Top 10 Christmas Toys for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Last Updated on November 9, 2026 by Jordyn Koveleski Gorman

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The holiday season is upon us, and Christmas toys are a fun way to make playtime festive! Just a couple holiday-themed toys bring some magic into the house and make it feel special.

We rounded up our favorite Christmas toys along with the skills they support and fun play ideas for the family. Check them out!

01. Christmas Cookie Play Sets

Whenever I think of the holidays, I think of baking! These Christmas cookie play sets are great for pretend play. Grab your other play food and kitchen accessories and head to the play kitchen! 

You can also expand the Christmas baking pretend play to holiday cooking in general! Use your pretend play food and create the menu for a Christmas dinner together, then cook it in the play kitchen. We love our Lalo play kitchen because it has an oven, stovetop, sink, and cutting board area so you can “prep, cook, and bake” all the things for holiday hosting!

Melissa and Doug Slice and Bake Holiday Cookie Set

Price: $24
Skills it supports: Language & communication, sequencing, imaginative play, fine motor development

We love the Melissa and Doug Slice and Bake Cookie Set and this holiday version is so festive and fun! There are 12 wooden cookies you can decorate with different symbols of the season. Pop in the oven and enjoy! 

Play Idea

Sequence and Slice – Practice sequencing by walking through the steps of baking slice-and-bake cookies together. Talk through each step as you play, using simple sequencing words like first, next, then, and last.

First, slice the cookies. Next, place them on the baking tray. Then, decorate them with the holiday designs. Pop them in the oven, wait for them to bake, and finally, serve your delicious treats!

Wooden Christmas Cookie Play Set

Price: $20
Skills it supports: Language and communication, imaginative play, practicing social routines

This wooden cookie play set features different shaped gingerbread cookies, cookie cutters, and a serving tray. With 7 pairs of cookies, your little one can practice finding the matching sets. 

Play Idea

Matching & Nesting: Use the cookie cutters and wooden cookies to practice matching and nesting skills! Encourage your toddler to find the matching shapes and fit each cookie into its corresponding cutter, almost like a puzzle.

Wooden Gingerbread Cookie Set

Price: $37
Skills it supports: Sequencing, functional language, imaginative play, storytelling skills

This baking set has everything your little one needs to bake gingerbread men! An egg to crack, butter to slice, sugar, milk, and flour to add. It also includes a whisk, mixing bowl, rolling pin, and baking tray.

Play Idea

Gingerbread Mixing & Make Believe – This set is so detailed, it’s perfect for telling a story as you bake. Walk your little one through each step of the recipe, encouraging them to help mix, roll, and prepare the dough. Talk about what you’re doing as you go, using words like crack, pour, mix, stir, roll, and bake.

02. Children’s Nativity Set

A children’s nativity set is a wonderful Christmas toy for introducing little ones to the Christmas story through hands-on play. It gives children the opportunity to explore the story of Jesus’ birth, become familiar with the different characters, and reenact the nativity scene through imaginative play. It’s a meaningful way to bring storytelling, pretend play, and holiday traditions together!

Little People Nativity

Price: $54
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, language and communication, pretend play

The Little People Nativity set is a classic. There’s a manger and 12 other figures including Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the angel. The figures are the perfect size for little hands to explore and play with as they learn more about the Christmas story. Press the star on top of the manger to see it light up and play music!

Play Idea

Nativity Narration – Bring the Christmas story to life through play! As you interact with each figure, narrate the story of Jesus’ birth and introduce your little one to each character. Talk about who everyone is and what they are doing. Ask simple questions like, “Where is baby Jesus?” or “Who came to visit the manger?”

Encourage your toddler to move the figures, point to different characters, and become part of the storytelling. This is a sweet way to build language skills while sharing the meaning of Christmas!

03. Christmas Toys That Encourage Building & Creativity

We love building toys for all the skills they support! There are lots of festive building toys to get into the spirit. These are some of our favorites. 

Magnatiles Gingerbread House Set

Price: $20
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, problem solving, creativity, concentration

We love these sets for travel toys. They’re so fun to build with and pretend. The holiday sets are some of our favorites! They also have a Winter Wonderland set, too. 

Play Idea

Do You Wanna Build a Gingerbread House? – See how many different gingerbread house designs you can come up with for the little gingerbread man! Experiment with different shapes, sizes, and designs while encouraging creativity and problem-solving. If you have regular-sized Magna-Tiles at home, mix them into your creations and see if you can build a giant Gingerbread Mansion!

Picasso Tiles Gingerbread House

Price: $50
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, imagination and pretend play, early STEM learning, spatial awareness

This holiday building set has everything for your little one to build a gingerbread house for Santa Claus. The included figurines encourage storytelling and imagination. It’s a Christmas toy that fosters STEM learning and skills.

Play Idea

Christmas Village – Expand the fun by adding your other magnetic tiles to create an entire Christmas village! Build homes and spaces for Santa, the elves, reindeer, and all their holiday friends. As you build, talk about who lives where and encourage your little one to create stories about what happens throughout the village.

Melissa and Doug Wooden Gingerbread House Play Set

Price: $29
Skills it supports: Building and fine motor development, sequencing, creativity, sorting, counting

It’s a gingerbread house without the mess that your child can build again and again. Use the “icing pen” to connect the colorful cords of frosting and decorate with the candy pieces. 

Play Idea

Design, Decorate & Count! – Let your little one take the lead in designing their gingerbread house! Practice following steps as you build and decorate, and work on counting and sorting as you add the candy pieces. Sort the decorations by color, count how many candies you use, or create simple patterns with the different pieces.

LEGO Snowman Ornaments

Price: $13
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, following directions, cognitive skills

My son has entered his LEGO building era. If you have a kindergartener, these LEGO ornaments are adorable! Follow the instructions together and create special snowmen to hang on the tree.

Play Idea

Step-by-Step Snowman – Practice following directions and working through illustrated instructions together. Sit down with your child and take your time moving through each instruction page, one step at a time. Encourage them to look closely at the pictures, find the correct pieces, and figure out where each one belongs. Watch their confidence grow as they work through the steps and bring their snowman to life!

04. Easy Christmas Crafts & Activities

When in doubt, grab a craft or fun activity to break up the day! Here are some of our favorites.

Crocodile Creek Sparkle Scratch Art

Price: $15
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, pre-writing skills, grip, color recognition

Scratch the holiday sheets to uncover the colorful scenes! These are great for practicing grip and pre-writing skills. 

Play Idea

Color Detective – Before scratching, ask your child to predict what color is hiding underneath. Talk about if your guesses were correct, or what color actually showed up. 

Cupkin Holiday Sticker Book

Price: $15
Skills it supports: Pincer grasp, finger isolation, fine motor development, creativity, pre-writing skills

We love these sticker books! Seriously, we have so many of them and we love the holiday ones. Your child can decorate the page with stickers, and it also has coloring pages perfect for crayons and markers.

Play Idea

Stick, Stick, Hooray! – Create a festive holiday scene using the stickers while talking about all the fun things you see during the Christmas season. Encourage your little one to describe their creations, follow simple directions, and tell a story about their holiday scene.

Holiday Sticker Sheets

Price: $6
Skills it supports: Pincer grasp, fine motor development, creativity, hand-eye coordination, language & communication

This is an affordable and easy Christmas craft! Just decorate or stick the faces on the different holiday characters. Perfect for a fun activity during playdates!

Play Idea

Where Does It Go? – Practice identifying facial features by asking your child to find the eyes, nose, mouth, and eyebrows. Talk about where each piece belongs.

05. Christmas Tree Toys

Decorate Your Own Christmas Tree

Price: $15
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, creativity, language & communication

We love these felt trees that can be hung on any wall and decorated. It comes with 30+ soft ornaments with different holiday icons and playful characters. The best part: it’s reusable! Decorate it again and again through the holiday season.

Play Idea

Fun with Functional Language – Turn decorating into a fun opportunity to build language and practice following directions. Use simple instructions to encourage your child to identify colors, recognize objects and understand positional words.

Try prompts like, “Can you put the red stocking at the top of the tree?” or “Let’s find another ornament and put it near the bottom.”

Step2 My First Christmas Tree

Price: $70
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, gross motor movements, independence, color recognition

A Christmas tree your toddler can decorate all by themselves! The ornaments are perfectly sized for little hands and won’t break if they happen to take a tumble. We brought it to our Gorman Family Christmas when the kids were little and it was the sweetest holiday addition to our Airbnb.

We love this adorable tree because it gives little ones the chance to join in the holiday decorating and create a festive space of their very own. It’s a fun way to encourage independence and let your toddler feel like part of the Christmas preparations!

Play Idea

Ornament Hide-and-Seek – Turn decorating into a fun little scavenger hunt! Hide the ornaments around the room and see if your little one can find them. Practice color recognition by asking them to search for specific colors. Try prompts like, “Can you find the red ornament?” or “Let’s look for a green one!”

Once they’ve found the ornaments, work together to hang them on the tree. This is a great way to get little bodies moving while building color recognition, coordination, and independence.

06. Christmas Books

You know we couldn’t write this post without mentioning Christmas books! While they might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Christmas toys, they’re a wonderful way to bring a little holiday magic into your toddler’s day. Reading together encourages language development, builds listening skills, and creates special opportunities for bonding. From colorful illustrations and festive stories to interactive touch-and-feel books, they’re a must-have for playtime!

Christmas Books

Price: $5-20
Skills it supports: Language & communication, listening skills, sensory exploration

Play Idea

Book & Toy Pairing – I love pairing a book with a toy. Read a book, then play with a toy that relates to the book’s theme or message. For example, if you read Christmas Parade, get your animal figurines or stuffies out and have your own Christmas parade together!

07. Build a Snowman Kit

Build a Snowman Kit

Price: $12
Skills it supports: Sensory exploration, fine motor development, pincer grasp, creativity

Who needs snow when you have this snowman building kit to use?! Roll the dough, shape your snowman, and choose how to decorate him. It’s a great activity for those super cold days inside and it incorporates sensory exploration. 

Play Idea

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? – Turn snowman building into a fun little learning activity! Encourage your toddler to roll the dough into different-sized balls and stack them to create their snowman. Practice counting as you add each piece. You can also work on body part recognition by asking, “Where should his eyes go?” or “What does he need for a nose?”

08. Christmas Puzzles

You may already know we consider puzzles one of the most underrated toys. So Christmas puzzles? We fully endorse them as some of the best Christmas toys to celebrate the season. 

Christmas & Holiday Puzzles

Price: $10-25
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, problem-solving, hand-eye coordination, critical thinking

Play Idea

Christmas Puzzle Helpers – Turn puzzle time into a fun little Christmas challenge! Work together to find matching pieces, talk about the different colors and pictures, and encourage your toddler to find where each piece belongs. Try prompts like, “Can you find Santa’s hat?” or “Can you find all the green pieces?” You can also practice counting the pieces as you put them together.

For an extra bit of fun, take turns finding and placing pieces, celebrating each time you find the perfect match! This is a great way to encourage problem-solving, visual recognition, and teamwork while enjoying some festive family time.

09. Stacking Christmas Toys

Stacking toys are wonderful for developing fine motor skills. Add a festive spin and they’re such fun Christmas toys to play with throughout the season. Here are our favorites.

Wooden Christmas Tree Stacking Toy

Price: $15
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, spatial awareness

The most festive little stacking toy. Take turns stacking the pieces onto the tree, and don’t forget the star!

Play Idea

Upside-Down Tree – Once your toddler has mastered stacking the pieces in the correct order, switch things up and challenge them to build their tree upside down!

Christmas Wooden Stacker

Price: $15
Skills it supports: Fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, concentration, sorting, matching

We love this stacking Christmas toy! It provides so many opportunities to work on language, sorting, matching, and fine motor skills.

Play Idea

Learning & Sorting Fun – Turn stacking time into a fun sorting and counting activity! Ask your little one to sort the pieces by object or match the different shapes together. Once they’ve sorted everything, practice early counting skills by asking questions like, “How many holes can you see?” or “Can you count how many stars we have?” You can also encourage language development by naming each object together and describing what you see.

10. Holiday Tonies

We love our Tonieboxes and Tonies! They’re great for quiet time, winding down, storytime, and fostering independence.

Christmas & Holiday Tonies

Price: $10-20
Skills it supports: Listening skills, storytelling, attention & concentration, language development

Around the holidays, we love to bring out our Christmas-themed Tonies! The Elf on the Shelf is one of our favorites, and you can’t go wrong with the holiday songs variety either.

Bonus: Advent Calendar

I love using an advent calendar to build anticipation and excitement during the Christmas season. It also gives an opportunity to talk to our littles more about the reason for the season.

We rounded up some of our favorite advent calendars for kids – take a look!

Looking for more?

We rounded up stocking stuffers for babies and our top 10 stocking stuffers for toddlers.

Find practical and sweet gifts for baby’s first Christmas!