Some of our most important family memories are made when we share quality time together doing things we love most—like spending time in the kitchen during the holiday season, preparing traditional family favorite dishes to show friends and family how much they’re loved.
Depending on your background and culture, different people prepare different special dishes during the holidays. In Mexico, families prepare tamales; in France, they have the Bûche de Noel dessert; England features Christmas pudding; Italians celebrate with the Feast of Seven Fishes; in parts of Africa, Jollof rice and stews are popular dishes; and Eastern Europeans enjoy homemade pierogi dumplings this time of year. A traditional American Christmas feast could feature anything from a turkey with all the trimmings to Chinese takeout to a pizza party!
Although the holidays only roll around once a year, you can plant the seeds for new holiday family traditions for the children in your life by gifting them pretend play toys that inspire them to prepare food for the loved ones in their lives. In addition to promoting basic developmental skills that kids will need for school and beyond, pretend play toys help encourage them to find the confidence to try new things, and the persistence to keep going when they face setbacks.
In this Living Playfully blog post to support our Food is Love campaign, we spotlight five top pretend play food toys that will inspire creativity, love, and important developmental skills your young child needs for school and beyond. When you want to make unforgettable core memories of the holidays for your children, introduce them to your family cooking traditions by starting with these pretend food play sets from Melissa & Doug!
Food is Love: 5 Pretend Play Toys to Make Holiday Memories
Make & Bake Pies Play Set
The Playful Details: The Melissa & Doug 27-piece pretend play pie-making set has everything kids need to prep, put together, and “bake” deliciously imaginative play pies.
Skills at Play: Pretend food play with this robust set filled with fun details is an engaging way for budding chefs to boost motor skills, learn to follow directions, practice counting, sorting, storytelling, and communication skills.
Playful Suggestions:
✅ My dad loved coconut custard pie for the holidays; does someone in your family have a favorite pie for the holiday? Teach your little ones the origins of a favorite family pie recipe. Don’t have one? This is the time to establish a new tradition–pick a flavor and go for it!
✅ Teach your child the different types of pie toppings: full crust, lattice crust, fancy decorations, meringue, whipped cream & crumble – encourage your kid chef to explore their culinary creativity.
✅ Encourage your child to open a pretend bakery: What would they call it? Have them make a sign and menu for their bakery, then put out their pies for display and run the shop.
Wooden Gingerbread House Play Set – Winter Frost
The Playful Details: Fit together, decorate, and play with the re-buildable Melissa & Doug winter wonderland wooden gingerbread house! Decorate with reusable wooden accessories and “icing” cords that cling to hook-and-loop tabs for a mess-free, festive, pretend play celebration anytime!
Skills at Play: The Melissa & Doug Gingerbread House Play Set is a great activity for holidays or rainy days, and helps encourage creativity, problem-solving, fine motor skills, sorting, matching, counting, and color recognition.
Playful Suggestions:
✅ More than just a decorating activity, play pieces, including a fox, bear, penguin, tree, and a reversible pond/snow field, offer countless hours of playtime possibilities and encourage storytelling ability.
✅ Use our Wooden Gingerbread House as practice, then reveal a real gingerbread house kit that you can decorate with your kids and family–a new family tradition is born!
✅ Our Wooden Gingerbread House can also serve as a playful backdrop when your little ones leave cookies & treats for Santa Claus and his reindeer.
Wooden Chocolate Factory Play Set
The Playful Details: Sweeten up playtime by ordering, assembling, displaying, and gifting deliciously fun pretend play candy treats. The Melissa & Doug Wooden Chocolate Factory Play Set lets kids create imaginative filled play chocolate candies with durable plastic tops and bottoms and colorful wooden fillings that can be decorated with stickers.
Skills at Play: Chocolate Factory Play Set is a great way to encourage fine motor, number, and matching skills, as well as color recognition, communication, cooperative play, and narrative thinking.
Playful Suggestions:
✅ Many families create special confections to give as gifts for the holidays. Practice making your own pretend candy with the little ones, then transition to the real thing when they’re more confident in the kitchen! Food is Love, and nothing says “I love you” like gifted homemade chocolates.
✅ Encourage your child to open their own pretend chocolate shop: What’s the name of the store? What kind of treats will you serve? Have your kids create a sign with a menu, then run the shop for pretend play fun! Display in a fancy gift box and pay for purchases with play money.
✅ Let your little one take the lead as you take orders to flip switches, move the slider, press a lever, and turn the dial to drop on the tops! You can switch roles when it’s time to decorate with a pretend icing squeeze tube.
Slice & Bake Christmas Cookie Play Set
The Playful Details: Slice and pretend to bake a dozen wooden cookies, then decorate them for Christmas! This colorful play-food set includes a tube of 12 sliceable cookies with 12 decorative toppings, an oven mitt, wooden cookie sheet, knife and spatula, plus pretend baking directions to encourage unlimited imaginative play and learning.
Skills at Play: A "sweet" introduction to pretend kitchen play; encourages counting, sorting and matching, and fine motor skills.
Also available: Slice & Bake Cookie Set Wooden Play Food
Playful Suggestions:
✅ Take turns playing different roles in the kitchen with the Slice & Bake Christmas Cookie Play Set—one person can prep, slice & bake, while the other person decorates. Then switch roles to keep the pretend play going!
✅ Play fun games with the Slice & Bake Cookies for and have a good laugh: How many cookies can you kiddo stack on their head? How many can they catch off an elbow flip? Do a scavenger hunt with Christmas cookies! The only limit for silliness is your imagination.
✅ In our family, everyone has a signature cookie they like to bake at the holidays. Then we combine forces and create impressive cookie grab bags to give away as gifts! If your family doesn’t have a signature cookie yet, pick one and go for it! Use the Slice & Bake Christmas Cookies as practice until your kiddos are comfortable in the kitchen.
Prepare & Serve Pasta Set
The Playful Details: Prepare perfect pretend pasta every time with this 50-plus-piece pasta-making set! Fun pasta boxes hold felt penne, bow tie pasta, linguini, and ravioli pockets that can be hand-stuffed with felt spinach, meat, or cheese fillings.
Skills at Play: Preparing pretend play food helps kids develop gross and fine motor skills, gets them to practice following directions, and provides an opportunity to express themselves creatively and practice narrative ability.
Playful Suggestions:
✅ Follow the illustrated guide to order and "cook" the pasta in the large cook pot with lid, and "strain" it in the colander over the cooktop and sink play mat.
✅ This inventive set lets kids create countless imaginative pasta meals from start to finish! Encourage kids to open a pretend Italian restaurant, and treat the family members like customers. Create a sign and menu, take orders, serve the customers, and prepare a pretend Italian feast!
✅ Our family always enjoyed an Italian feast around the holidays. Once your little chefs feel comfortable with pretend play, let them help out for real in the kitchen come holiday meal time. It’s always a help to have an extra set of hands to make meatballs!
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For more great holiday toy content from Melissa & Doug, click thru theses links:
Shop Melissa & Doug Holiday Gift Guide
Shop Melissa & Doug Toys by Age
Explore Melissa & Doug Skills at Play
Shop Melissa & Doug Pretend Play Play Food & Play Sets
Shop Melissa & Doug Pretend Play
Shop Melissa & Doug Learning Toys
Explore Melissa & Doug Living Playfully Blog
Shop Melissa & Doug Stocking Stuffer Toys
