I don’t know about you, but I love it when my children play or spend time together. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen very often, so when it does, I know those are some of the most magical moments I’ll treasure forever. I love it when I find toys and resources that they both enjoy equally because having a boy and a girl three years apart with very different interests doesn’t make it easy. And for me, Christmas is the perfect excuse to bring gifts for the family that we can enjoy together. For this reason, I’ve put together this list of gift ideas for siblings under 8, with the things they enjoy sharing most.
My children are 4 and 7, but some of these things they’ve enjoyed for over a couple of years and are standing the test of time. These are our favorite things to have around, to take on holidays, and to share with family and friends. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do!
Here are our favorites:
- Connetix
- Wonderbly personalized books
- Londji Games and Puzzles
- PlayTray from Inspire my Play
- Yoto player and cards
- Waytoplay
- Bilibo & Moluk toys
- Grimms rainbow & semicircle & boards
- Grapat
- Flockmen
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you; when you buy through the links, we may earn a small commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks!
Let’s get started!
Gift ideas for siblings to build together? Connetix
Connetix magnetic tiles are the most played-with toy in our house lately. These magnetic tiles are incredible. A fabulous open-ended toy that allows them to build and create anything they can imagine, from flat designs to macro structures. It also helps them with STEAM learning, and develop many skills while they are having fun.
There are many different sets of them. Over time, we have collected a few because they play with them so much 😉. I chose the pastel color range instead of the rainbow because I thought the colors were beautiful and unique. It also fits more with our home decoration, and we always have them in the living room. So I’m happy I did. These are our favorites:
Pastel Magnetic Tiles – Connetix
Mega-pack set or 120-piece set, are both fantastic. However, what I love most about these Connetix sets is their number of large squares. They are the most prized pieces of the collection at our house. Because they allow you to build building floors, vertical coin runs, cubes, and more.
Ball runs – Connetix
The ball runs are fabulous. Spice things up by adding the Connetix ball run to the tiles. It is so much fun! And it is fun, but they unconsciously learn about planning, physics, structures, speed, maths, and much more. It is so beneficial for their learning, and they don’t even realize all the things they gain while playing. It is wonderful.
Base plates – Connetix
If you already have some tiles, adding the baseplates to your playroom is a game changer. They help secure more giant structures and higher play. Because they are very strong and make building ball runs and complex structures much more manageable.
Clear tiles – Connetix
Last but not least are the clear tiles, which are something special. I like using them as frames and holding things inside or even building frozen ice castles. They are a great addition to the rest of the tiles.
The good thing about Connetix is that it is compatible with other brands like Magna-Tiles and Playmags. So if you have some of those already, you can also complement them with Connetix. They have great product reviews.
Gift ideas for siblings to read together? Wonderbly personalized books
Storytime is magical, and if your little ones recognize themselves as the main characters of the stories, it is even more special. Wonderbly books are fantastic because they grasp children’s attention and allow them to imagine themselves doing extraordinary things because they are in the books.
You can personalize the characters to look like them, and they can read their names all over (a name is the first word they ever learn), so it is stimulating for them.
As they say at Wonderbly: “From learning about their own identity to discovering the world around them and developing empathy, curiosity, and confidence, our splendid stories help prepare children for every chapter of their life ahead.”
You can use my code BL5KG8V you can get a 25% discount until the 2nd of December 2022 😉 Discounts are always helpful.
They have beautiful books for families and siblings, and these are our favorites:
Our family’s 12 Days of Christmas – Wonderbly
This book is ideal for the holiday season. My children enjoyed seeing all four of us in the book the most. The illustrations are what make this book super unique for them. We are all doing silly Christmasy things and decorating the Christmas tree together. It made them smile, and we all cuddled together to read it when it arrived.
This book allows you to personalize it with one or two children and with one or two adults. In addition, you can add the family name to the cover if you’d like.
Where are you? Save the Universe! – Wonderbly
This book is part of the “Where are you” series from Wonderbly, but this one allows up to three children in the adventure. It’s a whimsical look-and-find book where your children will find themselves disguised as detectives, superheroes, and scientists, searching for particular objects to save the world from the evil Fishfinger! It’s a fun book for them to share together.
Me and My Big Sibling – Wonderbly
“Me and My Big Sibling” is lovely and fantastic. It made my children feel very special and helped make their bond stronger. It is a beautiful story about sharing and caring for brothers and sisters. I can’t recommend it enough.
“From when we are small to when we are grown,
We’ll do things together, never alone.”
This book makes me emotional every single time. I love it.
Gift ideas for siblings to play together? Londji games and puzzles
If you’ve never heard of Londji, I am here to introduce you to this lovely brand from Barcelona. They make original games and puzzles for children ages 3 to 103 😉 (because we can still feel like children even if we don’t look like it).
Let me share with you some of our favorite games:
Drac – Londji
This is Drac from Londji! 🐉 (Drac means dragon in Catalan – our native language 💛)
We love it! ❤️ My 4-year-old son was instantly captivated by it. He made a baby dragon, papa dragon, and circles, and he’s just creating dragons galore.
They define it as a calm game, and it is calming. You have to slow down and go with the flow. So it is a great creative activity to do before bedtime to get him to slow down and get ready for bed.
Where is the Cheese? – Londji
This game is another observation game for the whole family. You must help your cook find the ten ingredients needed for preparing dinner quickly. The game takes about 10 minutes – so it is fantastic for little ones. They recommend it for ages 3 and up, and 2-6 players can play.
Postman – Londji
Each player gets ten card letters, which must be delivered to the correct houses in the town. Where must they be given? To the house that appears on the card drawn in that round. The first player that finds the house can deliver the letter – and you place it on top of it.
The game consists of a puzzled board of a town, a deck of 80 cards (with the houses you must deliver to), and 40 letters that you must deliver. The board is a puzzle so that you can place the pieces around and they are never in the same place (you can’t memorize where the houses are).
What is interesting is that the cards have different difficulty levels.
I speak 6 languages – Londji
We love this game. I often carry it in my bag because you never know when you might need a distraction. “I Speak 6 languages” is a game to learn and fall in love with languages. It is an entertaining game that encourages to learn 100 words in 6 different languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Catalan. Knowing all this vocabulary is a sound foundation for learning languages in the future.
It has its own set of rules, and we all learn from it (from my daughter to my parents), but with my 4-year-old son, we use the cards to practice vocabulary in the 3 languages he speaks. It is a great resource.
Creativity Battle – Londji
This is a fascinating game to let our imaginations run wild and helps us learn to think differently. I have done this exercise many times in drawing classes in my life, but this is very nicely presented. It comes with 4 little booklets, each with the same set of images, and 4 pencils.
We must agree on a time and image and create whatever we can dream of or what inspires us. Technically, the most original wins, but there is no need to compete. The creativity exercise is just fascinating by itself.
Inside Me – Londji
It’s true it says it’s for 8 years or older, but both my children enjoy looking at the different drawings of the skeleton, muscles, and organs and ask questions.
My daughter likes to know some of the names of the body parts, and my son is just fascinated. So it is an excellent resource to have around and complements books about the human body. I recommend this if your children show interest in the human body. If not, I’d wait until they are a bit older. No need to rush things.
And we also enjoy doing puzzles together.
Let’s go to the Mountain – Londji
This is a reversible puzzle with 36 pieces. You have one puzzle on one side and another on the other. They are both scenes of the same mountain but in different seasons: summer and winter. It is easy to differentiate because of the colors, on one side, the mountain is green, and on the other, it is white.
Look Up – Londji
The “Look Up” puzzle is larger and consists of 100 pieces. It is a storytelling puzzle filled with details that will catch their attention. It also has a set of square tiles to play a look-and-find game when completed. You could additionally select a few of those tiles and come up with a story with the elements of those tiles.
Gift ideas for siblings to discover together? Play Tray from Inspire my Play
I wish I had introduced sensory play earlier with my children. My eldest was 5, and my son was 2, and I wish they had started by 18m or two years old. But it’s been 2 beautiful years with sensory play, and we love it. So you’re still able to start.
Sensory play can be daunting. You see all these creative ideas on Instagram and Pinterest with goos, slime, and mud, and I was scared of it.
But the sensory play doesn’t have to be that messy (you need to do things you are comfortable with). And if you have an excellent resource that enables (and contains) the experience, it is a game-changer. We got the Ikea table from Flisat (which we love), but we also got the Play Tray, which is fabulous, and I recommend it even more.
I love the Play Tray because you can move it around very easily. You can play on the floor, on any table, or outdoors. You can even take it with you during the holidays or to grandma and grandpa’s house. Then, of course, you have the deep tray or the lid you can use as a flat tray. And you have those 6 compartments that are very handy for sorting things or making inviting play invitations.
You can play with water, pulses, dried pasta, cotton balls, play dough, rice, water beads, silk scarves,… anything you might find at home. You can find more ideas on their website, a trove of free sensory play, and activity suggestions.
My daughter also prefers the Play Tray because at age 6, her legs had already hit the trays in the Flisat table, and she wasn’t comfortable around it. This tray is fantastic because they can grow up with it. While my son uses it more for sensory play, she uses it more for science experiments and crafts. It’s a must-have at home.
If you are in Europe like me, they recommend you buy it from Amazon. You can find it here. I bought if from the UK site and was delivered to Spain easily and with no problems (post-Brexit). So I highly recommend it!
Yoto player and cards
I’m sooo happy I decided to get the Yoto player with starter pack and Yoto mini for my children as a birthday gift. They use it daily. We use it, especially at bedtime, where they both listen to the same thing together.
Our bedtime routine now usually consists of me reading a book, then playing a story on the Yoto. Then we put a calming music or a white noise card to help them sleep.
This allows me to be there with them for a while, but I don’t have to stay with them until they fall asleep like before (unless I want to 😉). But they feel calm and accompanied by the Yoto and love the cards we have.
But then, sometimes during the day, they both enjoy listening to the cards of their choice. My daughter will listen to music or longer stories while doing some crafts. My son will have soundscapes when he is playing with rockets and cars.
These are our favourite cards:
- The Gruffalo and friends set – You’ll get 6 of Julia Donaldson’s & Axel Schefler’s most famous books: The Gruffalo, The Snail and the Whale, Room on the Broom, Monkey Puzzle, Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book, and The Smartest Giant in Town.
- Calm it down – Beautiful and soothing piano music. My children love it for sleep time.
- Sounds for sleep – A collection of white noise tracks, from a pond with frogs to a storm. Fantastic to help them drift to sleep.
- Space Adventure – Soundscapes for children who love playing with rockets.
And there are many more. Check out the Yoto Store in Amazon.
You can also make your own cards and add songs or stories read by grandma or grandpa. It is lovely for them.
Waytoplay
My son is into cars and enjoys creating road setups with his Waytoplay roads. My daughter isn’t that interested in them, but sometimes you find her helping him build a city or small world 💕. If you have siblings ages apart but love cars and things that go, this is a fabulous addition to your playroom.
You can play with the roads anywhere, inside or outdoors, and under all weather conditions. They are waterproof, and we’ve played with them in the snow, at the beach, or inside a pool (to name the oddest places we’ve played with them).
Waytoplay has now launched two new sets that come with cars included. The King of the Road car set comes with two vehicles, and the Highway Car Edition comes with one. These cars have been out of stock for a long time, so it is nice that they also come in the box.
If you use my code thefairyglitchmother10 you can get a 10% discount, in case it can be helpful 😉
Bilibo & Moluk toys
If you know me, you’ll know that Bilibo holds a special place in our hearts. It was our first open-ended toy, and I admit I had no idea what we were gifted when we opened the box. What is it? What do you use it for? Oh, my friends, you can do so much with it. You need a little imagination 😉 (or inspiration 😜).
The less a toy does, the more the child has to do. That is when the magic happens. They surprise you, and they surprise themselves.
Bilibo Seat – Moluk
The Bilibo seat is the big one. Children can sit in it, use it as cradles, helmets, or turtle shells, stand on it, or rock in it,… it is a fantastic toy that encourages gross motor skills.
Bilibo Game Box– Moluk
Then you have the Bilibo minis, which you can find in the Bilibo game box. We’ve used them often during bath time and water play, for color sorting, in small-world play, and more. And in the game box comes the dice and the pixels that add a whole new dimension. So you can make up games, sort, and have fun.
You can check out these blog posts with ideas about what to do with the Bilibo and the Bilibo game box.
Moluk has a range of open-ended toys that will surprise you. You have Oogi, Nello, Mox, Hix, Boi, Plüi, and more. You can read about all of them here. But Oogi needed a special mention here 😉
Oogi– Moluk
The Oogies are also very loved at home. They are the perfect travel companion; they are fantastic to have around when you are out and about. These human figures with suction cups as heads, hands, and feet, can stick on many surfaces or between each other and make us laugh.
Grimms rainbow & semicircles & boards
The Grimms rainbow is, for me, the quintessential open-ended toy. We’ve created the toy with the most, both them and me. We’ve made tunnels, flat-lay animals and designs, towers, bridges, buildings, ball runs, and much more. You can check out this blog post for 75 ideas for playing with it.
Our next favorite thing in our Grimms collection is the semicircles. They pair perfectly with the rainbow and help you build better structures, and you can also use them for small-world play. But, again, if you need ideas of the things you can do with it, you can check out this post.
And last but not least, the boards. They are another excellent complement for ball runs and designs. Here you have a couple of our creations.
If you’d like to buy Grimms, check out the end of this post where I link many stores where you can buy it around the world as you cannot find it generally on Amazon.
If you are in Spain, you can find these Grimms toys on Amazon. Here you have the links for the Grimms Rainbow, Grimms Semicircles, Grimms Boards.
Gift ideas for siblings to create together? Grapat
I’m a big fan of Grapat. Although my children might be drawn to other toys at first, they play with or use our Grapat loose parts or Lolas with regularity.
We have used the coins and rings for many years. They are great for:
-creating coin runs with Connetix
-to use as currency when we play shops
– decorating small worlds
– use them as eyes on animal flat lays with the rainbow
and so much more.
The Grapat Mandala loose parts are my crown jewel. I use them almost daily to create mandalas and flat lays. But it rubs on to them, and they make fantastic creatures, use it for pretend food, small world, and more.
Finally, the Lolas are great for construction. My son uses them as binoculars, in small-world play, and the possibilities are endless with them. You can get some ideas in this post that I hope you’ll like.
If you’d like to find where you can buy Grapat, check out the end of this post where I link stores where you can find them around the world.
Flockmen
These little guys are just fantastic to have around. You can start playing with them from age two, and I enjoy playing with them.
You can do so much with them. First, of course, you can decorate them and use them for small-world play, you can use them like dominoes, but my favorite thing is to stack them.
We like to stack them as a calm activity with endless possibilities before bedtime. You can make towers, pyramids, bridges, and strange-looking monuments. My son started playing with them at age 3, and he enjoyed them a lot.
Gift ideas for siblings under 8 – for Christmas, Birthdays, or just because!
I hope this list can be helpful. All the toys in the list are the toys that are proving to intest both my children (aged 3 years apart) and have been around out home for some years. They are great sibling gifts. And I expect they’ll continue with us for many more years, because they still interact with them regularly.
I hope you will have liked our selection. I will update you if we have any toys or resources worth mentioning. But if you do have some other favorites, please let me know. I enjoy discovering new things to learn from and enjoy together as a family.
Happy playing!
