With Christmas fast approaching, it can be hard to know what to buy for a toddler – do not fret, we’ve got you covered with 12 Christmas gift ideas for 1 year olds.
Pikler Triangle
Starting off with one of our favorites, the Pikler Triangle. It is a climbing frame, usually used indoors but can easily be placed outside if it is particularly good weather. The Pikler Triangle has a vast list of benefits such as helping children develop their motor skills, grow their confidence and independence, ability to assess risk, cognitive development and also creativity.
It is versatile and a variety of attachments such as ramps and other climbing frames can be added if you have the space for it. Pikler Triangles are a great Christmas gift idea for 1 year olds, and will last them a good few years as they become more confident and creative with it.
You can purchase Pikler Triangles from a variety of outlets, ALDI occasionally has them on offer too.
Wooden Building Blocks
Wooden building blocks are great for developing cognitive and motor skills. Colorful blocks that come in a variety of shapes are great for young children. To begin with, your little one may want to knock everything down, but as they grow, they will learn to build and create with this open ended Christmas gift.
Musical Instruments
Children love toys that make noise (unfortunately for us!). Musical instruments designed for toddlers such as maracas, xylophones, drums etc, are a great gift for toddlers to introduce them to different sounds and the notion of cause and effect. Here is a small musical set to get you started.
Ride on Toys
1 year olds are now a lot more mobile than when they were a mere baby. Ride on toys are great for their motor development and coordination. Bear in mind that some toddlers take to ride on toys straight away whereas others may not.
Ride on toys can be big or small, here is a small simple design that is perfect for indoors if you do not have space outside.
Push Toys
1 year olds are just learning to walk if they haven’t already. Push toys such as prams or toys designed to aid walking are great for toddlers – and be put off prams if you have a boy, my son loved pushing a pram about.
Toy Kitchen
Toy kitchens are one of my favorite toys for toddlers. They encourage role play and imaginative play whilst providing countless opportunities for learning, plus, if you buy a kitchen as a Christmas gift for a 1 year old, it will last you a good few years until they become bored of it. Our favorite is the Ikea Kitchen, but there are many other toy kitchens in a wide range of sizes and designs.
Shape sorters
Shape sorter toys are important for cognitive development and fine motor skills. Sorting toys come in different styles such as the container type where your child will drop them through the correct hole into the container. Alternatively they can be a flat shape sorter toy that is more like a puzzle.
Picture books
Reading to your baby or toddler is vital to their development, for more information about this, see our post about the importance of reading to your baby. At 1 year old, your child may be more interested in picture books but may still be a bit untrustworthy with the pages. This is where hardback board book picture books come in. A lot of the most popular picture book authors have published their stories into board book format. Picture books with rhyming language are fantastic Christmas gift ideas for 1 year olds.
Busy boards
If you’ve never heard of a busy board, it is essentially a wooden board with interactive items fixed to it such as locks, switches, lights, zips etc. Something out of the ordinary compared to usual baby toys. Busy boards can be purchased on amazon or you can have personalized busy boards made on Etsy, like the one shown in the picture.
Toddler Car Ramp
This has made it to the list because my son (and his toddler friends) loved this toy! It is a car ramp, it usually comes with 4 accompanying cars and they roll down the ramp. Sounds pretty simple, but toddlers love it!
Stacking cups
Stacking cups are a versatile christmas gift idea for 1 year olds. Once they are over the initial stacking, these cups will end up ‘serving you coffee’, they’ll make their way to bath time, and may also be used outside for scooping sand.
Activity Cube
Activity cubes are great for 1 year olds (and also younger babies who are learning to pull up to standing, just be sure to weigh down your cube), they have different activities on every side and each activity is designed to develop fine motor skills. They come in different shapes (not just cubes) and designs. Here is a cube to get you started.
