2023’s Hottest Holiday Gift Ideas for Infants: A Parents’ Guide
2023’s Hottest Holiday Gift Ideas for Infants: A Parents’ Guide
Best Holiday Gift Ideas for Infants: Shopping Made Easy
Aaah, the holidays. The magical time of gatherings, giving, and joy.
What’s on your holiday menu this year?
- Procrastinating until a week *or less* before the big day?
- Waiting in long lines?
- Guessing what your little one will like?
- Guilt about buying more junk?
Add a dash of anxiety and a sprinkle of disappointment – Voila! Your yearly holiday disaster.
Don’t get stuck on the same miserable path this year. Find the best holiday gift ideas for infants here.
And confidently cruise into the holidays knowing you picked the BEST of the best.
Unique Holiday Gift Ideas for Infants
Infants’ brains are constantly growing. You need a baby gift that can keep them entertained for more than a few seconds.
But you don’t want to waste this important time in your baby’s life by giving them just anything. You want something stimulating and beneficial for brain growth and development.
Between birth and age five, your baby’s brain grows more than at any time in their life[1]. This is too precious of a window to throw away.
When looking for the best holiday gift ideas for infants, ask yourself:
- Is it safe?
- Is it developmentally appropriate?
- Will it benefit my baby’s growth?
When you can’t give an automatic “YES!” to all these, it’s time to move on.
Ditch the same mindless junk already crammed into your closets. Upgrade your holiday gifting with unique gifts for infants and toddlers.
The Crawligator
The Crawligator gives your little one the gift of exploration.
Forget the traditional tummy time mat.
It’s time to step up past the stationary pillow.
Keeping your baby stuck in one position will do exactly that – keep them stuck. Open a world of possibilities for your little one by introducing mobility.
The Crawligator’s unique design provides a comfortable contoured surface for tummy time. Help your baby develop the head, neck, and torso muscles needed for the next milestones. Hello sitting, crawling, and walking!
Then take it to the the next level. While building muscle, your babe’s brain will be working in overdrive. Every new sight and movement will strengthen brain connections. And those brain connections lay the foundation for learning for the rest of their lives[2].
Mobility in the infancy stage prepares your baby’s brain for concepts like:
- Cause and effect
- Spatial awareness
- Depth
- Independence[3]
- Perspective
Combine the developmental benefits of tummy time with the brain-boosting power of exploration. The Crawligator is your one-stop shop for holiday gifts.
P.S. Check out The Crawligator featured as the best holiday toy for infants by The New York Post, Toy Insiders, and Independent Baby Innovation Awards.
Montessori Toys
When looking for the best holiday gift ideas for infants, you can’t go wrong with Montessori toys.
Montessori toys encourage sensory and exploratory play. The designs include curves and soft edges – perfect for letting your little one chew, scrape, and bang. All while building independence.
Helping your baby develop both mentally and physically is a *MUST* for baby toys.
Montessori toys include wooden rattles, stacking rings, sensory balls, and shape pegs. They build and strengthen brain connections through cause-and-effect and problem-solving.
To use Montessori toys, infants have to move or manipulate them in some way. This helps them develop fine motor skills, dexterity, and motor control.
Plus, many Montessori toys are unique gifts for infants – you won’t find others like it! The smaller toys make the perfect stocking stuffers and small gift ideas.
The Montessori design also continues to help toddlers and young children. If you’re shopping for more toys this holiday season, there’s a Montessori toy for the whole family.
Soft Sensory Toys
Who doesn’t love a soft, cuddly toy?
You can find a plushie, lovey, or stuffy almost anywhere.
But even though the market is saturated with plush – not all soft toys are designed with physical and mental development in mind.
And when you’re looking for the best holiday gift ideas for infants, you want to find the toys that boost development. Not the ones that sit and collect dust.
Infants spend their days learning about the world through their developing senses. One way to keep them entertained while creating brain connections is with textures.
Soft sensory toys are the perfect place to explore new textures with your baby. Look for furry, stringy, fuzzy, smooth, bumpy, scratchy, or slick ones.
Your little one’s mind will grow as they test out all the new feels.
And speaking of all the feels – helping your baby dig into their new sensory toys is the perfect way to bond. Help them feel the textures with different body parts. Talk to them about how it feels when they touch it.
Physical. Mental. Emotional.
Sounds like a win for everyone.
Board Books
Reading to your child has benefits that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
On average, children whose parents read to them will know thousands, if not a million, more words once they enter kindergarten versus those whose parents didn’t read to them.
This creates a gap in learning before children even enter school.
Research shows the “million-word gap” causes huge differences in the foundational reading skills taught in kindergarten[4].
It’s your job to prepare your little one for a lifetime of learning. And that learning starts during infancy.
Board books make reading to your baby simple and easy.
- No more ripped pages.
- Sturdy design is perfect for the occasional chew.
- Spills, drops, and throws? No problem.
Board books are baby-proof. They’re also mom-approved with soft corners and no small pieces.
You can find a story that keeps you interested, too. Thousands of classics are printed as board books to reach the tiniest ears. *Some of our faves*: Pride and Prejudice, Alice in Wonderland, and Madeline.
Board books can be fun for the whole family.
Grab something you like. Cuddle in close. And get to reading.
Wrapping Up Holiday Ideas for Infants
Finding the best holiday gift ideas for infants doesn’t have to be hard.
Remember it’s not about giving more stuff. Find gifts that create joy and spark the love of learning from the earliest ages.
The best gifts for infants are the ones that support growth and bring a smile to your little one’s face.
Happy holidays and happy gifting!
1-https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/
3-https://www2.edc.org/ncip/library/ec/power_3.htm
4-https://www.thebump.com/news/kids-read-before-kindergarten-million-more-words