Best Christmas Gift Ideas for Kids in 2026

Boxing Day tells the truth about Christmas morning. Half the pile is already forgotten under a pile of wrapping paper, and one or two gifts are the ones still getting played with well into the new year. The difference usually isn't price, it's whether the gift was actually chosen for this specific child or just picked because it's Christmas and something needed to be under the tree.

Here's a spread that tends to hold up past Boxing Day, plus one thing worth skipping this year.

A building or construction set

Open-ended sets that let a child build whatever they want, rather than one single pre-set model, tend to survive well past the holidays. The wider age range they suit, the more use they get across a family.

Outdoor gear for the backyard or driveway

A scooter, a set of garden games, or something built for the backyard gives kids a reason to get outside during the school holidays, which is worth more to most households than another indoor toy.

A big family board game

Something that works for a mixed-age group, since Christmas often means cousins, grandparents and a range of ages all playing together over the same table.

A proper art or craft station

A real set, with a variety of materials, rather than a single packet of textas. It gives a child somewhere to actually build a habit of making things, not just one afternoon of it.

A dress-up or imaginative play set

Whatever world they're currently obsessed with. A well-made set gets reused for months of pretend play long after the day itself.

Christmas Star

Christmas Star is Ziggli's own seasonal title, built around one character, the child themselves, on a snowy, curious little adventure. If there's more than one child on your list this year, each one gets their own copy with their own name and appearance built in, which makes it one of the few gifts on this list that's genuinely different for every child who receives it, even when everyone's opening presents in the same room.

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Related reading: why personalisation helps engagement and what makes a book a real keepsake.

More Christmas gift guides: Christmas Gift Ideas for Kids, Christmas Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything, Secret Santa and Kris Kringle Gift Ideas for Kids, Christmas Gift Ideas From Grandparents, browse our full range of personalised Christmas books, or a Ziggli gift card if you would rather let them choose.