Hi friends! Can you believe it’s basically just two months until Christmas? SO crazy! I feel like Christmas comes faster every year. Maybe that means I’m getting old, haha!
With the holiday season approaching super quickly, I thought now would be a good time to share a gift guide for preschoolers with you guys. (Since I have three littles I basically consider myself an expert in this area haha!) Whether you need gift ideas for your own kiddos, your grandkids, or your friends’ kids, here’s my list for you of the best classic toys, books, and other fun gifts for the preschoolers in your life.
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Classic Toys
When it comes to toys, I’m all about ones that will last awhile. While my kids definitely enjoy the flashy, noise-making toys we’ve been gifted (what kid doesn’t?), I prefer to spend our money on more classic toys for the most part. Classic toys, by my definition, are ones that can be played with in multiple ways and that foster imagination. Here’s what we love in our home:
Blocks
With a child’s imagination (and sometimes a little of Mommy’s help too) blocks can turn into just about anything! We love our Melissa and Doug Wooden Blocks (such good quality!) as well as our colorful Mega Bloks. Both get played with quite often around here.
Something that we don’t have yet but that I’ve been eyeing for the future are Magformers. They’re basically magnetic building blocks/tiles and they have such great reviews! I can see Caleb really enjoying them.
Dress-Ups
What kid doesn’t like to play dress-up? My kids are constantly dressing up – they love it!
We gave Caleb this fireman costume from Melissa and Doug last Christmas and it was a HUGE hit. There are lots of other cute options too … I know my kids would love this doctor costume.
If you’re on the hunt for a good cowboy hat, this one (pictured below) is a great one. When I was shopping for one for Caleb I kept finding super flimsy felt hats – so annoying – but finally found this one and it’s great quality for a good price. 🙂
Dolls + accessories
Dolls are a must in a gift guide for preschoolers, am I right?! I love this doll that I got for Sofia (it’s just 8 bucks at Target!) It’s soft instead of hard plastic and is great for taking in the bath. And it’s cute!!! (Side note: why are so many baby dolls ugly??)
We also got Sofia a doll stroller (similar to this one) for her birthday and she loves using it for her various dolls and stuffed animals. To be honest, it annoys Pablo and I because it seems like it’s always right in our way but it’s worth it for Sofia haha. 😉
Slightly different – but still in the doll category – are these wooden dress-up dolls. Caleb has Joey and Sofia appropriately has Princess Sofia. The kids have played with these a lot – I definitely recommend them! The only challenge is keeping all the pieces from getting lost but so far so good haha.
Cars
Can you ever have too many toy cars? Not according to my kids! We love this set of wooden vehicles, (pictured below.) It’s such a cute set!
Lately Caleb has also been hoping for some cars from Cars 3, especially “Cruz” and “Jackson Storm” haha.
Trains & Tracks
Wooden train tracks (and trains to go with them) are such a great gift for kids. You can start out with a few and slowly grow your collection. A good set of wooden train tracks will last a long time and provide hours of fun!
I like this starter set from, you guessed it, Melissa and Doug. (And no, I promise this blog post is not sponsored by Melissa and Doug – I just really love their stuff!) Want to go all out? Grab the cool deluxe set.
If you want to expand your train track collection without spending too much I’d suggest this 52 piece set – I have it on my list of possible Christmas gifts for the kids this year and love that it’s so reasonably priced!
Kitchen items
Kitchen toys like dish sets and plastic food make great gifts, regardless of whether or not your kids have an actual play kitchen. We have this Green Toys dish set from Amazon and I love the quality. My kids play with the dishes all the time!
Little people
We are slowly adding to our Little People collection. I love how durable these toys are!
This school bus set gets played with a lot at our house. It’s the only item that I’m listing that does play music and sounds. I like it because it will still function just fine as a toy once the batteries run out. I usually see this set and a similar airplane one selling for a great price around the holidays.
I would also love to get this Little People Nativity Set for my kids at some point – it’s so cute and would make such a fun early Christmas gift!
Outdoor Toys
This wouldn’t be a good gift guide for preschoolers without mentioning at least a few outdoor toys!
A kind friend passed on a Radio Flyer Pathfinder Wagon to us and we love it! It’s really sturdy, easy to pull, and I love that there are cup holders inside and seat belts for the kids if needed. I’m sure we’ll be using it for years to come.
This highly rated balance bike would be an awesome first bike for your preschooler! And how cute is it? I love the colors!
My kids were gifted this Radio Flyer 1st Scooter and have really enjoyed it. I love that it’s a safe way for them to learn to ride a scooter!
Books
There are sooo many good books out there for kids. I try to add a few new ones to our kids’ library each birthday and of course at Christmas. Read about my favorite places to buy cheap books here!
I could make a HUGE list of favorite children’s books because we love so many, but here are just a few suggestions:
- This Christmas I want to buy You’re All My Favorites for the kids. It’s the sweetest book and it’s just perfect for our family now that we have three kiddos.
- Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site and it’s sequel are big favorites of ours and now there’s a new one that’s just come out: Construction Site on Christmas Night. We may just need to get that one too. 🙂
- A new favorite that we got this summer is The Best Birthday Present Ever. It’s such a fun story and it’s so perfect for Caleb’s age right now.
- I love this Big Red Book of Beginner Books. I got it for the kids before one of our trips and we’ve read from it super often ever since. It includes six books, some of which I grew up reading at my Grandma’s, so that makes it extra fun for me to read to my kids.
- My final recommendation (for now) is The Jesus Storybook Bible. I plan to do a whole blog post on it one of these days. For now, I’ll just say that we use it often with our kids and we really appreciate how it points them to Jesus.
Arts/crafts
Kids love to create, so keep them supplied with everything they need to make lots and lots of masterpieces!
My kids love to paint – and I love that these paints are washable!
Dry-Erase crayons – who knew right? These make activity books (like this one) so much easier for little hands.
These water-wow books are the best idea ever. My kids love them! The best part about water-wow books is that they dry and can be used over and over again. We’ve had ours for several years now!
Oh, and we can’t forget Play-Doh! I know, I know, it can make a mess, but if you take care of it it can last a long time and make for lots of fun moments. Don’t want to buy it? It’s super easy to make at home too!
And that’s my gift guide for preschoolers. I’d love to hear what you would add to it! 🙂
Did you find this gift guide for preschoolers helpful? Don’t forget to share it!
