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Gender neutral toys: Gift ideas for children

Dec 07 2018
Written by Tijen Butler

Gender neutral toys for kids. (Unsplash)

We have listed excellent gender neutral toys for children. So, if you’re looking for children’s gifts for boys or girls, we’ve got you covered.

Gener neutral toys for children can be hard to come up with. For girls, many people buy Barbies, baby dolls or those stereotypical cooking sets ‘for girls’. And if it’s a boy, perhaps your brother, son or nephew, you might think to get him a toy gun or action figure.

But instead of falling into the trap of giving a child a stereotypical gift, where they’re packaged in pink and blue boxes, there are literally hundreds of gender neutral toys and presents to give them.

While we cannot possibly list them all, we have listed some of our favourite gender neutral toys and gifts.

Best gender neutral toys for children this Christmas

You can use this gift list for inspiration while you’re gift shopping, whether that’s for Christmas or a birthday, for kiddies close to your heart.

Building sets

Whether it’s Lego or wooden blocks, building set toys are gender neutral and tonnes of fun for kids from the age of three or four (You must look at the age restriction on whatever you buy).

Electronic toys

From electric toys pets to flying helicopters, drones and remote control cars, these kinds of toys are great.

Can you imagine the smile on their faces when they unwrap something like that?

Teddies

A teddy bear, penguin or cuddle pooch, teddies are great children gifts for any gender and indeed, any age.

Art supplies

Art has no gender. You could get a child various art supplies such as:

Paint and paint brushes
Canvas board
Crayons
Pens and felt tips
Chalk or pastels

Game consoles

While game consoles are a little more costly than other kinds of presents, they are fantastic.

From Nintendo to PlayStation, big or small, there are so many games they could play, including many that will improve cognitive thinking.

But don’t just give them an education game to go along with the console. Why not something like Mario Kart?

Board games

Board games are definitely gender neutral, and a great Christmas gift for children of any age. There are dozens to pick from but we’ve rounded up our favourites:

Monopoly
Frustration
Cluedo
Articulate
Don’t Be A Donkey
Scrabble
Chess
Battleship
Twister (okay, that’s not technically a “board game”, but it is a game and it does involve a board).

Musical instruments

John Lewis’s advert shows Elton John getting a piano for Christmas. Now, that’s a rather pricey musical instrument, but anyone could put a smile on a child’s face, not to mention it encourages them to play.

You could get a guitar, violin, drums… or maybe the triangle and tambourine if you’re on a tighter budget.

Puzzles

While the child is unlikely to beam with excitement, puzzles can be a great gift, especially if you find a design the child will like.

Gender neutral books

While books aren’t a toy, they can make excellent presents. Sure, the child may have a touch of disappointment once unwrapped, but we don’t doubt they’ll end up digging into these great books and enjoy them. Depending on their age, you could pick one (or several) from the list below:

Colour-in books
Pop up books
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Dr. Seuss)
Literally, anything written by Roald Dahl
Guinness of World Records 2019
National Geographic kids book (plenty types to pick from)
Harry Potter books
The classics like the Hungry Caterpillar

Box kits

If you go into the toy section of a department store, you will find gender neutral toy boxes filled with educational fun for children.

From gender neutral science kits with fun experiments to medical kits with stethoscope toys, box kits can be a good area to go for.

However, keep an eye out because it’s very likely that you’ll also see some sexist toys such as a pink nurse set for the girls and a blue doctor set for the boys. You want to check out the branding.