The best gifts for 1- and 2-year-olds are simple toys they can push, stack, fill, dump and pretend with, plus books you read together. Below are 35 toddler toys in three budgets, 17 for 1-year-olds and 18 for 2-year-olds, each matched to what most children that age are learning to do.
Updated by the Frugal Santa elves
For children from their first birthday to their second. Filter by budget or kind of play, star the ones you like and share the list with whoever is chipping in. Other ages are on our gifts by age page.
Stack them, nest them, knock them down, then take them in the bath to fill and pour.
A box with a few chunky pieces to drop in and dump out again. Putting things in a container is on the CDC's 12-month checklist.
The extra-large bricks made for small hands snap together and pull apart easily. Look for ages 1 and up on the box.
Thick pages that small fingers can turn. A boxed set means a new story to read every few days.
A wooden duck or train that clacks along behind a new walker. Pick one with a short cord and put it away at nap time.
Bumpy, squishy and easy to grab, and they roll slowly enough for a crawler to catch. Buy a set sold for babies.
Something to hug, carry and tuck under a blanket. Around 15 months, most toddlers start hugging a favorite toy.
A wide, steady toy to stand behind and push in the months of walking along the furniture. It is not a sit-in baby walker on wheels.
Low enough to sit on with both feet flat, so they scoot down the hallway long before they can pedal.
Beads, gears, little doors and shapes on every side. It sits on the floor and keeps busy hands busy.
Legs at standing height, so a child who just pulled up can stay up and play. Check that the battery door is screwed shut.
A short slide for the playroom or the yard. Climbing up the steps is half the fun at this age.
Crawl in one end, pop out the other and hear someone say boo. It folds flat when the game is over.
A wooden A-frame to climb up and over, low enough for first tries. Set it on a rug and stay close.
Ramps, steps and cubes that turn the living room into an obstacle course with nothing hard to bump into.
You push from behind now. The pedals and handlebar take over later. Check the age range on the box.
A year of animal mornings, in the name of the grown-up who takes them. Check your zoo's rules for toddlers before you buy.
Mostly the same few things, over and over: putting things in, taking them out, pushing, pulling and climbing. The CDC's milestone checklists list what most children, 75% or more, can do by each age. By 12 months, most pull up to stand, walk while holding on to furniture and put something in a container, like a block in a cup. By 15 months, most take a few steps alone, stack two small objects and hug a favorite toy. By 18 months, most walk without holding on, scribble, push a toy car and look at a few pages of a book with you.
So the best gifts for a 1-year-old match those jobs. Stacking cups and a put-and-take box feed the in-and-out game. A push walker or a ride-on helps with the walking, and board books start a bedtime habit. Skip toys with lots of settings: at this age, a toy that does less leaves more for the child to do.
For children from their second birthday to their third. Two-year-olds pretend, run and build, so the list leans that way. Turning 3 soon? See our gifts for 3-year-olds.
At 2, toddlers start putting toy food on toy plates. Choose big pieces: some play food sets are labeled 3 and up.
Feeding and tucking in the baby is a big game by two and a half. Pick a doll they can carry in one arm.
Busy pages where they can point to the bear, the bus and the moon, and then tell you what each one is.
Chunky mallet, bright keys. Every whack makes a real note, so there is no wrong way to play. Many are marked 2 and up.
Four to eight pieces with big knobs to grab. Pick a picture they already love: animals, trucks or the farm.
Squish it, roll it and cut it into stars. Buy cans labeled for ages 2 and up and keep the dough at the table.
Big enough to fill with sand or blocks and push across the floor. Choose one without small pieces.
No pedals: they walk it, then scoot, then glide. Many 12-inch models say 2 and up. Add a helmet that fits.
Cups, scoops and a spinning wheel at toddler height. Wrap it now, fill it on the first warm day and stay close while they splash.
A short hoop that grows with them and a ball that fits two hands. Running, throwing and cheering in one gift.
They push it around the house and fill it with whatever they find, the way you do at the store. Many are marked 18 months and up.
A place of their own for dough, puzzles and snacks, with chairs low enough to climb into alone.
A shop, a house or a cave, depending on the day. It folds flat into its bag when the guests arrive.
A bigger set of the large toddler bricks, with wheels or animals to build around. Grown-ups get to build too.
Knobs to turn, a sink to wash in and doors to open and shut. Pick one marked 2 and up: many wooden kitchens say 3 and up because of their small accessories.
A sturdy step with a rail all the way around, so they can stand at the counter and stir the pancake batter with you.
They sit, steer and honk while you push from behind on walks. Later they can scoot it with their own feet.
Cushions that become a fort, a ramp, a train or a reading nook, then stack back into a little couch.
Toys that let them copy you. By age 2, the CDC says most children kick a ball, run, try the switches and knobs on toys, and play with two toys at once, like putting toy food on a toy plate. By 30 months, most use things to pretend, such as feeding a block to a doll. They twist lids, jump with both feet and name things in a book when you point.
That points to a short list: a baby doll with a bottle, play food and dishes, a toy shopping cart, chunky peg puzzles, play dough labeled for age 2 and up, a balance bike with a helmet and books with lots to name. Plenty of play food sets and kitchens say 3 and up on the box because of small parts, so read the label before you buy. The best toys for 2-year-olds also leave room for you. At a tea party for two, you are the other guest.
Toys made for children under 3 can't have small parts. That is a federal rule from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). A small part is anything that fits completely into a test cylinder about the size of a toddler's throat: 1.25 inches across and 1 to 2.25 inches deep. Balls 1.75 inches across or smaller are banned for under-3s too.
Toys for ages 3 to 6 with small parts must carry a warning: "CHOKING HAZARD - Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs." When you see it, the toy is not for a 1- or 2-year-old. Latex balloons carry a warning for every child under 8.
A button battery stuck in the throat can do severe damage in about two hours, so pick toys whose battery door is screwed shut, and keep strong magnets out of reach. If a child may have swallowed one, don't wait for signs: the 24-hour National Battery Ingestion Hotline is 1-800-498-8666, and the next stop is the ER.
The same ones. At 1 and 2, children are all working on the same skills: walking, stacking, first words and first pretend games. A 1-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl both want to push the cart, feed the doll, bang the drum and dump the cups out one more time. The American Academy of Pediatrics, in its December 2018 report on choosing toys for young children, asks families to be aware that toys can promote gender stereotypes. It also says the best toys need not be flashy or expensive.
So shop for the child, not the aisle sign. Watch what they reach for at playgroup or at a cousin's house. A toddler who loves wheels gets a ride-on. One who carries a bear everywhere gets a doll with a bottle and a blanket. Pick colors for fun if you like, but any toy on these two lists suits any 1- or 2-year-old who likes that kind of play.
Watch, then write it down. For a few weeks before Christmas, jot down what your toddler crawls or toddles toward at playgroup, at the library and at Grandma's. Ask the daycare teacher which toy they wait in line for. For a 1-year-old, that note is the whole answer.
By 2, the CDC says most children put two words together, so some can tell you. On a live video call with Santa on your own account, your 2-year-old can sit on your lap, wave and shout "truck!" Older brothers and sisters can tell Santa their own wishes on the same call, and you can mention what you have noticed. Afterwards you get every wish back in one list, with store prices from lowest to highest. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests less than an hour of screen time a day from age 2, so keep the call short. Read how calling Santa works first, and ask the grown-ups on your list too.
Time and outings. A toddler's shelf fills fast, so ask the parents first what they have room for. A zoo or children's museum membership pays for a year of mornings out. At the San Diego Zoo, for one, the child membership starts at age 3, so the grown-up who takes the toddler is the one who needs the pass. Swim lessons or a toddler music class work the same way. More ideas for every age are on our gifts for grandkids page.
Or give the whole family minutes with Santa. Gift minutes are $1 a minute. You write a short note and get back a gift card with a code. Print it, save it as a picture or text the link to Mom or Dad. There is nothing to wrap or ship. The code goes in on the redeem page, after they sign in with an email, and the minutes land in their account. Minutes don't expire, so the family can call whenever they like.
Buy fewer, then rotate. A 1-year-old plays with a handful of toys for weeks. Keep some in a closet and swap them in every few weeks, and the old ones feel new again. Board books cost less in boxed sets, and the public library lends them for free, a few at a time.
Toddlers outgrow toys fast, so secondhand saves the most. Before you buy a used toy, the CPSC says to check that it has not been recalled, so search the recalls on CPSC.gov first. Skip used toys with a missing battery screw or loose pieces.
Santa's wish list helps with the rest. When a video call with Santa ends, your family's wishes come back as one list, cheapest store first, with links. If you buy at Target and its price drops within 14 days, you can ask Target to match its own lower price. Last, share one shortlist with the grandparents, so nobody buys the same ride-on twice.
Fewer than you think. One or two gifts they can use every day beat a pile. Some families follow a simple rule of four: something they want, need, wear and read. See our Christmas gift rules.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says electronic toys by themselves don't give children the back-and-forth with a grown-up that matters most. Blocks, books, balls and pretend toys do.
Many 12-inch balance bikes are labeled for ages 2 and up. Check the seat height against the child's legs, and add a helmet: the CPSC asks for one on every riding toy.
Yes, if the age on the box says 2. Many kitchens are labeled 3 and up because of small play food and pans, so check before you buy.
See gifts for 3-year-olds, pick any age on our gifts by age page, or browse Christmas gifts for kids.
Yes, with your hand on the pencil. Cut pictures from a toy catalog and glue them on our printable Christmas wish list.
Yes, in this browser only. The 1-year-old and 2-year-old lists keep separate stars, and nothing goes to us. A shared link holds just the idea codes after the # sign, the part of an address a browser never sends to a website.
Start at our Christmas gift ideas, sorted by person and budget.
Live videoA live video call with Santa for the whole family. Your toddler waves, the big kids tell him their wishes, and each wish comes back with store prices, lowest first. $1 a minute.
Call Santa
