Hey you, yeah you, with your hand in your kid’s trick or treat bag. Step away from the Kit Kats. You’ve got work to do. It’s time to start making your list and checking it twice. As always, there is an overwhelming abundance of toys to choose from but we’re here for you with our annual Hottest Holiday Gifts list. So get going already. Um, but you might want to wipe the Halloween chocolate off your fingers before you start.
PonyCycle Ride On Unicorn Got a kid who’s doesn’t consider their ensemble complete until it includes a princess dress or a tiara? Then you’ve also got a kid who will love this ride-on unicorn. Kid-powered, this unicorn (and its tiger, zebra and horse friends) will give your kids a workout as they ride. Plus, it will be a whizbang gift that will make an impact when Santa leaves it under the tree.
Kano Harry Potter Wand Coding Kit Alohomora! Kano products are well-known as coding gateway toys and this one lets your Harry Potter fanatic (the one who’s secretly wondering when their letter from Hogwarts will arrive) program their wand to make fire flow, pumpkins grow, feathers fly and goblets multiply.
Poopsie Slime Surprise Unicorn Uh, a toy that combines poop, slime, unicorns and a surprise? Yeah, count pretty much every.single.kid in for that! Feed the unicorn the enclosed unicorn food then shake her until she poops slime. Stretch the slime, add sparkles and then save it in a special poop keychain for future use.
Twisty Pets It’s a pet, no it’s a bracelet. It’s a pet that turns into a bracelet. Or a bracelet that turns into a pet depending on how you look at it. Kids twist the front and back legs to make them transform and they can add pets to create necklaces or backpack accessories.
Scruff A Luv Find them scruffy, make them fluffy. These pets arrive matted and sad, but once kids bathe them and groom them, their true adorableness is revealed. Not gonna lie, we’ve sort of got a soft spot for a toy that encourages kids to care for the abandoned and unloved!
Squish Deelish Looks like the squishy craze isn’t over quite yet. And for your squishy connoisseur, these slow rise squishies are the holy grail. There are eight series and some jumbos available so take your pick.
Hairdorables Peel back the tab on the front of the box to see which of 36 dolls is revealed. Your doll will arrive with 10 stylish surprises including fashions, hairstyles and accessories that are unqiue to her style and talent.
Boxy Girls Yet another toy to piggyback off of the success of LOL Surprise Dolls and YouTube unboxing videos, Boxy Girls, wait for it, arrive in boxes. Dolls arrive with four boxes. Open the boxes to reveal fashions, makeup, shoes, bags and more. And, you guessed it, you can purchase additional fashion packs for more unboxing fun.
Disney Doorables So there’s a door, see and it's themed toward a Disney story or character. And with the door comes the character, accessories and a surprise figure you have to unbox and reveal. The doors all stack together to create a larger playhouse for additional fun. Characters are also available in surprise packaging that could reveal 5, 6 or even 7 figures including some rare ones.
Think and Learn Rocktopus Got a future DJ in da house? The Rocktopus allows kids to interchange instruments, rhythmic patterns and styles as they learn about music. Download the free app and your kid can take it a step further and record music videos. Play that funky music, kids!
Laugh and Learn Smart Home This interactive playhouse teaches your littlest one about numbers, shapes and the weather with lights, music and sounds. This smart home is pretty cool but we also loved the Laugh and Learn Food Truck because, well, it’s on point and super cool.
Avengers Hero Inventor Kit Kids can channel Ironman as they build an interactive gauntlet complete with 18 activities for them to code and play. Gauntlets can be customized for each little superhero with enclosed stickers or found objects. Hurry up kids, make the gauntlet already. We could use a few more super heroes around here!
Fisher-Price Power Wheels Wild Thing How cool is this? Battery operated and controlled by joysticks. This baby can go forward, backward, spin in circles and run at up to 5 miles per hour. But rest assured, parents have an option to control the speed. The only question is, does it come in an adult size?
Air Hogs Supernova, Gravity Defying Hand-Controlled Flying Orb Toss the Supernova in the air and it will hover, waiting for your command. Use your hands to control the Supernova through a system of light and motion sensors. Even the biggest kids, also known as your spouse, will enjoy mastering the Supernova’s 30 moves and 9 tricks.
Gravitrax This is not your mother’s marble run. This baby uses magnets, gravity and kinetics to get your marble to the end. Kids can design a different marble run every time they play and can add speed with expansion set and accessories.
Code-a-pillar Markings on the backs of each code-a-pillar piece indicate whether that piece will move the code-a-pillar forward, back, to the right or to the left. The way kids connect the pieces dictates where the code-a-pillar will go. Sound familiar? Yup. It’s coding at its most basic. Kids will learn the cause and effect of their commands and can work to have their code-a-pillar complete tasks. They’ll have so much fun, they’ll never know they’re learning a valuable life skill.
Hot Wheels Augmoto Augmented Reality Race Track Start the race on the IRL track then continue it into an immersive on-screen digital world, complete with cheering crowds, flying drones, fireworks a double loop, weapons and strategy. Action is controlled through your personal smart device (not included) and the Augmoto app.
Star Wars Force Link 2.0 Strap on this wearable technology and activate sounds and phrases for up to 30 different Force Link toys. The start set comes with a Hans Solo action figure but other figures are sold separately and can all be scanned in and linked to the wearable technology to track play and level up. Because your Jedi Masters can never have too many tools in the fight against the Dark Side.
Air Fort This one sits squarely in the “Why Did It Take So Long For Someone To Come Up With This?” category, followed quickly by the “Why Didn’t I Think Of It Myself” category. It’s an inflatable fort that saves you from having to fold every single blanket, sheet and towel in your house after your kids decide it’s fort making day. It is genius. That is all.
Unstable Unicorns What could be bad about a game that takes something as harmless as a unicorn and turns it into a killing machine intent on destroying other unicorns as players vie to be the first to complete their unicorn army? Yeah, we couldn’t come up with anything either.
Don’t Step In It This game is Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey meets Twister. With poop. Blindfold the player, spin to find out how many steps they have to take and then watch to see if they can avoid the poop piles. Disclaimer: No real poop is used in this game. But no one said you couldn’t substitute slime if you needed a giggle…
What’s That Smell? Some of the cards smell good, like bacon. Some smell bad, like manure. You have to identify the smell on your card then pass it on to the next player. The player who identifies the most smells correctly (the Nose-it-all, if you will) wins and gets to pick a fellow player to take three deep whiffs of one of the truly toxic stank cards. We can probably all agree that parents will head into this game with a distinct competitive advantage over those who haven’t ever compulsively studied the contents of a newborn poopy diaper.
