15 Best Christmas Gifts for Young Toddlers (18 Months

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Looking for the best Christmas gifts for young toddlers ages 18 months to 3 years old? Here are 15 high quality and affordable gifts our 2 year old loves!

Choosing gifts for young toddlers can be tricky. You want to get something that will last, something the kid will love and play with, and something educational in some way.

We own and love almost all of the gifts on this list. And our 2 year old girl has loved playing with them. They are high quality, fun, educational, and affordable – a win in my book!

Check out these toddler gift ideas for Christmas or birthday ideas!

15 Best Christmas Gifts for Young Toddlers

Looking for the best Christmas gifts for young toddlers? Check out these 15 fun, education, and affordable gift ideas for 18 months - 3 years old!

Here are our current favorite toys and activities that make a perfect present for a young child!

1. Travel Size Magnetic Drawing Board

This magnetic drawing board is the perfect size to take in the car, so you can keep your little one entertained in their car seat without using a screen or electronic device.

Check out this travel size magnetic drawing board here.

2. Wooden Shape Sorter

We have tried other shape sorters and they have been cheap quality, too difficult, or way too easy. This one is just right.

The hinged lid on top is interesting to our toddler, without being frustrating and the shapes are simple shapes she can recognize at this age.

Check out this wooden shape sorter here.

3. Wooden Stacking Rings

This is a high quality classic toy that is helping our toddler with hand-eye coordination, and learning different sizes and order.

A stacking ring toy like this can be enjoyed by younger babies, too!

Get this wooden stacking ring toy here.

4. Abacus Teaching Frame

This is a great quality classic toy that we are introducing to help learn counting. It’s also great for teaching colors and working on hand-eye coordination, as well as just being fun for the toddler to move the beads around!

Check out this abacus learning frame here!

5. Cash Register Play Set

This cash register set has been the biggest hit with our 2 year old! She loves this and plays with it daily.

As a mom, I love that this cash register isn’t too busy with sounds, but it is fun and appealing to our daughter for creative play and fun.

The scanner makes a realistic sound, which is my daughter’s favorite part.

It comes with play money, a tiny grocery basket, and a few plastic produce pieces.

Get this fun cash register play set here.

6. Color & Shape Sorting Box

This activity has been great to reinforce color learning, shapes, and sorting by color or shape.

My daughter enjoys this activity and can focus on it for several minutes while she sorts all the pieces – a win for me!

If you enjoy Montessori activities, this one is great!

Get this shape and color sorting activity here.

7. Matching Eggs Activity

This matching eggs activity is a fun one, and a great activity for learning shapes, working on hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and color sorting.

For my 2 year old, this activity is still challenging, so she will focus on it for some time. I love that she is learning so much and she seems to enjoy it as well!

Get this matching eggs activity here.

8. Numbers and Letters Matching Puzzle Game

This is the favorite activity at our house this week! I have introduced this activity with just the first 4 letters of the alphabet to not overwhelm my 2 year old, then added the next 4 letters. She is doing great with it!

We are working to match the letters to the cards and working on saying each letter and what animal it goes with – “a for alligator”.

We will work on adding more letters, then move to the numbers later on.

This activity is great for learning letters, numbers, sounds, animal names and more! I think we will get a lot of use out of it for a few years!

Check out this awesome letter and number matching puzzle game here.

9. Wooden Alphabet Puzzle

This is another great high quality toy that is educational and fun!

We have used this one a few times, but are saving it for when my toddler is a little older and more familiar with the letters.

It has pictures behind each puzzle piece with something that starts with that letter.

Check out this wooden alphabet puzzle here.

10. Large Magnetic Drawing Board

We also got this large magnetic drawing board to keep on our daughter’s art shelf, so she can be creative and draw at any time without needing help or making a mess.

It has 4 magnetic stamps that are fun to use and easy for her to put back in their places.

Such a fun toy for her to be creative with!

Get this large magnetic drawing board in blue, pink, or purple here.

11. Head to Tail 3 Piece Animal Puzzle Set

At this young toddler age, the knob style puzzles are too easy and the multiple piece jig saw type puzzles are too difficult.

These 3 piece animal puzzles are just challenging enough to be interesting, but not frustrating.

I love that these are educational, so my daughter can learn how to work a puzzle, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and all about different animals.

There are 20 puzzles in the set. We will start with one at a time.

Grab these head to tail 3 piece puzzles here.

12. Wooden Ukulele

Here is one that is on our wish list – maybe for Christmas? Our daughter loves to play with a wooden ukulele at her grandparent’s house!

These come in a few fun colors and would be great for creative music play!

Check out this wooden ukulele here!

13. Preschool Busy Book

This is also on our wish list – I think this would be a great rainy day activity!

This activity book has a lot of different educational activities that would be fun for young toddlers!

Check out this preschool busy book here!

14. Magnetic Tile Building Block Set

We have a small set of these, and would love to add more. These magnetic tiles are a great way for toddlers to be creative, learn how to build, work on hand eye coordination and fine motor skills.

These would make a really great gift!

Check out these magnetic tile sets here.

15. Radio Flyer Balance Bike

This is a big one on our wish list and might be our daughter’s Christmas present this year (she would be a little over 2 and a half years old).

I love the idea of these starter balance bikes and this one is highly rated!

Learn about this balance bike here.

Those are the 15 best Christmas gifts for young toddlers!

As you can see, we own and love almost all of them! I love the simple, high quality toys and activities that are fun and educational.

We try to keep our home Montessori friendly and love introducing our daughter to toys and activities that will help her learn and develop new skills and interests.

I hope you found the perfect gift idea for a Christmas or birthday present for your young toddlers, too!