Guide to The Best Holiday Gift Guides for Children's Presents

12/19/09 - By Anna Fader

I love gift guides [Swoon]. Everything in gift guides seems so beautiful and cool. Why buy an ordinary present for the kids in your life when you can buy the much cooler and prettier presents selected by the experts of the interwebs. I scoured the web and have rounded up not just the best holiday gift guides for your green-eyed browsing pleasure, but have picked out some of the best items from their guides in case you can't deal with all that present-y goodness. You will be stumped for presents no longer with these fabulous holiday gift guides. PS. Most of them have sections for gifts for other people besides kids too.

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200912191206.jpgBest for Cool Moms and Babes
No one knows cool stuff for moms and babies better than the women at Cool Mom Picks, they write about nothing else every day of the freaking year after all. But, this year they went above and beyond with their Holiday Gift Guide with almost 30 different categories of gift recipients for every imaginable situation. Each category has items in every price category and they have a whole section of cool gifts under $12. Some of my favorite picks are the Personalized Rock Star Coloring Book and "rebel" tee and the make-your-own-converse.

Best for Geeky Boys and Girls
WIRED Magazine's GeekDad blog is always a good source for cool games and gear. Their Holiday Gift Guide is actually 7 guides featuring everything from gadgets to games, books and stocking stuffers. My only qualm about this guide is that they don't include pictures for every item, which means you actually have to read it all. There are lots of really cool things in this guide from Mythbusters Science Kits to Carniverous Plant Kits, books on the secrets of being a ninja and lots of other items that need paragraphs to understand what they are. Finds like the EyeClops Night Vision Goggles are sure to thrill any kid, geeky or not, and this guide will definitely come in handy for picking out something for our Geeky Dad too.

Picture 20.pngBest for the Environment
If you want to know that your gift is as good for the environment as it is for the recipient, shop the TreeHugger's WeeHugger GIft Guide. You'll find a small selection of wooden toys, organic clothing and gear. I particularly like the Power House Green Essentials kit that lets kids build their own sustainable house to test out different alternative energies or the slightly simpler and classic Bamboo Pallina game.

200912191323.jpgBest for Handmade Gifts
The Etsy Gift Guide's children's section has 100 beautiful hand made gifts from the extremely simple to incredibly crafted toys, plus, of course, enough beautiful clothes, adorable hats and hand sewn plush toys to keep you drooling all day. I like the soft Spanish alphabet. personalized wire hangers for babies, an awesome Thor mask and more.

Picture 21.pngBest for Home Made Gifts
If hand made means doing it yourself to you, check out the Instructables gift guide for some neat ideas of gifts you can make at home. I love the personalized Guess Who game or the instructions for making a custom lift the flap book, both great gifts for toddlers who don't need expensive gifts, but will love seeing pictures of the people they know on their books and games.


200912191345.jpg
Best for Local Shopping

If you want to keep your shopping to places accessible by subway, either to support local businesses or just because you don't have time for shipping, check out New York Magazine's Holiday GIft Guide, where you'll find over 50 toy suggestions and where you can buy them in New York City. I like the $5 Tim Burton playing cards (available at the MoMA Design Store and the Desktop Ping-Pong kit which turns any table top to a ping pong table (available from Fred Flare).

200912191352.jpgBest for Book Lovers
If you're looking for the perfect book for the little readers on your list, take a gander at the New York Times' Notable Books of 2009 for some interesting options for children from preschoolers through teens. My daughter loved The Last Olympians series from their list this year. Their list of Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2009 has more options for younger children with illustrated books adults will love as much as kids.

200912191408.jpgBest of the Rest
If you can overlook the fact that CoolHunting has lumped together gifts for children and pets on one page...this gift guide has a great assortment of over 100 of the coolest gifts from all over. IT's a great mix of both precious wooden toys, but also cool electronic toys and everything in between so you're sure to find something for everyone here. Some of my faves are The Daring Book for Girls, these bouncy Moon Shoes, the EyeClops Bionic Eye, a DIY pinhole camera, and a Stellarscope Portable Star Finder.