2023 Guide: The Best Holiday Gift Ideas for 3 Year Olds

If you are reading this then it’s probably been awhile since you have been a kid…twenty, thirty, or maybe even more years than that. It’s difficult for adults to remember how it was to be a child, and even more so a toddler. What do toddlers enjoy? What would be a great toy or gift for a toddler for a holiday or birthday?

Toddlers brains are constantly growing, absorbing, and learning new things. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to be in the age group of a toddler (approximately 18 months to 5 years old) and can be difficult to express how you feel, think, or want.

Being a mother of a 3 year old boy, I am quickly reminded that I might not completely understand how my son’s thought process is the way that it is. Why does he gravitate towards certain foods, objects, words, activities and actions while completely ignoring others?

Toddlers will begin to learn by using trial and error. They will use their senses and movement to absorb information and educate their brain on new stimuli. Their journey will continue by learning symbolic thought and pretend playing. Something like a folded piece of cardboard could be used to play “telephone” and various different shaped blocks could be fruits and vegetables to buy at a pretend store.

It is so important to allow your child to experiment with different types of objects, including toys specifically for developing your toddler’s brain. This will allow for their to continue to grow to its full capacity later on in life by challenging their mind with new ideas and objects to learn about.

Here is a list of categories of toys/gifts that will not only be helpful in the development of your child, your toddler will also love them. There are options for every price range as well — whether you have a lot to spend or not, there is something for every Holiday gift budget. Whether it is for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Summer Solstice, a Preschool Gift, a Birthday Gift or maybe just for being a great kid, there are a ton of ideas here.

Building

There are so many options for toddlers in this category. And this is one of those toy categories you don’t need to worry so much about buying them something they already have — because toddlers can never have enough building toys.

Large plastic blocks, old fashioned color wooden blocks, magnetic blocks, waffle blocks, and larger Legos are all great options for toddler gifts. They can build towers, castles, car washes, tunnels, bridges, houses, and anything else their imagination can come up with. These are great for both girls and boys — it helps them stack, sort by shape, color, type, and allows them to design something magical

Here are a few tried and true building toys (with links to Amazon for more info) that your toddler will love as a holiday gift:

Arts and Crafts

Now more than ever arts are incredibly important. It was when I was in high school when they started making art class not mandatory for elementary school aged students. In some places in the world, children may still go to art class and not realize that not all cities, states, or countries value the arts for their young students like they used to. So it is your job, as the parent, friend, relative, etc. to give the toddler in your life the gift of creativity.

Gifts from this category can range from a box of crayons to a full blown art set for toddlers. There really are so many options, so I will just highlight a handful of them, but really the sky is the limit with arts and crafts. There are coloring utensils (washable!!! markers, crayons, colored pencils), stickers, construction paper, chalk, play doh, watercolors, finger paints, coloring books, pom poms, etc.

Here are a few arts and craft ideas (with links to Amazon for more info) that your toddler will love:

Experience

Sometimes there are children that just have too many toys. Also, there are families that like to live a more simple life, with less “stuff”. What do you get these toddlers without upsetting the parents but still showing the child you care.

Think back to a time with your family, a joyous moment. Was it surrounded by a specific toy? Probably not…it was more likely during a family gathering either at a holiday or a special, new experience that you or your entire family had enjoyed. This can be as simple as going to the park on a day with lovely weather or it can be more extravagant like a trip with a plane ride or hotel stay.

Toddlers love experiencing new things. Pretty much everything is new to them, so they are always in a state of fascination or curiosity.

Here are some ideas of experience related gifts for toddlers:

  • The Zoo
    • Does your town or city of a zoo or animal park? Or maybe even an aquarium?
    • Depending on your budget, you could purchase tickets for you, the parents, and a toddler and enclose a “voucher” or handmade coupon to say it is good for one trip to the zoo
    • If you are maybe a grandparent or a little more well off, you could splurge for possibly a zoo membership for the year.
    • If animals aren’t the families “thing”, you could also look into a botanical garden, children’s museum, or science museum for tickets or memberships.
  • Staycation
    • Obviously, depending on the seasonality of your location, you can plan this for either cooler or warmer months. Maybe a resort with a nice kid’s pool. There are some awesome family water parks that are even indoors, so it doesn’t matter the weather. Or a fun ski resort that has options for family sledding/snow angel making/snowball fights/hot cocoa sipping.
  • A Night Out
    • Obviously this is a little different of a meaning when it comes to a toddler, but there are so many fun ideas.
    • During the winter months, you could drive around and look at Christmas lights, sip hot cocoa, and sing some holiday music (what about a visit to Santa??)
    • Any kind of fair/circus “(Disney) On Ice” Show geared towards children.
    • Actual roller skating or ice skating — 3 year olds look so cute bundled up in their puffy jackets and helmets! Don’t forget wrist guards, elbow pads, and knee pads too!
    • Ice cream date — Find an old fashion ice cream parlor — or maybe one of those new frozen yogurt shops that you pay by how much it weighs. Don’t forget to let the toddler pick out all the toppings! If you don’t have a more unique ice cream shop, my son always loves Dairy Queen or Culver’s for frozen treats. And if they have a dairy allergy, Dairy Queen has a coconut ice cream Dilly bar — or they could have an Arctic Freeze (yum!)
  • Road Trip/Airplane Trip
    • Depending on how much money/time you have, you can plan an overnight trip with the toddler’s family (or maybe just one parent and the toddler if you want to bond more with them).
    • Remember: toddlers get BORED fast! So make sure to have lots of activities to keep them busy while traveling. Toys, crayons/paper, books, (dare I say) a tablet to keep them busy are a must!
    • Don’t cram too much into one day. Leave room in the day for a couple hours to get ready for the day, nap time later on, and of course 3 meals and a couple snack breaks for the little one, as well as an early night with all the traveling.
  • Scavenger Hunt
    • Make your own scavenger hunt for a trip to the park, nature trail, car ride, airport, nature trail, mall, etc.
      • Make cards for the toddler to identify (that they are familiar with like “bird” or “slide” or “tree”)
      • Or if you aren’t creative or just don’t have time, you can buy a set specifically for toddlers here.

Outdoor

There is one thing that I definitely haven’t been able to do since becoming a mom and that’s finding a way to match my toddler’s energy. Where does it come from? We need to find out and bottle that energy! It’s never ending! I love it! My son always wants to roll around on his play mats and his slide and dunk his basketball into his hoop.

Almost every toddler loves to be outside and it’s great for the parents too because we spend WAY TOO MUCH time inside sitting in front of all our screens. Outdoor activities are great for the entire family, so that’s why it is probably one of the best gift ideas for a toddler.

The outdoor possibilities are endless : water tables, bubbles, sprinklers, soccer nets, basketball hoops, slides, swings, jungle gyms, ring toss, tricycle, and so much more!

Here are a few ideas for outdoor toddler activities:

Games

Although toddlers can sometimes be more independent (and selfish) in their playing style, it is important to learn how to start playing with other people. Games are a great way to help with this because the toddler is learning by observing what others are doing for their turn of each game.

Obviously, 2 to 5 year olds are probably not ready for something as complex as Monopoly or Risk, but matching games, easy card drawing games are perfect for the new learner.

Here are a few ideas for toddler games perfect for your little one:

Sensory

Yes, when I think of sensory, I too think of a Pinterest DIY Sensory Voss Bottle filled with glitter, mineral oil, and other random doodads. If you aren’t a DIY kind of person or you just want something new for your toddler, there are a ton of options out there for you.

Sensory toys are just as they sound: they are toy that stimulate the toddlers senses, especially with the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. They are not just for autistic children, as some might think. It’s actually quite the contrary: sensory toys are for all children, just some children may need more assistance with some senses. They also may use “fidget” type sensory toys to help cope with nervousness or to concentrate. They also might just enjoy fidget toys.

Here are some very popular sensory toy options:

The Handmade Holiday Gift Guide

Puzzles

When I was a toddler, I guess one of my favorite things to do was put together puzzles. I think this is hilarious because I am the last person who would go to a store (even during the pandemic) and buy a 500 piece puzzle for entertainment, but back during my toddler years, that was the thing to do.

Putting together puzzles helps development a toddler’s brain in so many ways. It helps their brain learn shapes, colors, depth, width, height, creativity, and problem solving. Puzzles are an easy activity to bring out and put away, so there is not a lot of mess and they don’t generally take up a lot of space.

Here are a few fun puzzle gift ideas for toddlers:

Pretend Play

One of my son’s favorite things to do is pretend play. How about your toddler? He will pretend that his train can fly through the sky to the other train or he will pretend he is building a carwash out of blocks and send his hot wheels through the carwash. He also likes to take his fake tool set and pretend to drill holes in the wall like Mama did when she put up the curtains.

Pretend Play is great at developing your toddler’s mind by way of imagination. It expands the brain from not just what it sees right in front of it, but what could possibly be in their made up world.

Options for pretend play could be anything from a miniature size construction or train set to a full blown fake kitchen set with toddler sized dishes and fake groceries. Or a pretend camping set or dress up or a fake vacuum or even Barbie dolls.

Here are some fun pretend play options that will appeal to most toddlers:

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Musical

Another one of the arts that has been taken away in a lot of elementary schools is band. I remember in 1st/2nd grade we received kazoos, in 3rd grade we purchased recorders, and in 4th grade we had the opportunity to learn violin, as well as be in the elementary school band if we had experience with other instruments. This, especially in the States, is slowly being taken away so that elementary school age students (who have sponges for brains — feed them all the information and they will retain it!) don’t have the opportunity to learn in a public school setting until they are older.

Music is all around us and stimulates the brain in so many ways. It can take a human being from sadness to happiness just in a few minutes time because of a fond memory of a song.

I am not saying go out and get a musical instrument for your toddler. If you do, you might need ear plugs or iBuprofen…or at least know how to take the batteries out of the toy secretly. I am saying that having at least one or two musical toys will really help your child. Whether it just plays a song or actually allows your child to interact, musical toys are great gifts for toddlers (and patient parents).

Here are a few gift ideas on Amazon:

Clothing/Accessories

Another great gift for a parent who says their child has too many toys is clothes. The toddler might not be insanely excited to receive clothes, but if the piece of clothing is in their favorite color or has their favorite character on it, they might be more intrigued.

Clothing is also a great gift if you know someone who might be struggling a bit. Children grow out of clothes so fast, so maybe ask what size the toddler is right now and get them an outfit not only in that size, but in a size up from that as well, so the toddler can have a new outfit once they grow out of it. Jackets and socks are great ideas too. You can size up on a jacket and that will last the toddler a couple of years. And I love socks because we are always losing them — my favorite are the anti-slip ones. I bought two huge packs of anti-slip toddler boy socks on Amazon in the last 6 months and I feel like I need to buy another pack soon!

Jackets, hats, slippers, shoes, socks, shirts, pants, shorts are so great for a toddler gift! They are awesome stocking stuffer ideas as well, especially the smaller items. Gloves and sunglasses are also ideas for cold or warm weather depending on where the toddler lives.

Here are some fun go-tos that I like for toddler clothes:

  • Under $25 on Amazon:

Reading

I saved the best category for last. Well, it’s not only the best, it is the most important. Without books and the ability to read, where would our children be? Toddlers learn so much just turning page, after page of a new book. The letters, the words, the colors, the shapes, the new images get put into their delicate little minds and they start to remember things.

I try to include at least one or two books each holiday for my son. Yes, I’m not just talking about birthday or Christmas. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, etc. are all worthy of books. Even if they aren’t “gift” holidays, I think it is a great excuse to teach your child something for that day. So grab a book this holiday for your toddler and snuggle up with a blanket and read it to them!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Kids Bookshelf from Humbe Crew

What kind of gift are you thinking about getting your toddler? There are so many options, it is fantastic!

Happy searching!

-Cissy

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