The Only Christmas Gifts for Kids’ Guide You'll Need This Holiday Season (2024)

We all love getting ahead of the game when it comes to Christmas shopping. If you're looking to do some early Christmas shopping, just choose a few of these winners from our carefully curated list of Christmas gifts for kids.

I spoke with people on the ground (kids) about what's new, what's wanted, and what's popular, and the answers are telling. Kids are amped about all things Inside Out, but they're also really into karaoke, gaming, and pretend play. Crafting is seeing a big tick up, with kids wanting tie-dye kits and fun coloring sets. And when it comes to teens, things like Nike Air Force Ones are a hot item they're sure to love.

From imaginative-play toys like the Ada Twist kit that encourage your kids to step away from their screens and get immersed into a new, magical world to classic throwback toys created with an all-new audience in mind, we found all of the toys and games that your kid will want to get their hands on this year. Here are the best Christmas gifts for kids in 2024 that we guarantee they'll love to play with (and will make you wish you were a kid again!).

Of course this is going to be one of the hottest toys of the year. This Dream House is just like the Dream House/Mojo Dojo Casa House from the movie, with spiral slide, pool, and more.

I've made a ton of slime in the past few years, and this kit is the easiest, best, most-exciting slime kit. It's also the easiest to clean up, as it's reasonably water soluble. Anyone who has tried to get slime out of fabric knows how important that is. Plus, look at all those sparkles that are already contained and not all over your floor!

This is one of the coolest truck toys I've seen in recent memory. It comes with two different real metal detectors, a rock tumbler, and the truck itself. I couldn't pry this away from my testers.

There's something really cool about having the ability to take apart and put an engine back together again, and iPlay, iLearn has figured out how to distill that into the easiest-to-use toy with this truck engine. It comes with the front end of a truck, engine parts, and tools — and kids absolutely love getting to work on it!

Artie 3000 is a friendly little robot that allows your kids to draw program-specific design patterns using intuitive drag-and-drop software. This gift for kids doesn’t even require Wi-Fi to create super cool designs.

Even if you've never heard of water marbling, I guarantee your kids have seen videos of people marbling everything from iPhone cases to Nikes. It's a popular art form online, and kids are aching to learn how to do it. Indulge that desire with this all-inclusive kit from CooDo.

I got to play this game just last week, and I can tell you that it is really fun. Imagine if you could make cornhole less like a chore and into an actual game you and your kids will want to play — that's this game. Similar properties, 100% more volcanic eruptions of laughter.

Moose Toys makes some of the most innovative toys every year — and their unique cauldrons, genie bottles, and crystal balls have all been huge hits. This year, they're getting into a more monstrous angle with the beast lab creator. With this gift, your kids can pour in the ingredients, follow the directions, and then poof! The liquid swirls, lights up, and the beast magically appears — but there's more! That beast goes into beast mode, and you'll have to work to calm him. The best part? You can do it over and over again.

Get singing, parents! Or maybe just the kids. The Singing Machine karaoke machine is super easy to operate, even for the youngest performers. You can download via USB port, play via Bluetooth or plug-in, and control the voice effects via buttons on the front of the machine.

You may not know this, but Hello Kitty is bigger than ever. (JK. If you have kids, you definitely know this.) This stationery set is pretty much the cutest kit we've seen in 2024, and that's saying something. It comes with a huge amount of goodies, from pens to paper to stickers and tape!

If you've seen the film, you know how crucial Anxiety is. If you live inside my head, you know how huge a role she plays in everyday life. Why not have a little fun with the torturous demon by putting them in LEGO Dot form on cool blocks?

Picture this: If the Wii Fit (remember her) had a baby with" Dance Dance Revolution" and made it just for kids, you'd get the Nex Playground. It's a video game that encourages movement by using AI and a camera to track your child's gameplay and make them do fun and often hilarious tasks.

Have you ever seen anything cooler in your life? This is a full blown claw machine that comes with 20 different toys to pick up, and it's all entirely refillable. You could put darn near anything in there. I am tempted to buy one for my desk at work.

Kinetic Sand is forever a popular toy, but this year, it's even better when you scent it and give the kids a waffle maker and ice cream accessories. Can you imagine anything they'd love more? We can't.

Get your little fashion-lover's creative juices flowing with the Rainbow High Color and Create doll. Your child can use the washable markers to color the doll's hair, shoes, and clothes, and all that's needed to do it again is to rinse it. It hits all the right spots for little expressives.

A right of childhood should be the ability to fling oneself angrily or happily into a bean bag chair and gossip with your friends. I did it, you likely did it, and both of my kids have done it. It's the perfect place to land as a kid in need of a good game or chat sesh.

How do you take something pretty practical that most kids need and make it utterly giftable? It’s simple — just add LED lights. Trust me; you’ll have never seen kids as excited about a new desk as you will if you get them this really cool version. It’s inexpensive, but it isn’t cheap. It has a monitor lift, plenty of space for a keyboard, a headphone hook, and it’s adjustable.