me if you must, but I love putting nice kid plate sets on my kids gift lists. Why? Because quality sets can be expensive and I hate when they come out of our own budget. My favorite brand that we’ve used in our own home is Bobo & Boo. It’s an eco-friendly Australian brand and the quality is topnotch. There’s a slight weight to these compared to other kids plates and cutlery that let you know they’re made well. The plates, bowls, and cups come in a variety of vibrant colors and are dishwasher safe. We personally got the monochrome set and love that they match our adult dinnerware. Click Here.
(The Best) Kids Water Bottle: Lord, y’all, have I tested some kids water bottles! I think my obsessive need to test out as many kids strollers and water bottles as I possibly can is one of my most annoying traits in my husband’s eyes. But both of these items are just so important to get right. Otherwise, in the water bottle’s case, you’ll be cleaning up spilled, leaky, or condensed water every single day of your parenting life. Finally this year I believe I have found the ultimate kids cup that doesn’t leak, doesn’t spill, doesn’t sweat, and equally important, is not made of plastic. Drumroll please….. The Thermos 12oz Funtainer Bottle! They come in basic solid colors as well as fun prints. Click Here.
Music Lovers
Kalimba Thumb Piano: My daughter can be difficult to shop for. She’s only three and hasn’t proclaimed any clear interests that would translate easily to gift giving. One thing we do know though, is that she LOVES music. And I want to allow her to continue to explore her musically inclined passions, but do so realistically for her age and capabilities. That’s when I came across some beautiful and simple wood instruments that would allow her to start to learn how to create sounds and music with her own hands. This Kalimba piano is incredibly easy to play, easy to tune, and sounds fantastic. Click Here.
Frog Guiro: Following the same idea as the thumb piano, this is another instrument I asked a family member to gift my daughter for her birthday that she absolutely loves. I remember playing with something similar when I was a kid and it was so fun to be able to create rhythm with this visually appealing set. Plus, it’s made of wood which is always a win in my book! Click Here.
Wooden Shakers: I think you can tell at this point that I really like wood products. They last a long time and they are made of an obviously natural material. Nothing captures the simple pleasures in life more than a classic wooden shaker. I mean really, who didn’t play with a set of maracas when they were a kid? Click Here.
Bongos: My daughter hasn’t actually received these yet, but she will be for Christmas. However, when I was researching the different brands online to find the one that was the best quality for the lowest price, she walked over to my computer and said, “Mom! I like drums! Can I have drums?” Little did she know that was already the plan. I’m excited to be able to form a little music corner in our house for her to start experimenting with sounds and rhythm. Maybe her and her brother can get a little toddler band going. Click Here.
Kids First Guitar: I just discovered these the other day and I am so excited to be able to get one for my kids in the next year or so. These guitars seem to be very high quality and perfect for little ones to begin learning how to play the instrument. They only have three strings, but the strings match the top three strings of a regular 6-string guitar, making the transition to a full-size guitar more seamless once their hands are ready. The Loog guitars come with a learning system that allows your children to start learning chord progression and gives them a real wood guitar to play real songs on, while also accommodating their tiny body sizes. Click Here.
Arts & Crafts
Personal Crayon Holder: My kids love art, they love carrying cases, and they also love when we have a system in place that clearly separates what is theirs and what is their siblings. I love these beeswax crayon holders for that reason. They create an easy to clean and organize system for what otherwise could be a messy situation, it is easy to take on-the-go, and it keeps my kids from fighting over colors. Can I get an amen? Click Here.
Kids Sewing Kit: I love a good small-shop Etsy find and I especially love activities that introduce our kids to beginning a skillset. This set is so cute and perfectly made for kids to begin learning how to sew and create with their hands. Even if your goal isn’t to create the next seamstress, this is a fantastic educational activity and can lead into a better understanding of how so many items in our world are made. Plus, it keeps them occupied and engages their brain and bodies! Click Here.
Spirograph: This is what I’m getting my daughter for Christmas and I’m confident my son will love it too. I remember playing with plastic versions of this as a kid and being fascinated with the beautiful designs I could make with little effort or skillset. Then I’d get creating different patterns and experimenting with different pieces to create new designs. It’s a great art activity that keeps kids engaged. And of course, I found it in wood! Click Here.
Flower Press: One of the main focuses of this year for my parenting is incorporating as much connection to nature as I can into our day. I love prioritizing outdoor time and teaching my kids about the wildlife and world around us. This flower press kit is an awesome way to extend your lesson from outdoors to indoors, by collecting flowers on your hikes and then coming home to turn those flowers into art. Boy moms, this is not just for girls! In fact, I had my brother and sister get this for Beckett for his birthday because who doesn’t love beautiful flower art?! Click Here.
Games
Wood Matching Memory Games: There’s a couple different versions of these depending on the age of your child, but I love the wood sets because they last a very long time! This animal memory game from PlanToys is awesome. My daughter loves the cute pictures and the pieces are very well made. You can also get educational memory games, like this one from Bannor Toys, which matches sight words with their picture. This is a great way to make learning fun and to up the memory game challenge for kids who are slightly older.
Click here for the animal memory game.
Click here for the sight words memory game.
Popcorn Letter Game: This is hysterically one of my kids favorite games. I say hysterical because it is just SO SIMPLE. I love it because it’s educational, and you can adjust the game to each kids learning level. The basic premise of the game? Each player picks a “piece of popcorn” out of the box and if they can name the letter on the popcorn piece, they get to keep it. This was awesome when Beckett was first learning his letters, and as he’s grown we’ve changed the rule to having to tell me the sound the letter makes, and now, having to tell me a word that starts with that letter. It’s a game that can totally grow with your kids and it’s simple enough that even the youngest ones can participate! Click Here.
Uno Card Game: It’s a classic, but did you know that it’s great for young kids? I never considered it until a homeschool podcast I was listening to (Wild & Free) recommended playing it children my kids age. So I gave it a shot and it turns out they love it! It teaches numbers, following directions, and strategy. Now we have a game we can play as a family that all of us enjoy! Click Here.
Board Games: We’ve started introducing the kids to board games and find that starting at about 4 years old they begin to understand how to play and follow the rules. Here are two games we’ve enjoyed introducing to the kids recently that expand on our lessons around nature and the world around us.
Planet: This game helps teach habitats and ecosystems around our world. The game is simple enough for young players to partake, but as you get older you learn how to develop more of a strategy. The idea is to create a world that allows you to collect as many animal cards as possible, but in order to earn an animal, you have to have the largest ecosystem of its preference. For example, if you want to collect the rattle snake card, your globe may need to have the largest desert area. You create your globe one piece at a time and learn how to create an Earth that accommodates all animal species. As a Christian family, we also enjoy incorporating the story of Creation into this game so the kids can begin to understand just how thoughtful God had to be when creating the Earth. Click Here.
Wildcraft: Wildcraft is a unique game in that it is a cooperation game, meaning all players work together to finish and are encouraged to help each other along the way. This works out beautifully in keeping our overly-competitive son in check and allowing the game to be peaceful and enjoyable for all. It introduces the idea that plants can be useful, as you use different plant cards to help you fight everything from stomach aches and cuts on your trip through the woods to collect huckleberries for Grandma. Click Here.
Mancala Board: Going to hit you with some honesty again. I do not remember how to play Mancala. However, I do remember playing it as a kid and have read in multiple places how it is a great game for young kids to begin learning strategy and math. I found a beautifully made Mancala board on Etsy and plan to give it to Beckett for Christmas. Click Here.
Ribbon Ninja: Here’s a game to get your kids moving and laughing. This is an active game where everyone straps ribbons to their writs and attempt to steal other peoples ribbons. While we don’t own it yet, I’ve had my eye on this game for a while and have it on the kids gift lists this year. I can imagine it keeps the kids sweating while also having a great time. Click Here.
Themed Sensory Bins: These are fun for building imagination, using your hands, and getting to work with a range of different materials. I found these fun themed ones from an Etsy shop and love that kids can get creative while building their own little diorama. I’ll link the ocean themed one here. Click Here.
Toys
Way-to-Play Road with Wooden Cars: I feel like most kids go through a cars phase and the Way-to-Play company has created a road that can accommodate pretty much any surface. The kits include anywhere from 12-40 pieces of interchangeable road that can be played with indoors as well as outdoors and move up and down different obstacles and terrain. I like to pair it with the adorable wooden cars from Candylab toys, which mimic some retro and very stylish vehicles.
Click Here for the WaytoPlay Road.
Click Here for the Candylab Wooden Cars.
Slackline Kit: This isn’t a toy per se, but it is a fantastic activity to keep your kids occupied and challenge them physically. Although I’ve seen toddlers enjoying the challenge of this, I would generally recommend this for kids ages 5 and up, and the age really has no limit. Plenty of adults find this to be a fun activity as well. Click Here.
Play Kitchen & Food: I’m all for interactive toys that encourage children to expand their imagination. Cadence loves playing with her toy kitchen and preparing pretend meals for everyone. There are plenty of toy kitchen options. I do always recommend wood versus other materials. I personally found mine for $35 total on Facebook Marketplace. They were all wood but painted in bright pinks and purples, so I brought them home and refinished them. Now they’re sleek, neutral, and fit beautifully into our space. My favorite food items are our handmade felt items. You can find many options like this on Etsy. Click Here.
Rubber Band Math Board: These boards are fun to play with creativity and making different patterns. You can typically even find cards that challenge you replicate the pattern shown on each card. Once your child is to the age of learning multiplication tables, this becomes a great tool to visually show them how multiplication works. This particular board is a 5x5 but you could always get larger boards for larger math problems (or if you’re crafty, make your own)! Click Here.
Wooden Town Play Mats: This was always one of my favorite toys as a kid. I loved creating little towns and controlling the day to day imaginary activities in those towns. I always recommend checking to see if you can find a small business or local maker you can support for these gifts, but admittedly we have the Melissa and Doug wooden town play set and really like it. I’ve also seen cute options from Little Dutch City and am confident if you search around a bit you could find a small business to support on Etsy or something similar.
For your town mats, we, again, have the Jumbo Melissa and Doug town rug. It has worked really well for us and gives the kids a lot of room to build their sprawling town. But if you want a more neutral option, I love the village design from Gathre. Plus the quality of Gathre leather mats is hard to beat. Click Here.
Bow & Arrow Set: Fair warning on this, it works really well. This wooden set is from a very skilled maker on Etsy and I couldn’t be happier with the quality of the product. I am so impressed, I’ll probably order more from her shop in the future. Additionally her customer service is on point, which is always a major plus. This set is really cute and I ordered a little carrying case for the felt tipped arrows to go with it. You’ll definitely want to teach your kids where they can shoot this and where they cannot. For us, they’re limited to firing it outside in our backyard and are never allowed to point it at anything living - human or animal. Click Here.
Campfire Set: We certainly have all the camping gear at this point so it only makes sense to get a fun little indoor campfire set. I got this one during a major sale from Crate and Barrel, and then paired it with a handmade s’mores felt kit on Etsy. It’s a great set and my kids enjoy adding it to their make believe storylines. Click Here.
Rainbow Hand Kites: Sometimes it’s the little things in life, isn’t it? It’s amazing how excited kids get to just run around with rainbow colors trailing behind them. These are well-made, simple, and cute and they add an excellent flair to dancing. Click Here.
LEGOs: Let’s get into some of the building toys! Building is awesome because it flexes creativity, engineering, critical thinking, and design muscles all in one. This year for Christmas, my goal is to create for the kids their own personal LEGO stations, by making them boards similar to this one, and then pairing it with their own personal and labeled bag of miscellaneous LEGOs. If you want to do the same thing, you can buy a tub of assorted LEGO’s and divide them up among your kids. I also hope to use my friend’s Cricut machine to create pretty logos for the cloth bags.
Lincoln Logs: Ah, another classic. Beckett circled a lot of building/construction toys this year in the Christmas toy magazines that always find their way into our mailbox. As I was flipping through I thought, “why not just get him Lincoln Logs instead of these new plastic versions?” So I’ve been scouring eBay and Facebook Marketplace for some deals on a large set. Again, if you want an all-wood option from a smaller shop, there is this one on Etsy, but the downfall is you don’t get quite as many pieces. Click Here.
Wooden Building Block Set: For younger kids closer to my daughters age, I love a classic wood building block set. They can make castles or villages. They can incorporate some of their other toys into play, such as little people or horses. It’s a great blank canvas to spark the minds of our littlest engineers. Click Here.
Dinosaur Play Set: So you’ve got a dinosaur obsessed kid like me? I’ve been eyeing this handmade dinosaur play set for years and if Beckett wasn’t beginning to phase out of his dinosaur obsession, I’d be getting it for him this holiday season. It’s exceptionally cute and looks extremely well made. Click Here.
Balance Board: These are super fun and so incredibly simple. Of course, my kids use it as a balance board, but it’s also been used as a slide off the couch, a bridge for their cars, and a tunnel for their play animals. You can absolutely find this made by small shops and I always recommend that you do. But in all honesty, we got ours from Amazon. I’m not perfect, people. Click Here.
Toddler Specific
Dimpl Stocking Stuffer: This is totally plastic and silicone but boy do I love this toy… I mean… err… my kids love this toy! For real though, this entertains me equally as much as it has entertained them since they were babies. It’s from Fat Brain Toys and is such a simple and rewarding fidgeter. Personally I think this would make a fantastic stocking stuffer! Click Here.
Toddler Y-Bike: Shout out to my kid’s Godparents for discovering this toy because I had never heard of it until we received it as a gift and it is AWESOME. First of all, I will never understand how it glides so smoothly across the ground. That sounds like a weird thing to say, but once you get it, you’ll know what I mean. Secondly, it is multifunctional. Our babies used it to stabilize themselves when they were learning how to walk, and then moved on to riding it like a bike around our house as they got a bit older. Click Here.
Pikler Triangle Set: Admission - this is probably the number one toy I’ve always wanted but have yet to purchase. I’ve been lovingly eyeing these things for years and I think my time of purchase is right around the corner, as one of my closest friends has started a company with her husband producing these recently. They are so incredibly multifunctional and are perfect for your kids to burn off some energy while playing inside. Lucky for you, my friend is one of the best business owners I know and their toy company is known for excellent customer service and beautifully crafted wooden toys. Click Here.
Final Ideas
Kids Tablet: I will continue to rave about these Amazon kids tablets until the end of time. If you know me, you know that I am fairly restrictive on what I let my kids absorb through the screen. I have been monitoring their TV shows since they were born and have eliminated quite a few from being appropriate in our household. Of course, the one gigantic exception to this rule is the fact that our son has seen every Jurassic Park and Jurassic World multiple times and truthfully, I’m still a little unsure on how that ever happened. With that said, I love these because of their endless parental controls. I can limit my kids time on their tablets so after their allotted hour it turns off. I can also block any of the media from being viewed. Amazon already employs a team of people to view and filter all of the content that is allowed on these devises (meaning it’s endlessly more safe than your standard YouTube viewing), but even still there are things that I have blocked from my kids tablets. None of these things were particularly “bad” or “inappropriate,” but rather they may have just not been the kind of content we want our kids absorbing, such as a kids show that features excessive whining. I do recommend you hit these during Black Friday sales, as they go down to about $60. Click Here.
Activities: I highly recommend asking relatives to get your kids things you can use throughout the year. This includes paid for lessons in a sport or activity you wish your kids to partake in. Some ideas would be dance, jiu jitsu, horseback riding, etc. Sometimes these can be things you know your kid would gain a lot from, but don’t always fall into the budget within your own household. Capitalize on the opportunity to receive these activities as gifts instead!
Memberships: Along the same lines is asking for local memberships that you and your kids can use throughout the year. Over the last several years, we’ve had a membership to our local zoo, science center, and town community center, all without ever paying for it out of our own pockets. We always tell the kids grandparents that we would much rather receive memberships than toys for the kids, and in the end, it pays off for all of us! The kids love visiting each of these places repeatedly throughout the year, and I don’t pull out my hair thinking of free activities to keep my kids entertained on the hard days.
There you go, friends! I hope this list was abundantly helpful as you start to plan out your holiday shopping and gift lists. If you want more info on how to structure a Google Doc list for your family, visit my Instagram highlights @mrsmjcash. Now, start making your lists and take advantage of those Black Friday deals!