Best Gift Ideas for 12-18 Month Olds
Looking for some gift ideas for the toddler in your life? I’ve got you covered with this list of fun, developmentally appropriate, and open-ended toys that promote play-based LEARNING. Every item on this list is something we personally have in our own home that both of my kiddos (now 4.5 and 2) have played with, grown with, loved, and enjoyed. I hope that you find this list to be helpful for you!
Because who doesn’t love playing with food?! This board book is the absolute cutest and there’s even a Christmas and Halloween edition! Kiddos will get to use their fine motor skills to carefully place cheerios to complete the pictures on each page in The Cheerios Play Book. This is a great one to incorporate during snack time- my kiddos always loved doing a page, and then gobbling up the Cheerios. ;) See photo evidence below of chubby little hands hard at work.
These books are amazing! We have this ocean book which went great with the ocean play-theme we did over the summer, and we also have this one. They make for a great sensory experience getting to poke each dot in (usually incorporated into the story with some sort of counting, or identifying) as it makes a fun POPPING sound and clicks under your fingertip. Any chance to make reading more exciting and interactive is going to help develop a love for books and reading at a young age!
Books like this are great at this age when toddlers’ language skills are developing! I like this one in particular because it also teaches colors which is a common skill that some little ones start to pick up on around this age.
These mini libraries are so fun for little hands! My kiddos have especially loved this Mother Goose set because they love to make mommy sing the same songs 50 times over and over again. ;) But really- they are great for vocabulary development and I love that they come in the little carrying case. Half the fun with these books is emptying them and getting to put them back in their spots. We have this set pictured above, and below are some pictures of Tatum playing with the Eric Carle set that we have (another great one for building vocabulary!)
5. ABC Flashcards
No, I’m not expecting a 12-18 month old to be working on letter recognition. This is much more about the cards themselves, the box, and the pictures on the cards! There are lots of ways for little ones to play with flash cards like these, even if it truly is just dumping them out and putting them back in the box. Pictured below (from our Activity Ideas for 12-18 Month Old post) is another fun way to play with these flash cards!
Check out this post to read more: Activity Ideas for 12-18 Month Olds
Best puzzles for little hands and fingers! We have several of these and love every single one of them. I honestly wish we had them all! We have found lots of other ways to play with these puzzles aside from just doing the puzzles. Pictured below, you’ll see how we have enjoyed incorporating them into sensory play!
Check out this post to read more and see the ocean activity in action: Ocean Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
We love magnets! Of course, be sure that they are big enough that you won’t worry about your little ones putting them in their mouths. This is why I recommend the Melissa & Doug magnet sets- they are a great size! Pictured below are a few different ways we have snazzed up our play time with magnets!
We have had these since Kade was a newborn so they’ve been played with for years! They are great for building/stacking towers and knocking them over (the best part of course), learning colors, and they have little animals on them too which is a fun way to build that vocabulary. :)
Wooden blocks are one of the best open-ended toys that kids will play with for years! We’ve liked these because they are a nice, smaller set to get started with, and they have some fun colors mixed in with the natural wood tones!
10. Stacking Cups
Both of my kids have loved stacking cups! They are so great developmentally at this stage and obviously awesome for building those stacking and nesting motor skills. They are also make fun bath toys and can come in handy for sensory bins!
We got these for the kids for Christmas last year (when Tatum was 1 and Kade was 3.5). They are such a fun, unique, and different stacking toy that allow for some error (this can be helpful when kiddos are first learning to stack). They can be stacked a bit crooked and still won’t tip!
Ball pit balls! There will always be a reason to have a set of these around. We love throwing them in a baby pool with or without water (inside or outside), and have used them for a few other learning activities, too. See some ideas below:
13. Squigz
These are probably one of the most popular/frequently ordered items through the links in my blog posts. We have absolutely loved these in our house and they are a great one to play with in a high chair, out at a restaurant, or in the bath! They stick to windows, to each other, and are great for balancing pom poms on (pictured below)!
14. Skoolzy Pegs
Here’s another super well-loved toy in our home. These little pegs are great for simply building fine motor skills but kiddos can also grow alongside them and use them to work on color sorting, patterns, counting, etc.
15. Mega Bloks
THESE! Yes they are a great first “lego” block to learn with and are a perfect size for chunky little hands, BUT there are ways you can use these for learning activities when they start working on color sorting, and even as kiddos get older! You can find a few learning activity ideas here in this post.
Here’s another cute and fun toy to work on developing those fine motor skills. Did you know that building fine motor skills will eventually help with simple, every day tasks such as properly eating with a fork and spoon, coloring/writing, buttoning, zipping, tying, and even learning to use scissors?! This little hedgehog is great because his blue back comes off and you can easily store all the little pegs right inside.
If you have a play kitchen, you need this set! Even without a play kitchen, this set of food is simply fun to play with and great for practicing color sorting. I love the rubbery texture of this food and how easily it can be cleaned (always a bonus- since we know how hard it can be to keep play food out of our toddlers’ mouths)!
18. Piggy Bank
Tatum got this either for her 1st birthday or for Christmas last year (I can’t remember which one)- and it has been great! She has loved pretending to “count” the coins as she puts them in the bank, and it has been a great way to practice problem solving skills when she can’t quite fit the coin in the slot on the first try. The pig plays catchy songs when coins are inserted or when you push the pig’s button nose so she enjoys dancing along to those, too!
This was one of Tatum’s Christmas gift 2 years ago (she was only 5 months old) and it’s still one of her favorites even at age 2. It’s great for learning cause and effect, identifying colors (we talk about the colors of the balls), and truly just seems to keep her entertained for longer than 2 minutes. ;)
This little musical piano entered our home at Christmas time last year and both kiddos have loved it. There are colorful little pieces that bounce around from tube to tube as you press the keys- Kade (4.5) loves trying to get the colored pieces into the same colored tubes, and Tatum just loves playing music and watching them bounce around! You can also switch to a setting that plays funny noises instead of musical notes.
I think they discontinued the version of this that we have (we’ve had it since Kade was a baby), but this one looks even more fun! Toddlers love hearing themselves make lots of noise ;) so you really can’t go wrong here!
We love our Fisher Price barn! This provides so much room for open-ended, imaginary play. We have also used the farm animals for a variety of different play-based learning activities whether it be sequencing (pictured below) or re-telling a story (we’ve used them with our Little Blue Truck books quite a bit), in a sensory bin, or I’ve even used them with my 4.5 year old to work on beginning sounds.
This is another great one for imaginary play! Yes it sings and talks and lights up etc. but both of my kiddos have loved playing pretend with this toy and I love that it promotes positive life skills such as sharing, taking care of yourself (brushing teeth, washing hands, etc.) and cleaning up toys.
24. Play Doh
You really can’t go wrong here! Both of my kiddos were playing with play doh already around this age and have absolutely loved it. I do tend to keep a closer eye on them when first starting out so that they aren’t treating it as a snack. ;) We have done magnetic letters in play doh, and we love experimenting with a variety of different tools. If you’re looking for a great homemade play doh recipe, this is my friend Alison’s and it is our favorite!
What toddler at this age doesn’t love something with wheels that they can push around?! Plus getting to load it up with all sorts of goodies and role play their grown-ups at the grocery store! I love how realistic this cart is and that it has a little seat in the front for baby dolls and/or stuffed animals. :)
We got this kitchen for Kade for his second Christmas and it has been one of our most played with toys of all time for both kids. You cannot go wrong with a play kitchen for little ones and I can confidently say they’d use it for years!
Stocking Stuffer Ideas
1. Bath Crayons
These are such a fun way to make bath time more fun!
Pretty sure we got these before Kade was even born but both my kids have loved them!
A fun eating utensil is always a great, practical idea for a stocking! We have these and they've been great for little hands learning to use a fork and spoon.
Here’s another super practical idea- not everyone gets excited about brushing their teeth but a fun toothbrush sure could help!
I always love throwing in some fun band-aids because they are great to have on hand and always help to make the “owies” better quicker! ;)
6. Camelbak Cup
I love putting new cups in my kiddos’ stockings! Kade got one of these as a gift for his 1st birthday and I thought it was such a great idea. Both of my kids have had these and they have been awesome- such cute designs too!
These are by far the best booties! You can get them with or without grippers on the bottom but they are great because they snap closed and stay on great.
These chunky, triangular crayons are great for little hands learning to color!
Painting with different types of brushes and objects can be such a fun sensory experience for little ones- these are perfect for budding little artists who just want to explore and enjoy the process!
Tatum got these for Easter last year and they’ve been so fun! They help teach emotions/feelings, promote color matching and can also build fine motor skills!
I hope you found this list to be helpful in some way or another! Happy gift giving! :)