The Most Popular Gifts for Babies and Kids This Year
We've rounded up this year's most popular games, toys and more that are guaranteed to deliver lots of smiles.

The Christmas countdown has begun, and parents and grandparents everywhere are doing their best to keep the holidays “normal” for their children and grandchildren during a not-so-normal year. Infants and toddlers aren’t too hard to shop for. But kids and tweens? That requires a little more thought (and some trend awareness). With a little digging, we’ve taken the guesswork out of what to buy for every age range, regardless of gender. Let's start checking names off our lists with sure-to-wow gifts.
Gifts for Infants + Toddlers
This adorable playset lets toddlers plant, pick, prepare and serve fresh pretend food, creating their own delicious farm-to-table meals. The interactive two-sided toy features a home garden on one side and a play kitchen on the other, each loaded with lights, music and hands-on play. Plus, Smart Stages learning content teaches letters, counting, colors, shapes, healthy eating and more as little gardeners play.
This smart vacuum picks up play dust pieces as kids roll the vacuum over them, encouraging motor skills as they maneuver the vacuum around the room. As the vacuum picks up the dust pieces, it recognizes each color and helps children with color recognition. Three play modes teach colors, numbers and counting with six learning games.
Kids have a natural curiosity about animals, and this book provides lots of opportunities for exploration with illustrations and photographs of animals from 12 habitats and environments. Three modes teach about animal names, animal sounds and fun facts on each page.
The first of its kind, this activity center engages little ones through air-powered play. This developmental toy promotes visual development, tactile processing, fine and gross motor skills, and problem-solving. From fun fish-tail flips to spinning starfish and floating sea creatures, it’s fun for kiddos, too!
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Gifts for Preschoolers
This colorful, contemporary dollhouse provides lots of opportunities to play and learn. It helps teach toddlers about everyday life, such as cooking, mealtime and bedtime routines, as you share imaginative play. There's Mom, Dad and child figures, plus a pet dog and a teddy bear, all designed to inspire a comforting emotional attachment in toddlers and endless developmental moments.
Balance is a critical component of riding a scooter and bicycle. This junior Razor scooter helps new riders learn to balance and build the skills they need to safely and confidently ride a two-wheeled scooter. Featuring extra-wide, slow-rolling wheels, it eliminates the need for a third wheel and is perfect for kids ages 30 months and up.
The iconic Little Tikes Cozy Coupe comes in a fresh, new look that kids can decorate and customize any way they want. The paints are washable so little ones can redo their designs as often as they'd like. They’ll especially love the working doors, honking horn, clicking ignition switch, cup holders and spinning front wheels that make it the perfect ride to explore their surroundings.
Boogie to the beat with the Baby Shark Dancing DJ that features Dance Detection Technology — so when you move and groove, it will dance with you! The Dancing DJ plays seven fun Baby Shark songs and popular remixes. Plus, you can turn the playroom into a dance floor with three interactive games: Dance, Play and Learn.
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Gifts for Grade Schoolers
Designed for fans of the record-breaking video game, this LEGO model is packed with fun, new features and functions. Kids can battle the Creeper and husk, blast out stone with the Minecraft TNT and store mined gold in a giant Creeper statue that delivers it directly to a chest at the pull of a lever.
The app-based Orboot Globe takes your child on an augmented reality-based journey around the world. With the Orboot app, they can explore 400+ highlights and 1,000+ cool facts across six categories — cultures, monuments, inventions, animals, maps and weather for various countries. (The app is free on iOS and Android and is compatible with various devices.)
Let your kid be a kid creator with the KidiZoom Creator Cam digital camera. They can create awesome videos with this high-definition video camera kit that comes with more than 20 animated backgrounds kids will love. It’s easy to set up a shot with the tabletop tripod/selfie stick and built-in microphone, then use the on-screen editing and creativity tools to create trick shots and time-lapse video.
More than three feet tall and four feet wide, the Barbie Dreamhouse has so many amazing features — three stories, eight rooms, a working elevator, a pool with a slide and more than 60 additional accessories that can all be used to decorate, set the scene and play out so many stories. Plug-and-play design helps keep pieces in place as small hands move around (while making cleanup easy for adult hands). Young decorators will have so much fun moving accessories around the house as they explore their personal style and tell imaginative stories.
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Gifts for Tweens
A newer version of the Nintendo Switch, the Lite is a sleeker, lightweight gaming system dedicated to handheld play. For those at the end of elementary and into middle school, this gift is a little more affordable than the original Switch and comes in four colors: coral, yellow, turquoise and gray.
Designed for riders age eight and up, the E100 Glow Electric Scooter features a kick-to-start, 100-watt motor that provides speeds up to 10 mph — just enough to thrill younger riders. Its simple twist-grip acceleration control and hand-operated brake help kids take confident control of their ride. With LEDs on the deck that light up when the throttle is twisted, the scooter offers up to 40 minutes of ride time.
This brick-built armored transport shuttle features a cargo hold with opening sides that double as access ramps and carbonite bounty elements inside, a dual mini-figure cockpit, spring-loaded shooters, escape pod and more authentic details to inspire creative play. A challenging build for ages 10 and up, this 1,023-piece kit includes five collectible LEGO Star Wars characters.
Even if they already have a phone, an instant camera gives your middle schooler a fun way to document his life — with a little old-school flair. The newest version comes with a built-in selfie mirror and is available in nine bright hues for every personality.