10 Gifts to Get 2-3 Year Olds For Christmas That Won't Annoy The Parents

Main Keyword: 2-3 Year Old Gifts
Related Keywords: 2-3 year olds, toddlers, preschoolers, Christmas, gift ideas, parents
Targeted Audience: Parents of toddlers and preschoolers

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​Lauren Barrett

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10 Gift Ideas to Get 2-3 Year Olds For Christmas That Won't Annoy Parents

Introduction 

My son’s birthday follows Christmas, so we get a lot of gifts from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. 

While I appreciate their sentiment behind those gifts, I DO NOT want annoying, plastic toys that blink, flash, yell, sing, and get under my skin anymore. 

I’m preaching this from the mountain. 

Not only are these toys annoying for parents, they don’t serve much of a purpose besides mesmerizing and entertaining your toddler into a stupor for a brief moment.

Oftentimes, these toys are cool for a month or two. Your 2-3 year olds get bored of these toys quickly and do little to help foster their imaginations. They do all the work for your little ones. 

What we want people to get our kids are open-ended toys, meaning toys that grow with our 2-3 year olds and help our toddlers use their imaginations and creativity. They can be used in multiple ways and don’t serve one single purpose (Building blocks vs. a toy helicopter that sings and plays music).

Lauren Barrett Writes is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read more about these links in my disclosure policy.

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10 Gift Ideas to Get 2-3 Year Olds For Christmas That Won't Annoy Parents

In today’s blog post, I have 10 gifts for your toddlers and preschoolers that won’t annoy you as parents. They are educational, fun, and practical. 

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#1. Hugg-A-Planet with Educational Placemat Map

I am a little biased on this one, but I love geography, and, not to get on my high horse, but believe that we should all have a knowledge of our world. 

Hugg-a-planet is a soft, plush globe that your 2-3 year olds will love hugging, tossing, and learning from. 

Pair this with an educational placemat of a map of the world or U.S.A. 

These gifts will allow for incidental learning to take place, and your toddlers’ natural curiosity will take over as they begin to study and pore over these globes and placemats while they eat, play, and enjoy quiet time in their rooms. 

These gifts invite discussions at dinnertime and when you are just hanging around in the living room. And what’s great, is that these gifts can last well into the teenage years, serving a purpose.

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#2. Magnetic Tiles

This gift is perfect for your 2-3 year olds and even beyond. 

These  magnetic tiles come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. They encourage your toddlers to build, create, deconstruct, match, stack, sort, and more while allowing your children to be the drivers behind what they do. 

They aren’t loud, and they don't even hurt that much when stepped on. 

Take them outside, play with them inside, or build with them in the car, this gift provides hours of entertainment and brain development. 

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#3. Kids Carpet Playmat Rug

I like these large rugs because they open up a whole new creative world for your kids. 

The rug includes roads, a hospital, a school, an airport, and more. Kids can use their toy cars and blocks to build an imaginative city throughout this rug. 

The mat provides an opportunity for kids to control the narrative and the play. 

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#4. Wooden Stacking Rocks

These wooden stones are similar to building blocks but have a different allure to them in a way because they are NEW and have a challenging element to them. 

How high can you balance them? What way should you stack them? Vertical? Horizontal? 

They also can be used for more than just stacking. 

Bury them in the sand or dirt to find. Wash them off with soap and water. Sort them by color and shape. 

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#5. Indoor Teepee

I think there is something magical about an indoor teepee where your toddler can go and camp out for some time. 

Your 2-3 year olds can have quiet time in the tent to read, color, play, and build.

They will want to go in there because they will feel “hidden” and as if they are in their own little world. 

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EXPERIENCES

As parents, we also want our kids to have experiences that build long-lasting memories and connections. I love these as gifts for Christmas.

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#6. Swim Lessons

When my parents gave my son swim lessons for Christmas, I would dread going each night, but when I got there, I realized how much I loved experiencing this with my son. 

I have fond memories of connecting with my son during these times. He was being active, learning a necessary skill, socializing with his peers, and having special time with mommy. 

I wouldn’t trade our time practicing “fast feet” in the water and our locker room conversations for anything. 

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#7. Memberships

I highly recommend a membership to a kids museum or zoo. My parents got us a membership to our local kids museum last Christmas. 

This whole year, especially when it was too hot outside, we would head there for an hour or two. He would have a blast.  

Since my son is still a toddler, he didn’t yet run from one section to the next. He preferred to play in one spot while I parked my behind on one of the many seats or benches and would read a book or just soak up the joy he had from being there. 

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#8. Weekend Getaway

A weekend getaway can be as elaborate as a trip to the mountains or an indoor water park to as simple as a weekend with Grandma and Grandpa with tons of sugar and TV.

This gift is all in the presentation and how you hype it up when your 2-3 year olds open it on Christmas. 

Print out a coupon or gift certificate with what the weekend getaway will be and wrap it in a “special” box in which your child will open up last.

Say that this is a “magical” gift consisting of many memories. Then, talk about the importance of memories. Use a whisper voice which will trigger to your toddler that this gift is important. 

And then enjoy the weekend getaway whether you are the one staying behind or going with your child. 

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#9. A Year in Review Photo Album

I did this for my son’s first year. It was more of a gift for me than him since he was still a baby, but now he likes looking back on it and pointing out all the people in the pictures.

This is a fun gift to do every year for the family, but especially for 2-3 year olds as you are building language in them and helping them make connections. 

Flip through the photo album with your toddlers and reflect back on the memories of the past year. Ask questions to see what they recall. 

Let them keep this album in their room to “show off.” 

Having these each year will be so much fun to look back upon when the kids are older. 

#10. The Henry’s Hiccups Experience

Supplemental to my book, Henry's Hiccups, The Henry's Hiccups Language Experience offers the following: 
10 Modules found in the Henry's Hiccups Language Experience.

1. In-Depth Discussion Guide: This discussion guide will prompt you to ask deep meaning and through provoking questions to get your kids thinking about all the different kinds of people of this world and the ways they communicate. You'll find questions to ask for each page.
2. KWL Chart: KWL charts are great for pre-reading activities and building background knowledge. Use these charts to have your kids fill out what they already KNOW about [insert topic like sign language), WHAT they want to find out, and what they LEARNED when it was all done.
3. Journal Prompts: You'll get three journal prompts that you can have kids do individually or together.
4. Shades of Meaning: This activity is a hit with my students. You'll have students rank synonyms from weakest to strongest on paint samples. Students will have to reason why they chose the way they chose.
5. Sequence of Events: Have students put in order the events of the story using pictures.
6. Match the ASL to the Word: Using pictures of the ASL vocabulary match them to their correct word.
7. Fill in the Missing Letter: Work on your kids phonics by having them fill in the missing letter from vocabulary words in the story.
8. Character Connections: With Character Connections, kids can list all the characters and then begin to make connections with them and fill out each character's traits, thoughts, and emotions.
9. Problem and Solution: Henry has the hiccups and everyone has a different solution for him. Match what everyone came up to do to help Henry.
10. Read/Sign Aloud: I, the author of the book, read aloud and sign in ASL the book. Kids can see the beautiful systematic structure of ASL come alive.

*BONUS* Coloring Sheets included too. 

Perfect for teaching your kids the full language experience. 

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Final Thoughts

Remember this. 

You do not need to get your child the latest and greatest toys. The greatest gifts you can get your children are the ones that build memories and connection and encourage little ones to use their imagination. 

Sign up for my checklists to help you with life's hard moments below or check out my parenting guide, Now What? to help teach your kid how to play independently. 

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Lauren Barrett was born in New Jersey, grew up in West Virginia, went to college in Pennsylvania, and now lives and works in North Carolina. She is a high school teacher of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing by day, a cross country coach by the afternoon, a writer by her son's nap times, and a full time mom to an amazing toddler. She loves her faith, running, visiting MLB stadiums with her husband, chocolate, scrapbooking, pretending she would actually do well on the Amazing Race, re-watching The Office, listening to Bobby Bones, and helping out all moms. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, James, and son, Henry.