Back
Melissa & Doug GO Tots Barnyard Tumble

Toy Guides

Best Holiday Toys & Gifts for 2-Year-Olds

October 12, 2022

If you’re looking for a few ways to inspire creativity and excitement with colorful, hands-on, and age-appropriate toys for the 2022 holiday season, we hope you’ll find this list of gift ideas for 2-year-olds helpful! We’ve chosen 10 of our favorite top toys for the preschool children in your life based on what makes them each unique, their fun features, and the skills they reinforce. 

The 10 Best Toys and Gifts for 2-Year-Olds

Girl playing with Melissa & Doug GO Tots Barnyard Tumble

GO Tots Barnyard Tumble

Age: 1+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: Kids can have loads of fun as they  roll, stack, and grasp the wooden GO Tots farm friends. Watch the double-sided discs tumble, twirl, and zigzag down the silo, out the barn door on one side, and over the haystack and into the trough on the other. Includes six farm animals and two farmer GO Tots characters.
Fun feature: Sliding barn doors and built-in wooden carrying handle
Skills: Cause-and-effect, fine motor, sensory development
How to wow: Add to your little one’s  collection of farmyard friends with the Jumbo Knob Farm Puzzle.

GO Tots Town House Tumble

Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Gifts and Toys for 2 Year Olds GO Tots Town House Tumble

Age: 1+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: Kids can roll, stack, and grasp the double-sided wooden GO Tots friends and make them tumble, twirl, and zigzag down the wooden town house tower. Pretend play can transition from the neighborhood scene in the front, to the cozy bedroom scene on the back. The sturdy wooden house also includes a peek-a-boo door and built-in mirror.
Fun feature: Built-in wooden handle
Skills: Cause-and-effect, fine motor, sensory development.
How to wow: Add the Roll & Ride School Bus so kids can expand on their storytelling and imaginative play.

100 Wood Blocks Set

Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Toys and Gifts for 2 Year Olds 100 Piece Wood Blocks Set

Age: 2+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: With 100 wooden blocks in four colors and nine shapes, this set gives kids endless options for getting creative. They can stack, build, and count the blocks, and of course…knock ’em all down!
Fun feature: Blocks range from approx. 1" to 2.25"—perfect for little hands!
Skills: Fine motor skills and dexterity, color and shape recognition, pre-math and counting
How to wow: Add to the stacking and counting excitement with Wooden ABC/123 Blocks.

Deluxe Jumbo Cardboard Blocks (40 pc)

Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Toys and Gifts for 2 Year Olds Deluxe Jumbo Cardboard Blocks 40 Pieces

Age: 2+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: The sky’s the limit for young builders who can play with this 40-piece set of lightweight, easy-to-lift cardboard boxes. All three sizes of the set’s durable pieces have wipe-clean surfaces and are easy to assemble. Caregivers will love the step-by-step instructions for easy fold-together assembly.
Fun feature: The red blocks can hold up to 150 pounds!
Skills: Gross motor skills, counting, confidence
How to wow: Add to your collection with the 24-piece set of these Jumbo Cardboard Blocks!

Take-Along Sorting Barn

Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Toys and Gifts for 2 Year Olds Take-Along Sorting Barn

Age: 2+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: Toddlers and preschoolers will love fitting all 10 chunky wooden pieces into the cut-out shapes of the barn’s walls. Once they’re done, they can flip the barn roof up, reach in for the easy-to-handle pieces, and do it all over again!
Fun feature: This travel-friendly set includes a horse, pig, goat, sheep, chicken, dog, cow, ducks, a tractor, and a farmer.
Skills: Fine motor skills, matching and sorting, creative play
How to wow: Help your child get to know their favorite farm animals even better with Poke-a-Dot: Farm Animal Families

Deluxe Pounding Bench

Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Toys and Gifts for 2 Year Olds Deluxe Pounding Bench Toddler Toy

Age: 2+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: Toddlers and preschoolers can take peekaboo to the next level with this solid wood pounding bench. They’ll love getting to know their colors while developing their hand-eye-coordination skills with the sturdy mallet that’s included!
Fun feature: Each colorful peg pops up with a cheerful smile every time!
Skills: Fine motor skills, color recognition, confidence
How to wow: Enjoy even more pounding and color-learning fun with the Pound-and-Roll Tower.

Stacking Train
Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Toys and Gifts for 2 Year Olds Stacking Train Toddler Toy

Age: 2+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: Roll into the station for counting, stacking, and sorting with this stacking train for toddlers. The train includes an engine, two train cars, and 15 colorful, wooden blocks.
Fun feature: Kids can play with the detachable train cars individually or attached to one another!
Skills: Fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, color and shape recognition, counting
How to wow: Keep up the fun with colors and interlocking pieces with the Caterpillar Gears Toddler Toy!

Farm Chunky Puzzle

Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Gifts and Toys for 2 Year Olds nky Puzzle 8 Pieces

Age: 2+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: With seven easy-to-grasp, chunky farm animals, kids will gain an understanding of the basics of completing a puzzle. Matching pictures in each spot will help them understand the activity as they enjoy the company of the cow, ducks, sheep, lamb, pig, horse, and chicken.
Fun feature: The pieces can stand up on their own for other forms of play and as manipulatives!
Skills: Hand-eye coordination, imaginative play, fine motor skills
How to wow: Bring your farm animal friends on a train ride with the Wooden Rocking Farm Animals Pull Train!

Wheels on the Bus Sound Puzzle

Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Toys and Gifts for 2 Year Olds The Wheels on the Bus Sound Puzzle

Age: 2+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: Toddlers can sing along as they lift each of the six puzzle pieces to see what’s happening underneath! Durable plastic pegs make the pieces easy for small hands to grasp the bright, colorful pieces. (AAA batteries not included.)
Fun feature: The song lyrics to “The Wheels on the Bus” are included on the wooden puzzle board!
Skills: Fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, auditory processing
How to wow: Enjoy more puzzle fun and get to know more sounds with the Musical Instruments Sound Puzzle

Safari Chunky Puzzle

Melissa & Doug Best Holiday Toys and Gifts for 2 Year Olds Safari Chunky Puzzle 8 Pieces

Age: 2+
Why it’s a great gift for 2-year-olds: With eight chunky, easy-to-grasp wild animal pieces—and matching pictures underneath—this puzzle is sure to please the preschool set. Full-color safari animal pieces include a zebra, ostrich, elephant, hippopotamus, crocodile, rhinoceros, lion, and giraffe.
Fun feature: The pieces from this puzzle stand upright, allowing for other types of play or use as manipulatives.
Skills: Hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, creative expression
How to wow: Keep up the fine-motor-skill-building experience with the six-piece Construction Chunky Puzzle!

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

10 Best Toys for 3-Year-Olds

10 Best Toys for 4-Year-Olds

5 Holiday Gifts that Wow

Best Gifts for Kids By Interest 

Best Throwback Toys & Gifts

Best Stocking Stuffers