Best Toys and Gifts for Girls

How this list of toys for girls was built

Every product on this page has a listing that says it starts somewhere between ages 4 and 10. I took one pick per brand, so no single company fills the page, and no more than three of any one kind of toy. The table up top shows all 24 with their age, players and play time where the data has them. A dash means the listing doesn't say.

Here's the part I want to say plainly. There is no "girls" setting in our data, because no maker's age label has one. A marble run works the same for every kid who drops a marble in the top. So the list is built by age and by kind of play, and the gifts for boys page runs on the same rule. If you came here searching for toys for girls, you're in the right place. You'd also be in the right place on the other page.

That's why a Disney Princess game and an off-road military brick set sit on the same list. Both have a starting age that fits. That's the only test they had to pass.

Start with the kind of play, then check the age

When a parent asks me what to buy, I ask one question back: what does she do when nobody has planned the afternoon? The answer usually lands in one of these groups.

• Build — bricks, blocks and sets with instructions
• Roll — marble runs
• Make — one snap-together model kit
• Play at the table — first board games, card games and dominoes
• Move — games that get people off the couch
• Display — one posable figure

Then read the age range on the listing. Some picks here run from 4 to 6, some from 6 to 12, and some say 4+ with no top end. A listing that tops out at 7 is telling you something too. The rules or the theme may feel young to a 9-year-old.

Build: bricks, blocks and sets with a plan

Building is the biggest group on the page, with seven picks. The choice inside it is simple. Does she want a box of parts and her own ideas, or a set with a plan to follow?

Open boxes for her own ideas

The LEGO Classic 10698 Large Creative Brick Box has 790 pieces and is labeled 4+. There's no single model on the front to finish. It's a box of bricks for whatever she builds next. More on the brand is on the LEGO page.

The Brain Flakes 2500 Piece Build 'n' Build Kit is labeled 5+ and has 2,500 pieces, per the title. That's the biggest count on this page. More on the maker at Brain Flakes.

Both boxes are open-ended. Neither one tells her what to build, and that's the reason to pick one.

Sets with a plan to follow

The Sluban Off-Road Military Vehicle has 265 pieces and 2 minifigures, for ages 6 to 12 per the listing. It's one finished vehicle with a clear goal. See Sluban for the rest of the lineup.

The Engino Creative Builder 15 Multimodel Set is listed for ages 6 to 9. One box, several builds, as the name says. It suits a kid who finishes a model and wants to take it apart for the next one. More at Engino.

The PLUS PLUS Puzzle By Number Activity Pad, Transportation uses PLUS PLUS mini waffle bricks and is listed for ages 5 to 12. A puzzle-by-number pad gives her a picture to match, piece by piece. It's a quiet build, the kind that happens at the kitchen table. More at PLUS PLUS.

Blocks to stack and gears to turn

The HABA Teetering Towers Wooden Blocks Set is listed for ages 4 to 8. Wooden blocks that teeter are a stacking and balancing toy, and the tower falling down is part of the plan. More on wooden blocks and on HABA.

The Learning Resources Gears Robot Factory Building Set is listed for ages 4 to 8. It's a gears set, per the title, for the kid who wants to see one piece turn the next one. See Learning Resources.

A house note on building. We have one rule for open brick boxes: the lid goes back on before dinner. June wrote the rule. She enforces it, mostly on me.

Roll: three marble runs, and that's the limit

Marble runs hit our cap of three for one kind of toy. They're also the easiest gift on this page to explain. She builds a track, drops a marble in, and watches what happens. If it jumps the track, she builds it again.

• Marble Genius Marble Run Starter Set: 130 pieces per the title, ages 4 to 8. A starter set, as the name says. See Marble Genius.
• MindWare Marble Run Mini Golf: ages 4 to 8 per the listing, with a mini golf theme. See MindWare.
• Hape Quadrilla Vertigo: 134 pieces per the title, labeled 4+ with no top age. See Hape.

If you can only pick one, start with the age. The first two top out at 8. The Hape set has no top end on its label, so it's the one an older sibling can share. More sets live on the marble runs page.

Small parts: Check the age label on the listing. Marbles and toys with small parts are a choking hazard for children under 3. The CPSC says toys with small balls or marbles must carry a warning label, so read it before you wrap.

Make: one snap kit for a first model

The Airfix J6039 Quickbuild Jeep Gladiator (JT) Overland is a snap-together car kit labeled 6+. The listing says no paint or glue is needed because the parts come pre-colored, and stickers are included. Snap-together means the parts press into place.

Marisol's take: a first kit should finish looking like the picture, so the kid wants a second one. A pre-colored snap kit does that without a paint shelf. She'd still like the stickers applied on a clean table, with clean hands. That's not a rule from the box. That's just Marisol. More at Airfix.

Play at the table: games from age 4

Games are where ages 4 to 10 spread out the most. A 4-year-old needs a game she can follow without reading. A 9-year-old wants a game she can win on purpose. Last month June taught Sam a new game by drawing the rules as a comic. He followed it better than my version. I've taught for years. I took notes.

First games for ages 4 to 7

• Ravensburger Disney Eye Found It Board Game: ages 4 to 6, about 15 minutes, matching and memory. See Ravensburger.
• Goliath Sequence Letters by Jax: 2 to 4 players, ages 4 to 7, built on letters and matching. More on the family of games at Sequence.
• Educational Insights Kanoodle Jr.: ages 4 to 7, the junior edition of Kanoodle.
• My First Carcassonne: 2 to 4 players, about 30 minutes, labeled 4+. A first tile-laying game. The grown-up version has its own Carcassonne page.

Notice the top ages. Three of these four stop at 6 or 7. That's a real limit, not a suggestion. A 9-year-old can play a game for ages 4 to 6, but it's rarely the one she'd pick.

Card games and tiles that travel

These are small boxes for a short game before dinner or a long wait somewhere.

• Winning Moves Rack-O Jr.: 2 to 4 players, labeled 4+, the Jr. edition of Rack-O.
• USAopoly Spot It Squishmallows: a matching and speed card game, Squishmallows edition, labeled 4+. See Spot It.
• Funko Frosty The Snowman Follow The Leader: 2 to 4 players, 15 minutes, labeled 4+. More at Funko.
• Melissa & Doug Dominoes Tabletop Game: 28 domino tiles in a wooden storage box, 2 to 5 players, labeled 4+. See dominoes and Melissa & Doug.
• Spin Master Disney Princess Treats & Sweets: 2 to 4 players, labeled 4+. See Spin Master.

A speed game like Spot It is the one place a kid can beat a grown-up fair from the first round. June does this to me at most games now. I've stopped calling it luck. Dana says I stopped calling it luck about three years after everyone else did.

My one opinion for this page: give one thing she can do alone and one thing that needs other people. The listings make the split easy to check. Every game here that lists a player count starts at 2, and Trapball is exactly 2. The brick boxes, blocks and marble runs list no player count at all. A game needs a table of people. A build needs only her.

More picks for the same table are on the family card games list and the family board games page.

Move: games that get everyone off the couch

Some kids don't want to sit for a game at all. These three are about bodies, not boards.

• Hasbro Twister Party Classic: a physical game for 2 or more players, labeled 6+. See Twister.
• Blue Orange Games Trapball: a dexterity game for exactly 2 players, labeled 6+. More at Blue Orange Games.
• Buffalo Games Chuckle & Roar Classic Charades: 750 charades ideas, labeled 5+. More on the game at charades.

Twister needs a clear patch of floor, so move the furniture before the box comes out. And a word on charades: I have exactly three moves, and all of them mean "movie." The kids guess my answer before I finish the first one. Sam once guessed it from the way I stood up.

For a birthday crowd, the party games page has more.

Display: one figure for a fan of the line

The Bandai Anime Heroes Jujutsu Kaisen Gojo Satoru Hollow Purple Version is a 6.7 in figure with 16 points of articulation and several hands, per the listing. Articulation means the number of places the figure can move. The listing says 4+, but the character is the reason to buy it. If she doesn't already know the Jujutsu Kaisen line, pick something from another group. More figures are on the anime figures page and at Bandai.

Small parts: extra hands and figure accessories are small. Keep them away from children under 3.

Gifts for a daughter, granddaughter or niece

Grandparents and aunts make up a lot of the people who ask me about gifts. Often they don't see her every week, so they don't know what she's into this month. Here's the table version:

1. Find her age first. This page covers toys that start at 4 through 10.
2. Ask her parent one question: does she build, play games or run around?
3. Pick from that group and match the age range on the listing.
4. If you still can't decide, pick a game. It comes with people to play it with.

If she's 3, go to the gifts for 3 year olds page, where the small-parts rules are stricter. If she's 8, the gifts for 8 year olds page goes deeper on that one age. If she's 13 or older, the gifts for teens page groups picks by hobby. And for a grown-up daughter or niece, this isn't the page. She's past the age range, and so is everything here.

Christmas gifts for girls: think about the whole week

Christmas morning is short. The week after is long. That's how I'd shop. One gift she opens and uses right away, like a card game for the family table. One gift that lasts the week, like a brick box or a marble run that gets rebuilt every day until school starts again.

For a December with cousins over, the games with room for more players help. The dominoes list 2 to 5. Twister lists 2 or more. Charades has 750 ideas, which should outlast any visit. The stocking stuffers page has the small things for the same morning, and gifts for kids covers every age.

Who should skip this list

Skip this page if she's under 4. Nothing here starts younger, and the small-parts warnings matter. Skip the 6+ picks if she's 5, even if she's ready in every other way. Wait for the birthday. And skip any game with a top age she's already past. A 10-year-old handed a game for ages 4 to 6 will play it once, kindly, for you.

Ask what she did last Saturday. Then shop.