The Little Lake County editors and their kids have been busy playing and trying out the latest toys and tried and true favorites to bring you this holiday wish list. All items are ones that we have tried, played with and are kid and parent approved.

Not a day goes by that someone in my house doesn’t ask to do a craft, or a project. My kids love to build, paint, draw, and create all the live long day. We’ve scouted out some of the best creative gifts that will not only get kids, creating but many will have them creating true works of art. Time to clear some wall space!

Best Creative Gifts for Kids

Qixels

We introduced you to Qixels last year as a great craft for creative boys.  Not only is it a kit that is not pink and purple, the 8-bit styling and characters make it very appealing to boys. I was worried that the older kids would lose interest in this toy after a year, but they are still going strong. In fact they’ve started creating Pokemon characters out of it!

This year Qixels is introducing 3-D kits that will let children build and battle their own kingdoms, like a video game brought to life. It’s made our wish list again this year because of that kit. Recommended age is 5 to 15. Mom recommended age is probably closer to age seven, as the beads are small and you need good fine motor skills to get them placed right, and the patience to let it dry and fuse.

 

Paper Punk
Paper Punk takes origami to the masses with these easy to fold and put together kits. Offering both small quick kits and larger cities there is something for everyone’s interests and patience.  Take a look:

The recommended age is six, but honestly on some of the smaller pieces my nine-year-old had a lot of trouble. Also, with the small tabs, younger children could easily tear it and become frustrated. I think if you intend to have kids build these on their own, nine is a good age to start.

 

Pom Pom Wow
You may have seen us on Facebook Live from the Pom Pom Wow booth at the Chicago Toy & Game Fair. It was one of the largest booths. If you have kids,  especially girls, that like to customize and decorate everything in sight, they are going to love this.  Pom Pom Wow lets them decorate anything with easy to apply and stick pom poms, even my five-year-old picked up on how to do it and completed it with ease:

If I gave them free reign, they probably would have pom pom-ed their brothers by now–nothing is safe anymore, they want to put them on everything! Even their older brother likes them, although he would like less “girly” colors. The reps at the booth say they have even more options coming soon, camo maybe?

Seedling
I fell head over heels in love with seedling last Christmas when my daughters received Kokeshi Doll Kits.
The kits came with everything they needed, absolutely everything. The project itself (we had the paper mache one on the far left above) was not only easy enough that my five-year-old could do it. And, it was free form enough that my nine-year-old didn’t feel like her sister was copying her either. The end results were completely different and totally gorgeous. I wanted to make one myself!  Their newest item will be on everyone’s wish list this year:

We got to see the Disney Kits at the Toy Fair this month and they are amazing. They take everyone’s favorite stories and bring them to life in beautiful kits. These are not cheesey plastic pieces with princess stickers. These are shell crowns with real shells, beautiful wood brushes, drums, wings and a gorgeous mermaid tail.  Princess stuff that’s not tacky and allows them to live out their favorite stories? Sign. Me. Up.

3Doodler
If you have bigger kids, you know, kids in the 9-12 years of age range, you also  know that they are aging out of kits and starting to become really interested in electronics. This is  the “kit” for them. And when I say “kit,” it’s really more of a tool.

The 3Doodler is 3D printing in kids hands. The pen is wireless, doesn’t get hot and uses non-toxic, non-sticky filaments. It takes some maneuvering and getting used to to figure out the drawing in air part, but as you see in the video, my 11-year-old does pretty much the whole thing by himself. The kit comes with books that have patterns (what you see him tracing for the tower). There are also blocks you can get to make other creations and to make even larger, heavier creatures.  We were definitely surprised by how well it worked and how much fun it was to use.

Note: 3Doodler is up for New Toy (Rookie) of the year, can you spare a click to give them a vote?

What’s on your creative kids wish list this year?

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Disclosure: Some links provided are affiliate links and we will earn a small portion of purchases made through those link. Thank you for supporting Little Lake County. Some writers received products in order to provide better insight and information on the product. No compensation was received in exchange for placement in the guide.

 

 

 

 

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