The Best Christmas Gifts for 5-8 year olds in 2022

As many who follow my blog will know, my son, William, is five years old. My blog has grown with him, as I started it when he was just a month old, to document my new journey into motherhood. This year I’ll be talking about some ideas for Christmas Gifts for children in the five to eight years old range and I think I’ve got some really great suggestions for you! For this age range you want toys that are fun, but can add some toys and gifts that are a little bit older than in previous years – you can add some complexity as they’ve been expanding their abilities greatly since the start of school.

For your chance to WIN some fantastic family games, then scroll to the bottom of the page.

Family Fun Games

Rumble in the Jungle is an easy to learn, simple to play game with a ball track that rolls through the jungle, and a golden monkey to be unleashed! It will need some adult supervision to set it up, but once up and running it could easily be played by a group of children, or adults and children. Seeing the ball roll around really adds excitement to the game and makes it really fun. Rumble in the Jungle is available on Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, Very, Smyths, The Entertainer, Range, WHSmith and Independent toy stores.

If you’ve ever played Tetris you’ll get the basic concept of Katamino Family – it’s a puzzle game of careful thinking that will get everyone’s brain working, from kids to adults. It’s very accessible to all ages and easy to learn, and it’s actually one that I think even two adults could happily play together, which is quite a rare find in family games. Katamino Family is available on Amazon, and from all good hobby stores.

Dig In is fast and furious fun. It’s about quick reactions and it only takes a few minutes to understand the rules. There are three different ways to play and it promotes quick thinking, but also colour matching, word association and recognizing letters, so although it seems simple, it’s definitely helping a bit of development too! Dig In is available on Amazon as well as Argos, John Lewis, Next, Very, Smyths, The Entertainer, WHSmith and independent toy stores.

Pear Shaped, available from Camden Games, is a fun pear shaped matching game that can be played for up to 8 players, which makes it ideal for the family to play together! It’s also really portable so great for a travel game or taking to friends houses and game nights! Although the box says age 7+, William had absolutely no problem grasping the rules and playing it, so with an adult to explain it, I think this is definitely suitable for 5+.

Mechanics Challenge Strike! by Geomag (available on CoolShop) is a construction and physics game that will really challenge older children. It’s aged 8+ on the box, but William (5) played it with his dad and understood the mechanics once it was explained. You use a gravity motor to spin the balls along a magnetic track until you reach the right velocity based on weight to hit the pins over. This is such a cool and fun way of learning about construction and then physics. Older children will really be able to grasp the physics and how this works, whilst younger children will just absolutely love the magnets and watching it spin. This is fun for adults too, so it’s a really good game to promote playing and bonding or to encourage younger and older siblings to enjoy something together.

Fun and Hobbies

Keep the kids active and get them a scooter. This will stop the complaints their legs are tired whilst walking to the park and give them fun and exercise at the same time. There’s a wide range of scooters available from Skates.co.uk and free delivery on orders over £40 too. Featured above is the Xootz Stunt Scooter which has a 360 degree spinning top bar for tricks! I’d recommend looking for a lightweight scooter that folds if you have younger children, as you’ll be carrying it a fair amount, but older children (6-7+) will appreciate a stunt scooter.

Make the most of the garden with a badminton racket and net set from Badminton HQ. Badminton is ideal for the garden or for a small space because it doesn’t need as much space as something like tennis, and doesn’t need a permanent setup like basketball. It’s also quite easy to get to grips with for kids, and fun for kids to play with adults as well. This Badminton racket and net set comes with 4 rackets, a portable net, and a bundle of shuttlecocks, all in an easy carry case, so you can set it up at any park or garden! Perfect.

BuddyPhones POP Fun are fun wireless headphones that are specifically rated safe for children’s hearing – the volume is limited to 85/94dB, so you don’t have to worry that your kids are turning the volume up to max and possibly damaging their hearing. They’re small and portable, but comfortable to wear. I paired this to both Apple and Android phones/tablets using the Bluetooth pairing and it was really simple to do. The sound quality is really good, and easily controlled by children and the battery life is an excellent 24 hours. To make them fun and personal they’re available in white, blue, green or yellow and there’s a selection of stickers that you can choose to put on the ears, so kids will love getting BuddyPhones POP Fun for Christmas. You can buy BuddyPhones POP Fun direct from Buddy Phones, or from OnanOff.

The Waboba Moonshine is so much fun! It really is the most hyper bouncing ball we’ve ever had and it lights up too. If you have a child who loves bouncing balls, this is going to be a massive hit. It’s a great size and price for a stocking filler and it’ll get them chasing it all around the garden or out on a walk. You can buy Waboba Moonshine on Amazon or in leading toy stores.

Great Books to read

A personalised book makes for an extra special Christmas gift- something they will really treasure for a very long time. As an adult I still have several books given to me as a child, so I know how much the right book can stick with someone. I’d like to share Wonderbly with you. They make a wide range of personalised books, and have some fantastic Christmas offerings such as the bumper Christmas edition of “Where are you?” which introduces your child as different characters and then they have to hunt and find themselves, so much fun! If you’ve got a dinosaur lover like me, then your child in a dinosaur adventure like “I’m a William-o-Saurus!” will be well received, but if dinosaurs aren’t their thing, there’s something for absolutely everyone on Wonderbly. The stories are so well written and the print quality is amazing.

A special Disney book from the Timeless series will be a gift that is cherished for a very long time. This Personalised Disney Winnie-the-Pooh Story Book comes gift boxed and with your personalization in the front page. The Disney Timeless series is beautifully illustrated and feels a great weight and quality to read with children and for them to eventually read for themselves – or even to their own kids! There’s a wide range of Disney books available in the series including classics like Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Snow White, Pinocchio and more. If you don’t have a Disney fan, that’s okay – there’s a ton of options for personalised children’s books over at in the book.

Arts, Crafts and Hobby Fun Gifts

Hey Clay offer a variety of different sets, including animals, dinosaurs, aliens, monsters, birds and more. There’s a downloadable app which includes full instructions for how to make each animal and they’re really easy for kids to follow. They allow you to create the figures included, or you can free play with the clay and make your own designs. Hey Clay ‘Animals’ is available to buy on Amazon, or stockists such as Smyths, The Entertainer, John Lewis, Argos and other good toy shops.

Encourage their artistic abilities with Eat Sleep Doodle’s Placements and Tablecloths. I absolutely adore this nature & wildlife pond adventure tablecloth. It really is the size of a table, so if you have a group of kids, they can work together, or one child can spend quite a lot of time colouring it in. There’s also other themes, like space, butterfly, wheels, garden, dinosaurs, fairytales, maps, flags and more, so you’re bound to find something that suits the child you’re buying for. Once it’s complete you can either save it – or you can machine wash it and start again! This is honestly the most creative gift I’ve seen this year.

Continuing on the theme of creativity, I also love this Rock Painting Kit which includes glow in the dark paints for extra fun. Painting rocks this Christmas and then leaving them on the family walk for other families to find is so much fun! It encourages art and creativity, but then gets the kids out of the house even though the winter weather isn’t ideal.

Cuddly Toys

For Mario fans check out this adorable plush Kirby from Club Mocchi-Mocchi! He’s so big and soft and squishy! Ready to be cuddled by anyone, he has to be one of my son’s favourite plushies! This series features fan-favourite characters from video games like Mario, Sonic, Transformers, Animal Crossing and more and can be bought on Amazon, or is available from GAME or other independent stores.

The other big franchise that my son has introduced me to is Minecraft. If your kid is a Minecraft fan then this Creeper Plush is probably going to be a huge hit. There are loads of Minecraft toys available, from characters to boxy foxes and pigs.

I love this Living Nature Husky, at 21cm he’s the ideal size for a cuddle and he’s so soft. I’m not a big fan of themed Christmas cuddly toys, as they end up getting put away for most of the year, but a husky is a winter cuddler that’s still suitable all year around.

Sweet Treats

Finally, although we don’t want our kids to have too much in the way of sugar over Christmas, a little sweet treat makes a wonderful gift.

Get them playing for their candy with the Gizmos Candy Grabber Arcade Machine. This one makes it a lot of fun to grab your candy in the style of the arcade game grabbers. It’s also a good way of putting sweets into smaller portion sizes, and you can even refill it after Christmas and then reward them with the tokens that run the machine, so it works well as a reward for good behaviour!

Give them a taste of retro flavour with the Peak Sweets Retro Gift Box – it comes with 20 different treats, including my favourite and quite hard to get now, the Fizz Wiz! Just make sure they’re brushing their teeth twice a day to keep the dentist at bay.

Danny’s Chocolate is super tasty, and this three pack of Christmas themed chocolate bars (100g each!) comes in at under £10 and they’d make a fab stocking filler. Wouldn’t mind someone buying that for me, to be honest.

Win Family Board Game Set!

I’ve put together a bundle of family games that one lucky winner can get delivered to their home before Christmas this year! This prize bundle includes:

• Rummikub Junior
• Katamino Family
• Rumble in the Jungle
• Pear Shaped

That’s an RRP of over £100! Get entering below. One winner will be chosen on 15th December and contacted via email. If there is no response in 7 days it will be rerolled. Prizes will be shipped to a UK address only.

Share this page with someone