32 Best Gifts for Toddlers, Who Get All The Best Toys
Award-winning toys and books included!
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Gifting for toddlers is fun because toddlers get the best toys: The stacking games, the play food, the block sets, the books! And they are so appreciative. It's rewarding to give a toddler any toy, to be honest, and watch their little eyes light up before they get to the important work of playing. We've gathered our favorite picks we've tried out with real kids throughout the years, including colorful building sets, stacking toys that help build fine motor skills, and even silly whacking games. Our list even includes some Good Housekeeping Toy Award winners.
Just one safety caveat: Look at the age-grading of anything you buy for the toddler boy or girl in your life. Kids under the age of 3 shouldn't be allowed to play with anything marked for ages 3+ because they may contain choking hazards. Stick to toys that are clearly marked for 1- or 2-year-olds and everything will be good!
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Battat Whacky Mooves Light-Up Whack Game
Battat Whacky Mooves Light-Up Whack Game
At our in-person toy testing day, it wasn't just toddlers who wanted a whack at this—big kids and even some adults loved playing with it, too. Everyone enjoyed hitting the light-up vegetables with the soft hammer.
“This toy was great. No assembly, and easy to play right out of the box,” said one at-home parent tester. Requires 3 AA batteries. Ages 2+
LEGO Balancing & Stacking Tree
LEGO Balancing & Stacking Tree
A toddler can build this tree several ways, with a rocking base or flat on the ground. The funny, chunky birds fit into the eggs—ask your toddler to put blue into blue, for instance, to teach color matching—and there are two doors that open and close.
A parent tester said their 2-year-old had fun making up stories with the birds and putting them to "sleep" in the eggs. Ages 18 months+
Kids use the pieces of this hamburger to stack, count, practice colors, use like a puzzle, and even play like ring toss. “My son was entertained with this, and I love that it helped develop his fine motor skills and shape recognition," one parent said. Ages 1+
A kids’-lit legend, Pigeon is back at it with a hilarious twist on a counting book. One by one, he reveals the reasons he won’t count to 10—and in doing so, the stubborn character actually counts to 11.
Punny excuses like “Counting is for the birds” and Willems’ signature expression-filled illustrations add up to an instant classic. Ages 0-3
If the adults in their lives do work from home, kids want to get in on the action. This toy has pretend-play features like a mouse that slides, a keyboard with buttons to push, a cup that turns from cocoa to orange juice, and a mirrored laptop.
Testers report that kids loved being able to interact with all the different features, but parents loved how they were attached, so there weren't pieces to lose. Ages 1+
RELATED: Best Gifts for 1-Year-Olds
Get them on a path toward bike-riding with this sweet ride-on balance bike. It has four wheels for stability and comes in half a dozen color combos—it's no wonder users have given it thousands of five-star reviews on Amazon. Ages 1+
Tthere's just so many ways to play with this Toy phone? Got one. Piano keys? Of course. Shape sorters? Why not? And, best of all, new walkers can push it around with wheels that can be adjusted to two different speed settings. Requires 2 AA batteries. Ages 9 months–3 years
'Runaway Blanket' Board Book
'Runaway Blanket' Board Book
Bedtime gets silly with this book, about a blanket that makes a break for it. "I appreciated that this book shows all the caregivers in the household—even the family pet—trying to get the boy to bed,” said one Good Housekeeping Institute parent tester. Ages 1+
Kids will love caring for and watching over this baby doll, which builds nurturing and empathy skills. Adults will love that it's made from recycled materials (per the brand). There are six different dolls available. Ages 0+
This electronic book helps toddlers identify words in either English and Spanish. Kids can use it to learn the words for common objects while playing independently. It's got more than 100,000 five-star reviews on Amazon! Requires 2 AA batteries. Ages 18 months+
What's a Bilibo? What isn't it? It can be a seat that tips and wobbles. Flip it over, and it's a tunnel or a shell. They can wear it on their heads like a helmet or use it as a landscape for their figures. The open-endedness means that kids can really be creative when they play with it. Ages 2+
RELATED: Best Gifts for 2-Year-Olds
Toddlers can set off more than 135 different songs, sounds, and phrases about colors, numbers, counting, and shapes. It works tilted or laid flat, and later, it flips around to be an easel for drawing and coloring.
A tester parent of a 1-year-old said, "It has a nice range of activities to keep her busy, and she is able to feel independent.” Ages 6 months–3 years
This takes the idea of stacking/nesting and turns it into a fun game. Players take turns hiding the wooden bear in the different stacking boxes that represent different rooms in a house, and then trying to find it. It lets kids practice patience and turn-taking in a fun way. Ages 2+
There are seven different mirrors throughout this book, which made it a hit with the Good Housekeeping Institute's littlest testers. On each page, kids are invited to look at themselves as they make different animal sounds, so they can see the different shapes their mouths make for each noise. Ages 1–4
This toy is a stacker and a train all rolled into one, with a Very Hungry Caterpillar twist. There are 12 pieces in total, and kids can stack the wooden animal blocks on to the train, link them together, and drive them around. Ages 1+
Toddlers practice their fine-motor coordination when they add these Mickey and Minnie figures into their dream vehicles and link them up into a train. Other Playmobil Mickey sets include a larger cloud home and a smaller Mikey Sun Rattle, in addition to new Winnie the Pooh sets. Ages 1+
It's a board book of dinosaurs meets peekaboo: Once you open the book, there are two die-cut holes that you can hold up to your eyes to make each page into a dino mask! Our kid testers loved transforming into the different dinosaurs in this previous Good Housekeeping Best Kids' Book Award winner. Ages 0+
For sensory fun, it's hard to beat a water table. Kids Scoop water from the lower table and pour it into the upper tier to watch the water fall down like rain. The rainfall adds a sound component and it's also a cool visual.
There's plenty of cause and effect learning, too, as the cascading water sets off a pinwheel or fills the bucket until it tips. Ages 18 months+
RELATED: The Best Water Tables
Toddlers wil be so excited to see their actual names in a book. With different versions for little boys and little girls, this book uses each of the letters in a kid's name to shape its story. There are also personalized seek-and-find books, birthday books, Christmas books and more. Ages 0+
If you're looking to splurge on a big gift, consider this play set that includes a slide, telescope, and hideaway space, then folds up when not in use. It can handle up to 50 pounds in weight. Ages 2–5
RELATED: Best Playhouses
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.
Jessica (she/her) is a contributor with several decades of experience writing lifestyle content and evaluating home, pet, and parenting products for families. A mom of two young adults and a cat, she was previously the Entertainment Editor at Parents and the Senior Lifestyle Editor at American Baby. When not testing toys, subtly starting at people's strollers, or taking meetings to learn about new car seats, she likes to travel. In 2026, she's made it to every continent except Antarctica.
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