The Top 5 Best Gifts for Toddlers Birthday Parties (2025)

Toddlers are hard to pick; they haven't quite shaped into their future selves, shaped heavily by the world to have distinct hobbies and interests that make gift-giving so easy. If you've just been invited to a toddler's birthday party, this fact may be weighing on your mind, so we've compiled this list of the best gifts for toddlers. Before you read through, remember that there's no shame in asking the parents what they may want first. Sure, it's nice to have the best gift pick with no clues granted, but getting them exactly what they want goes a long way. Regardless, if you're looking for inspiration, here's our list of best gifts.

A Toddler Sensory Class

Converse to most gifts, this is a heavily sensory experience that will engage your child. Once again, you have a tremendous opportunity to avoid the clutter of excessively large toys that go out one ear as quickly as they go in the first. By booking an experience for the toddler, you get them a gift that enriches their learning, helping them hit milestones such as grasping, sitting, crawling, and even early speech. As the gifter, you'll look especially thoughtful making all of these considerations and might win points with the all-important parents. 

The Wow Wee Roboraptor X

Excuse us for going a bit vintage with this one, but for the sake of nostalgia in the early 2000s, we had to include it. A lot of fun to play with, watch and hold, the roboraptor, enemy of household pets, is an excellent toy for the toybox. Several staff recognise this as an icon of the 2000s, and it can win you many cool uncle/aunt points with the Gen Z part of your family. 

One of Your Old Toys from That Age 

Most parents are tragics and hold onto those childhood toys way longer than they probably should. So check in to see if you can secure your old treasures. Obviously, don't hand along your most tattered wares. But it can add a huge personal touch to pass along a treasure from your past. It's a crowd pleaser, especially within a family, to see that you would dedicate an important part of your past to the parent's child. Whether it's an old plush toy or your old collection of Barbies or Beyblades, if executed correctly, the old toy, new recipient gambit can play into your hand to a considerable effect. As an added bonus, it is also free too. 

A Sporting Club Membership

The thing about early birthdays is they can be very focused on the child and very depleting on the parents. A subtle gift for the parents is a toddler/baby membership to their favourite sporting club. Sports parents get started on the indoctrination earlier than you'd think and would take any chance to inflate their club's membership count that they could. If your friend or family member, whose child it is, never fails to bring up their team's scores every time you see them. One of these junior membership packs can be a real surprise gift. But it's not just for the parents; a lot of these little members' packs can come with more than just tickets to the games, but a ton of little toys for the toddler in mind. Such as:

• A height chart

• Stacking cups

• A stretchy person action figure

• A plush ball

• Stickers

• A cotton muslin wrap

• Milestone cards

• A personalised baby certificate

• A bib

Pokemon Cards

Many gifts have an expiry date with toddlers; they'll only like them so often. Most toys require a bit of toddler coercion to get them engaged. Pokemon cards are a classic that can beat this planned obsolescence. They have a lifecycle that keeps giving; the colourful pictures are exciting and engaging for a young child and provide that dopamine spike you're looking for in a kid's gift. Sure, they won't be using it as frequently as a truck or a more sensory gift, but long term, they have a few plus sides. Firstly, they hardly consume space compared to other toys that will clog up toy chests for years. A huge plus side for parents with less space or just looking for quicker pack-up times. Secondly, they have a usability that will increase as your toddler ages. They might even start trading or competing with these cards when they hit primary school. It's a great game to help establish your child's foundational math. Lastly, they have an increasing collectability that may start paying drivers as they hit their late teens. Sure, they may weather the cards a bit in their youth, but if they don't retain their PSA grade, they'll at least retain nostalgia and be a story to tell for any Pokemon fan in the future. The price range is usually between $15-$30, which is perfect for a toddler's birthday. 

Go Beyond the Toy Aisle

If none of these ideas works for you, you'll find plenty of inspiration in the toy aisle of any major shopping centre. But we strongly recommend these ideas because they're different, they're memorable and most of them require very little toy box hoarding. For the ages 1-3, life goes so fast that almost no toy can make the journey with them; go bold, go for experiences, sentiments, and something that draws the parents closer to their children. Because that's what young parenting is all about, not just the plastic knicknacks everyone else gets.