The holidays are a magical time, and for 4-year-olds, it’s prime time for pretend play and hands-on fun! If you're searching to find the perfect Christmas present or holiday gift for the 4-year-old child in your life, we’ve got you covered.
We've compiled 10 of our favorite top toys for the 2023 holiday season that will delight your 4-year-old and also support their development. If you'd like additional help finding the right toy for your child, check out Melissa & Doug's 2023 Holiday Gift Guide and let it do all the work for you.
The 10 Best Toys and Gifts for 4-Year-Olds for the Holidays
Spanish See & Spell Learning Toy
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Complete a puzzle to spell a word in Spanish! This wonderfully illustrated wooden puzzle set is great for native Spanish-speakers and for kids learning another language. Place the wooden lowercase letters into the double-sided puzzle boards to spell words in Spanish that match the illustrations.
Fun feature: The letters are also great for stenciling and lots of learning games, as well as for color recognition and sorting and sequencing activities.
Skills: Helps kids develop sight-reading vocabulary, letter recognition, spelling, color recognition, and fine motor skills
How to wow: Also available in an English version!
Wooden Stamp Set - Dinosaurs
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Imagine a landscape full of dinosaurs! Children love using the 8 detailed dino stamps and a two-color inkpad, and it's fun creating countless scenes, and coloring in the pictures with the 5 colored pencils!
Fun feature: Washable, non-toxic kid-friendly ink.
Skills: Promotes creativity and fine motor skills
How to wow: Melissa & Doug offers a host of other themed wooden stamp sets, including Friendship, ABCs/123s, and many more.
Scissor Skills Activity Pad
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Kids love to cut with scissors--as you can see by the trail of scraps often left in their wake! This creative and practical activity pad gives an engaging, creative direction to scissor work, meaning more concentration and less mess.
Fun feature: Organized from simple to more complex, 20 different paper cutting projects (with complete supplies included right in the pages of the book) practice slightly different skills and techniques, and produce 20 unique crafts, games, and activities to offer kids a creative focus and a sense of accomplishment. Plastic safety scissors included.
Skills: Encourages fine motor and cognitive skills
How to wow: Once your little one has those scissor skills mastered, take their pretend cutting careers to the next level with our Barber Shop Play Set or Beauty Salon Play Set.
Scratch Art Rainbow Mini Notes (125-count)
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Creative kids can jot notes, etch doodles, and make their own exciting masterpieces with Mini Scratch Art Notes!
Fun feature: Includes 125 Rainbow Mini Notes, a wooden stylus, and a handy "desktop dispenser" box to keep it all organized.
Skills: Promotoes fine motor, creativity, C-grip, hand-eye coordination
How to wow: If creative play is what engages your little creator the most, then consider adding an essential piece of arts & crafts play to their playroom, such as our Deluxe Wooden Standing Art Easel.
Self-Correcting Letter Puzzles
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Kids can match these wooden puzzle pairs to make mastering letters as easy as A-B-C! A different object illustrates each letter of the alphabet shown in both upper and lower case, and the puzzles are self-correcting because each puzzle piece has only one match that fits. It's a great way for children to play independently and learn at the same time.
Fun feature: The puzzle includes 52 high-quality wooden pieces, and comes in a sturdy wooden box with a slide-in lid for easy storage and accessibility. The colorful puzzle pieces feature a familiar item to represent each letter ranging from an apple to a zebra.
Skills: Letter recognition, matching and memory skills, eye-hand coordination, and fine motors skills
How to wow: Want to help your little learner master their numbers as well? We’ve got a toy for that—The Self-Correcting Number Puzzles!
Design-Your-Own Bracelets
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: This exciting fashion activity set and bracelet craft kit lets kids make their own accessories to wear and share! The set includes four two-sided kids' bracelets, with a different shimmering color on each side.
Fun feature: Just add the included sparkle-gem and glitter stickers to fill each one with flowers, hearts, butterflies, stars, loops, and swirls. Make your own bracelets, then close the reusable tab closure to wear your favorite--or layer a bunch for a sparkling fashion statement!
Skills: Fine motor and creativity
How to wow: If fashion fun gives your child a creative boost, introduce them to the glorious world of puffy reusable stickers with our Puffy Stickers Play Set: Princess edition.
Building Site Floor Puzzle - 48 Pieces
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Constructive playtime awaits with this exciting cardboard floor puzzle featuring vehicles hard at work on a building site!
Fun feature: The puzzle is an impressive 2 feet x 3 feet when assembled, and the 48 extra-thick pieces are durable and easy to clean, so they'll stay looking like new, use after use.
Skills: Fine motor and problem-solving skills
How to wow: Perhaps your child doesn’t dig construction themes; not a problem, as Melissa & Doug offers a host of puzzle theme options, from Solar System to Underwater and everything in between.
Created by Me! Jewelry Box Wooden Craft Kit
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: This Melissa & Doug wooden jewelry box is a craft kit and keepsake all in one! Kids can add their own creative touches and personalize this Created by Me jewelry box and use it to store their jewelry and special little items.
Fun feature: The sturdy wooden box is constructed of high-quality, durable wood, and features a mirror inside the lid as well as a velvet ring holder. The all-inclusive craft kit features everything kids need to decorate the pretty pink box. It includes 26 sparkling gem stickers, 38 shimmering foil stickers, three glitter glue sticks and a white glue stick.
Skills: Promotes fine motor, hand-eye coordination, and creative expression
How to wow: Keep your child’s creativity going with more arts & crafts fun, such as our Created by Me Flower Magnets Wooden Craft Kit.
National Parks Reusable Stickers – Park Animals (5 Scenes, 121 Stickers)
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: Take a creative storytelling journey through five national parks (Denali, Everglades, Biscayne, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon) and learn the names of the animals and plants there! Tell imaginative stories by matching 20 Denali-themed puffy stickers and 101 cling-style stickers to illustrated glossy park scenes, then peel the stickers off to rearrange again and again!
Fun feature: Large, top spiral-bound pad lets scenes lay flat, and makes the set great for travel. Stickers store on color-coded tabbed pages inside for mess-free play!
Skills: Plants and animals identified in English and Spanish; great educational travel toy for development of fine motor and storytelling skills
How to wow: If your child loves nature and the great outdoors, introduce them to the Melissa & Doug National Park Foundation collection of toys, designed to inspire a lifelong relationship with the natural world.
School Time Classroom Play Set
Why it’s a great gift for 4-year-olds: With a drop-down teacher desk on one side and a student desk on the other, this innovative set allows kids to realistically play both roles!
Fun feature: The exciting array of supplies — including 2 double-sided write-on, wipe-off boards, 2 dry-erase markers, 9 reusable activity cards, 12 pattern blocks, 150 reusable stickers, a bell, timer, pointer, and lots more — enables kids to explore a favorite activity and continue learning even out of the classroom!
Skills: Vocabulary, social-emotional development
How to wow: Go for “extra credit,” by adding the Deluxe Double-Sided Tabletop Easel to enhance your child’s pretend classroom.
Looking for more of the best Christmas and holiday gift and toy ideas for kids of all ages? Check out these blog posts:
10 Best Toys for Babies and 1-Year-Olds
