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18 best kids’ toys for Christmas 2024 – these gifts have real wow factor

For smiles all round on Christmas morning, you can’t go wrong with these tried-and-tested toys

Zoe Phillimore
Thursday 03 October 2024 11:40 BST
A group of lucky volunteer testers signed up to help us find the best toys for Christmas 2024
A group of lucky volunteer testers signed up to help us find the best toys for Christmas 2024 (The Independent)
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Looking for Christmas gifts for your little ones? It can be a bit of a minefield, with more toys than you can shake a stick at flooding the market. Fear not, though, as we’ve been busy little elves, doing the hard graft for you by finding out what’s new and trending for Christmas this year, and tracking down the best kids’ toys that have real “wow” factor.

It’s worth remembering play is essential to children’s development, and toys have a big part in that, whether you opt for something educational or something that helps develop nurturing skills or coordination, for example. Get it right, and you’ll end up with beaming smiles from your excited little ones, as they tear off the wrapping paper.

Toys and gifts don’t have to cost the earth, either – here, we’ve included a plethora of present ideas for a range of budgets. We’ve even included options for toy subscriptions, which truly are the gifts that keep on giving.

Of course, STEM and Montessori toys are still huge hits with kids and parents alike – be it toys that teach coding or the basics of engineering and spatial awareness – while gifts that enable children to explore their emotions and process what’s going on in their lives will also be greatly received.

With all this in mind, keep scrolling to discover our pick of the toys that will incite joy in kids this year – and will be played with over and over again, long after the festive season.

How we tested

We enlisted the help of some mini testers, to find out which toys would be treasured the most
We enlisted the help of some mini testers, to find out which toys would be treasured the most (The Independent/Zoe Phillimore)

A group of lucky volunteer testers signed up to help us find the best kids’ toys for 2024. Children of various ages (including babies and toddlers) were enlisted to give these toys a go. The older children told us what was great about the toys, and anything they’d change, while we looked at the price and quality of the toys and kept a check on how much the testers actually played with them, after the novelty wore off. We also spoke to lots of big and small toy brands, to see what was new and trending this year, and to get their expert opinions, alongside thorough testing.

The best kids’ toys for Christmas 2024 are:

  • Best overall – Yoto player 3rd generation: £89.99, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best budget buy – Crayola color wonder Gabby’s Dollhouse mess-free colouring: £5.99, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best for active kids – TP Toys wooden balance board: £49.99, Tptoys.com
  • Best for Peppa Pig fans – Duplo Peppa Pig’s birthday house: £29.99, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best for dinosaur fans – GrossMos flying dino: £34.99, Smythstoys.com

Yoto player 3rd generation

Yoto-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Overall
  • Age suitability: 3+
  • Why we love it
    • Grows with your child
    • Fosters a love of reading
    • Loads of functions
    • Durable
    • Screen-free tech

We cannot rave enough about the Yoto player. We think it’s the perfect gift for children, whatever age they are, as it can grow with them. Although the age suitability says three years plus, that’s for independent use. You can use it as a white-noise machine to help sooth babies; as a nightlight and gentle sleep trainer for toddlers; and, of course, as an audiobook reader and creative outlet for older children.

You simply plug it in, switch it on and sign up to an online account (to which only adults have access). You can then load content onto the device, by buying cards from the online store. You get a physical card, but your purchase loads to your online account immediately, too, so you can play it straight away. Children love collecting the cards (from Harry Potter and Horrible Histories to Roald Dahl, Disney, childhood classics and many, many more), and they’re simple for them to insert into the Yoto device. Our mini testers have loved listening to the new Harry Potter releases and have discovered Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, while younger testers enjoyed the Sleepy Tales and bedtime wind-down cards.

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Crayola color wonder ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse' mess-free colouring

Crayola-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Budget buy
  • Age suitability: 3+
  • Why we love it
    • Mess-free
    • Great for creative kids
    • Fun branded crafting

If you’re a parent who longs to be crafty with your kids but cannot face the accompanying mess, Crayola has the solution for you. These mess-free colouring sets come with five pens and 18 colouring pages, and the pens only work on the pages. This means if your little darling takes the pens off piste – onto the table, sofa, rug and so on – no marks will show up. It’s magic and more advanced than the water-art colouring books. We chucked this in our bag to take to a restaurant, and it kept our mini tester busy for ages. Our little Gabby’s Dollhouse fan was thrilled with this set, but there are loads of other characters available, too.

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Connetix creative road pack

Connetix-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Open-ended toy
  • Age suitability: 3+
  • Why we love it
    • Can build up your set
    • Extends magnetic tile play
    • Great STEM toy
    • Durable
  • Take note
    • Expensive

As huge fans of Connetix, we were thrilled when we heard about the new road packs for this year. Connetix does a huge range of magnetic tiles, offering open-ended play for children. The sets are durable, safe and can be used in countless ways. This road set suited our testers well, as they were able to make a mini town out of the tiles and then create houses, shops and so around the track. Our four-year-old and seven-year-old testers went back to this set over and over again. It is quite expensive, but it will last forever and grow with your child and their interests.

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Bio Beast MrBeast lab cryo set

Mr-Beast-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Surprise reveal toy
  • Age suitability: 5+
  • Why we love it
    • Big wow factor
    • Element of surprise
    • Repeated play
  • Take note
    • Quite a lot of plastic

Last year, Beast Lab (£90, Argos.co.uk) was the toy for kids of around the 5-10 year old mark. This year, the same team has brought out a new iteration – the MrBeast cryo set. This is a bit less convoluted to set up than Beast Lab, if you’re an old hand. If you’re new to the whole phenomenon, essentially, you go through some processes (as detailed on the packaging) to unveil a new action figure toy. In this case, you need to thaw the “cryo chamber” – turn a plastic key and it powers up, with lights inside switching on. Then you pour some thermite powder into a tray on the chamber and add water – it bubbles up and unveils an emergency button. Once pressed, a fingerprint recognition plate pops open and then the sides of the chamber pop open. You can then defrost the figure’s weapon. He has a launcher on his arm, which you can load and shoot, and a light-up button on his front that controls the various modes. This blew the mind of our seven-year-old tester, and they played with the beast over and over again.

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Lovevery play kit subscription

Lovevery-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Toy subscription
  • Age suitability: Newborn+
  • Why we love it
    • Open-ended play
    • Made from FSC timber
    • Looks great
  • Take note
    • Hard to store away

The concept of Lovevery is a winner for us. You sign up for a subscription, then, every two months, you’re sent a play kit that’s developmentally appropriate for your child. The toys are all designed to build neural connections in their developing brains. The toys are well made, with the idea they can be handed down to other children. Our mini tester tried the ‘babbler’ play kit, for children aged 13-15 months. Inside was a ball run with a hide-and-seek box, a wooden stacker, a wooden puzzle, a board book and more. There’s also a play guide for parents to read. Our little tester’s face lit up when they saw the box, and we loved that we could gradually introduce the new toys over the two months – whipping out a new toy on a rainy day was fantastic. This is a very special gift indeed. The kits start from £80 but it’s worth pointing out that, although this is a subscription kit, you can cancel any time, meaning you could just subscribe for one month.

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TP Toys wooden balance board

TP-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: For active kids
  • Age suitability: N/A
  • Why we love it
    • Open-ended play
    • Made from FSC timber
    • Looks great
  • Take note
    • Hard to store away

Our testers went back to this wobble board again and again. For active, fidgety children, we found it was a great way to focus their energy into something – wobbling away and developing their balance and proprioception (the body’s ability to sense its movements and location) in the process. As well as standing on the board and swaying around, our testers found loads of different ways to use this toy. We found them using it as a step to reach up to wash their hands, and as a bridge in a town they built out of the their other toys. One of our litmus tests for a good toy was always going to be whether testers return to it, and this one comes up trumps in that area.

  1.  £49 from Tptoys.com
Prices may vary
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VTech Kidi gear walkie talkies explorer

Vtech-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Walkie talkie
  • Age suitability: 5+
  • Why we love it
    • Easy to use
    • Fun functionality
    • Safe
    • Durable

In the past, as boring parents, we’ve found walkie talkies fairly annoying – they’re loud, always seem to need new batteries, end up getting lost, and so on. These VTech walkie talkies, however, changed our minds. Our mini testers were beyond delighted with them, and played with them almost every day for the month we tested them. Each unit does require three AAA batteries, but they seemed to last and last. We loved that you can’t change channels on these walkie talkies, which keeps things secure and simple. Our testers loved that they could send simple images back and forth to each other, as well as using the voice changer. The gadgets also include a torch at the top, which is very cool, according to our testers. We liked that they’re durable (they survived plenty of drops) and easy to use, without us having to constantly reprogram them.

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Little Live Pets my walking penguin

 Little-Live-Pets-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Cute toy
  • Age suitability: 5+
  • Why we love it
    • Cute
    • Plenty of functions
    • Great for kids who want something to nurture
  • Take note
    • Toys that make sounds aren’t for everyone

This is a great gift for kids who crave something to look after. Waddles is a robotic penguin, who can walk (lead included), dance and eat. He even burps. He’s gorgeously soft and seems to respond well to being stroked. It surprised us how taken with Waddles our tester was, duly following him about as he, well, waddled around the house. He’s well made, and included enough features to keep our tester entertained. Waddles does require batteries to keep him going but is otherwise pretty low maintenance and fostered loads of independent playing.

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Bluey 3-in-1 transforming plane set

Bluey-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: For Bluey fans
  • Age suitability: 3+
  • Why we love it
    • Great for Bluey fans
    • Big wow factor
    • Includes three play situations
  • Take note
    • Quite big

Our little fan of Bluey was ecstatic at this frankly huge aeroplane toy. It converts from an aeroplane to a beach hotel to a boat, which means our tester could play with it for ages, without losing interest. There are some small parts but we found it easy to keep them all together. While we found this toy quite huge, we didn’t hold that against it, as our tester enjoyed it so much. It’s pretty well made and feels durable, too.

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Duplo Peppa Pig’s birthday house

Duplo-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: For Peppa Pig fans
  • Age suitability: 2+
  • Why we love it
    • Good value
    • Great for Peppa fans
    • Open-ended play opportunities
  • Take note
    • Quite a lot of pieces

Toddlers can’t ignore the siren call of Peppa Pig, and this Duplo set is going to have them beaming from ear to ear. You get all the pieces to build your own Peppa Pig house and host a birthday party. Our toddler tester loved this, and enjoyed playing with the house and different play parts, but equally they loved smashing it up (preschoolers are chaotically destructive, after all) and building other structures out of the component parts. Our little tester got loads of of use out of this set, too, as it comes with Peppa and two of her friends, all of which were brought along for bath time, car journeys and days at nursery. There’s plenty of play mileage here, as it’s more than a one-trick pony.

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Real FX Disney Stitch puppet

Disney-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: For little performers
  • Age suitability: 6+
  • Why we love it
    • Lots of fun
    • Over 100 movements and sounds
    • Big wow factor
  • Take note
    • On the larger side
    • Pricey

Full transparency here: despite the age suitability being six plus, our four-year-old testers loved this toy just as much as our older testers. Do with that information what you will. At first, we were a bit overwhelmed by the size (45cm) of this interactive toy. It has a huge impact on opening – and a lot of plastic packaging. However, our testers lost their minds on seeing this Stitch puppet, which makes noises, and you can operate his ears, eyes and jaws fairly easily. Our testers loved putting on shows for each other – and chasing each other around the house with him. We were worried he’d be a one-hit wonder but over a month of testing, we noticed our testers returned to him frequently and played with him in many different ways.

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Cotton Twist mindful feelings chart

Cotton-Twist-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: For talking about feelings
  • Age suitability: N/A
  • Why we love it
    • Great for getting kids to talk about their emotions
    • Wooden
    • Looks great
    • Perfect smaller gift

Our testers immediately took to this chart, with younger and older kids enjoying putting the pieces together and then looking through the emotion tiles. You can hang up to three emotions on the chart at once – all illustrated with an emoji-style face. We loved that it was all made from wood, and looked great in our home. Most importantly, it encouraged our children to talk about their emotions – or just quietly let us know how they were feeling.

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GrossMos flying dino

GrossMos -best-christmas-toys-review-indybest-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: For dinosaur fans
  • Age suitability: 6+
  • Why we love it
    • Great surprise reveal
    • Loads of fun
    • Big wow factor
  • Take note
    • Slightly limited functionality

Shrieks of delight is how we’d sum up the impact of this new toy, which has launched just in time for Christmas 2024. It’s a large dino head, which roars and rumbles when you tap it. It then springs open and a small pterodactyl soars into the air – which you can encourage to fly into your heads. You can do this over and over again, as our testers demonstrated. This toy is great for energetic kids and dino fans.

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Baby Born Jonas doll starter set

Baby-Born-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Toy doll
  • Age suitability: 3+
  • Why we love it
    • Plenty of accessories
    • Great for kids who like role play
  • Take note
    • Quite large
    • Bit messy

There are plenty of dolls on the market but we were particularly impressed with the quality of this Baby Born doll. Jonas comes with a range of accessories to promote nurturing. You can feed him – add water to the plate and see the food appear, as if by magic. You can then put him on the potty and give him a squeeze to relieve him. As with real babies, Jonas can cry, sleep, wet his nappy and you can bathe him. Our doll-obsessed tester absolutely loved Jonas and enjoyed all the extra play that the accessories added.

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The Story Orchestra ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream'

The-Story-Orchestra-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Book
  • Age suitability: N/A
  • Why we love it
    • Promotes early phonics skills
    • Beautifully illustrated
    • A great keepsake item
  • Take note
    • Requires gentle hands

Our tester was totally entranced by this book, and looked at it independently for ages. Each page has part of the story of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream on it, and an area to press on the page. When you press the button, a beautiful melody plays from Mendelssohn’s suite of the same name. As listening is now thought of as the first phase in learning to read – especially in phonics – we loved that this book fosters a love of literacy from early on. Our tester loved explaining what the different excerpts sounded like, and what they made them feel. We think this will make a gorgeous gift for young children.

You can pre-order this book now, ahead of its 10 October release.

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Born Bizzy under the sea reusable silicone drawing mat set

Borb-Bizzy-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: Small brand gift
  • Age suitability: 3+
  • Why we love it
    • Great for on the go
    • Reusable
    • Dishwasher safe

We absolutely loved the idea of these drawing mats, and our testers were on board, too. The set includes a black-and-white flexible mat with loads of sea creatures to colour, and games to play. There are also five pens in the set and a cute cotton draw-string storage bag. Our testers loved drawing and colouring on the mat, then wiping it clean to start over. This was absolutely brilliant for taking out and about with us, and, with lines and numbers to trace, our kids got some mark-making skills ticked off without them even realising.

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Spidey and His Amazing Friends dance ’n crawl Spidey

Spidey-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: For superhero fans
  • Age suitability: 3+
  • Why we love it
    • Good quality
    • Good wow factor
  • Take note
    • Play slightly limited

Spidey is a big deal to lots of mini superhero fans. He’s kid friendly, cute and cool to younger kids. This toy brought our testers a huge amount of joy. It’s surprisingly large – which matters when you’re a kid, apparently – so, there was a big reaction to receiving this as a gift. Once out of the box, you can press the superhero’s foot and he plays a Spidey song and dances. Our testers rather cutely loved dancing around the living room with him. You can also lie him down on the floor and press his foot and he’ll crawl along the floor and play music. Our testers loved this toy and played with him for an extended period of time.

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Nintendo Switch ‘Mario vs Donkey Kong’ game

Nintendo-best-christmas-toys-review-indybest
  • Best: For gamers
  • Age suitability: 3+
  • Why we love it
    • Encourages teamwork
    • Lots of fun
    • Great puzzles
  • Take note
    • Only two player

Our gamer testers loved this fun platform game for the Nintendo Switch. Two players can work together to solve the puzzles and get through the levels. As parents, we were delighted to see our testers working together to solve clues, rather than being pitted against one another. There were shrieks of joy and loads of laughter as they tried to figure out how to get through each stage. Even as an adult, we found this game fun and just the right level of skill is required – you can enjoy game play without any stress.

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Kids’ toys FAQs

What are the toy trends this year?

There are a range of toys trends for 2024. Some key ones to look out for are unboxing experiences and mystery toys. This subsect of toys usually has a discovery element to it and you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get. From surprise eggs to bigger-budget mystery toys, these are super popular with kids this year.

There’s also a focus on extended play value, and that’s really something we’ve considered throughout testing the products in this list. Do the toys last longer than the unwrapping, or do they end up collecting dust in the toy box? That was one of our main testing points.

The verdict: kids’ toys

We have awarded the Yoto player our best toy over all. It’s great for kids of all ages, will last them their whole childhood and has so many functions. We also highly rate the Lovevery play kit for young children, thanks to it being sustainably led and just a brilliant idea. Meanwhile, for children who love a bit of arts and crafts, the Crayola and Born Busy sets will go down a storm.

Need some gift inspiration for Christmas? Check out our comprehensive guides

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