Mints Holiday Gift Guide - Preschool to Kindergarten
We can’t believe the holiday season is already upon us! Here comes the hustle and bustle of preparations, cooking, decorating, and gift giving! For many of us, it’s a stressful time as our to-do lists seem to grow exponentially as temperatures drop.
We polled our community for ideas on thoughtful, practical, and delightful gifts that they’ve loved giving or receiving for recipients of all ages. We were thrilled with the wide range of responses we got and wanted to make life a little easier for our community by compiling this Holiday Gift Guide.
The first of four in a series of guides, this one focuses on gifts for the younger set: kids aged 0-6. Have a look at the recommendations below and take your pick from the many items that are tried and tested and celebrated by our community of moms as must-haves!
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Newborn to Preschool
Bubble Solution and Rope Wands
There’s something so joyful about watching little kids reacting to giant bubbles floating through the air. Make their day - and yours - with this bubble solution and rope wand kit. A lower-priced gift that guarantees hours of fun, this will get your little ones outside, enjoying the fresh air and each other while encouraging movement and screen-free adventures.
Little Tikes Dream Machine Kit
This Story Dream Machine came highly recommended by our community of moms as a gift that will delight your youngest recipients. Bring bedtime stories to life by projecting images, playing audio of classic stories, and make your little one drift off to sleep safely and soundly with a built-in night light with soothing sounds. Get your kids excited to hear “it’s bedtime” with this all-in-one gift that will make bedtimes smoother. Moms praised the kit as easy to take on trips, ensuring your bedtime ritual goes with you wherever you may be!
Lovery Subscription
Moms praised a Lovevery subscription box as a must-buy for their little ones. Perfect for children from the age of 1 and up, each box is curated to match developmental stages, so toys and activities are tied to motor skills, cognition, and other age-appropriate milestones. This gift keeps on giving beyond one holiday, with monthly surprises and learning in bite-sized chunks that grow with your child.
Young Wild & Friedman Playdoh/Sensory Kits
Many moms chimed in recommending the Young Wild & Friedman playdoh kits as perfect holiday gifts for their children. Perfect for messy, tactile fun, the kits include sensory sand, dough, and squishy materials in vibrant colors and different textures. Promoting sensory development and imaginative play, a variety of kits for different holidays and genders are available.
Toniebox
Tonieboxes offer screen-free entertainment, and can be used in the car, at bedtime, or anywhere calm is needed. Our Moms in Tech community praised these as a top holiday gift for young children, and shared that often their kids will reach for these for years to come. The best part - they grow with your children, with new “Tonies” figures available to be added over time to expand their collection.
Magnatiles
Magnatiles building tiles are a classic for a reason: kids can stack, build, and experiment with shapes while learning about balance, geometry, and color. A fantastic choice for open-ended play, Magnatiles are recommended by moms as a gift they love playing with too! Join your child to build endless combinations, and more elaborate structures as your child grows.
Preschool to Kindergarten
Spark Collection: Mints-owned 💚
Support a Moms in Tech-owned business and delight your little one with a gift from Spark Collection this holiday season. Featuring bilingual books and toys that inspire families to learn language in a fun and meaningful way, these are wonderful gifts for curious children. With storybooks currently available in Chinese-English, Korean-English, and Hindi-English, bright illustrations and accessible language center around themes of family, kindness, and perseverance. Looking to add some extra fun to your holiday gift? Don’t miss Mr. Kimchi, the world’s first kimchi plush!
Faeella Magical Party Dresses: Mints-owned 💚
Bring your little one’s fairy tale dreams to life while supporting another Mints-owned business with Faeella Magical Party Dresses. These adorable dresses spark imagination, joy, and magic and are designed for both play and special occasions. A huge variety of designs and sizes make these a perfect gift for the little dreamer in your life. Great for all ages, we love these dresses and only wish they came in adult sizes too!
Zippy Zips: Mints-owned 💚
Perfect for active children, Zippy Zips are durable, practical, and safe clothing for adventurous families. Mints-founded, Zippy Zips was created to fill a gap in finding the right clothing for kids on-the-go. Look no further for adorable clothes that can keep up with your energetic child and that they’ll actually want to wear! We love these colorful playsuits, why not get one of each color?
Emotional Support Nuggets
These darling plush nuggets are perfect companions for your little ones. Our community recommended them as soft, cuddly, and a good way to help children with emotional regulation. Great comfort items to be used during transitions like going to daycare, or visiting new places, these cheery little nuggets help soothe emotions and give kids a sense of ownership with their own little basket that can be used to teach care and responsibility.
You Choose Books
Celebrated by Gen X and Millenial moms who grew up with “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, “You Choose” books are interactive and give decision-making reading power to kids. It encourages decision-making, imagination, and dialogue about choices. For parents, it turns reading into an engaging back and forth with their little ones, making bedtime more fun.
Spider Catcher
A highly recommended gift for curious kids, this humane Carson BugView catcher gives little ones a safe tool to catch, observe, and gently remove critters from indoors. A great tool to teach empathy, and encourage learning, the bug catcher helps build curiosity about nature without fear. A little quirky, this is a practical and fun gift for little ones who love creepy crawlies and want to get a closer look at them.
Butterfly Garden Kit
Also in the crawly critter category, this butterfly garden kit is such a hit with little ones. Our Moms in Tech founder, Darci, did this with her son when he was five and he’s still talking about it nearly five years later! Interactive and fun, kids love watching their caterpillars grow and transform into butterflies, and hardly realize how much they’re learning at the same time. A great gift for the curious and science-minded little ones in your life!
Magnetic Wands
Finally, our community of moms recommended magnetic wands and games to help younger kids discover unseen forces while testing what sticks and what doesn’t. Relatively inexpensive, these wands make a great gift that encourage experimentation and discovery. These wands can also be used as a calm-down toy, can be excellent road trip toys, and are fun to play with from ages toddler and up.
Happy shopping, and stay tuned for guides for other ages - coming soon!