A Toy Reviewer’s Guide to the Best Holiday Gifts for 7-Year-Olds

Grade-school skaters may already have a handful of miniature Tech Deck skateboards at home. But this motorized set adds a bit more excitement. It comes with a ramp and a trick stick that revs up the rider for jumps up to six feet high.

KPop Demon Hunters broke records this year in part due to its incredibly catchy music. So if your favorite 7-year-old has a Yoto player, this card featuring the movie’s official soundtrack is sure to be a hit. If they’ve already got the KPopcard or their interests lie elsewhere, there are hundreds of other options, like the newly released soundtracks to WickedandWicked: For Good, a throwback The Sound of Music soundtrack, or multiple audiobooks from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Jewelry-making is popular among lots of elementary-school age groups, whether they’re weaving rubber bands on Rainbow Looms or stringing beads for friendship bracelets. This kit from craft brand Hey Clay is unique in that children can make their own rings by sculpting every part from scratch. It comes with a ring-sizer disc, a ring-measuring cylinder, and enough air-dry clay to make five flower rings. Hey Clay also sells a kit for making rings shaped like doughnuts, cake, and ice cream.

This book teaches kids how to make pom-poms out of yarn and then decorate them to look like puppies.

Strategist contributor Youngna Park’s two kids, a 9-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son, each have one of these magnetic block puzzles that they like to fidget with in the car or while watching a movie. The toy comes with different ideas for shapes you can make, but her kids usually turn it into different creations of their own.

According to Milk Teeth co-founder Catherine Newell-Hanson, this is the age when kids start to get the hang of playground classics like jump ropes. This set of two will let them practice outside by themselves or with friends.

If they’re not into jumping rope, consider this whistling football that helps kids get the hang of throwing a spiral.

Erin Boyle of Reading My Tea Leaveslikes these chunky colored pencils for kids who love to draw because they are easy to use; come in beautiful, highly pigmented colors; and are sturdy and long-lasting.For 7-year-olds who already have plenty of classic rainbow colored pencils, Boyle suggests this set of skin-tone shades.

Newell-Hanson says this set of dual-tipped markers from Ooly is one of her favorite under-$20 gifts for elementary-school kids. Each marker has a brush tip on one side and a cute stamp in the same color on the other.

Strategist senior editor Jen Trolio also recommends these Sharpie Creative markers, which have a bold, opaque paint pen effect but work right off the bat, without any “priming” the tip. They show up really well on a variety of surfaces (her 7-year-old has even used them to decorate rocks), but are water-based and don’t run or bleed through even regular printer paper. The ones linked here have a bullet tip, but you can also get brush-tip or fine-tip varieties.

Though I do recommend getting permission from your giftee’s parents, this voice-changing megaphone is almost guaranteed to win you the title of “best gift giver.” Kids can choose between alien, robot, monster, ghost, and plain old microphone. There are also volume and echo controls so they can get just the right sound.

Origami paper is always a great gift because it can be used for so many different things. This set by Creativity for Kids pairs with accompanying YouTube videos that walk kids through the many different designs they can fold in 3-D, but the paper can also be used for collage or drawing or even to make wallpaper for a dollhouse.

Park’s daughter is really into playing with various types of putty and slime. There are dozens of styles to choose from, including kits to make your own and sets of premade slimes that are glitter-packed, butter-smooth, or scented. This Squishmallows multipack comes with eight colors and scents of cloud slime plus a variety of mix-ins like Cam the Cat charms, mini rainbow foam balls, polymer sprinkles, and shredded gold tinsel.

Plus Plus building toys are both engaging and easily portable, so kids can play with them while waiting at restaurants or doctor’s offices. Every recycled-plastic piece has the exact same shape, but the construction possibilities are endless. The set pictured here has 70 pieces that let you build a neon-green dinosaur.

I have given this Super Smalls headband to two different elementary-school kids, and both of them (and their parents) freaked out over the supersoft faux-fur band and fancy jewels that “never fall off.”

This animal trivia game challenges kids and their families to avoid predators and poison berries as they make their way around the board answering three kinds of questions. “Name It” cards feature a picture that must be identified, “Know It” cards pose multiple-choice questions, and “Rank It” cards ask you to arrange animals according to specific criteria. Every card is double-sided, with a choice between more advanced or beginner-level questions.

This is exactly what it says on the tin: a collection of over 300 gemstones and crystals, plus a magnifying glass to inspect them. Rock-obsessed kids will love sifting through the pile and classifying their treasures by looking them up in the accompanying guide.

Park told me that her kids are big fans of Jellycat’s whimsical stuffed animals and, in particular, they love the brand’s Amuseables line that includes a pretzel, an avocado, and a hot dog. I’ve also become obsessed with the brand’s stuffed-animal bags, which come in all kinds of shapes, from a birthday cake to a boiled egg. They are the exact type of toy-slash-accessory — cute, tween-adjacent, and funny — that I would have loved at this age.

I played with this crashable remote-control car at the New York Toy Fair and had a blast driving it into walls, then resetting it and smashing it again.

One of the most enduring trends of the last several years is for kids to accessorize their backpacks with keychains and bag charms. While there are thousands of options out there, from mini Jellycat plushies, Labubus, and Squeezymates to Pokémon Squishmallows and LEGO mini-figures, this kit comes with over 350 beads, cords, and clips so kids can create their own. You can customize the contents and even add your giftee’s name to the case.

This battery-operated ATM-meets-piggy-bank helps kids learn how to budget and save money; they use their pretend debit card and PIN to deposit bills or coins in the designated slots and can look to the digital screen to see their savings accumulate (or dwindle as they make withdrawals).

Though some 7-year-olds might act like they are too old for a teddy bear, few of them would turn their nose up at one that feels specifically aligned with their interests. For second-grade basketball fans, that might mean getting them a Build-a-Bear decked out in their favorite team’s uniform. My house is a Knicks house, but Build-a-Bear has many other options.

Kids start learning the general concept of time and the vocabulary around clocks and watches in kindergarten, but first and second grades are when they begin to actually tell time on their own. An analog watch helps them practice this skill while giving them a sense of newfound independence. Flik Flak is owned by the same parent company as Swatch, and the kids’ watches are made in the same Swiss workshops.

Toy vending machines and claw machines are everywhere right now, and this is just one excellent example of the trend. It has three controls — forward, back, and side to side — and lets you fill the colorful capsules with whatever you want.

This super-bouncy pogo stick comes recommended by Alexandra Figueras-Daniel, an assistant research professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research, because it’s “a great balancing toy that will definitely require a bit of practice.” The practice element is key: “I think toys that are just slightly above ability levels are great as they encourage persistence and also avoid becoming boring too quickly.” As with any other playthings they could potentially fall off of, kids should wear a helmet and other protective gear while they jump.

LEGO of any variety is typically a hit with this age group. There’s something for every kind of kid, whether you choose a classic open-ended set to let them “free build” or a themed set that speaks to specific interests — from a race plane to a unicorn to this remote-controlled passenger-train set. While it’s definitely a splurge, the 764-piece set features a bullet locomotive, a passenger car, a dining car, dimmable headlights, and six mini-figures.

We named this REI two-wheeler the best kids’ bike overall thanks to the recommendations of Natalie Martins, owner of the review site Two Wheeling Tots, and Kristen Bonkoski, founder of the kids’-bike website Rascal Rides. Both of them praised its affordable price, light aluminum frame, and the company’s stellar return policy.

If you’re looking to splash out on your American Girl gift, doll obsessives and their parents will be delighted by this handy and very chic storage trunk.

For Christmas last year, Trolio’s dad gifted each household with grandkids — who now range in age from 3 to 10 — one of these kid-friendly table saws that cut cardboard. The Chomp Saw works like a really fast hole punch to literally bite through cardboard as you feed it into the mechanism, depositing the chewed-up material in the dust bin below. The metal guard on top protects children’s fingers, and the included accessories — a hole punch and scoring knife — make it easy for them to plan out projects and create complex shapes and inner cutouts. The more kids practice with it, the more elaborate projects they’ll be able to create; Trolio’s 7-year-old most recently constructed some add-on accessories for her Barbie DreamHouse, a castle with a functional drawbridge, and an angular fedora inspired by her current obsession with Netflix’s Carmen Sandiego series.