The Best Purposeful Christmas Gifts for Kids
It’s almost December! Have you bought all of the Christmas gifts for kids yet? If you have then *high five* because mine are all still sitting in my Amazon cart :/. If you haven’t finished shopping yet, then I have a few ideas for some super fun & purposeful Christmas gifts to share with you!
Choosing Christmas Gifts for Kids
I am “that mom”…ya know… the one who hates clutter and only buys toys that serve a purpose. Nope, I won’t buy that Shopkins trinket thing and I am not paying for that glorified furby in an egg.
Do I have sad & miserable kids because of this? Actually, no…my kiddos seem to forget about the “as seen on tv” toys as soon as they start playing with the gifts that I have been willing to add to their stashes. How about we get to that list of awesome purposeful Christmas gifts now??
The Best Purposeful Christmas Gifts
1) Building Blocks
You can choose Wooden Blocks, Mega Bloks, Legos, or KEVA. Sure, building sets come with tons of pieces, but they allow children to tap into their creative sides. Did you know that Lego offers much more than their standard building sets? They have some pretty nifty architecture sets and craft kits that you can turn into hands on history & science lessons with your Lego lovin’ kids!
Worried about the mess? I was, too! I now have this play mat that keeps all the little pieces in one place!
2) Pretend Play
The #1 toy that is played with in our home is the play kitchen… The one that we use is a homemade kitchen made out of an old desk, nothing fancy, but it does the job. We use Melissa & Doug Stainless Steel pots and pans and this Green Toys Dish Set. We let the kids use their imaginations and household objects as play food. This Christmas, we will be adding a wooden countertop mixer because my 3 year old is obsessed with baking.
Our play/school room closet is full of costumes. We have actually gotten rid of tons of toys and other items to make room for these costumes because my kids play with these every.single.day. As a matter of fact, my 3 year old daughter is asking for her Snow White costume right now…
Young children LOVE to mimic what they see their parents doing. Make the most of this with cleaning & other household toys. You can give your kids an empty spray bottle, a small broom & mop, and a toy iron and they will “clean” for hours on end! They will even be thrilled to receive their very own sponge to use on the real dishes:)
My kids are homeschooled and after school-time, they enjoy pretending to teach me. All you need for them to pretend to teach is a map or globe and a chalkboard or dry-erase board.
What kid doesn’t like to play vet or doctor? We use a small doctor set with a stethoscope, thermometer, and an otoscope.
3) Books
I have found that most minimalist & purposeful mamas (at least the ones that I know) have one thing that they are willing to hoard in masses…Books!
Books are the gifts that keep on giving, especially if you buy high quality, engaging, and educational books.
Some of my kids’ favorites are:
- Colorful World: Farm
- That’s Not My Owl
- Why Do We Need Bees?
- Secrets of the Vegetable Garden
- Fairy Ponies Collections (for bedtime read-alouds)
- Nibbles the Book Monster
- Sharks
- Beauty & the Beast
4) Experiences
- Tickets for a kids’ concert or sporting event are always exciting! We took W to a Cardinals game as an early 7th birthday gift and, as you can tell from the photo, he was thrilled!
Give your kiddos the purposeful Christmas gift of giving! Take him/her to a local mission, food bank, clothing closet, etc to experience the feeling of helping others!
Plan a family vacation as a big gift for all of the kids. This vacation can be a day trip to a local waterpark or it can be a week/weekend trip to Disney Land, Lego Land, or Six Flags! Maybe you aren’t up for an amusement park… You can visit national landmarks, go camping, or go to the beach instead.
Gift them with free or low-cost courses for hobbies/trades that they are interested in. Check out these classes for sewing, photography, woodworking, gardening, baking!
5) Subscriptions & Memberships
My 8 year old is a video game fanatic! He likes to play games so much that I am 100% positive he will LOVE to create his own games using his free membership to Scratch and these coding books to help give him additional ideas & guidance.
Munchpak is a favorite subscription at our house. Each month my kids watch for our delivery man to deliver this little red package filled with yummy goodies from around the globe! We get to taste new treats and learn about new countries & cultures at the same time!
Little Passports sends new science or history kits (you choose which now you prefer) each month and they are so much fun! We started using Little Passports subscription last year to supplement our science curriculum, but the kids didn’t even realize that we were doing school work when we worked on these experiments!
Lego Life Magazine is a FREE magazine subscription for kids that is written in comic book form. My son asks me weekly when his next magazine will be here because he loves them so much!
Online Subscriptions are also a great purposeful Christmas gift option. Kids Discover Online, Scholastic News, National Geographic Kids are a few of my favorites.
6) Art Supplies
Art Supplies are an excellent choice for Christmas gifts for kids!
If you haven’t noticed through the other items on this list, I LOVE letting my kids explore creatively. Sometimes this makes messes, but they are purposeful messes.
I always try to keep sidewalk chalk, finger paint, watercolor paint, craft poms, and pipe cleaners on hand for them to play with. As long as you choose washable paints and don’t leave too many small items out at once, the clean up isn’t so bad 🙂
7) Hobbies
A great free gift option for kids who need a creative outlet is creating their own Youtube channel. My son, W, loves to pretend that he is making videos while he plays with his Nerf guns, Lego sets, and video games so I am setting up his own channel on Youtube. He learns how to create & edit videos, practice his on-camera presence, and experiment with sound effects and green screens.
If your kids like to build and create, but you really don’t want to buy building blocks & Legos, then you might opt for one of my childhood favorites–>Model airplanes & Ships.
Let your little ones learn to knit without using needles! Stuff their stockings with yarn and wrap up the book, Knitting Without Needles to get them started on their new hobby!
8) Children’s Bible
- What could be more purposeful than the Word of God?? If you have younger children, it might be a good idea to gift them with a Bible that has pictures and/or breaks up the verses & chapters into chunks so they are more likely to read. We love The Action Bible for our kids! This Bible uses a comic book method to convey Bible lessons. We like to read verses from our Bibles to make sure that the entire story/lesson is covered.
Hi Jess,
I love Munchpak, subscribed to it and my kid adores it as well.
Nice blog, I have four little one. I am always looking for nice toys for kids.